Travel Health and Fitness - Healthy Offerings at Fast Food Places

Yeah I know. None of us like to eat at them. But there are times when we do or it's all we can do etc.

So - ante up. What is the chain & the healthy offering you've had at fast food places? Heck, I read about the healthiest choices at fast food places online all the time.

Let's start our own list!

Cheers.

Well the burger wraps at McDonalds are a bit healthier than a regular burger. I get them without cheese too, and save on more calories and fat.

I've read really good things about the salads at McDs, especially the southwestern one.

Cheers.

Protein burger at In n out

McD's: yogurt parfait (no granola), apple slices and water/milk/juice.

Yeah I know. None of us like to eat at them.
Hey now! I luv me some Chick-Fil-A and Roy Rogers. At both of those I generally go for 2 sandwiches (assuming I've worked out that day), a side salad and water.

Just skipping the fries and replacing them with a salad is going to improve the health of a fast food meal significantly (just don't use high-fat salad dressing). Chick-fil-a and Wendy's both allow fry for salad replacement at no extra cost.

Also swapping out soda for water cuts a bunch of calories.

Honestly a 1/4lb burger with a bun, lettuce/tomato/onions/pickles/ketchup/mustard isn't that bad for anyone. (and if the meat were leaner it would be quite healthy) It's when you start adding cheese, bacon, mayo or fattening "special sauces" on top (or extra patties) that it goes downhill.

Also a good one that I like is a roast beef sandwich from Roy Rogers. 260 cal, 4g fat. And yummy. But Roy's can be hard to find.

Due to the nature of my life, most days, I know far more about fast food than I care to know!

I'll swap fries for salad or just about anything else at Wendy's.

At McDonald's, I'll get an Egg McMuffin for breakfast, and will usually pick up their apple slices too. Their Southwest salad, if you order it with grilled chicken, is only 420 calories, including the dressing, but the sodium is 54% of your RDA! I've found that I'm more and more sensitive to salt in regards to tasting it.

I figured I'd try out the McDonald's Southwest salad for lunch today, since it comes in at only 420 calories. My thoughts:

It's the standard McDonald's salad mix, topped with a "Southwest veggie mix that included corn, black beans, and peppers."
The dressing packet was enough to cover the salad adequately, although it appeared to already have some sort of liquid on portions of the salad. I'm not sure if that was from the veggies, or what.
I'd be inclined to ask if I'm able to omit the tortilla strips next time--they were a bit too salty for my tastes, and while they gave the salad a bit of a crunch, I wasn't impressed enough with them to waste the calories on them. I'd probably enjoy it more with a few crumbled tortilla chips, and it would probably drop the sodium a bit. :)


Not a bad salad, and it was pretty filling. I wouldn't rush out to get it again, but if I had to stop at McDonald's for food, I'd opt for it.

I should add that my body is probably going to file a grievance with the union very shortly--I had several servings of veggies at dinner last night, and now a salad at lunch. It's not used to having to deal with so many veggies, and I can just picture the grievance now.

There's a good set of books called "Eat This, Not That". It gives you options at all kinds of places, even fast food. Sometimes the option isn't necessarily the healthiest, but the lesser of two evils at a given place (for example, the vending machine). Lots of good info.

There's a good set of books called "Eat This, Not That". It gives you options at all kinds of places, even fast food. Sometimes the option isn't necessarily the healthiest, but the lesser of two evils at a given place (for example, the vending machine). Lots of good info.
If you go to eatthis.menshealth.com, they list a lot of their information there.

At McDonald's, I'll get an Egg McMuffin for breakfast, and will usually pick up their apple slices too.
do you actually like the apple slices? The two times that I've tried them they've been mushy and tasted like they've been soaked in saccharin for a week.

do you actually like the apple slices? The two times that I've tried them they've been mushy and tasted like they've been soaked in saccharin for a week.
They usually aren't mushy. I'm big on convenience, so for me, the apple slices, whether from McDonald's or from the grocery store, are easier than buying a bunch of apples.

Qdoba actually has a really nice menu item builder which gives full nutrition info. I love it and use it! I wish every restaurant had such a calcultor.

http://www.qdoba.com/Calculator.aspx

Last week I had a taco salad without the shell. I had the pulled pork, fajita veggies, corn salsa, and corn and bean salsa. All that for only 350 Calories. I found it quite filling and tasty.

Noodles & Co:
Any of the Asian Bowls except Japanese Pan Noodles or Indonesian Peanut Saute
The Med Salad
Any of the soups

Panera:
Half Smokehouse Turkey
Half Turkey & Artichoke
Half Tomato and Mozzarella (although the tomato is this weird limp cooked item - this is not a fresh tomato and moz sandwich)
Half Asiago Roast Beef
Half Napa Almond Chicken Salad
Half Smoked Turkey Breast
Half Tuna Salad

At McDonald's, I'll get an Egg McMuffin for breakfast

Without cheese for me.

I also will get their plain burger if eating there for lunch.

I try to avoid their french fries/hashbrowns etc.

I try to avoid their french fries/hashbrowns etc.
I hate their hashbrowns! They're far too soggy and greasy for me.

at dif fast food chains. They also mention alternatives at same food chains.

http://eatthis.menshealth.com/slideshow/salads-worse-whopper?cm_mmc=ETNTNL-_-03302011-_-HTML-_-dek

Cheers.

I'm a huge fan of the Wendy's Baja Salad. I get it without cheese, and with the chili, guacamole, and pico, you don't even need dressing. I'm not sure what the total is without cheese, but I think it's around 450 calories and REALLY filling.

I'm a huge fan of the Wendy's Baja Salad. I get it without cheese, and with the chili, guacamole, and pico, you don't even need dressing. I'm not sure what the total is without cheese, but I think it's around 450 calories and REALLY filling.

Their website won't allow me to customize it to remove the cheese. That said, for a full-size salad, with cheese and dressing, it's 730 calories. If you go without dressing, it's 630. My guess is that without cheese and dressing, it's still probably 500 calories or so. If you look at their PDF (http://www.wendys.com/food/pdf/us/nutrition.pdf), under Side Selections, it lists cheddar cheese as 70 calories. Using that as a reference, it's 560 without dressing, 660 with dressing.

I'm curious though to find out what it is without the guac, since I don't eat that.

There seems to be an unspoken principle at work underlying the choices - high-fat food is bad, low-fat food is good, except that honestly, this is not my experience. For example, bread is low in fat, but more fattening IME than a high-fat food like avocado.

So you eliminate the cheese and bacon and such without considering leaving it in in moderate portions. :confused:

A burger traditionally is served between two slices of bread/bun. That is where much of the fattening food lies - in the carb content.

If I HAD to order 'healthy' at a fast food restaurant, I would of course order the salad with ranch dressing, skipping the croutons (did this yesterday) and personally, I drink only water or wine/beer (that makes me very weird, I know. :p ). Oh, and coffee/tea.

Or even the fish or chicken sandwiches.

There seems to be an unspoken principle at work underlying the choices - high-fat food is bad, low-fat food is good, except that honestly, this is not my experience. For example, bread is low in fat, but more fattening IME than a high-fat food like avocado.

So you eliminate the cheese and bacon and such without considering leaving it in in moderate portions. :confused:

A burger traditionally is served between two slices of bread/bun. That is where much of the fattening food lies - in the carb content.

If I HAD to order 'healthy' at a fast food restaurant, I would of course order the salad with ranch dressing, skipping the croutons (did this yesterday) and personally, I drink only water or wine/beer (that makes me very weird, I know. :p ). Oh, and coffee/tea.

Or even the fish or chicken sandwiches.
The only reason I'll go without guacamole is because several years ago, Mr. Kipper and I were out for dinner at a Don Pablo's. He and I both had the same meal, however I had mine with guacamole, he didn't have guacamole with his. By next morning, I ended up with food poisoning, while he was fine. Do I think it was the guacamole? Probably not. It was probably whatever I ate for lunch that day, but since then, I've not been able to eat guacamole or avocados. If I taste it, I can't swallow whatever food I'm eating.

Their website won't allow me to customize it to remove the cheese. That said, for a full-size salad, with cheese and dressing, it's 730 calories. If you go without dressing, it's 630. My guess is that without cheese and dressing, it's still probably 500 calories or so. If you look at their PDF (http://www.wendys.com/food/pdf/us/nutrition.pdf), under Side Selections, it lists cheddar cheese as 70 calories. Using that as a reference, it's 560 without dressing, 660 with dressing.

I'm curious though to find out what it is without the guac, since I don't eat that.

I do it without the dressing, tortilla strips, and cheese. I estimated on the without cheese since you can't customize.

So you eliminate the cheese and bacon and such without considering leaving it in in moderate portions. :confused:


I eliminate the cheese at McDs because its nasty american cheese. I'm not taking in 50 calories for that crap ;)

If it were cheddar/swiss/etc I'd leave it on.



If I HAD to order 'healthy' at a fast food restaurant, I would of course order the salad with ranch dressing, skipping the croutons (did this yesterday) and personally, I drink only water or wine/beer (that makes me very weird, I know. :p ). Oh, and coffee/tea.



The Ranch makes it much less 'healthy'. Even with a chicken salad at most places I'm guessing the dressing accounts for 1/3 or more of the total calories. ;)

That said, I've never been a calorie counter....I'm more focused on my output!

Here's McDonald's nutritional info, which gives you the good, the bad & the ugly.

http://nutrition.mcdonalds.com/nutritionexchange/nutritionfacts.pdf

One of the things that is cool on the McD's site that I just discovered is that when you click on a particular item (not on the pdf above, but pick a particular offering) you get the info, but also it's clickable so if you don't have the cheese or the ketchup or the bacon or the whatever, it will recalculate the calories & nutritional info.

I rarely eat at McD's, but I thought that was pretty cool. And now, alas, I know the true calorie count of what I eat when I do get take-out.

Cheers.