Want to find the restaurant with the “cleanest” food?

In terms of restaurants with the cleanest sources of food, I thought:

Chipotle is the best!

– said Jason Ryer #eatcleanguy (for many years)

But in an instant, I changed my mind. Read on to find out why.

But first, take a step back and ask yourself:

What’s the problem with food at restaurants?

I’ll give you 5 problems with food at restaurants

1. You don’t know what’s in restaurant food.
2. You don’t know where the food comes from.
3. You don’t know how those foods affect your body (and mind).
4. Unhealthy food leads to illness – and frequent visits to the doctor.
5. Unhealthy food makes you fat, sick and tired.

What happens when you eat clean foods?

On the flip side, here are some of the benefits of eating clean foods

By eating clean foods, you can achieve your weight (loss or gain) goals and beyond:

• Burn fat
• Build strength
• Boost energy

Back to our question at hand…

Can you get all of these benefits by eating at Chipotle?

As you saw above, I had naively assumed that Chipotle had some clean options until I talked to a friend who asked,

But don’t they put rice bran oil in the rice?

– Kevin K

Good question.

So the next day I looked it up. And guess what I found?

He was right:

Chipotle adds rice bran oil to the rice.

But you can get salad bowls without rice, so there are still clean options, right?

Wrong.

Chipotle adds rice bran oil to [source]

• Steak (beef)
• Barbacoa (beef)
• Rice
• Beans
• Sofritas
• Chipotle-honey vinaigrette

and sunflower oil to [source]

• Chicken
• Carnitas (pork)
• Chips and corn tortillas
• Fajita Veggies

and canola oil to flour tortillas. [source]

This is terrible news because, based on my research, beef is one of the cleanest foods around – and it’s packed full of nutrients. So why mess with a good thing and add refined, rancid oil that causes inflammation (making you fat, sick and tired)?!

So should you stop eating at Chipotle?

I can’t tell you what to do. But I can let you know that, after deciding that Chipotle isn’t a clean food option, I’ll certainly keep looking for cleaner food options.

I can say that, if I’m going to eat out at a restaurant (and especially a fast food restaurant), I’ll probably choose Chipotle over the rest.

Why? Although Chipotle uses harmful oils in the food, because Chipotle is open about their food sources and try to get clean, healthy foods, it’s the closest thing we have to being a model of health that other restaurants can aspire to be.

What do you think?

Do you (and will you) eat at Chipotle?

What are your favorite restaurants for clean foods?

Leave a comment and let us know!