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Fast Food Alternatives |
The average American SHOULD try to balance their food choices and meals based on their activity level. For the average person who sits most of the time and may exercise for 30 minutes (more would be great), eating a meal between 500 and 700 calories is optimal.
McDonalds
Lower Fat/Lower Calorie Options (500-700 calories)
Grilled Snack Wrap with Honey Mustard (260 calories, 80 fat calories) or
4 piece chicken nuggets (250 calories, 90 from fat) or
hamburger (250 cal, 80 fat cal) and
Small fries (250 cal, 120 fat)-each ketchup pack provides 15 cal, 0 fat or
Snack size fruit and walnut salad (210 cal, 70 fat) or
Apple dippers (105 cal, 5 from fat)
Southwest Salad with grilled chicken (320 cal, 90 fat) and
Small fries (250 cal, 120 fat)-each ketchup pack provides 15 cal, 0 fat or
Fruit and yogurt parfait (160 cal, 20 from fat)
Best salad dressing: low fat balsamic vinaigrette (60 cal, 20 fat)
Best beverage: carton of 1% milk (100 cal, 20 fat)
Worst Meal:
Double quarter pounder with cheese (740 cal, 380 fat cal) or
Premium crispy chicken ranch blt (600 cal, 200 fat cal) and
Large fries (570 cal, 270 fat cal) and
Large soda (310 cal, 0 fat)
Chick-Fil-A
Best:
Chicken Char grilled Sandwich (270 cal, 30 fat cal) or
Chicken Cool Wrap and
Fruit cup (70 cal, 0 fat)
Soup (140 cal, 35 from fat) or side salad with lite Italian (15 cal, 5 fat)
Worst:
Chicken deluxe sandwich (420 cal, 150 fat)
Waffle fries (270 cal, 120 fat)
Soda
Burger King
Disappointing-too many items >600 calories
Best:
Burger (290 cal, 108 from fat) and
Side salad with nonfat ranch: (75 cal, 0 fat) or
Tendergrill chicken salad (240 cal, 80fat) and
Apple sauce (90 cal, 0 fat)
Most disappointing:
The kids French toast breakfast at 660 calories-come on!
BK is for construction workers and lumberjacks that burn off a lot of energy!
Wendy’s
Most refreshingly new meal (for fast food):
Chili (270 cal, 60 from fat), baked lays (130, 20) or
baked potato and orange cup (80 cal, 0 fat) or
Grilled chicken salad or southwest salad, if you get the fat free salad dressing and a sugar-free drink (add up the calories-salads all are 500 or more calories-not including a side item)
By this point I am seeing similarities-the burger, fries, soda thing is pretty much the same for calories and fat calories at all the places.
Taco Bell
Too many items have >50% calories coming from fat even though some of the items are <350 calories.
The best meal here:
Taco (150 cal, 70 fat)
Pintos and cheese (180 cal, 60 from fat) or share a salad without the shell
Also okay: bean burrito or chicken fiesta burrito
This place does not impress me-people love it for flavor (fat) and cost (think about the quality of the food…) real authentic Mexican and Spanish food is so much more nutritious
Evos
There are many things going for this fast food establishment: variety, most of the items are low in saturated fat as well as total fat and it all tastes pretty good. A person can easily stick to a meal under 700 calories here: burger or corn dog, air fries, side salad. You don’t see Herb-crusted trout on any of the other menus either. Just watch out for the wraps >600 calories and the smoothies, which always can add a lot of extra calories.
Low-fat words to look for:
Baked, broiled, grilled, roasted, steamed, poached, fresh or plain, blackened, on the side
High-fat words to look for:
Fried or pan-fried, creamed, sautéed, alfredo, crispy, battered, stuffed, smothered, deluxe, super, premium….
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This handout has been produced for All Children's Hospital's 
