Healthy Fast Food?

Posted by kathryn in A Balanced Diet

I was talking to a client this week and we were discussing the best fast food options.

I live in Sydney’s inner city. Our nearest corner store sells good quality fruit and veg. Plus, they’re open until 9pm every night. There are also plenty of Thai or Vietnamese restaurants close by, many of whom home deliver.

Even when I’m home late from work, or can’t be bothered to cook, it’s still easy to organise a healthy meal.

However, in talking to my client I was reminded this isn’t the case for everyone. For many people, living further out of the city, the only option is fast food.

The problem with fast food

However, most fast food is high in saturated fat, sugars and sodium. It’s also chock-a-block full of kilojoules. Fast food options are difficult to negotiate and it’s hard to work out which are the better choices.

It’s not uncommon for a burger to contain:

• about 2,000 kilojoules
• more than 20g of fat
• at least half of the maximim recommended level of salt.

Add a small fries and a shake to that and you could be consuming over 4,000 kilojoules and about 40g of fat in one meal.

The good news: in recent years most fast food places have made significant improvements to their menus. Most items are still chock-a-block full of kilojoules, sodium and fat. However many fast food outlets now have at least a couple of choices that won’t break the diet.

You do need to pick wisely and ignore most of the in-store promotional guff about “healthy” options. Some of the seemingly healthy choices are as bad as a burger.

Ignore meal deals

Also ignore meal deals. An Australian study has shown for a 12 percent increase in cost for the meal deal, you can be getting:

• 23 precent more kilojoules
• 25 percent more fat
• 38 percent more sugar

Here are the best options from the major fast food outlets.

Red Rooster

Red Rooster and Subway are the best fast food outlets if you’re looking for healthier choices.

Red Rooster use less batter than KFC, so less oil is soaked up in the cooking process. They also provide skin-free options, which again cuts back on the fat.

You still have to be careful which items you select, however there are more choices than at other places.

Best choices:

• Skinfree Portugese chicken pieces, coupled with one or two of the following – corn, peas, coleslaw or potato&gravy
• Baguette d’Lite
• Skinfree grilled chicken salad

Second best choices :

• Roast chicken salad (although high in sodium)
• Chicken BLT baguette (high in sodium)
• Mediterranean baguette (high in sodium)
• Skinfree grilled chicken baguette / burger&wrap (all high in sodium)

Subway

Subway have a number of okay choices. Plus all their sandwiches include salad, so you’re getting at least a couple of vegetable portions.

Best choices:

• Deli style sandwiches: ham, roast beef, turkey and tuna
• Salads: roasted chicken, Subway club, veggie delite and tuna. The tuna has the highest amount of fat and I’d recommend having this one without dressing.
• Dressing: mayonnaise

Second best choices:

• Subway have a range of about 8 sandwiches which have less than 6g of fat, so these are pretty good choices, although most of them are still too high in sodium. Of these, the best choices are the veggie delite, roasted chicken and the turkey.

McDonald’s

McDonald’s have been heavily promoting their new lighter choices and salads menu, but there are still only a limited number of good options.

Some like the Bacon & Egg and Chicken Caeser Deli Choices have as many kilojoules, if not more than a Big Mac. While others are lower in kilojoules and fat, but still contain a pretty hefty amount of sodium.

Best choices:

• Hamburger
• Chicken McNuggets 3 pack with either a Herb Fusion Chicken Salad or a Garden Salad
• Crispy cut chicken salad
• Herb fusion chicken salad
• Dressings: chilli&lime, Italian, ranch dressing or spicy avocado

Second best choices:

• Chicken tandoori, Thai chicken or turkey&cranberry Deli Choice (all a bit high in sodium)

Desserts:

• Best choice is either the Flake M, the plain Sundae Cone or the Sundae without topping
• The apple pie, cookies, McFlurries and Sundaes with toppings are all super high in kilojoules and fat. Also their “lite” muffins are not very.

Avoid: the sugary soft drinks and the shakes (even the smallest size has about 1,000kJ).

Hungry Jack’s

Best choices:

• Hamburger
• Spicy chicken baguette

Second best choices:

• Grilled chicken baguette (higher in sodium than the spicy chicken)

Avoid: The vegie supreme baguette – it’s a shocker. High in kilojoules, sodium and fat, so don’t mistake the vegetable option for the healthy one!

KFC

Of all the fast food places, KFC is the hardest place to find a healthier option.

The best of a very poor bunch is the Original Fillet Burger, although this still has 17.9g of fat and 1,093 mg of sodium, which are VERY high.

How many kiloujoules, etc should you be eating?

All these figures are pretty meaningless without some context. In making the above assessments I used the following criteria:

• No more than 2,000 kJ per meal
• No more than 15g of total fat and no more than 5g of saturated fat
• No more than 1,000mg of sodium (although this is still higher than I’d like)

To give you an idea of what you need every day – these are average intakes for adults aged between 18 and 60:

• Women (weighing about 65kg and not pregnant): 9,000kJ, 60g of fat and no more than 2,300mg of sodium per day
• Men (weighing about 75kg): 11,500kJ, 80g of fat and no more than 2,300mg of sodium per day

More information:

• Choice’s Healthy Fast Food and Fast Food – 5 Minute Choice reports
• Nutrition information on the fast food company websites: KFC, Red Rooster, Subway=, McDonalds.
• Report: “Upsizing Australia’s waistline: the dangers of meal deals.

01 December, 2006