Any diet, weight loss regime or healthy eating habits would tell you to stay away from fast-food restaurants and processed foods. However, sometimes, the craving is too strong for anyone to ignore. Or, it could be that you have a limited budget for the day, and can’t afford anything more than the local McDonalds or Chipotle. Besides, what else can you do when you are treating your child to their favourite burger because of a good grade, besides ordering something for yourself.
Whatever the reasons, sometimes you just have to go into a fast-food restaurant to eat, but that doesn’t mean you can’t find the healthiest options from these places!
Here is a list of all the healthiest options for food (relatively) that you can find in your nearest fast-food chain restaurant or local fast-food joint.
- Grilled Chicken Burger
The chicken in these burgers is grilled, which means there isn’t much oil in them. Make sure that the burger doesn’t come with too much mayonnaise or sauce; you can make an additional request to skip the sauces and add more tomato slices or lettuce. Alternatively, you can also scrape the mayonnaise and sauce with a spoon and eat the rest of the burger.
If you are on a low-carb diet, you can simply only eat the chicken patty and leave the buns alone, or only eat one side of the bun.
- Grilled Chicken Wraps
Chicken wraps usually use chicken breasts, which are the healthiest part of the animal. Besides, these chicken pieces are also grilled and use a little amount of oil and come with shredded carrots, cabbages, pepper, and onions. There’s a little cheese into the mix too, as well as a flatbread but in all, a full chicken wrap wouldn’t pass 350 calories in total. One for lunch sometimes is perfectly all right, every now and then.
- Chicken Rice Bowls
Usually, there are multiple rice bowls to choose from, so you can always choose the ones where the chicken looks grilled rather than fried. There’s always white rice accompanying the chicken, but you can simply stop eating after a few spoonsful. Besides, sometimes there’s not just chicken breasts in these rice bowls, but also a healthy dose of beans, onions, carrots and bell peppers.
- Salads
Most fast-food restaurants have a separate salad option, even if it is just one choice of salad. These may not be as tasty as the salads in high-end places, but they won’t be as filled with calories as anything else.
Choose a salad that has the most type of vegetables and choice of protein – chicken or beans. This is as healthy a meal as you can get from any fast-food restaurants.
- Crispy Chicken Strips
Deep-fried chicken tender strips aren’t the healthiest options for food, but they are better than most other meals you can order. These chicken strips are deep-fried in oil and sprinkled with herbs, but the chicken inside still remains moist and soft. With chicken strips, you can easily peel off the thick fried skin to eat the meat inside which is made from chicken breasts. Just don’t dip the strips into ketchup because you’ll be adding a lot of calories.
- Vegetable/Hawaiian/Mediterranean Pizza
These are the pizzas that have more fruits and vegetables than cheese. If you order a thin-slice pizza, each of the slices is about 300 calories. Two slices for lunch is perfectly all right if you go easy on dinner. When you are severely craving pizza, one or two slices can’t hurt, unless you are ordering a double-cheese family-size pizza and eating the whole thing yourself. Mediterranean Pizzas usually have plenty of tomatoes, onions, mushrooms, black olives and banana peppers – full of nutritional values.
- Chicken Nuggets
Chicken nuggets are mainly found in the kid’s menu, but there’s no rule saying you can’t order from it. Given that the restaurant you are visiting makes their own nuggets, a single plate of chicken nuggets for kids will contain 6 to 8 pieces that you can share with a child. Nuggets are purest forms of chicken with very little herbs or spices and if you can stop yourself from adding ketchup, you are not going to consume a lot of calories.
- Fruit Cups
Some fast-food restaurants offer a miniature fruit cup in their kid’s menu that’s meant for picky eaters. They are mainly apples, pears, and berries, sometimes with whipped cream on top. Fruit cups are actually meant for dessert, but they can be perfect lunch meals, too.
- Egg Burgers/Egg Muffins
Fast-food chains such as McDonald’s are famous for their affordable food options, and you can find healthier options like the Egg McMuffins here. These McMuffins are 100% natural and free from added ingredients, perfect for breakfast as well as any time of the day. They also come with cheese, bacon, and butter, and roughly contain 300 calories.
- Flat White with Almond Milk
When the craving for a coffee is deafening, you just have to rush over to the nearest Starbucks and order a drink. Well, better make that a Grande Flat white with only Almond milk, because that’s the healthiest options Starbucks has. The entire drink is only 100 calories. If you are also thinking of ordering lunch at Starbucks or any other similar chain cafes, look for high-protein meals like protein bowls instead of sandwiches or desserts.
Going to a fast-food restaurant definitely shouldn’t be on the top of your list, but if for some reason, you do find yourself at one, there’s no reason to starve yourself. There will always be something healthy (comparatively) for you to try, so you shouldn’t worry too much. Going off your course once in a while won’t be much harmful to you unless you make it a habit.
All you need to do is to find something that looks the most natural and least processed from the menu, and you are good to go. Why should you deny yourself some delicious fast food once in a while because you are eating healthy!
