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America's Healthiest Restaurants
Eat This, Not That by David Zinczenko, with Matt Goulding a Yahoo! Health Expert for Nutrition
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Eating out invariably raises a number of tricky questions: sit-down or drive-thru? Burgers or pizza? Thin or stuffed crust? Choosing one over the other could mean saving hundreds of calories in a single meal, and up to 50 pounds of flab in the course of a year and countless health woes over the course of a lifetime. That’s why Eat This, Not That! launched an investigation and put 66 major chain restaurants under the nutritional microscope—so that you and your family can continue to eat out, but do so knowing the types of insider tips and savvy strategies that can help melt fat all year long. And the good news is that many fan favorites scored top marks!
To separate the commendable from the deplorable, we calculated the total number of calories per entrée. This gave us a snapshot of how each restaurant compared in average serving size—a key indicator of unhealthy portion distortion. Then we rewarded establishments with fruit and vegetable side-dish choices, as well as for providing whole-grain options. Finally, we penalized places for excessive amounts of trans fats and menus laden with gut-busting desserts. What we ended up with is the Eat This, Not That! Restaurant Report Card, which will show you how all of the nation’s largest eating establishments stack up nutritionally.
Check out those restaurants that scored a B+ or higher:
A-
Chick-fil-A
Between the breakfast and lunch menus, there are only two entrées at Chick-Fil-A that break 500 calories, a rare feat in the fast-food world. What this means is that you can't possibly do too much harm—especially if you stick to the chicken. And unlike the typical fast-food chain, Chick-Fil-A offers a list of sides that goes beyond breaded and fried potatoes and onions. (Just beware the large cole slaw, which adds an extra 600 calories to your daily intake!) That's why we dub the Atlanta-based chicken shack one of our all-time favorite fast-food restaurants.
Also, be sure to check out our exclusive list of the best and worst restaurants for kids to find out why Chick-fil-A receives an even higher grade when it comes to kids’ meals.
SURVIVAL STRATEGY: The worst thing you can do is supplement your meal with a milkshake—not a single cup has fewer than 600 calories. And instead of nuggets or strips, look to the Chargrilled Chicken Sandwiches, which average only 320 calories apiece.
A-
Subway
A menu based on lean protein and vegetables is always going to score well in our book. With more than half a dozen sandwiches under 300 calories, plus a slew of soups and healthy sides to boot, Subway can satisfy even the pickiest eater without breaking the caloric bank. But, despite what Jared may want you to believe, Subway is not nutritionally infallible: Those rosy calorie counts posted on the menu boards include neither cheese nor mayo (add 160 calories per 6-inch sub), and some of the toasted subs, like the Meatball Marinara, contain hefty doses of calories, saturated fat, and sodium.
SURVIVAL STRATEGY: Cornell researchers have discovered a “health halo” at Subway, which refers to the tendency to reward yourself or your kid with chips, cookies, and large soft drinks because the entrée is healthy. Avoid the halo, and all will be well.
Along those same lines, try to avoid anything from this indispensable list of the 14 worst “healthy” foods in America, too. They'll trip you up--and easily expand your waistline.
A-
Jamba Juice
Jamba offers a viable and tasty solution to the dearth of fresh fruits and vegetables in the American diet: Stick it all in a blender and let us slurp it up. But make this your rule: If it includes syrup or added sugar, it ceases to be a smoothie. Jamba Juice makes plenty of real-deal smoothies, but their menu is sullied with more than a few faux-fruit blends. Just make sure you choose the right one.
SURVIVAL STRATEGY: For a perfectly guilt-free treat, opt for a Jamba Light or All Fruit Smoothie in a 16-ounce cup.
And unless you're looking to put on weight for your new acting career, don't touch the Peanut Butter Moo'd. On this shocking list of the 20 Unhealthiest Drinks in America, it sits worryingly close to the top. (You’ll be amazed by what’s number one!)
A-
Au Bon Pain
Sure the menu has its pitfalls, but what menu doesn't? The bottom line is that Au Bon Pain combines an extensive inventory of healthy items with an unrivaled standard of nutritional transparency. Each store has an on-site nutritional kiosk to help customers find a meal to meet their expectations, and the variety of ordering options provides dozens of paths to a sensible meal.
SURVIVAL STRATEGY: Most of the café sandwiches are in the 650-calorie range, so make a lean meal instead by combining a hot soup with one of the many low-calorie options on the Portions menu. And if you must indulge, eschew the baked goods in favor of a cup of fruit and yogurt, or serving of chocolate-covered almonds.
B+
Boston Market
With more than a dozen healthy vegetable sides and lean meats like turkey and roast sirloin on the menu, the low-cal, high-nutrient possibilities at Boston Market are endless. But with nearly a dozen calorie-packed sides and fatty meats like dark meat chicken and meat loaf, it’s almost as easy to construct a lousy meal.
SURVIVAL STRATEGY: There are three simple steps to nutritional salvation: 1) Start with turkey, sirloin, or rotisserie chicken. 2) Add two noncreamy, nonstarchy vegetable sides. 3) Ignore all special items, such as pot pie and nearly all of the sandwiches.
B+
Cici’s Pizza Buffet
Cici's began in Texas in 1985 and now boasts more than 600 locations, proving definitively that Americans love a good buffet. The good news for our waistlines is that the crust is moderately sized, and the pizza comes in varieties beyond simple sausage and pepperoni. But if you check your willpower at the door, you're probably better off skipping the pizza buffet entirely.
SURVIVAL STRATEGY: It takes 20 minutes for your brain to tell your body it's full, so start with a salad and then proceed slowly to the pizza. Limit yourself to the healthier slices like the Zesty Vegetable, Alfredo, and the Olé, which is a Mexican-inspired pie with only 108 calories per slice.
B+
McDonald’s
The world-famous burger baron has come a long way since the days of Fast Food Nation—at least nutritionally speaking. The trans fats are mostly gone, the number of gut-wrecking calorie bombs are now fewer than ever, and the menu holds plenty of healthy options such as salads and yogurt parfaits. Don't cut loose at the counter just yet, though. Too many of the breakfast and lunch sandwiches still top the 500-calorie mark, and the dessert menu is fodder for some major belly-building.
SURVIVAL STRATEGY: The Egg McMuffin remains one of the best ways to start your day in the fast-food world—feel free to use it as a replacement option for any of these eight worst fast food breakfasts in America!
As for the later hours, you can splurge on a Big Mac or a Quarter Pounder, but only if you skip the fries and soda, which add an average of 590 calories onto any meal.
B+
Taco Bell
Taco Bell combines two things with bad nutritional reputations: Mexican food and fast food. The result should be horrendous, yet somehow it works out so that a little prudence at the ordering window can bag you a meal with fewer than 500 calories. The potential for belly-building is still there, but the calorie bombs are generally easy to spot. And to limit the chances of a mistake, Taco Bell reengineered some of its classic items and listed them under the Fresco Menu for a savings of up to 10 grams of fat per item.
SURVIVAL STRATEGY: Grilled Stuft Burritos, anything served in a bowl, and anything prepared with multiple "layers" are your worst options. Instead, order any combination of two of the following: crunchy tacos, bean burritos, or anything on the Fresco menu.
B+
Wendy’s
Scoring a decent meal at Wendy's is just about as easy as scoring a bad one, and that's a big compliment for a burger joint. Options such as chili and baked potatoes offer the side-order variety that's missing from less-evolved fast-food chains like Dairy Queen and Carl's Jr. Plus they offer a handful of Jr. Burgers that don't stray far over 300 calories. And for our money, the ¼-lb single is one of the best substantial burgers in the industry. Where they err is in their recently expanded line of desserts and a lackluster selection of beverages. But you're happy just drinking water, right?
SURVIVAL STRATEGY: The grilled chicken sandwiches and wraps don't have more than 320 calories, which is less than even a small order of French fries. Choose the chicken or a small burger and pair it with a healthy side, and then hit the door before you receive the 500-calorie penalty for giving in to your Frosty hankering.
America’s Unhealthiest Restaurants
Eat This, Not That by David Zinczenko, with Matt Goulding a Yahoo! Health Expert for Nutrition
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Your favorite fast food restaurant is often like your favorite city: Visit some neighborhoods and you live the high life. Visit others and you’re just plain asking for trouble. And that’s where Eat This, Not That! comes in: We’ve analyzed and graded 66 different chain restaurants—fast food and sit-down—to determine which ones have healthy options, and which could turn out to be diet disasters.
What we found will surprise you. Specifically, some of the fast food joints you’ve come to think of as terrible for you actually ranked alright—McDonald’s scored a B+, for example, so the Micky D’s drive-thru just might be your fast-lane to weight loss. Something even more shocking, though: more than half of the sit-down restaurants we graded ended up with our lowest scores!To separate the commendable from the deplorable, we calculated the total number of calories per entrée. This gave us a snapshot of how each restaurant compared in average serving size—a key indicator of unhealthy portion distortion. Then we rewarded establishments with fruit and vegetable side-dish choices, as well as offering whole-wheat bread. Finally, we penalized places for excessive amounts of trans fats and menus that tempt you with fat-laden desserts. Hey, if the neighborhood is crowded with shady characters, sooner or later, one of them will jump you.
Here’s our restaurant report card for some of the unhealthiest restaurants in America. It’ll help you stay on the safer side of town.
D+
Baskin-Robbins
We thought we'd see some improvements after we identified Baskin's Heath Shake as the Worst Drink on the Planet. All they did was lower it from 2,300 to 1,900 calories, leaving an almost equally egregious drinkable disaster to set back unsuspecting sippers. It’s typical of the menu there; B-R’s soft serve is among the most caloric in the country, the smoothies contain more sugar than fruit, and most of what Baskin sticks into a cup winds up with more fat than what'll end up on your plate at a steakhouse buffet. Check out our complete list of the 20 Unhealthiest Drinks in America to see the other liquid offenders. If you learn how to make smart choices when you sip, you can lose a few pounds a month—without giving up your favorite foods, or ever dieting again.
SURVIVAL STRATEGY: With frozen yogurt, sherbet, and no-sugar-added ice cream, Baskin's lighter menu is the one bright spot. Just be sure to ask for your ice cream in a sugar or cake cone—the waffle cone will swaddle your treat in an extra 160 calories.
D+
Carl’s Jr.
Most fast-food restaurants today are making at least some attempt to offset their bulging burgers and deep-fried sides with healthier options such as lean sandwiches or yogurt parfaits. But Carl's Jr. is swimming against the nutritional tide, trying to attract those with hearty appetites and less concern about fat, salt and calories. The lightest item on the breakfast menu, for instance, is the Hash Brown Nuggets—but even they have 21 grams of fat, and 5.5 of them are trans fats. (As a rule, you should try to get 2 grams or fewer of the stuff in an entire day!) The burgers are worse, and there's not a side on the menu that hasn't been given a long, bubbling bath in their trans-fatty frying oil.
SURVIVAL STRATEGY: Find another place to grab lunch. Failing that, you should settle on either the Charbroiled Chicken Salad with Low-Fat Balsamic Dressing or the Charbroiled BBQ Chicken Sandwich—the only sandwich on the menu with fewer than 400 calories.
D+
Denny’s
Too bad the adult menu at Denny's doesn't adhere to the same standard as the kids' menu. The famous Slam breakfasts all top 800 calories, and the burgers are even worse. The Double Cheeseburger is one of the worst in the country, with 116 grams of fat, 7 of which are trans fats! (This explains why it made our list of the worst burgers in America (and what you should eat instead). Make sure you try to avoid it (and all others on the list) whenever possible.
SURVIVAL STRATEGY: The Fit Fare menu gathers together all the best options on the menu. Outside of that, stick to the sirloin, grilled chicken, or soups. For breakfast, order a Veggie Cheese Omelet or create your own meal from a la carte options such as fruit, oatmeal, toast, and eggs.
D+
Dairy Queen
Dairy Queen’s taste for excess rivals that of other fast-food failures such as Carl's Jr. and Hardees. But unlike Carl's, DQ offers an avalanche of ice cream creations to follow up its sodium-spiked, trans-fatty foods. Here's a look at one hypothetical meal: a Bacon Cheddar GrillBurger with Onion Rings and a Small Snickers Blizzard is a staggering 1,740-calorie meal with 2,640 mg sodium and 83 grams of fat—2 grams of which are trans fats.
SURVIVAL STRATEGY: Play solid defense. Skip elaborate burgers, fried sides, and specialty ice cream concoctions entirely. Order a Grilled Chicken Sandwich or an Original Burger, and if you must have a treat, stick to a small soft-serve or a small sundae.
D+
Ruby Tuesday
The chain earned its fame from a hearty selection of hamburgers. The problem: They average 75 grams of fat a piece—more than enough to exceed the USDA's recommended limit for the day. Even the veggie and turkey burgers have more than 850 calories! The chain rounds out its menu with a selection of appetizers that hover around 1,000 calories (supposedly to be split 4-ways), a smattering of high-impact entrées like potpie and ribs, and a sloppy selection of salads that is just as bad.
SURVIVAL STRATEGY: Solace lies in the three Ss: steak, seafood, and sides. Sirloins, salmon, and shrimp all make for relatively innocuous eating, especially when paired with one of Ruby Tuesday's half dozen healthy sides such as mashed cauliflower and baby green beans. Other than that, impersonate Mick Jagger and think about occasionally saying goodbye to Ruby Tuesday!
D
Chili’s
From burgers to baby back ribs, Chili's serves up some of the saltiest and fattiest fare on fast-food row. In fact, with 3,810 mg of sodium and 122 grams of fat, Chili's Smokehouse Bacon Triple Cheese Big Mouth Burger earns the distinction as being one of the worst burgers in America. The Guiltless Grill menu is Chili's attempt to offer healthier options, but with only eight items and an average sodium count of 1,320 mg, there’s meager hope for nutritional salvation.
SURVIVAL STRATEGY: There's not too much to choose from after you omit the ribs, burgers, fajitas, chicken, and salads. You're better off with a Classic Sirloin and steamed vegetables or broccoli. Another decent option is the Chicken Fajita Pita with Black Beans and Pico de Gallo. A lot of the appetizers, while delicious, are worrisome too—one from Chili’s made it on our list of Worst Appetizers in America.
D
Uno Chicago Grill
Uno has some serious strikes against it: The chain invented the deep-dish pizza, they encouraged gluttony with their Bigger and Better menu, and in 1997 they faced false-advertising charges for erroneously claiming that some of their pizzas were low in fat. They've cleaned up some of the more conspicuous health hazards and have increased nutritional transparency at all of their stores, but from appetizers to desserts, this menu is still riddled with belt-busting fat.
SURVIVAL STRATEGY: First off, cast aside the bloated breadstick that Uno tries to sneak onto most plates. Next, choose flatbread over deep-dish pizzas—it could save you more than 1,000 calories. Beyond that, stick to soups or entree items served with Mango Salsa.
D
Chevy’s
Don't let the made-fresh-daily shtick distract you; Chevy's massive portions push many of the meals beyond the 1,000-calorie threshold. The taco trader’s menu has three strikes against it: 1.) the consistently high amount of fat in its entrees (the average salad has 67 grams); 2.) the outrageous salt levels that make it difficult to find a meal with fewer than 2,000 mg of sodium (you should get around that amount in an entire day of eating); and 3.) the chain earns its poor score by failing to offer complete nutritional disclosure. It provides no information for its appetizers or quesadillas, for instance, and although it maintains it uses trans-fat free oils, there's no trans-fat data for the full entrees.
SURVIVAL STRATEGY: The best items on the menu are the Homemade Tortilla Soup, with just 393 calories and a full 26 grams of protein, and the Santa Fe Chopped Salad, which has only 470 calories when you order it without cheese. If you can't resist an entrée, order it without all the fixin's—tamalito, rice, sour cream, and cheese. That should knock more than 300 calories off your meal.
D-
On the Border
On the Border is a subsidiary of Brinker International, the same parent company that owns Chili's and Romano's Macaroni Grill. It should come as no surprise then that this chain is just as threatening to your health as its corporate cohorts. The overloaded menu offers appetizers with 120 grams of fat, salads with a full day's worth of sodium, and taco entrées with an horrific 960 calories—and that’s the calculation without rice and beans. Border crossing is a decidedly dangerous enterprise.
SURVIVAL STRATEGY: The Border Smart Menu highlights four items with fewer than 600 calories and 25 grams of fat. Those aren't great numbers considering they average 1,800 mg of sodium apiece, but that's all you've got to work with.
D-
Romano’s Macaroni Grill
For years now we've been on Romano's case to clean up the menu at the beloved Macaroni Grill. So far we've had no luck. This Italian grease spot serves some of the worst appetizers in the country, offers not one dinner entrée with fewer than 800 calories, and hosts no fewer than 60 menu items with more than 2,000 mg of sodium—almost an entire day’s worth of the salt! A select few menu items earn the restaurant's Sensible Fare logo—a fork with a halo over it—but unfortunately these items can still carry up to 640 calories and 25 grams of fat.
SURVIVAL STRATEGY: Macaroni Grill will let you build your own dish. Ask for the marinara over a bed of the restaurant's whole-wheat penne, and then top it with grilled chicken and steamed vegetables. Just beware their salads—one of them made our list of America’s Worst Salads!
D-
Baja Fresh
It's a surprise Baja Fresh's menu has yet to collapse under the weight of its own fatty fare. About a third of the items on the menu have more than 1,000 calories, and most of them are spiked with enough sodium to melt a polar icecap. Order the Shrimp Burrito Dos Manos Enchilado-Style, for instance, and you're looking at 5,130 mg sodium—that's more than 2 days' worth in one sitting!
SURVIVAL STRATEGY: Unless you're comfortable stuffing 110 grams of fat into your arteries, avoid the nachos at all costs. In fact, avoid almost everything on this menu. The only safe options are the tacos, or a salad topped with salsa verde and served without the belly-busting tortilla bowl.
F
Applebee’s, IHOP, Outback, T.G.I. Friday’s
These titans of the restaurant industry are among the last national chains that don’t offer nutritional information on their dishes. Even after years of badgering their representatives, we still hear the same old excuses: it’s too pricey, it’s too time-consuming, it’s impossible to do accurately because their food is so fresh, or we have too much variety. Our response is simple: If nearly every other chain restaurant in the country can do it, then why can’t they?
Your Survival Strategy: Write letters, make phone calls, beg, scream, and plead for these restaurants to provide nutritional information on all of their products. Here’s the contact information for each of the restaurants that refuse to fess up!
Applebees: 888-59APPLE, or send an e-mail
IHOP: 818-240-6055 (press 1 for Guest Visit issues)
Outback: Send an e-mail
T.G.I. Friday's: 800-FRIDAYS
Posts
Hmmm...I actually ate a grilled chicken at a Chick-fil-A when I was at my conference. I figured it'd be one of the better choices. Glad to know I chose correctly. I'm a bit suprised that Applebee's is so far done. Yes...most of their food is terrible, but at least they have weight watchers menu options. There just aren't many places that will do that. So I feel like they deserve a bit more credit. Granted, I hate Applebee's anyways, but still...at least they're somewhat trying.
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