--- title: Secret Menu Chipotle Starbucks: Are They Healthy? description: Do secret menu options have the same nutritional value as their advertised counterparts? canonical: https://time.com/3485022/healthy-secret-menus/ author: Justin Worland article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-10-17T16:35:08.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T10:41:28.188Z article:section: Health og:title: How Healthy Are 'Secret Menus' at Restaurants? og:description: Do secret menu options have the same nutritional value as their advertised counterparts? og:url: https://time.com/3485022/healthy-secret-menus/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta31ca69db33e0502/698761515f570f758cb12c5d/fast-food-burgers.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5200 og:image:height: 2925 og:image:alt: fast food burgers og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: How Healthy Are 'Secret Menus' at Restaurants? twitter:description: Do secret menu options have the same nutritional value as their advertised counterparts? twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta31ca69db33e0502/698761515f570f758cb12c5d/fast-food-burgers.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # How Healthy Are 'Secret Menus' at Restaurants? > Sponsored content. 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Health Matters is TIME's daily health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free daily newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators.  by [Justin Worland](https://time.com/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Senior Correspondent Oct 17, 2014 4:35 PM UTC  Fast food hamburgers Fast food hamburgers Getty Images  by [Justin Worland](https://time.com/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Senior Correspondent Oct 17, 2014 4:35 PM UTC For years, Jamba Juice has marketed healthy and nutritious smoothies blended with 100% fruit juice. But the website [Hack the Menu](http://hackthemenu.com/) points out a “secret menu” with items like “[Red Gummy Bear](http://hackthemenu.com/jamba-juice/secret-menu/gummy-bear-red/)” and “[Pink Starburst](http://hackthemenu.com/jamba-juice/secret-menu/pink-starburst/)“—both allegedly blended to taste like their candy namesakes. The rumored off-menu offerings sound a little sweeter, but potentially less healthy. Jamba Juice is not alone in its reputation for having a secret menu: according to Hack the Menu, restaurant chains like Starbucks, In-N-Out Burger and Chipotle also oblige off-menu requests for those in the know. TIME looked into why restaurants might bother with a whole other menu, and whether secret menu options are always less healthy than their advertised counterparts. The answer is more complicated than we expected. **MORE**: [Try Ordering These Delicious-Sounding Drinks From Starbucks’ Secret Menu](http://time.com/99162/starbucks-secret-menu-frappuccinos/) Surprisingly, most nutritionists we spoke to had never heard of the concept of [secret menus](http://business.time.com/2014/01/07/the-secret-about-secret-fast-food-restaurant-menus/). Their feelings were mixed, but most said they were concerned about the lack of readily accessible nutritional information for off-menu items. “So many consumers are looking for transparency,” said Keri Gans, a registered dietitian and author of _The Small Change Diet._ “If you want a secret menu, at least make it obvious what the calories are and \[put\] the nutrition analysis where it’s available for people to see.” **MORE**: [There’s a $10 Secret Menu Item At Arby’s Called the Meat Mountain](http://time.com/3192955/arbys-secret-menu-meat-mountain/) Excluding unhealthy items from a menu helps avoid having to disclose their lack of nutritional value. This is especially true in places like New York, where the law requires restaurant chains to display certain nutritional information in menus. That regulation doesn’t apply to items that aren’t on the menu, or those listed on a menu for less than 30 days, the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene wrote in an e-mail to TIME. Secret menu items “undermine the intention of the rule,” though they’re technically legal, it said. A lack of transparency becomes a potential problem for people with allergies, who may not be aware of what ingredients are included in the item they’re ordering, nutritionists said. “To me, the most important thing is that the staff would be educated on what the ingredients are,” said Gans. Spokespeople for most of the chains contacted by TIME denied the existence of a “secret menu,” but acknowledged that customers can customize their orders. “Our people are trained to make what customers want with the ingredients we have,” said Chipotle communications director and spokesperson Chris Arnold in a statement. Nachos and a quesarito, a mammoth burrito blanked inside a quesadilla, are among the items that customers order off-menu at Chipotle, according to Hack the Menu. **MORE**: [Taco Bell Is Adding A Quesarito To Its Menu](http://newsfeed.time.com/2014/02/26/taco-bell-burrito-wrapped-in-quesadilla/) But despite their shroud of secrecy, secret menus don’t appear to be all bad news, nutritionists said. Some have options that appear healthy, while others allow customers to modify a menu offering in a way that makes it healthier, said Jessica Levinson, founder of nutrition consulting business Nutritioulicious. She cited an option to swap out mayo for mustard at Burger King as one such option. Registered dietitian Judy Caplan praised efforts to offer healthy options, but said she wasn’t surprised that some fast food restaurants would offer less healthy options off the menu. While fast food has become more nutritious in recent years, and chains have recently [cut calories in new menu items by 12%](http://time.com/3482368/chain-restaurants-calories/), there are still many customers who want unhealthy food, she argued. “When you’re in business,” she said, “the customer is always right.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3485022/healthy-secret-menus/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3485022/healthy-secret-menus/"},"headline":"How Healthy Are 'Secret Menus' at Restaurants?","datePublished":"2014-10-17T16:35:08.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T10:41:28.188Z","description":"The answer is more complicated than we expected","url":"https://time.com/3485022/healthy-secret-menus/","keywords":["Diet & Nutrition","Food","Obesity","Fast Food","health","Chipotle"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta31ca69db33e0502/698761515f570f758cb12c5d/fast-food-burgers.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Justin Worland","jobTitle":"Senior Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/justin-worland/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta31ca69db33e0502/698761515f570f758cb12c5d/fast-food-burgers.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"fast food burgers","caption":"fast food burgers","creditText":"Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/dietnutrition/","name":"Diet & Nutrition"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3485022/healthy-secret-menus/","name":"How Healthy Are 'Secret Menus' at Restaurants?"}}]}] ```