Healthy Fast Food
Tips for Busy People
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Dear Editor,
My children are
heavily involved in sports and I spend many nights a week at their ball
games. How do I know what healthy foods I can eat there and how many
calories they contain? I usually eat fast food cheeseburger and fries.
Unfortunately there aren't any healthy choices and there is no time
between work and getting them to their games to cook or heat a meal.
And I often don't get home until 9 or 10PM on game nights---much to late
to eat.
Hi,
There's 2 ways to handle this problem with
your busy schedule.
(1) You can eat fairly healthy fast
food between leaving work and picking up your kids. Stop by Subway and
get a sandwich, chips (preferably baked), water or diet soda, all under
450 calories. Take a fruit from home to add to your "healthy on the go"
dinner. You can even add a dessert like sliced strawberries and whip
cream and put it in a plastic container for the evening.
At Mc Donald's, combine a grilled chicken
sandwich, diet soda and soft ice cream for a total of 550 calories. This
is well within the calorie limitation for dinner. For salads, always use
low calorie dressing, otherwise regular dressing will increase the total
calories of your salad by 200 to 300 calories. Low fat dressing is only
100 calories or less.
Of course you can eat a salad for dinner...
the only problem with eating salads alone for dinner is that you won't
feel satisfied. You'll feel hungry and you may binge after bringing the
kids home late at night.
Small Asian take-out restaurants such as
Chinese, Japanese or Thai are great for healthy fast food. They are
usually inexpensive too. Stick with grilled chicken over vegetables.
You can bring a fruit or stop at a supermarket to buy your favorite
fruit for a more balanced and healthy meal. You can also order noodles
with chicken and vegetables. Thai fast food tends to be much more
healthy.
Be cautious of meats and vegetables
that shine or glisten. This usually means the food was stir fried
with TOO MUCH OIL. I also recommend you avoid rice and substitute
vegetables because Asian fast food restaurants tend to give you too much
rice. One half cup of rice is one serving and 170 calories but fast food
places tend to give you 2 or 3 servings. It's
very hard to NOT EAT the extra rice when you're hungry.
Consult our fast food guide in your diet
plan for other low calories foods to eat. You can always eat healthy
fast food meals such as grilled chicken sandwiches, salads, other
sandwiches (easy on the mayo), diet soda or water, chicken over rice or
vegetables at many fast food restaurants. Food courts in your
neighborhood mall tend to offer a good selection of healthy fast food.
Spaghetti is another healthy dish you
can buy inexpensively at many neighborhood restaurants. The trick is
....
order-to-go. Just be careful to watch your portion size. A
small plate of spaghetti or spaghetti with meat sauce equates to 1
serving and 300 calories.
If you are given a bigger portion, divide the spaghetti dinner into several portions by asking for an extra take-out container. Put the extra spaghetti dinner in the take-out container and save it for another day.
At some restaurants and fast food places,
you can order take-out grilled pork chops (not battered or breaded) with
mixed vegetables and mash potatoes with gravy for under 500 calories.
However, you must only eat 4 ounces of meat to stay within 500 calories. Four ounces
of pork chop is equivalent to one thick cut or 2 small thin chops. You'll be surprise at how many restaurants
can accommodate this fast food request very inexpensively.
You can also find fast food establishments
that serve grilled fish. Add mash potatoes with a little gravy and avoid
french fries. Add a fruit from home. Some restaurants will add in a
vegetable for you.
OK, hope this helps.
Dan
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