Are "Healthy" Fast Food Options Really Healthy?

Thursday, July 29, 2010 10:20 AM

We keep hearing that if you're going to go for fast food, choose the healthy options, but how good for you can they actually be? We look at two of the biggest chains - McDonalds and Jack in the Box to see how healthy they are.

Fitness and health is becoming a widespread popular movement in America and restaurants and stores all over the country are improving their menus and selections of healthy options to try to keep up with the demand. Even fast food restaurants are adding healthy additions to their menus to try to make convenience food a healthier option for people looking to lose weight and eat better. Some of the most popular chains - Jack in the Box and McDonalds - as well as many others, have added items to their menu that they claim are healthier than all the other menu items. Here we examine some of these items to point out for you which ones are in keeping with your healthy diet and which ones are just a waste of your energy.

Here's how we measure healthy: High in protein, moderate in carbs, moderate sodium, no transfat, and low in both calories and calories from fat.

• McDonald’s Ah, Mickey D's. America's favorite fast food restaurant. There are a couple menu items that are advertised as healthy options. A few are somewhat healthy, however, most are not.

  Premium Grilled Chicken Club Sandwich - This option appears to many to be healthy because it's grilled chicken rather than a hamburger, but it actually packs 530 calories, 160 of which are from fat, 1410g of sodium, and 52g carbs, and 39g protein. While it does offer a good amount of protein, with over half of your daily value of sodium, the only healthy thing about this sandwich is that it has no trans fat.

  Snack Wraps - All of these have between 260 and 400 calories. The best option would be the Grilled Chicken Ranch Snack Wrap. It has 270 calories, 90 of which from fat, 26g of carbs, 810g of sodium, and 14g protein. None of the snack wraps except the Big Mac Snack Wrap have trans fat.

  Salads - The salads have between 140 and 430 calories, fat calories between 70 and 180, between 4 and 38 carbs, and are surprisingly low in protein between 1 and 33g. Your best option is the Premium Bacon Ranch salad without chicken or salad dressing. This salad has 140 calories, 70 calories from fat, no trans fat, 12g of carbs, and 9g protein. For a snack you could have the side salad which has 20 calories and 10g of sodium. Once you start with the dressings though - you kind of lose the health.

  Fruit and Yogurt Parfait - 160 calories, 20 calories from fat, 31 carbs and 4g of protein. Not too bad, actually. This makes for a reasonably healthy snack.

• Jack in the Box The Jack in the Box name isn't commonly associated with the word healthy, but hey, they are trying. Here are three popular items off their supposedly healthy dining menu.

  Grilled Chicken Salad - This salad packs 251 calories, 84 from fat, 660 g of sodium, 14g carbs, and 28g of protein. It is highly questionable how a salad gets 660 g of sodium if the ingredients are as pure as they say. The numbers are okay but we must ask ourselves how clean this meal can be with all that sodium and calories from fat.

  Smoothies - The 16 oz. Mango Smoothie has 289 calories, 1 from fat, 73g of sodium, 72 of carbs, and 2g protein. It’s very low in protein. The really bad part though is that the smoothies claim to be made from real fruit, but are actually made from Minute Maid fruit juice. Granted, the juice is made from real fruit - but it's not like there's going to be a surplus of mango peels in the dumpster.

  The Chicken Teriyaki Bowl - With 692 calories, 53 cals. from fat, 1703g sodium, 133g carbs, 27g protein, and no transfat, we're not sure why it's on the healthy menu. It's high in calories, high in fat, high in sodium and high in carbs. You could really just go ahead and get a burger. Your best bet is definitely the salad.

The most important thing to remember is that eating healthy is best done in your own kitchen so you maintain control of what goes into your body. Anything cooked in a fast food restaurant is mass produced and packed with preservatives. Convenience is important, but remember, not everything worth having is easy to get. Your health is definitely worth having. Make sure you make the most educated choice when you order.

Related Topics: Fast Food | Health | Fitness | Exercise

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