Best Healthy Choices for Fast Food

For you to make the best healthy choices for fast food, you have to make some serious decisions!

You know what it’s like…all your work mates have decided to go to one of the local fast food joints for lunch.  Inside you groan… oh no!  You’ve always made a point of steering clear of them as you’re particularly fussy about what goes into your mouth.  But they see your hesitation and no, they won’t have any part of it.  “Come on!”  As you don’t want to be a party-pooper you agree that maybe just this once won’t hurt too much… and anyway, I’ll make sure I eat extra well tonight!

Do you know the feeling? Well never fear… I’m going to show you how to make the best healthy choices for fast food – out of a bad lot and allow you to take another simple step to a healthier life!  Does that sound good?

Best healthy choices for fast food… the most important foods to avoid

What are the main things to avoid when you are forced to eat out at a fast food outlet?  Let’s have a little chat about it for a moment.

Firstly there’s the trans fat issue.  Let’s have a look at that:

– Trans fat

Most fast food restaurants use hydrogenated oils loaded with trans fats when they’re frying.  Trans fats are created when they take an oil and put it through a process called hydrogenation.  This hardens it and makes the oil more solid… more like margarine.  The benefit of this is that it helps to stop the oil/fat from going rancid, which means it will last longer on the supermarket shelves.  Plus this awful stuff actually makes food taste good!  This is really bad news as it does a lot of damage in our bodies.

For a long time we’ve been told that all fat is bad and we’re to avoid it like the plague… but as the years have gone by, those who study these things found out they were wrong.  Countless professionals of nutrition now agree that not all fat is bad… in fact, certain fats are indeed not only very healthy for us, but are absolutely necessary.  The fat that’s doing us in is this one fat called trans fat.

Saturated vs Trans Fat – the Devil Exposed!

There are some fast food outlets who have agreed not to use it any more, but in most cases when you eat out you will run smack bang into trans fat.  Those lovely crunchy chips we all love so much… riddled with it!  Many baked goods such as cakes and biscuits also use trans fats in the baking.

If we’re seeking and striving for a healthier lifestyle, trans fats cannot be part of it.

– Soda Drinks

Now the second major thing we need to avoid when eating out is soda drinks.  Most of them use HFCS which stands for High Fructose Corn Syrup and honestly, you don’t want to be consuming it.  It damages your immune system and helps to hasten the aging process!  Who wants that?  It does many other things as well including the worsening of diabetes.

You know once upon a time they used sugar, but over a period of time they began to use other substances.  They tried to educate us into believing they were good for us.  When this type of thing happens, it’s usually because they want to use an ingredient that is a much cheaper option for them. 

Healthy Drinks Avoid Aspartame

Never, never go for “diet” drinks as they use aspartame.  If they do contain something other than aspartame, it’s usually artificial and needs to be avoided.

So what are the best healthy choices for fast food?

I was reading online about some fast food restaurants they have in America, and I have to say I didn’t recognise any of the names here in Australia.  Maybe some of them are around, but I’ve not seen them, especially in Tasmania.

My american readers may be interested in the list though, as they seem to offer a lot of much healthier options than the kind I’m used to seeing.

12 Healthiest Fast Casual Restaurants

But for the rest of us…

Let’s try and make it easy … just say “NO” to all fried foods or soda!

OK, I agree… that limits it quite a lot, but with a little bit of thought you will be able to choose using a little bit of wisdom.  I know it’s hard to pass on the fries – personally, I love them… particularly the bigger, fatter ones… so I have to say to myself. “Do I want these fries sitting on my hips and creating health problems for me?”  The answer is always “No!”  That makes it easy for me to pass them up.

But you’ve got to work at it.  It’s like learning to swim upstream when you are used to going with the flow!  Only today my husband bought something from a fast food outlet.  I didn’t know what he had but my curiosity was raised enough to discover what he was eating.  It was a deep fried seafood stick!  I found that incredibly easy to refuse… even a bite.  Nope, I don’t need that.

Later we dropped into a little local restaurant for some lunch… and on ordering our meal we were also offered chips or salad.  Once again, it was easy to take the salad.  Little choices that make all the difference.

I’m not saying eating out is the best healthy choice we can make, but sometimes we all not only need to eat somewhere, but we like to.  I know for me it’s absolutely great once in a while to have someone else serve me up a meal.  It’s just a matter of making wise choices, not only for the moment, but for the here-after!  There are always choices,  and restaurants usually listen to what you say and try to accommodate you.  It’s just a matter of asking.

Choosing wisely, the best healthy choices for fast food

Although I’m trying to help you to choose wisely for your ongoing health, I couldn’t possibly give you a full list of what to eat and what not. But if you remember what I said above – no fried foods and no soda, you won’t go too far wrong.  These are most probably the two most important ones to avoid.  Our little restaurant today automatically gave us a chilled bottle of filtered water.  It was really lovely and totally satisfying when you needed a cool drink.

I hope that as you are reading through the posts on my blog you are becoming more aware of how to take some simple steps to a healthier life.  It’s not a matter of changing your eating patterns overnight.  I know that’s far too hard and most would not be able to continue with it.  really, it’s a matter of making one change at a time and allowing that change to become part of you before you take on something else.

I really do think that it’s the only way to do it.  We must keep forging forwards towards our end goal.  Life with sickness is not fun, but a life in full health is glorious!

  Let me know how you’re going with your little steps.  You can encourage me just as I’m endeavouring to encourage you towards a healthier life. I really hope this helps you to make the best healthy choices for fast food.