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Healthy Restaurants Fast Food: A Dying Business Model?

by Matt Weik

If I were to ask you to name healthy restaurants fast food options, you might say places like Chipotle, Subway, Saladworks, First Watch, etc., right? While you’re not wrong, it’s not the type of place I’m thinking about in this instance.

What I’m referring to in this article are places like Muscle Maker Grill, Clean Eatz, and similar businesses — think along the lines of where a bodybuilder or someone who’s really into fitness would want to eat. A place that caters to the health-conscious community and prepares meals the way healthy individuals would want/need them.

Places like Muscle Maker Grill, Clean Eatz, and other healthy restaurants fast food allow you to walk into their location, place your order, and have it prepared precisely how you want to fit your macros, dietary needs, and wants. You then wait for your meal (which hardly takes any time at all) and can either sit down and enjoy it or take it home with you.

Unfortunately, many of these healthy restaurants fast food business models are dying. Why? Because not enough people care about their health and nutrition. They’d rather hit up McDonald’s, Wendy’s, or Chick-Fil-A if they need food in a pinch — which is a shame.

Healthy Restaurants Fast Food Should Be Supported by Everyone

We see a record number of healthy restaurants fast food disappearing from shopping centers across the nation. A business model that you would assume to be highly successful is simply not able to stay in business. This further shows the lack of regard for health and quality nutrition in America today.

These healthy restaurants fast food options are endless, and I’ve personally been to many different locations and have tried MANY of their options over the years. They serve healthy breakfasts, lunches, dinners, protein shakes, and high-protein appetizers/snack options.

In fact, when I traveled for business several years ago in New Jersey, I would hit up a Muscle Maker Grill location every single day and place an order for multiple meals so that I had something healthy to eat for every meal while I was on the road (I’d load up the hotel refrigerator so that I’d have lunches to take with me for the day and then health meals I could warm up for dinner when I returned from meetings and visiting accounts.

They finally opened Muscle Maker Grill locations in Pennsylvania, which allowed me to pick up their healthy meals while in my home state, but unfortunately, they didn’t last too long before closing their doors due to lack of business.

To give you an idea of the delicious things found at Muscle Maker Grill locations and other healthy restaurants fast food options include healthy chili, protein-packed wraps, turkey burgers, high-protein shakes, healthy whole wheat pasta dishes, healthy salads with protein sources on top, sandwiches that use lettuce instead of bread, and many other healthy options.

I would constantly try new healthy restaurants fast food options to keep things fresh, and I never found a meal that I didn’t enjoy.

Now, here and across a few other states is Healthy Eatz. Hopefully, these healthy restaurants fast food will be able to hold up the test of time and not follow the unfortunate demise of other similar business models before them.

But where am I going with this?

It’s simple — we should all support these healthy restaurants fast food. Not just those of you reading this who are into health and fitness, but everyone from all demographics. Big, small, male, female, healthy, unhealthy, vegan, carnivore, wealthy, and poor. It doesn’t matter who you are or what your goals are, eating healthy food is worth the investment into yourself.

When you eat junk, you feel horrible after. Not in the sense of emotionally, but rather you physically and mentally feel terrible. Food that is high in unhealthy fats, sugars, etc., will slow you down, upset your stomach, won’t energize you throughout the day, and can diminish your mental performance. Why would you want to minimize your energy and productivity?

Support healthy restaurants fast food establishments! Consuming healthy meals that are high in protein, provide you with complex carbohydrates, fiber, and even some healthy fats can nourish the mind and body, allowing you to perform at your best throughout the day.

Additionally, by eating healthy restaurants fast food, you may realize that “eating healthy” isn’t all that bad and that the food tastes delicious when prepared properly. You don’t need to eat chicken breast and broccoli or salmon and asparagus at every meal in order to optimize your health, performance, and see any sort of results.

The Million-Dollar Question: “Will These Restaurants Really Ever Be Popular?”

As much as I’d like to think they’ll become as popular as fast-food chains, the behaviors of Americans would need to drastically shift for this to become a reality. Unfortunately, with more than 70% of American adults being overweight and over 40% of that number being considered obese, we have a long way to go.

However, I’ve been playing with the idea of opening one of these healthy restaurants for a long time now — I just need to find the right location to do it and decide if I want to open a franchise or start a completely new model. Until then, please go out and support your local healthy restaurants fast food and help increase the demand for these health-forward businesses.

Do you support healthy restaurants fast food? If so, what are your go-to locations? Share your favorites with us down in the comments.