7 Practical Healthiest Fast Food Choices For People On The Go

It’s no secret that dining out isn’t usually as healthy as eating at home, and trying to find healthy fast food choices may sound like a bit of an oxymoron.  But as much as we may want to avoid it, the reality is that we’re are going to eat out.  All of us have hectic lives, and spending a couple of hours each day – every day – in the kitchen just isn’t practical.  The trend toward dining out been going on for a long time, and that trend extends to other countries as well.  So understanding your healthy fast food options is paramount to understanding how to lose belly fat, as well as long-term success with weight loss.

Healthiest Fast Food Choices

A recent study by the sociology department at the University of Houston highlighted the changing landscape, with respect to America’s dining habits.  It’s probably no surprise that households where both parents work outside the home make greater use of fast food outlets.  Families that spend more time in the car also eat out more.  Both of these are logical, sound conclusions.  One item researchers found somewhat striking was a surprisingly strong influence of the father’s behavior of the dining habits of kids, with respect to the amount of fast food families consume.

1.  McDonald’s

You can’t have a discussion about making healthy fast food choices without talking about the reigning king of fast food.  According to their website, McDonald’s has over 32,000 restaurants, and serves up over 9 million pounds of french fries daily.  Looked at another way, that’s around 1.3 billion calories daily — in french fries.  But if you accept that we’re going to eat there sometimes, how can you make it into a healthy fast food meal?

* Premium Southwest Salad with Grilled Chicken – At 320 calories, 6-grams of fiber, and 30-grams of protein, its one of the overall healthiest choices on McDonald’s menu.  Just watch out for the sodium (>900 mg), and your selection of dressing.  The Newman’s Own Southwest Dressing has 100-calories per serving, but a packet contains multiple servings, so don’t use it all.

2.  Panera Bread

Panera touts their menu as being one of the most healthy fast food choices available.  While it’s true there are a number of whole grain choices on the menu, the soups and sandwich meats tend to be heavily laden with sodium, and then there’s the pastries…

* Half Asiago Roast Beef Sandwich & Baked Lays Potato Chips — The combination has a total of 480 calories, 4-grams of fiber, and 26-grams of protein.  Again, sodium is a concern, at 860 mg, but adding any soup to the meal really bumps up the sodium content.

3.  Chik-Fil-A

In my opinion, this is probably one of the healthiest fast food restaurants available.  There are a number of ways to get a meal at less than 500-calories, particularly if you’re willing to forego side items.  But being a chicken place, there’s really only one choice.

* Chargrilled Chicken Sandwich — Tallying in at 290-calories, 3-grams of fiber, and 30-grams of protein, this sandwich is hefty on taste and filling.  You’re also looking at 1-gram of saturated fat, but again sodium is a concern, at 1030-mg.

4.  Hardee’s

Hardee’s has apparently taken the position that they’re into flavor, rather than nutrition.  Dine there regularly, and you’ll quickly exceed your quota for how much fat per day you should consume.  But they recently did make a gesture to the health conscious crowd.  A business luncheon took me there, and I recently tried it the Turkey Burger.  It’s not bad.

* Hardee’s Turkey Burger — As made, 460-calories, 4-grams of fiber, and 31-grams of protein.  I had mine without mayonnaise, and I figure it saved me at least 100-calories and some saturated fat.

5.  Wendy’s

Much of the menu at Wendy’s has followed suit with Hardee’s, with most of the higher dollar items being high in saturated fat.  But order off the Dollar Menu, and you can do O.K.

* Small Chili — Having a small chili doesn’t sound like much food, but at 6-grams of fiber and 18-grams of protein, this makes for a filling meal.  Throw in the fact that it has a meager 220-calories, and you can understand why this is high on my list for a low cost, healthy fast food option.

6.  Jimmy John’s

A solid alternative to the classic Subway sandwich, Jimmy John’s makes tasty subs – fast.  They offer a great option to all their sandwiches, called an “Unwich” where they leave off the bread, and make the sandwich as a wrap in lettuce leaves.  I can attest to the fact that it’s not messy, and very tasty.  Not only that, but you’ll save yourself around 260-calories from any sandwich on the menu, as well as cutting out over 400-mg of sodium.

* #2 Big John – Have it made sans mayonnaise as an Unwich, and you end up with 98-calories, 16-grams of protein, and a piddling 416-mg of sodium.  As a mayonnaise substitute, I usually have them add alfalfa sprouts to spruce up the flavor.

7.  Papa John’s

Pizza doesn’t usually make the list of healthy food choices.  However, the truth is most of us (me included) like the taste of pizza, and we’re going to eat it occasionally.  You’ll never really make pizza healthy, but you can make it healthier.

* Thin Crust Garden Fresh Pizza – 2 slices.  Making the move to thin crust shaves 60-calories per slice out of a large pizza.  Have only two slices, and you’ll get out with only 440-calories, 720-mg of sodium, 16-grams of sodium, and 4-grams of dietary fiber.

Trying to eat healthy when you’re dining out is always going to be tough.  The use of fillers and preservatives almost precludes the notion of healthy fast food, particularly where sodium is concerned.  But with a little diligence, you can mitigate the damage that fast food will do toward achieving your healthy living goals.

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