How to Eat “Healthily” at Fast Food Restaurants

By :- Kate, On May 8, 2013 in ::-Uncategorized

This article has been provided to livelovesmall.com by Ella Rose of SelfishMum.co.uk

I’m not a perfect mother, but, then again, who is? I never claim to be the UK’s answer to Mrs Brady. I commit, about once a month, the ultimate, cardinal sin: I give my sons fast food. Sometimes this crime is committed by choice, for example, sometimes Steven and I take our 5 and 3 year old  boys to be filled with pizza and ice cream at Pizza Hut as a treat. Sometimes I’m merely an accessory to the crime, for example, I may have been for a day out with my brother and his family and he’s suggested a dirty Maccie’s on the way home. Whatever the reason, I hold my hands up now and admit that I’m not a good enough mother to avoid such places.

However, when I’m trying to manage my diet and fitness, sometimes the last thing I want is an enormous greasy burger, or a pizza dripping with cheese. OK, that was a big fat lie; I always WANT it, but sometimes I’m so plagued with guilt about going there I would actually prefer NOT to eat a burger or a pizza and ruin my hard work.

However, I’ve recently found I can actually go to these types of restaurants with my family and eat a half-decent, moderately healthy or low-calorie meal. I admit, the healthy options takeaway restaurants offer are never going to be the best meals in the world, but if you fancy avoiding their delicious, greasy, one-million-calories-per-bite meals, I’ve scoured the menus at some of my favourite restaurants and have selected the healthiest options they offer. There’s nothing worse than getting to the front of the queue, only just being able to read the tiny print of the menu, and then being put on the spot when the sales assistant wants to know in 0.279 seconds what you want to order, and then going for the usual “quarter-pounder with cheese meal” because it’s the first thing that comes to your mind. After reading this article you will now be able to stroll confidently into any one of the places below and order their healthiest option.

Macdonald’s

The grilled chicken salads are actually pretty good! One of these salads comes in at 140 calories, with bacon it makes it 190. Making your chicken crispy without bacon is 325, with bacon 380. I don’t think any of those figures are bad, especially when you consider a Big Mac and regular fries is 820! The only thing you need to consider is the dressing, as this will up the calorie intake. FYI – Macdonald’s also offers cute little bags of fruit and carrot sticks.

Pizza Hut

It’s important to remember that all mains come with a salad bowl. If you’re happy with salad, this is also an incredible money-saver! When Steve, Christopher, Harry and I go to the Hut, the boys order from the Kids’ menu of course, but boy do we max out the salad bowl that comes with Steve’s main! I like all the men in my life to have a little bit of salad with their pizzas, so generally I stock the bowl and spoon their bits on to their plates before tucking into the rest…and returning for more. If you want a tasty alternative to rabbit food, Pizza Hut offers a “Pizzetta”, which is a lighter pizza, and all pizzetta options contain less than 500 calories.

KFC

“Nobody does chicken like KFC”. True, but nobody does calories like KFC either! KFC now offers the Grilled BBQ Chicken Rancher range, which are their lowest calorie meals. A Grilled BBQ Chicken Burger meal (with fries and a drink) is 645 calories, and the Twister Meal is 685 – the wrap contains more calories than the burger! However, it is possible to swap the fries for a different side, with options that include beans or corn on the cob, if you want to lower the calories further.

I hope this article’s been useful! In my opinion, junk food will never kill kids in moderation, and mum and dad definitely deserve a night off from cooking every now and again!

Thanks for reading,

Ella x