Fresh Evil
Posted by Trixter on January 30, 2006
One of my favorite places to eat around my workplace is a neat little place called Baja Fresh. It’s a texmex place that makes your orders from fresh ingredients (you can watch them preparing it, they’ll chop up a tomato then immediately put it on your food, etc.). Black bean burritos, nachos with grilled chicken, everything you can think of texmex is made fresh on the spot and it tastes wonderful.
Well, they’re evil. I’d like to think that I’m not completely ignorant regarding nutrition, but I used to think that, since everything was fresh and non-processed, it was really good for me, right? How can I possibly gain weight eating it? Lo and behold, I went to Baja Fresh’s website and looked up the nutritional information for my favorite Nachos, and sweet mother of crap it tops the scales at over 2000 calories! That’s more than I eat in a single day!
On hearing that, Melissa joked that I could probably eat more food, that was better for my weight, and cost less at Taco Bell — and even though she was joking, she’s right. Two soft tacos are 430 calories, according to their website. Hell, a chicken Gordita Supreme (sour cream, three cheeses) is only 290!
So now I’m left thinking how ironic this is: freshly-prepared, organic, chemical and preservative-free food at one place is bad for you, while friggin’ Taco Bell is better.
Oldskooler Ramblings 
phoenix said
Well, at the same time, a big-ass plate of nachos is probably 4-5 times more food than two Taco Bell soft tacos. Did, say, a single taco or burrito from Baja Fresh match up to one from Taco Bell?
Trixter said
A quick check shows that you’re right for some of the items; the Baja Fresh burritos are 2.5 times as large, but that accounts for the calories.
I guess it’s just freaky that what they pass off as lunch fare is, in fact, more food than you need to eat in a day.
I may go to baja fresh today, nutrition guide in hand, just to see if I can order something, only eat half, then eat the rest for dinner.
Multimedia Mike said
Never forget that “whole/organic” does not necessarily equate to “good for you”. I learned this when getting fresh pizza at Whole Foods market that was dripping with grease. Allegedly, organic cheese has more fat than the processed type.