Diet for a fast-food world

If your weight-loss journey has taken you from South Beach, to Sonoma, to Nantucket, and back to your favorite fast food hangout, it's time to take your diet to Revere Beach.

The home of Kelly's Roast Beef, fried clams, and fried dough is the inspiration behind ''The Revere Beach Diet," written by Quincy nutritionist Kathleen Aicardi to serve as a guide for those with a yen for double cheeseburgers and special sauce.

But don't let the oxymoronic title fool you, because no, you can't have fries with that.

Aicardi, who grew up in the Revere Beach area and teaches nutrition at Quincy College, visited about a dozen fast food chains, gathered menus and nutritional information, and came up with a color-coded system that categorizes certain fast foods by percentage of calories from fat.

Foods fall into the green category if less than 20 percent of their calories come from fat, yellow if 20 to 29 percent come from fat, and red if 30 to 35 percent come from fat. Anything with more than 35 percent of its calories coming from fat should be avoided.

A McDonald's grilled chicken Caesar salad, for instance, falls into the yellow category, with 27 percent of its calories coming from fat, unlike its crispy chicken counterpart, which at 40 percent is banned.

But beware: The grilled chicken's yellow seal of approval quickly disappears if you drizzle it with creamy Caesar dressing, which pushes the fat calorie content up to 89 percent. A quarter-pounder with cheese fares a bit better (43 percent), but it still should be avoided, according to Aicardi.

Eating the right combination of green, yellow, and red foods and adding exercise to their routine can help fast-food consumers adopt a healthy lifestyle and possibly shed some pounds, although Aicardi says her goal is better nutrition, not necessarily weight loss.

The diet allows women 2,000 calories a day and men 2,500, with only 20 to 30 percent coming from fat. Red foods should be eaten only once a day; green foods can be eaten at all meals.

A daily meal plan could include a Dunkin' Donuts egg and cheese bagel sandwich for breakfast (green), a Burger King fish filet sandwich without tartar sauce for lunch (red), and Papa Gino's spaghetti (green) for dinner. The typical sample menu also includes two snacks and salads to accompany meals.

Skeptics of the diet say that people should avoid fast foods completely. Eating fast food once a week is ''no big deal," said Kathy McManus, director of nutrition at Brigham and Women's Hospital. ''But three or four times a week, it will affect their overall diet."

But Aicardi argues that a fast-food ban is simply not realistic. Whether people admit it or not, she said, fast food is not just a way of life, but has also quickly become America's new comfort food.

The Revere Beach Diet, she said, is for those whose fast-paced lifestyles lead them to fast food several times a week.

''The fast food industry is a $110 billion industry," Aicardi said. ''People are scrambling to find a way to go there and not feel guilty about going there. Nutritionists want to point the finger at the fast-food industry, 'You're to blame,' but it's not the case. People eat too much. People can take in an adequate amount of calories and fat and maintain some type of health, instead of going overboard."

Because most people don't have nutritional information at hand to make healthy decisions while standing in line, the Revere Beach Diet serves as a one-stop food guide, with nutritional information from places like Dunkin' Donuts, Subway, and Burger King.

''It's creating a healthy fast-food diet," said Aicardi, who also works as a meeting facilitator for American Eagle, an airline at Logan International Airport, where she was inspired to write the book. ''My colleagues, pilots, and flight attendants, live on fast food. So I started looking at airport food and doing nutrition calculations."

Aicardi's Revere roots were part of the reason she chose the book's title, but she said the main reason is Revere Beach's history as one of the early amusement park destinations.

''Fast food was born out of amusement parks, like Revere Beach and Wonderland," Aicardi said. When people ask her whether this means they can go on a fried dough diet, Aicardi said, ''I tell them why I wrote it, and they say: 'Oh, yeah! That's good.' "

The Revere Beach Diet, she is quick to point out, is not the latest in fad weight-loss books. In addition to decoding the secret to eating fast food healthily, Aicardi includes information on nutrition and exercise, as well as ''major do's" (choose most meals from the green and yellow groups daily) and ''major don'ts" (eat while driving or watching television).

''Mine is different," she said. ''It's not a weight-loss program. Diet is simply what we're taking in for our nutritional needs, not to lose weight. People have a fast-food diet because that's what they eat. But people need to look at portions."

Aicardi's book was released late last year by BookSurge LLC, a small publishing company that has required her to do most of her own publicity. The book is not in wide release and can be found only online.

McManus said the Revere Beach Diet concept may be difficult to follow.

''People don't go to fast-food restaurants to eat healthy; that's not what they're looking for," she said. ''Fast foods in general are high in calories, fat, sodium, trans fat, and cholesterol. People really should make alternative choices to eating at fast-food restaurants. Consider eating at home more, or bringing something with them to the beach."

At the beach, McManus said, if you're doing a one-time treat, enjoy it, but if you're hitting the clam shack regularly, you should be concerned. ''The big concern in those places is the type of oil they use in frying," she said. ''They use partially hydrogenated vegetable oils, and they are very high in trans fat, the worst fats in the diet. They will not only raise LDL, the bad cholesterol, but lower HDL, the good cholesterol."

Lori Baker, a manager at Curves gym in Danvers, said that eating fast food could lead to losing weight if people make smart choices, as the Revere Beach Diet suggests, but that would be tough.

''If I went to McDonald's, I'd get the fries," Baker said. ''Smelling the fries would drive me over the edge. People don't know how to eat smartly."

Lillian M. Sonnenberg, senior manager for ambulatory nutrition services at Massachusetts General Hospital, said that people have more healthy choices at fast-food restaurants than ever before, but that the response to those choices has been slow.

''I think it's appropriate that people try to make smart choices at fast food joints," she said. ''When we tell people to build a meal, we tell them to have at least three food group sources, like a protein, a grain, and a vegetable. A lot of the fast-food places now are offering salad, so try building a meal on that concept . . . when going to fast food places."

Aicardi said she hopes that the fast-food industry is more mindful and embraces the opportunity to increase their offering of healthy and tasty food. But in the meantime, she said, she hopes the book helps people make better choices.

''People won't admit they eat fast food; they say if they do, it's once in a while," she said. ''Of course, you don't want the Big Mac and the french fries."

Kathleen Aicardi is scheduled to hold a book signing at 7 p.m. April 11 at the Revere Public Library, 179 Beach St. Katheleen Conti can be reached at kconti@globe.com.