Eating Healthy At Chipotle Grill

Posted on | March 20, 2010 | Leave a Comment

The Chipotle Mexican Grill is one of my favorite restaurants. This taqueria style purveyor of tacos and burritos offers fresh, simple, delicious, and inexpensive food fast. My only complaint, and it’s minor, is that I can’t get enough onions. Problem is they have the grilled green peppers and onions together and when I ask for more onions, the peppers seem to win out.

I’m guessing there’s no chance of getting the store to separate them since having the two items together saves on the burrito build time. Obviously I’m in the minority in terms of onion preference and far be it for me to interfere with efficiency - I wonder would it help if I learned the Spanish word for onions. fresh food

Aside from the onion issue, I really quite like these restaurants and their short, uncomplicated menu. You just walk in and they custom build your burrito, taco, or whatever as you walk along the assembly line. The ability to get great food this fast is perfect for impatient people like me.

fresh red peppers Besides all that, the food is superbly fresh and healthy. Chipotle believes in using food that is unprocessed, seasonal, family-farmed, sustainable, nutritious, naturally raised, added hormone free, organic, and artisanal.

They accomplish this natural sustainability by following a philosophy they call Food With Integrity that states:

We can always do better in terms of the food we buy, and when we say better, we mean better in every sense of the word - better tasting, coming from better sources, better for the environment, better for the animals, and better for the farmers who raise the animals and grow the produce.

That’s a true differentiator in a highly competitive business and at 300 stores and still growing they are proving they can do it and still be successful.

In fact they are the largest restaurant buyer of avocados and naturally raised meats in the country. No added growth hormones, no antibiotics, no animal by-products used in feeds, no artificial colors, no artificial flavors, etc.

Chipotle Mexican Grill is proof that people want fresh food that is healthy for them and produced in ways that are both sustainable and humane to animals. Because of this approach and their success, they were recently featured as one of the few companies doing it right, in the documentary Food, Inc. which takes the viewer on a journey behind the scenes of where our food comes from.

But don’t just take my word for it – go try Chipotle for yourself and see how easy eating healthy can be – not to mention fast!