Just because you're trying to eat healthier doesn't mean you have to say goodbye to your favourite fast food chain forever. (Sometimes a girl just needs a burger.) Here's how to order smarter. From her book Eat Out, Eat Right, nutrition expert Hope Warshaw gives you the lowdown on fast food hamburgers and sandwiches.
Hamburgers
Unfortunately, the trend in fast-food hamburgers is bigger is better. Most fast-food burger chains offer double, triple, quad (4 patties), biggie, or monster burgers. Most of these are also loaded with high-fat toppings, such as cheese, bacon, and special sauce. Vegetables are scarce. Avoid these giant burgers and order small ones instead.
The frequent additions of cheese, special sauces (usually mayonnaise-based), and bacon add fat and calorie, but pickles, onions, lettuce, tomatoes, mustard, and ketchup increase flavour without the fat. Compare the difference between a plain hamburger at Burger King, with about 300 calories and 12 grams of fat (40 percent of calories), to their Double Whopper with Cheese, with about 600 calories and 35 grams of fat (50 percent of calories).
Fried Fish Sandwiches
Fish is healthy, of course, but not when it’s drowned in batter, oil, tartar sauce, and cheese. Fast-food fried fish sandwiches are probably one of the least healthy choices on the menu. These sandwiches average nearly 500 calories and 50 percent fat. Unfortunately, fast-food outlets just don’t offer grilled fish. Skip the fish when you’re eating fast food; instead, make it at home or order it grilled or broiled in a sit-down restaurant.
Excerpted from Eat Out, Eat Right by Hope S. Warshaw, MMSc, RD, CDE. Copyright © 2008 by Hope S. Warshaw, MMSc, RD, CDE. Excerpted by permission of Surrey Books, a division of Agate Publishing. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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