EK Burgers Versus The Rest

I was away this past weekend. I was in the car with a friend and our combined four children while my husband participated in a triathlon. It was early and I needed coffee- badly. My younger son pointed to McDonald's and suggested I get coffee there. We didn't stop. As a nutritionist, traditional fast food is something I avoid. Truth be told, we did make a stop at a fast food restaurant over the winter. It was a blizzard, need I say more?

I do like to be in the know though and so, for comparison's sake, I thought I'd compare some fast food offerings to my beloved EK burgers. Did I mention it's $5 burger month at EK?

• For starters McDonald's Big Mac has 29 grams of fat. Energy Kitchen's Supreme Sirloin Burger made with lean beef, low-fat cheese and EK's signature sauce has 10grams or almost 1/3 of the fat (not to mention better ingredients).

• And Five Guys? Their hamburger has more than 100 calories 'per guy' or 700 total. That's over 200 more than Energy Kitchen's Bison Burger. I can assure you that Five Guys doesn't use a whole-wheat bun.

• Most fast food places even manage to mangle a veggie burger. Burger King's veggie option has over 400 calories and 16 grams of fat. EK's veggie burger has just 8 grams.

• With so much fat is fast food, protein is displaced. EK's Sirloin Steakhouse Burger has 34 grams of protein (not even the highest protein content on their burger menu). In-n-Out burger has less than half of that or 16 grams of protein.

• And of course there's portion distortion. Wendy's 1/4 pound option is 550 calories, higher than any Energy Kitchen burger. EK's delicious and lean Ostrich Burger is 275 calories less.

I've now done my research and my decision is the same. It's a burger boycott for me unless there's an EK in sight, blizzard or no blizzard.