Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Fast Food Capitals of the US

The Daily Beast posted on February 8 an article that they put together a list of the Top 40 US Cities based on density of fast food chains, along with help from a couple of independent research firms. You have to read through the gallery to get the list, but Consumerist has summarized it and guess what, Florida has three in the top ten, woohoo!

Number One? Orlando, FL with 463 restaurants and 196.3 per 100,000 residents. Also on the list is Miami with 123.5 per 100,000 and Tampa with 100 per 100,000.

Two things I found especially interesting about this list. First, there is a huge disparity among the top cities. Orlando has almost triple the density that #10 (Birmingham, AL) has. Second, guess what the most common fast food chain was? Not McDonalds, but Subway.

Interesting, but is Subway 'fast food' the same as the golden arches or the Whopper? Subway has done a lot to try and promote themselves as 'healthy' for 'fast-food'. For me, when I am out traveling and have no choice, I would certainly rather have a turkey sub than a Big Mac. Then, of course, there is Jared Fogle who lost hundreds of pounds eating Subway subs and even ran the NYC Marathon last year. Of course the trick is to not get a meatball sub, or slather you sammich in mayo and creamy sauces they offer. The sodium content is probably not that healthy, but I have to imagine it is no worse than a super-size french fries and at least the fat content of a sub is way lower.

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