How To Eat Healthy At Fast Food Joints

Whether you want to or not, you’re going to end up eating at a fast food joint. Perhaps you’re traveling in a new area, strapped for time (or cash), or hanging out with your friends that don’t care what they eat as long as it tastes good.

The “how” and “why” of ending up at McDonald’s doesn’t matter, it just matters that you’re there and you’d like to make it out alive.

The good news is that it is possible, you just have to do some planning and research beforehand. Follow my guide and you will likely survive – or even enjoy yourself – without damaging your health.

Step 1 – Remember The Basics

Before you start thinking about what to pick off the menu, you should review some healthy eating basics so you know what to look out for. If you know what’s generally good, and what’s almost always bad, it will be make it much easier to narrow down your choices.

Good Fast Food Choices

Here are some menu items that are usually the healthiest options:

• Salad (with dressing on the side)
• Grilled chicken sandwich
• Fruit side dishes (e.g. apple slices, apple sauce, fruit cup)
• Baked potato (that’s not overloaded with butter, cheese, or sour cream)
• Burrito bowl
• Water

Many chains are now offering salads, and you can often get them topped with real meat! So that’s usually the healthiest option. You’re getting fresh vegetables and lean protein. Hard to go wrong!

If you’re in the mood for a sandwich, you can often find grilled chicken on the menu. Obviously Subway will have a wide variety of sandwich options, but even McDonald’s offers a grilled chicken sandwich!

Most places offer some type of fruit-based side. Sometimes you might even find a baked potato option.

And if you go to a Mexican restaurant – even Taco Bell – you can find some sort of burrito bowl (which allows you to skip the enriched white flour wrap and gives you room for lots of extra veggies!)

And finally, water is the obvious beverage of choice. It’s far better than sweet tea or diet soda. But also watch for places that offer fresh brewed iced tea – sometimes it’s quite tasty, and if they brew it in-house, you can usually order it unsweetened and then add just a little sugar or honey as necessary.

Bad Fast Food Choices

These options are really bad and should be avoided:

• Fried and/or breaded chicken patties (including chicken nuggets)
• Onion rings
• French fries

Anything deep-fried will be full of saturated fat and trans fats (which are just about the worst things you can put in your body). Skipping the burger and just getting fries is NOT the healthier choice, even if potatoes are technically a vegetable!

Anything that looks like a machine shaped it into a symmetrical patty or nugget… well, I question whether that’s even meat!

The beef is going to be the lowest-quality they are allowed to serve (in most cases).

Salad dressing is loaded with calories. Same goes for high-fat condiments like mayo and sour cream.

What else?

Don’t super size. It might be a mere 9 cents extra, but it could add inches to your waist line!

You have to ask yourself, “Will the large not fill me up?” Usually you’ll be full but then stuff down what’s left, anyway. If you stick with a smaller size and eat slowly, you’ll be plenty full by the time you leave.

Step 2 – Read The Menus

Again, even before you go out, you want to read the menus. Luckily, you can find them online, complete with nutrition facts. Some sites even offer “meal calculators” that will give you nutrition facts for any meal combinations you choose.

Most items will have more calories, saturated fat, and sodium than you expect, so reading the nutrition facts is much better than guessing. (And pay close attention, because we know they’ll use whatever loopholes they can to make their foods appear healthier.)

Links to popular fast food menus are below. (Sometimes you have to start at the home page, while some provide printable PDF menus.)

McDonald’s: Homepage | Menu | Nutrition

Burger King: Homepage | Nutrition

Wendy’s: Homepage | Menu

Arby’s: Homepage | Menu

Chick-fil-A: Homepage | Menu | Nutrition facts

Subway: Homepage | Menu

Panera Bread: Homepage | Menu | Nutrition facts

Chipotle Mexican Grill: Homepage | Menu | Nutrition facts

Moe’s Southwest Grill: Homepage | Menu | Nutrition facts

Taco Bell: Homepage | Menu | Nutrition facts

Do this at home where you aren’t rushed (unlike when standing in line to order) so you can think clearly. Pick out some things you might like that are fairly healthy, then review the nutrition facts on them (which is something you won’t even find on the menu.)

You could also read Eat This, Not That, which is like the Cliff’s Notes version of fast food nutrition facts!

 

Step 3 – Make a List of Your Favorites

If you want, make a list of healthy options for each restaurant and keep it in your purse or wallet. (Or just put it in the notes app on your phone.) It will come in handy for those “which did I want, the grilled chicken sandwich or the chicken nuggets?” moments.

Feel free to copy my personal lists:

McDonald’s

Home of the classic breakfast sandwich.

• Egg McMuffin (300 calories, 12g fat, 18g protein)
• Premium Grilled Chicken Classic Sandwich (420 calories, 10g fat, 32g protein)
• Southwest Salad with Grilled Chicken (320 calories, 9g fat, 30g protein)
• Newman’s Own Low Fat Balsamic Vinaigrette (40 calories, 3g fat)
• Apple dippers w/ caramel dip (105 calories total)

Burger King

If you’re looking for healthy fast food, skip BK entirely.

• Hamburger (259 calories, 10g fat, 30g carbs, 14g protein)

Wendy’s

Many people think of Wendy’s as the place to get a Frosty. I think of it as the place where you can get chili and a baked potato! This meal makes Wendy’s one of the best healthy fast food options. But if that’s not your style, Wendy’s offers a variety of healthy salads and grilled chicken sandwiches.

• Summer Strawberry Salad (380 calories, 19g fat, 15g carbs, 42g protein)
• Grilled Chicken Sandwich (350 calories, 8g fat, 35g carbs, 32g protein)
• Hot Honey Chicken (Grilled) Sandwich (560 calories, 21g fat, 54g carbs, 41g protein)
• Chili, Large (340 calories, 15g fat, 31g carbs, 22g protein)
• Plain Baked Potato (270 calories, 0g fat, 61g carbs, 7g protein)

Arby’s

Arby’s is known for their roast beef sandwiches, but that’s not all they have. Try their “Market Fresh” line.

• Double Roast Beef (510 calories, 24g fat, 38g carbs, 38g protein)
• Roast Turkey & Swiss Wrap (530 calories, 25g fat, 42g carbs, 37g protein)
• Jalapeño Roast Beef Slider (220 calories, 9g fat, 21g carbs, 12g protein)

Chick-fil-A

All chicken, all the time (except Sundays). Best of all, they offer grilled chicken of all types – salads, sandwiches, and even nuggets!

• Grilled Market Salad with Light Balsamic Vinaigrette ()
• Grilled Chicken Sandwich ()
• Grilled Chicken Nuggets ()

Subway

With numerous subs packed with lean meats – and numerous available vegetable toppings you can load on – there’s no need to cut calories and limit yourself to the Veggie Delite sandwich (which I used to eat but honestly it’s a little boring).

Panera Bread

Panera has so many great options. If you consider it fast food, it is certainly healthy fast food! Since you’re not limited to just one or two things, you can choose whether you’re looking for something high carb or high protein, depending on the timing.

• Green Goddess Cobb Salad with Chicken (500 calories, 29g fat, 27g carbs, 37g protein)
• Fuji Apple Salad with Chicken (560 calories, 35g fat, 37g carbs, 27g protein)
• Toasted Steak & White Cheddar on Artisan Ciabatta (940 calories, 45g fat, 87g carbs, 47g protein)
• Mediterranean Veggie Sandwich on Tomato Basil Bread (630 calories, 13g fat, 107g carbs, 23g protein)

Chipotle

Protein from lean meats, nutrients from veggies (in this case, delicious fajita veggies!), and healthy fats from guacamole. They’ve got it all. And you can customize exactly how you’d like.

• Sofritas Bowl ()
• Barbacoa Tacos ()

Moe’s

Free chips and salsa with every order!

• Ground Beef Burrito Bowl
• Sirloin Steak Tacos

Taco Bell

Taco Bell is one of the last places to still have a substantial $1 menu, so you probably didn’t expect to see the wide variety of customization options they now offer! You can make lots of tweaks, with my favorite being going ‘Fresco Style’ – which replaces high-fat sauces like sour cream and nacho cheese with low-calories veggies (sort of a makeshift pico de gallo topping).

• Crunchy Taco
• Power Bowl

Step 4 – Opt for Healthier Fast Food Chains

You’re on a roll. Stay proactive! Your best bet for getting healthy fast food is to start with a healthier fast food restaurant.

See if you can persuade everyone to choose one of the healthier fast food chains. A Chipotle or Panera Bread, for instance. Or Chick-fil-A.

These places will have much better options than the stalwarts like McDonald’s and Burger King.

Step 5 – Eat

Well it’s time to order your food and eat it. If you ordered as healthy as possible, it’s time to sit back and relax (but don’t cover your salad in dressing!)

*Tip* Chew your food completely! It helps you lose weight in a number of ways! (For example, you eat slower, so you feel fuller sooner. And it aids in digestion.)

 

[That’s a Burger King burger right there. A real one. It looks nothing like the version in the commercials!…]

 

Step 6 – Reflect

Now that you have eaten, think about what you ate. It it was fairly healthy and you feel good, keep it in mind for next time. If it made you sick, remember that, so you don’t get tempted to go to a fast food place tomorrow and order the same thing!

Most of all, ask yourself if the taste was really worth the extra fat, cholesterol, and calories.

Or consider my personal strategy:

My strategy is to binge on fast food or junk food a couple times a year, and afterwards I always ask myself “why?” The disruption to my diet makes me feel like crap for at least a few days, and that’s what I remember about each fast food experience. That’s good, though, because it severely limits the number of times I eat the stuff.

To summarize: When eating junk food, eat enough to get sick, and then you won’t want to go back for a long time!

 

Bonus Fast Food Avoidance Strategy!

Don’t make fast food a habit. Watch the documentary Super Size Me and lose all desire for fast food!

 

Photo credits: AdamL212 | trungson | VirtualErn | The Consumerist

By Coach Levi on January 26, 2008   /   Nutrition Articles   /   15 Comments

Tags: affiliate, eating healthy, fast food, junk food, restaurant