Kauai is a South African healthy fast food chain that has experienced tremendous growth since they first started in 1996.
Springwise has the dirt:

Since 1996, Kauai has opened an average of four stores a year, all of which are tiki-themed (Kauai is a Hawaiian island). Currently, Kauai has 46 outlets in South Africa: 18 full concept restaurants, and 26 ‘Kauai in Motion’ – smaller outlets offered exclusively at Virgin Active Gyms. The menu features healthy non-vegetarian, vegetarian and vegan salads and sandwiches, and a large variety of juices and smoothies. Everything is made to order, and free from artificial additives.

Kauai is actively seeking franchisees within South Africa. Considering its smart approach and proven success with consumers, why not set up a joint-venture to take this concept further afield? Gyms, shopping malls and high streets everywhere could do with more healthy food options: there’s still a mega opportunity in establishing the world’s first healthy equivalent to McDonald’s!

Emphasis added. Definitely something to think about.

On March 21, Colgate-Palmolive announced its agreement to acquire a 84% stake of personal care products company, Tom’s of Maine for $100 million.

It is the latest in a series of such acquisitions (e.g., Stonyfield Farms) that demonstrate a viable pattern in which independently built brands are acquired by large, established players to everyone’s benefit.  The Tom’s deal benefits everyone: the brand gets the capital and retail horsepower of a major consumer company (that has every incentive to preserve the Tom’s brand), Tom and Kate Chappell get liquidity and a reward for their hard work, and more consumers get better access to a great product. 

The acquisition validates that we are in a changing era where businesses benefit by offering more than just immediate profits to its stakeholders.  It proves that these companies are not quaint cottage brands; they are legitimate and desirable to large companies, and they are not companies that can be built from inside big corporations.

Anna Lappe and Bryant Terry have just released their book called Grub, which advocates healthy, local, and sustainable food. In an approachable format and non-judgemental tone, Anna and Bryant offer a holistic motivation to be more aware of our food choices. The book discusses food politics and offers recipes, local resources, poetry, and even music suggestions to encourage us to change our eating habits.
I was able to meet Anna & Bryant when they did a cooking demonstration and book signing at the San Francisco Ferry Building yesterday. I was a bit nervous to meet them because I thought they would be critical of the Feel Good Fast Food offering, as it might not be “slow” enough for what they are suggesting. In fact, Anna was encouraging and realistic about how people need a variety of options for eating better.

I definitely recommend the book and hearing them speak. You can follow them and their tour on their website.

Better Burger in New York city offers chicken burgers, turkey burgers, soy burgers, organic air-baked fries, salads, soups, smoothies and a bunch of other options. I am told the chicken burger can be addictive. There are 4 locations in NYC, so check one out when you have a chance.

When you do, please add a comment about your experience. When did you last try Better Burger? What did you order? Who did you go with? How soon will you return? Are you addicted to the chicken burgers? Do you recommend it?

Thank you to everyone who filled out last month’s Vizu survey! The results from the fries survey are quite interesting, with 37% of the respondants (sample size of 86) choosing baked potato fries as their most preferred type of fry.

In the battle between chicken and turkey, it looks like Chicken has a greater universal appeal, with 61% of respondants (sample size 68) choosing Grilled Chicken Sandwich over an All-White Meat Turkey burger.

Your input is really valuable, so we hope you will continue to respond to our monthly surveys.

Fresh City, a 15-unit restaurant chain on the East Coast, has invested $125K in remodeling its Boston, MA Landmark Center location, adding a comfortable seating package, carpet, and free Wi-Fi access. QSR Magazine reports “the location will also host a Know Your Food kiosk, which allows guests to access an in-store online nutritional guide where they can look up nutritional information and suggested substitutions to menu items before ordering.”

Has anyone been to this freshly-remodeled Fresh City?

What do you think about the food and environment at this restaurant?

“Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it.

Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it.”  - Goethe
Since hearing this couplet in one of my business school classes, this quote has motivated me to start working on this Feel Good Fast Food concept.  There is so much more that needs to be done to bring wellness to the world.
Perhaps you will pass this quote on to others who will be motivated to be bold and begin something about which they are passionate.

I went to Sally Squires’ book signing in Sonoma last night. Sally is the Health Reporter for the Washington Post and author of “Secrets of the Lean Plate Club”. Her weekly Lean Plate Club e-mail newsletter reaches 250,000 people and advocates implementing small changes that lead to healthier weight.  She doesn’t promote a particular diet and doesn’t even like the term diet.  Instead, Sally has created a community of people with suggestions for incorporating healthy living into their daily lives.  Check out her book and column.
Some of the things I learned from Sally’s talk are:

• Wear a pedometer to see how many steps you take a day. She says that 10,000 steps is what you should be aiming for to maintain your weight - this is the equivalent of about 5 miles a day of walking.
• Eating more potassium helps counter the large amount of sodium that we eat in our diets
• Overweight people usually gain 5 lbs each holiday season and don’t usually lose it, while healthy people gain 1 lb which they usually lose. The holiday challenge from the Lean Plate Club is to just not gain weight over the holiday season.

Her book has recipes, but at first glance they seemed to be too much work for me.  I’m usually partial to healthy recipes that have 5 ingredients in them and take 10 minutes to make. So, I asked her what advice she had for busy people like me who aren’t willing to give up convenience for help. Sally suggests focusing on high volume foods like popped corn, soup, veggies, fiber, and water when cooking quick meals or eating out.

She also advocates portion control. One of her readers lost half her body weight, through eating almost all her meals in restaurants. When she orders a meal in a restaurant, she automatically has the waiter put half of it into a togo box. That is less of an option in fast food, so somehow we need to figure out portion control in fast food. If you are just worried about calories (and not about the quality of meat, transfats, etc.), a hamburger and fries at McDonald’s is only 510 calories - not bad, but most people aren’t able to resist the combo meals . A Big Mac, Medium Fries, and Medium Coke are 1560 calories!

Topz franchised in Los Angeles, CA, Houston, TX and other locations.

I’m not a huge fan of Topz. Last time I was in L.A., I got the chopped salad. I tried to eat it in the car as I was driving down to Orange County and got salad dressing all over myself - it definitely wasn’t conducive to car eating.

Topz does say it has the “leanest burgers in America” and has baked fries, but neither are crave-able to me.

What do y’all think about Topz?