If you ask a lot of people why they often eat fast food, many of them would probably cite the convenience of it all. Yes, it’s fast, it’s cheap, it’s something that requires little effort or thought when you’re famished — however, we have conventional fast food to thank as one of the reasons why America’s waistline has increased while the health of our nation has deteriorated. Sure, McDonald’s offers salads, but I doubt that most people are going to the drive-thru to pick up a healthy meal. How can they when a double bacon cheeseburger and extra large fries are staring them in the face?
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In recent years, America has gotten more savvy and health-conscious with fast casual dining, with restaurants like Panera Bread and Chipotle offering a ton of healthy options. When I find myself at one of these places, I love that I can easily look up the nutritional content of items and know how many calories I’m eating. In a society where French fries are the most consumed vegetable (I wish I was kidding), we surely could use more healthy fast food places around.
And that’s where Natural Selections, an up and coming Southern California fast food joint, comes in.
The California fusion eatery, which will be opening soon in the San Diego area, features healthy, natural, unprocessed, organic, seasonal and preservative-free food. Breakfast menu items include fresh fruit, yogurt with fresh berries and trail mix, turkey bacon and sausage and 12-grain toast. Lunch and dinner options include teriyaki tofu and blackened salmon dishes.
The Lean and Green meal includes tofu ginger broccoli, brown rice, an apple walnut spring salad and zucchini squash.
So what’s unique about Natural Selections? The eatery features a customizable calorie-based menu designed to meet nutrition guidelines for various diets. As founder Evan Patrick explained it, “The Diet Size® is based upon a 1,200-daily calorie level, and includes one 300-cal breakfast and two 450-cal lunch/dinners. The Small size is based on a 1,500 calorie diet, Medium size is based on a 2,000 calorie diet, Large size is based on a 2,500 calorie diet, and XL size is based on a 3,000 calorie diet. As we both know, a huge component for eating healthy is to eat at the right calorie size. This makes serving healthy food challenging because everybody has different needs. So, regardless if you are a 6’2” male adult bodybuilder who is trying to bulk up, or a 5’2” female on a doctor-recommended diet, we can create a meal with any entrée, side, and drink at a calorie level that will fit your needs or your lifestyle.”
How awesome is it that Natural Selections takes the guess work out of trying to meet certain dietary guidelines, whatever they may be (and how yummy does The Lean and Green dish above look?!)? To give you an even better idea, here are a few of the ‘favorite meal’ items on their menu:
The Sprinter – chicken, brown rice, citrus salad and yogurt with fresh berries. Designed for running and intense workouts:
The Bodybuilder – steak, grilled veggies, white rice, black beans, and cottage cheese with a banana walnut topping. A protein packed muscle-building meal: 
The Long Distance – veggie fresh tomato & basil penne pasta, broccoli & carrots and garlic dill potatoes. A meal built for sustained energy: 
I think that the restaurant concept is brilliant, and that’s why I wanted to share this info with all of you. I truly hope that fast food eateries geared toward a healthy lifestyle keep becoming more prevalent. With places like Natural Selections around, no one has the excuse that they “don’t have time” to fuel their bodies with healthy food… and that’s where you all come in! Friends, you can check out more yummy food pictures and help spread the word about this new restaurant by following Natural Selections on social media:
Facebook: Natural-Selections
Twitter: @NSGrill
Instagram: naturalselections
The restaurant is also about to launch a crowdfunding campaign in a few weeks to help raise additional funds to purchase cooking equipment and raise working capital. People that donate will be offered meals, hats, t-shirts, and other promotional items, but as Evan put it, “But really, my main goal is to generate publicity for the grand opening as well as publicity for a healthy lifestyle movement. It’s time for a real healthy fast food alternative, don’t you think?”
I couldn’t agree more. 😉
Disclaimer: I was not compensated for this post. The owner of Natural Selections simply reached out to me, and I loved the whole premise of the restaurant. As always, all opinions expressed are solely my own.
This is great, I wish that my area had more healthy fast food options around.
Definitely! I think we need more healthy restaurants around in general. Thanks for reading Ali!
Oh this restaurant looks amazing! I wish they had a location near me in NYC! 🙂 I love having healthy options when I am on the go. I’ve actually found I get caught the most when I’m driving. Almost every rest stop along route 95 (the interstate from Maine to Fl) has a huge McDonalds sign. Although more and more they are beginning to have some healthier selections, the options are not fantastic.
I hear ya, it is hard to stay healthy when you’re on the go. Oh I am all too familiar with Route 95 – I grew up in NJ – and its traffic and unhealthy options haha well here’s to hoping that the healthier options become more and more common!
I think healthy fast food is a brilliant idea! I’m always looking for something like that one a busy night when I don’t have time or feel like cooking.
I think they should offer a healthy burger option too, that would probably be very popular! Oh, and with sweet potato fries on the side. 🙂
YUM, I just love sweet potato fries!