Is it possible to eat low calorie healthy food at a Fast Food restaurant? The answer to that question may depend on your definition of low calorie and healthy. What is low calorie for one person may not be for someone else. What is healthy on the other hand may be a little more universal.

The healthiest foods are rich with nutrients, fiber, and antioxidants. These foods are minimally processed and have no unnecessary added chemicals or dyes. The best way to get healthy food is to buy fresh, local, and organic whenever possible and to prepare the food yourself. However, that ideal situation is simply not a reality for most people.

More likely than not you are busy. You work hard as a student or employee or business owner. In addition you may have a home or family to take care of. Often there just aren’t enough hours in the day to do what you might prefer to do if the circumstances were different.

Fortunately, the average American consumer is more aware than ever of the importance of eating healthy and has a better understanding what is healthy food as opposed to what is not. As a result, nutrition conscious consumers have been speaking up when it comes to having healthy restaurant meals that can be prepared and served quickly yet don’t have an unreasonable number of calories.

Fast food restaurants have been paying attention to this trend for healthier food and have come a long way in making improvements in what they offer. The restaurants that have made the most changes with providing healthier menu items along with smaller portions sizes are doing well while other restaurants that have been slow to change seem to be losing market share.

I first wrote about healthy low calorie restaurant food items more than a year ago when a relatively small number of “healthier” menu items were available . Since then, there’s been an increase in the number of “healthier” menu items. The biggest spike, however, seems to have been in just the past few months. Maybe it has something to do with the changes in menu board calorie labeling in New York City.

New Yorkers have been astonished by the actual calorie content in some of their favorite fast food choices. A new study discovered that when customers knew the calorie counts as a result of the prominent display on menu boards in New York, they ordered an average of 52 calories less. (American Journal of Public Health, August 2008) What may be even more revealing is another study in which customers ordered meals with fewer calories when the menu was labeled but ONLY on Mondays and Tuesdays! (The Economist, 2008)

I’ll leave it up to you to decide if a menu item is healthy or not. I prefer to simply be thankful that Fast Food restaurants are making an effort and offering “healthier” choices. Just like everyone else I have times when I am away from home and need to eat quickly. Fast food is a necessity. What’s exciting is that we now have a bigger selection.

I’m not advocating eating fast food often. However, when you do you’ll want to be armed with the knowledge to make your best choices. An informative article I came across recently may be of help “12 Rules of the Road for Your Favorite Fast-Food Restaurant”. Although the suggestions in this article are good they may not be enough if you are on a low calorie diet. What I prefer to do is keep a list in mind of the restaurants with better choices (healthier and low calorie) and know which menu items are the best bet.

Image via Wikipedia One of the newest and least expected restaurants to join the ranks of those offering healthier fare is Dunkin Donuts. The Dunkin Donuts Company has listened to their customer’s recommendations for change and responded with new menu itmes! They now offer a Dunkin Donuts Smart menu called DDSMART.

In addition to reduced calorie beverages and a healthier multigrain bagel (not low calorie), the highlights of the new menu are two Egg White Flatbread sandwiches. One of the sandwiches features turkey sausage with spinach and reduced-fat mozzarella. The other is a Veggie with peppers, onions, mushrooms, and reduced-fat cheddar cheese. Both sandwiches have less than 300 calories each, nine grams of fat or less, and are served on a toasted multigrain flatbread.

The town I live in no longer has a Dunkin Donuts restaurant. So I guess I won’t be able to give these a try for a while. Someone let me know if they actually taste good.

Starbucks has changed the standard or “default” milk added to drinks from whole milk to reduced-fat milk. That’s a significant reduction in calories but you can take that a step further. If you want milk with your coffee ask for the non-fat milk. Don’t make my mistake and ask for skim or the person you order from might misunderstand and give you “soy” milk instead of “skim” milk. Soy is a good choice but typically has more calories. (Healthy Low Calorie Beverages 100 Calories or Less)

New menu items at other restaurants to look for include:

Chicken Fajita Pita on Whole Grain (Jack in the Box, 307 calories)

Tortilla Soup Trio (Vegetarian tortilla soup, soft taco, and diet beverage for 360 calories, Qdobe Mexican Grill)

Naked Taco Salad (Choose chicken or grilled veggies for about 340 calories with the fat-free picante dressing for 45 calories at Qdobe Mexican Grill)

Chargrilled and Fruit Salad with Reduced Fat Berry Balsamic Dressing (290 calories, Chick-Fil-A’s)

Thin Crust Medium Cheese Pizza (2 slices for 280 calories from Domino’s Pizza)

For more low calorie restaurant choices read my previous articles. Menu items do change but hopefully most of the recommendations are still available:

1. A Low Calorie Restaurant Food Guide
2. Low Calorie Sample Menu and More
3. Healthy Restaurant Food: Is it Low Calorie?

According to recent survey results by the National Restaurant Association 3 out of 4 American adults are trying to eat a healthier diet than they were a couple of years ago. That’s good news. However, it may not translate into fewer calories consumed when eating out. If anything Americans are eating just as much if not more.

There seems to be a misperception about healthy foods and calories. Healthy and low calorie are not necessarily one and the same. The sad truth is that no matter how careful you may be it is all too easy to consume more calories then you might estimate. Why is that?

The results of a 2008 study published in the Journal of Consumer Research suggests that consumers are more likely to underestimate the total calories eaten when they choose food that is perceived as being healthy as opposed to unhealthy. Although the research involved perceptions of food from fast-food restaurants, I suspect the same would hold true for other restaurants as well.

The participants in the study underestimated the number of calories in main dishes. Believing that they were eating fewer calories then they actually were, they went on to choose additional calories in the form of side dishes, drinks, or desserts. In addition, these extra dishes had up to 131 percent more calories if the main dish was perceived as being healthy versus unhealthy.

Image via Wikipedia Knowing the calorie count ahead of time would solve some of the problem. But that’s a lot easier said then done! What I try to do is keep in mind those restaurants that have healthier food choices along with lower calorie counts. (A Low Calorie Restaurant Food Guide) When it is just my husband and me that works reasonably well. Throw children, other family, or friends into the mix and it doesn’t work quite so well!

Just as may happen to you, I end up at restaurants without enough advance knowledge of the food choices and calorie counts. When this happens the truth of the matter is that I can and do misjudge the calorie count. I can think of a couple of examples of situations that I encountered recently.

A few months back, I was at Bruegger’s with family. I love bagels as much or more than anyone else! But I tend to avoid this restaurant because I have found most of the choices on the menu to be high calorie. (Some of the soups seem to be healthy low calorie choices.) The day I was there, I encountered a new sandwich offering called the “softwich”. As I recall there were a couple of healthy sounding possibilities with this new line, the Mediterranean Softwich (hummus, muenster cheese, sun dried tomato spread, lettuce, and red onions) and the Thai Peanut Chicken Softwich (chicken fajita strips, cucumber, peanut sauce, lettuce, alfalfa sprouts, and a little cream cheese).

I enquired about the softwich and it was explained to me that a softwich is basically a bagel but it is softer and not so dense. So I reasoned that it would have fewer calories then the typical large and dense bagel. I was wrong. It is actually larger than a regular bagel and has more calories not less! I should have asked for the calorie count. (At chain restaurants this information should be available.)

I chose to order a Thai Peanut Chicken Softwich instead of the Mediterranean. Fortunately, that turned out to be the better choice in terms of calories but it was still more then I would have liked.

Mediterranean Softwich (790 Calories - Ouch!)

15 grams saturated fat
11 grams dietary fiber
13 grams of sugar
30 grams of protein

(15 grams of saturated fat and 13 grams of sugar are a lot for a seemingly healthy sandwich!)

Thai Peanut Chicken Softwich (590 Calories!)

2.5 grams of saturated fat
5 grams of fiber
18 grams of sugar (Likely in the sauce which came served on the side)
36 grams of protein

I chose to use very little sauce on my Thai Peanut Chicken Softwich and as such knocked the calorie count down to maybe 500 calories or so. That was better but still a good 50-100 calories more than I had estimated. It’s just all too easy to do.

Another situation I encountered was with a “treat” I selected to go with my cafe latte (made with skim milk) from Starbucks yesterday. I can’t afford to eat sweets very often but there it was, a Berry Stella looking and “sounding” as healthy and tempting as a treat could be.

A new offering from sometime in July, the Berry Stella is a star-shaped bakery treat listed as having “whole grain goodness”. The small cake-like offering is topped with raspberries, blueberries, and whole oats. It caught my eye, seemed to be a “healthy” choice, and I simply couldn’t walk away…

How did I fare? Well that tasty little treat had 280 calories! Was it healthy? For a treat, yes. Low calorie? No! One Petite Vanilla Scone, on the other hand, has only 130 calories. However, the first three ingredients for the Berry Stella listed in order are oats, brown sugar, and whole wheat flour. The first three ingredients for the Petite Vanilla Scone are enriched wheat flour, vanilla bean glaze (basically sugar), and heavy cream.

Berry Stella is the healthier but higher calorie choice. So do you choose healthy or lower calorie? My recommendation is to go with the healthier choice most of the time. BUT if you don’t know the calorie count (if possible do ask!) and you are on a low calorie diet, then only eat half. Save half for later or share with a friend!

Have a great week, watch those calories and, whenever possible, eat healthy!