The Drive-Thru Diet: Conclusions & Observations
Can you really eat a healthy drive-thru diet? This last week, I have analyzed the menus of the most popular drive-thru locations McDonald’s, Burger King, Wendy’s, Taco Bell, Arby’s and Dunkin Donuts and tried to come up with a week’s worth of healthy breakfast, lunch and dinner choices. I was able to come up with a limited number of reasonably healthy choices. By no means does this constitute a healthy diet, but you can make choices at the drive-thru that will not break your diet. The following are my overall observations:
Most of the fast food menus are horrible (avoid the fries)
Although the fast food industry has done a pretty good job of eliminating transfats from their menu, most of the menus are high in fat and calories. There are a limited number of healthy choices on each menu. The fries average 50% of their calories from fat, and all breaded or deep fried selections are high in fat. The best fries choice is the small McDonalds fries which is 230 calories, and 11 grams of fat. Adding a side of fries pretty much blows the whole idea.
You Can’t Really Get Fruits & Veggies
Forget the idea of having a “balanced” meal. It is almost impossible to add fruits and veggies. The best I can come up with is grilled chicken and a side of green beans at KFC or the Fruit and Yogurt Parfait and McDonalds. The fast food idea of veggies is adding lettuce and a slice of tomato to your burger, or putting lettuce on your taco.
The good news is that you can have a drive-thru breakfast, lunch or dinner at one of the fast food restaurants without totally blowing your diet. You just need to make wise and informed decisions. And if you carry your fruits and veggies with you in your car, you could even eat from the drive-thru window 100% of the time.
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Taco Bell is promoting the drive -thru diet. I’ve been wondering whether it is possible to come up with a week’s worth of healthy drive -thru meals. I downloaded the nutritional info from McDonald’s, Burger King, Wendy’s, Arby’s, KFC, Dunkin Donuts, and Taco Bell. I did not include fast food restaurants that are highly regional or those that do not normally have a drive thru window like Subway. As with most of the fast food fare, desserts are a horrible choice. However, McDonalds seems to have a few reasonable ways to satisfy your sweet tooth. Here are the healthiest of the dessert selections:
Taco Bell is promoting the drive -thru diet. I’ve been wondering whether it is possible to come up with a week’s worth of healthy drive -thru meals. I downloaded the nutritional info from McDonald’s, Burger King, Wendy’s, Arby’s, KFC, Dunkin Donuts, and Taco Bell. I did not include fast food restaurants that are highly regional or those that do not normally have a drive thru window like Subway. I have previously posted breakfast suggestions, lunch salads, chili, and wraps. Here is the healthiest of the rest:
Taco Bell is promoting the drive -thru diet. I’ve been wondering whether it is possible to come up with a week’s worth of healthy drive -thru meals. I downloaded the nutritional info from McDonald’s, Burger King, Wendy’s, Arby’s, KFC, Dunkin Donuts, and Taco Bell. I did not include fast food restaurants that are highly regional or those that do not normally have a drive thru window like Subway. Below is the essence of the Taco Bell drive-thru diet. As you can see, it is nutritionally fairly sound except for two things: sodium levels are fairly high and there are no fruits or vegetables to speak of in their servings. But the fruit and vegetable problem is uniform throughout the “drive-thru diet” concept.
Taco Bell is promoting the drive -thru diet. I’ve been wondering whether it is possible to come up with a week’s worth of healthy drive -thru meals. I downloaded the nutritional info from McDonald’s, Burger King, Wendy’s, Arby’s, KFC, Dunkin Donuts, and Taco Bell. I did not include fast food restaurants that are highly regional or those that do not normally have a drive thru window like Subway. The following are reasonably healthy drive-thru lunch choices for salads, chili and wraps:
Taco Bell is promoting the drive thru diet. I’ve been wondering whether it is possible to come up with a week’s worth of healthy drive -thru meals. I downloaded the nutritional info from McDonald’s, Burger King, Wendy’s, Arby’s, KFC, Dunkin Donuts, and Taco Bell. I did not include fast food restaurants that are highly regional or those that do not normally have a drive thru window like Subway. For my healthiest breakfast selections. I was unable to find 7 reasonably healthy selections, but I did find 6 (although the McDonald’s sausage burrito is a bit on the fringe). Here they are:
Taco Bell is promoting the drive thru diet. I’ve been wondering whether it is possible to come up with a week’s worth of healthy drive thru meals. I just downloaded the nutritional info from McDonald’s, Burger King, Wendy’s, Arby’s, KFC, Dunkin Donuts, and Taco Bell. I did not include fast food restaurants that are highly regional or those that do not normally have a drive thru window like Subway. So I will try to come up with 21 healthy meals that you can pick up from a drive thru. My preliminary analysis shows that it’s going to be difficult if not impossible to get servings of fruits and vegetables.