January 29, 2004
A burrito as big as OH MY GOD
Once a week I have myself a Chipotle chicken burrito with black beans, rice, green salsa, cheese, and lettuce. My is it tasty. And my is it huge. So I started wondering: just how many calories are in this thing?
About a year ago, I wrote a letter to "Joe". When you go to the Chipotle web site, you learn that "Joe" is the guy who will try to answer your Chipotle-related questions. I asked "Joe" how many calories were in my Burrito. "Joe" chided me for putting his name in quotes, because, as it turns out, he really is a single person, and his name is "Joe." So now I call him Joe, and not "Joe". (These days Joe has a helper, David, who is affectionately called "Mo'Joe.")
Joe couldn't help me: "Unfortunately, sorry, we have never performed any analyses of our food to determine nutritional, including calorie, information at this time. If you have a specific allergy or food intolerance or the like, then I would be happy to help you with the ingredients." I did a little more digging but eventually gave up and continued stuffing my burrito-hole with Chipotle goodness.
Today, with the publication of this article, my blissful ignorance comes to end. According to the infographic, my burrito has 990 calories, 31 grams of fat (twelve of them saturated), and 126 grams of cholesterol. Good googley moogley. Here's the press release from CSPI's web site, and the article (PDF).
Now I have the information I need to make an informed choice as a consumer. What I've decided to do is refrain from eating the day before I go to Chipotle. It won't be easy, but it's worth it.
Posted by cradle at January 29, 2004 06:45 PMPlease... someone... call the police..... ::unpleasant noise::
Posted by: David's intestine at January 29, 2004 07:55 PMYou know David, as a med student, I can tell you that intestines have no vocal cords.
Posted by: Brooke at January 29, 2004 07:56 PMThat's fine. But can they type?
Posted by: David at January 29, 2004 08:07 PMI don't really trust intestines to make decisions like that.
Posted by: Brooke at January 29, 2004 08:12 PMI wish I could selectively merge the Chipotle experience with the Baja Fresh Experience, and we could just have a singkle chain called Chijapotfreshly. And then we could market them extremely invasively all around the world like McDonalds.
I wrote a very long essay comparing the two restaraunts one day lasy year on my journal, and it was unfortunately eaten by the interface.
Basically, Chiptole should have a free salsa bar like Baja Fresh's. And I believe I like the rice at Baja Fresh better also. I am not positive which chain has the superior meat, but it is clear that Chipotle wins with the assembly-line queing.
Posted by: at January 29, 2004 08:38 PMOne of these days I will learn once and for all that I need to sign my name on your blog when I post things to it, since I am afraid of that "remember personal info?" button.
Posted by: Cliff Judge at January 29, 2004 08:39 PMYou could have two Burrito Supremes from Taco Bell for 1000 calories!
Posted by: Tom at January 29, 2004 09:06 PMI hope mom doesn't read your blog.
Posted by: Dan at January 30, 2004 12:44 AMDeath by chipotle doesn't sound so bad.
Posted by: at January 30, 2004 12:49 AMthat was me
Posted by: jack at January 30, 2004 12:49 AMWhat I wanna know is how many calories etc. there are in a Chevy's fajita dinner. Because I don't really like Chipotle, which I guess means I am in luck.
Posted by: Kim at January 30, 2004 08:08 AMDavid, clearly there is but one course of action: eat half the burrito one day, then the other half on another day. It's crazy, I know.
But do you know what makes me mad? Now, I haven't looked at those links, but an article in the diamondback compared chipotle to a quarter pounder. I bet, although the two are comprable in both calories and fat, that chipotle's nutritional content makes up for the density of food. There's tons o' fiber in those beans, with the rice that makes a true protein, and then you have tomatoes, an antioxident, and thus a fighter of cancer!
A quarter pounder, otoh, actually promotes cancer. Seriously. That guy who ate McDonald's for a month got cancer and died.
Posted by: Maureen at January 30, 2004 09:09 AM990 calories is ten less than US-RDA. You could still have quite a meal earlier the same day without going overboard. Well, I guess the beer and ice cream also contribute, but still. 990 calories is a great dinner, I think.
Posted by: Andrew at January 30, 2004 11:22 AMEr, ten less than half of US-RDA. oops.
Posted by: Andrew at January 30, 2004 01:37 PMChiptole is owned by Mickey Ds, isn't it?
Posted by: Kan at January 30, 2004 09:35 PMYes, it is now.
Posted by: David at January 30, 2004 11:32 PMIsn't a lot of that fat actually in the tortilla itself?
we debated this today, inspired by the same diamondback article (saw that before I saw your blog). If you get a burrito bol, and hold the sour cream and cheese, the fat content takes a massive nose dive.
Then again, there are some of us who live off of 3,000 calories a day sometimes and don't bat that much of an eyelash about it. It's all about how your metabolism works, and getting exercise.
Posted by: Doug W at January 31, 2004 02:38 PMAnd hey -- I finally posted on YOUR blog, not LJ.
*props ta me*
Posted by: Doug W at January 31, 2004 02:39 PMYour it is tasty. Your it is huge.
Posted by: at February 8, 2004 09:35 PMOh man that's a lot of KJFKLAJKLAJSKDA... I still eat em though. =|
Posted by: O_______O at November 29, 2005 10:18 PM