Chipotle Doesn't Really Care That Burritos Make You Fat

Fast food’s public image is far from healthy, which is why virtually nobody finds it surprising when a classic burger-fries-soda meal exceeds 1,000 calories. Tally the calories in the typical Chipotle Mexican Grill serving, as the New York Times did this week, and the burrito-eating masses recoil. How can that lunch order, made from ingredients whose wholesomeness is endlessly touted by Chipotle, contain about 1,070 calories? That typical burrito, including cheese and sour cream, comes to more more than half of the daily recommended calorie intake.

Despite a carefully cultivated feel-good, guilt-free aura, Chipotle is quite frank about its indifference to calorie counting. Food, insists spokesman Chris Arnold, is “something to be enjoyed. Not a science experiment aimed at engineering away calories or grams of fat.”