Favorite"Healthier" Fast Food???

BrandNewLaura

I love love love the Wendy's southwest taco salad...I have a lot of calories to eat in a day, so I can have the salad with the dressing, tortilla strips, and sour cream, but of course you could cut out one or more of those items to make it fit your calorie plan.

I love the Taco Bell Fresco menu...I am still tempted by the Pepsi when I go there, but I choose water and feel great afterwards...

she_red247

I'm a true believer in not denying myself my favorite fast foods in order to keep myself honest. Thanks to tracking my calories I'm more aware of what and how much I eat. I try to stay away from the burgers, but McDonalds is less than Burger King. Also a quarter pounder from mcdonalds is 70 calories less than a Jumbo Jack w/o Cheese from Jack N the Box. Majority of McD's sandwhiches do not have mayo.

Taco Bell Rocks. Sometimes I get the Fresco style or just a couple of hard shell tacos and call it good. Before I started my "new lifestyle" LOL as others haver referred it to.......I would not have been satisfied with two measly taco's. Now I'm so happy to be able to eat something from a drive thru that I'm satisfied. I'm a pop fan too, but have limited my intake and only drink diet. Not that its any better but I'm trying to be realistic.

It's easier it seems to find the calories for fast food places then it is for the Mom and Pops restuarants that me and my family sometimes frequent. NO FRIES that's my motto. Oh and by the way stay away from the Dairy Queen Peanut Buster Parfait at 770 calories! However their Grilled chicken salad is less than 250 calories. Be wary of the dressing. It gets me every time!

greeneggsam

I thought I would bump this topic back up when I saw this article on Yahoo News. It's by the "Eat This, Not That" people:

http://health.yahoo.com/experts/eatthis/11230/americas-bestand-worstrestaurants/

A
Chick-fil-A
Chick-fil-A excels in every category we tested for. With a slew of low-calorie sandwiches, the country’s “healthiest” chicken nugget, a variety of solid sides like fresh fruit and soup that can be substituted into any meal, and nutritional brochures readily available for perusing at each location, Chick-fil-A earns the award for America’s Healthiest Chain Restaurant (for kids, for the adults who drive them there, plus anybody else wise enough to make it their fast food choice).

Your Survival Strategy: Even the smartest kid in the class can still fail a test, so be on your toes at all times, even at Chik-fil-A. Skip salads with ranch or Caesar dressings, any sandwich with bacon, and avoid milkshakes at all costs.

A-
Subway
A menu based on lean protein and vegetables is always going to score well in our book. With more than half a dozen sandwiches under 300 calories, plus a slew of soups and healthy sides to boot, Subway can satisfy even the pickiest eater without breaking the caloric bank.

But, despite what Jared may want you to believe, Subway is not nutritionally infallible: Those rosy calorie counts posted on the menu boards include neither cheese nor mayo (add 160 calories per 6-inch sub) and some of the toasted subs, like the Meatball Marinara, contain hefty doses of calories, saturated fat, and sodium.

Your Survival Strategy: Cornell researchers have discovered a “health halo” at Subway, which refers to the tendency to reward yourself or your kid with chips, cookies, and large soft drinks because the entrée is healthy. Avoid the halo, and all will be well.

B+
Boston Market
With more than a dozen healthy vegetable sides and lean meats like turkey and roast sirloin on the menu, the low-cal, high-nutrient possibilities at Boston Market are endless. But with nearly a dozen calorie-packed sides and fatty meats like dark meat chicken and meat loaf, it’s almost as easy to construct a lousy meal.

Your Survival Strategy: There are three simple steps to nutritional salvation: 1) Start with turkey, sirloin, or rotisserie chicken. 2) Add two noncreamy, nonstarchy vegetable sides. 3) Ignore all special items, such as pot pie and nearly all of the sandwiches.

B
McDonald’s
Though not blessed with an abundance of healthy options, Mickey D’s isn’t burdened with any major calorie bombs, either. Kid standards like McNuggets and cheeseburgers are both in the acceptable 300-calorie range.

Your Survival Strategy: Apple Dippers and 2% milk with a small entrée makes for a pretty decent meal-on-the-go. McDonald’s quintessential Happy Meal® makes this possible — just beware the usual French fries and soda pitfalls. Adults should go for a Quarter Pounder without cheese.

C+
Domino’s
Domino’s suffers the same pitfalls of any other pizza purveyor: too much cheese, bread, and greasy toppings. If you don’t order carefully, you might bag your child a pizza with more than 350 calories per slice. To its credit, Domino’s does keep the trans fat off the pizza, and it also offers the lowest-calorie thin crust option out there.

Your Survival Strategy: Stick with the Crunchy Thin Crust pizzas sans sausage and pepperoni. If your must order meat, make sure it's ham. And whenever possible, try to sneak on a vegetable or two per pie.

C
Burger King
BK has only four legitimate kids’ entrées on the menu, and none of them — French Toast Sticks, hamburger, mac and cheese, chicken tenders — are particularly healthy. And while the recent addition of Apple Fries provides a much-needed healthy side alternative for kids, the menu is still sullied with trans fats.

BK pledged to follow in the wake of nearly every other chain restaurant and remove trans fats from the menu by the end of 2008, but so far, we’ve seen little action.

Your Survival Strategy: Adults can sign on for the Whopper Junior and a Garden Salad, and escape with only 365 calories. The best kids’ meal? A 4-piece Chicken Tenders®, applesauce or Apple Fries, and water or milk. Beyond that, there is little hope of escaping unscathed.

D
Chipotle
We applaud Chipotle’s commitment to high-quality produce and fresh meats, but even the most pristine ingredients can’t dampen the damage wrought by the massive portion sizes served up here. The lack of options for kids means young eaters are forced to tussle with one of Chipotle’s massive burritos or taco platters, which can easily top 1,000 calories.

Your Survival Strategy: Stick to the crispy tacos or burrito bowls, or saw a burrito in half.

F
Applebee’s, IHOP, Olive Garden, Outback, Red Lobster, T.G.I. Friday’s
These titans of the restaurant industry are among the last national chains to not provide nutritional information on their dishes. Even after years of communication with their representatives, we still here the same old excuses: it’s too pricey, it’s too time-consuming, it’s impossible to do accurately because their food is so fresh. Our response is simple: If every other chain restaurant in the country can do it, then why can’t they?

Your Survival Strategy: Write letters, make phone calls, beg, scream, and plead for these restaurants to provide nutritional information on all of their products. Here are the phone numbers for each of the restaurants that refuse to tell us the truth

maggierex

wendy's
grilled chicken sandwich with no sauce
baked potato w/ red fat sour cream

subway
turkey on wheat w/ tons of veggies and fat free ital

quizno's
turkey ranch (w/red fat ranch) with veggies

mcdonald's
southwest salad w/ grilled chicken

applebee's (although not technically fast food)
i love their weight watchers menu!! had the tilapia today!