With the time pressures facing so many people these days, they are frequently eating on the go. Dining at home is usually better for you than dining out. But eating fast food doesn’t mean you have to make unhealthy choices. Here are some rules of thumb you should follow as you’re perusing the fast food menu.

Most fast food restaurants are conscious of the reputation their food has for clogging arteries. In response, they now offer a number of menu selections that are a lot healthier. For instance, many fast food chains now have salads on the menu. All the same, look out for the saturated fat in the dressing. Salads that are garnished with deep fried chicken aren’t as heart healthy as the ones containing grilled chicken.

Choose grilled chicken instead of deep fried for your sandwich. And you can’t go wrong by requesting extra vegetables on your sandwich. Go for dressings like mustard or ketchup instead of mayonnaise, which is high in saturated fat.

When deciding on the side servings, select fruit or salad instead of fries. This will fill your lunch with vitamins and fiber rather than saturated fat. Rather than asking for a soda to wash down your food, choose juice or milk. This can aid in maintaining normal blood sugar and give you additional vitamins and minerals.

When you’re genuinely hungry for a hamburger and French fries, it’s alright to eat them now and then. But you do need to keep an eye on portion size. Sometimes portion sizes at fast food franchises are so large they could easily feed two people. Choosing a kid’s meal or a small burger with french fries will help to hold down the amount of saturated fat you consume.

If you’re feeding fast food to your kids, remember that there are usually some healthy choices you can make such as mandarin oranges or apple slices. You can also choose milk or juice rather than soda.

In a Mexican fast food place, you can eat surprisingly healthfully by choosing a simple taco or burrito. Make a point to add on as many veggies as you can to increase the fiber. Although a taco salad might seem healthy, it’s often laden with saturated fat and calories.

If you’re having fast food for most of your meals, you’re putting your heart health at risk if you don’t choose wisely. Eating at home is the best choice. However, if that’s not feasible, why not try the “better for you” choices that are out there.

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Tags: healthy food, heart disease, heart health, Nutrition

This entry was posted on Friday, October 31st, 2008 at 6:37 am and is filed under Nutrition. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.