Healthy meals at fast food restaurants

Yes, I always check menus online as I am a vegetarian with a lactose intolerance. Often the only vegetarian dish is cheese based, so I look carefully at what options there are and if they are good value. Sometimes the healthy options are smaller portions labelled with the amount of calories. One pizza place markets them as a healthy option at under X amount of calories at the same price, less dough, half the size and more rocket on top to make it look healthy. You eat it and are still hungry. A salad bar is a better option and value.
Sometimes as a vegetarian they price everything the same, so a starter of prawns would be the same price as a couple of stuffed mushrooms. Clearly a huge mark up as they keep all starter prices the same so no one will go for a cheaper item.

 

I often wondered why someone has not come up with a fast food restaurant format that had all of their menu items organized by calories/fat/etc... sort of how like Weight Watchers categorizes prepared meals, where you can easily keep track of your overall daily calorie intake. It would be so nice to pull up to a drive through and have like 6 or so combo meals to choose from, knowing they were all under 500 calories or so, and under a certain amount of fat, like 10 grams or something like that. Or a list of individual items all under 200 calories, carefully portioned in advance. There are enough junk food fast food places, why not a healthy fast food place. Grilled lean meats for the burgers/sandwiches, oven baked fries, whole grain buns, lots of fresh veggies. I would go there regularly.

I was kind of shocked when I started working at Burger King back when I was a teenager. At the time I was dieting and trying to loose about 30-40lbs and had always assumed their Grilled Chicken sandwich was a good option. Of course I would get it without any mayo. But this was also around the time when the fast food joints were being pressured into making their nutritional information available to the public. Their grilled chicken sandwich actually has just as many fat and calories as a Whopper, believe it or not. The chicken patties themselves come shipped in, literally smeared all over in some sort of solid shortening. That is straight up fat. I suppose it's meant to keep the chicken from drying out while going through the broiler, but there is still a considerable amount of grease that remains on the chicken when it comes out of it. On the flip side, getting a Whopper Jr. with no cheese or mayo, is actually not that bad for you at all - aside from the processed meat patty. Plus you get fresh veggies with it - the tomato, onions and lettuce.

I wish there were more Mr. Hero's in my neighborhood, they have a fantastic grilled Chicken Philly sandwich, that even with cheese, is still only 7 grams of fat and is low in calories.

 

there is no "healthier" in my opinion. It's either healthy or it's not. I would never go to a fast food place hoping to get a healthy meal.. or even a "healthier" one, because healthier is still very unhealthy when it comes to these places. If you want healthy, make it yourself. Fast food is for fast food

 

The only healthy meal I can get from a fast food restaurant are salads and fish sandwiches. That's about it. It is all I order and sometimes I have to watch out for the salads as they are covered in cheese slices, which can be high in sodium and cholesterol. My main meal from fast food places are fish sandwiches. If I am really hungry, I will add small fries to the order. Otherwise, I usually steer clear of fast food locations to be honest.

 

I have checked and from what I can tell there aren't really any healthy options. Some are just maybe a bit healthier than other items but for the most part of course you're better off just eating somewhere else. I rarely eat at fast food restaurants when I'm trying to keep healthy and only do so on cheat days. I guess the best option for this would be Subway but even then I'm not that sold on them being that much healthier than the rest.

 

Anything under 500 calories for your meal would be within reach of healthier eating choices since the average calorie intake per day should only be 1,500 to 2,000 calories. Some restaurant meals go as high as 2,000! If you can buy a sandwich grilled it would be better than fried, and always order without the mayo - huge calories and fat! Wendy's menu is my favorite because there are a lot of lower calorie options. Try buying a baked potato, buying a side chili (from the dollar menu) and then making your own chili potato meal. That will run you 460 calories, so you'll still have enough left over to buy a drink with it. Kids meal coke is a 100, so that will take you a little over the 500 budget, but not much.