AMERICA'S BEST AND WORST RESTAURANTS
Sandwich Shop
Best: Subway
Here's some good news: The leanest sandwiches in America come from the chain that's easiest to find. More than 23,700 Subway shops are spread out across the nation, which means your ride to work is about 59 percent more likely to swing you past a Subway than a McDonald's. Walk into any Subway and you'll find at least ten 6-inch subs that come in under 400 calories—and that includes the cheese toll. Plus, you can embellish your sub with as much produce as you like. You won't find heirloom tomatoes or fresh-picked arugula, but by fast-food standards, the Subway counter is a veritable farmers' market.
Top Pick
Roast Beef and Swiss on 9-Grain Wheat (6-inch)
360 calories
9 g fat
890 mg sodium
No other sandwich on the menu—not even the oven-roasted chicken—manages to pack 30 grams of protein into so few calories. Just don't ruin it with mayonnaise; Subway's soybean-oil spread will cost you 110 calories per tablespoon. Instead, opt for mustard or marinara sauce to give your sandwich a kick.
Worst: Quiznos
In this case, Q stands for queasy. That's how the Quiznos menu—bloated with mayonnaise-spiked salads, oily dressings, briny bacon, and other waistline-threatening accoutrements—makes us feel. Sixty-five percent of the regular-size sandwiches carry more than 500 calories along with unhealthy overages of sodium. And the chain's tuna melt is quite likely the worst in the country: A large contains 1,260 calories. Even the regular-size version packs 870 calories, as many as you'd take in from two McDonald's Quarter Pounders with cheese. These submarines will sink your diet.
Survival Strategy
Stick to the chain's Roadhouse Steak Sammies, a line of modestly sized flatbread sandwiches. Two Sammies make for a decent lunch of about 500 calories. If that's not enough to fill you up, order a bowl of chili or chicken noodle soup on the side.
Here's some good news: The leanest sandwiches in America come from the chain that's easiest to find. More than 23,700 Subway shops are spread out across the nation, which means your ride to work is about 59 percent more likely to swing you past a Subway than a McDonald's. Walk into any Subway and you'll find at least ten 6-inch subs that come in under 400 calories—and that includes the cheese toll. Plus, you can embellish your sub with as much produce as you like. You won't find heirloom tomatoes or fresh-picked arugula, but by fast-food standards, the Subway counter is a veritable farmers' market.
Top Pick
Roast Beef and Swiss on 9-Grain Wheat (6-inch)
360 calories
9 g fat
890 mg sodium
No other sandwich on the menu—not even the oven-roasted chicken—manages to pack 30 grams of protein into so few calories. Just don't ruin it with mayonnaise; Subway's soybean-oil spread will cost you 110 calories per tablespoon. Instead, opt for mustard or marinara sauce to give your sandwich a kick.
Worst: Quiznos
In this case, Q stands for queasy. That's how the Quiznos menu—bloated with mayonnaise-spiked salads, oily dressings, briny bacon, and other waistline-threatening accoutrements—makes us feel. Sixty-five percent of the regular-size sandwiches carry more than 500 calories along with unhealthy overages of sodium. And the chain's tuna melt is quite likely the worst in the country: A large contains 1,260 calories. Even the regular-size version packs 870 calories, as many as you'd take in from two McDonald's Quarter Pounders with cheese. These submarines will sink your diet.
Survival Strategy
Stick to the chain's Roadhouse Steak Sammies, a line of modestly sized flatbread sandwiches. Two Sammies make for a decent lunch of about 500 calories. If that's not enough to fill you up, order a bowl of chili or chicken noodle soup on the side.
Chicken Chain
Best: Chick-fil-A
Chick-fil-A manages to pull off one feat that no other fast-food chain can match: Not a single entree on the menu—not the Spicy Chicken Deluxe nor the Sausage Breakfast Burrito—packs more than 600 calories. In fact, only three entrees breach 500, an accomplishment bolstered by the fact that Chickfil- A's grilled chicken sandwiches taste just as good, if not better, than the fried versions. The cast of sides also scores points, since many of them, like the fruit cup and the carrot-and-raisin salad, don't visit the deep fryer on their way to your plate. Even the chicken salad and the coleslaw, while heavy on mayonnaise, make decent upgrades from fries.
Top Pick
Chargrilled Chicken Sandwich with a Large Fruit Cup
400 calories
3.5 g fat
1,120 mg sodium
Protein accounts for more than a third of the calories in this sandwich, and when you eat it with a side of fruit, you've satisfied 16 percent of your day's fiber needs—and filled your stomach. Bottom line: You won't find a better meal at any fastfood joint in the country.
Worst: Church's Chicken
Shockingly, Church's is one of the few remaining fast-food purveyors still pumping partially hydrogenated oil into its fryers, a fact that's even more unsettling when you consider the chain's specialty—fried chicken. In case you forgot, partially hydrogenated oil is the primary source of trans fat in the American diet, so anything submerged in the stuff becomes an instant hazard to your health. If you eat just one spicy fried chicken thigh, you've taken in more than double your trans fat limit for the day. It gets worse if you build a full meal around the chain's chicken. A half dozen boneless BBQ wings with a large side of fries will deliver a full 15 grams of trans fat—about 7 1/2 times the recommended level. But wait—there's more bad news. Those six wings and fries also serve up 1,155 calories, 50 grams of fat, and a whopping 3,000 milligrams of sodium.
Survival Strategy
Choose wisely and you may just make it out alive. Go for the Spicy Chicken Sandwich, which carries a reasonable 456 calories. Coincidentally, it's also among the few items on the menu that's not polluted with artery-clogging trans fat. Make it your go-to entree, and for a side dish, choose a regular-size portion from the following nonfried options at Church's: mashed potatoes and gravy, corn on the cob, Cajun rice, or coleslaw. That will keep your meal hovering right around 600 calories if you skip the soda.
Chick-fil-A manages to pull off one feat that no other fast-food chain can match: Not a single entree on the menu—not the Spicy Chicken Deluxe nor the Sausage Breakfast Burrito—packs more than 600 calories. In fact, only three entrees breach 500, an accomplishment bolstered by the fact that Chickfil- A's grilled chicken sandwiches taste just as good, if not better, than the fried versions. The cast of sides also scores points, since many of them, like the fruit cup and the carrot-and-raisin salad, don't visit the deep fryer on their way to your plate. Even the chicken salad and the coleslaw, while heavy on mayonnaise, make decent upgrades from fries.
Top Pick
Chargrilled Chicken Sandwich with a Large Fruit Cup
400 calories
3.5 g fat
1,120 mg sodium
Protein accounts for more than a third of the calories in this sandwich, and when you eat it with a side of fruit, you've satisfied 16 percent of your day's fiber needs—and filled your stomach. Bottom line: You won't find a better meal at any fastfood joint in the country.
Worst: Church's Chicken
Shockingly, Church's is one of the few remaining fast-food purveyors still pumping partially hydrogenated oil into its fryers, a fact that's even more unsettling when you consider the chain's specialty—fried chicken. In case you forgot, partially hydrogenated oil is the primary source of trans fat in the American diet, so anything submerged in the stuff becomes an instant hazard to your health. If you eat just one spicy fried chicken thigh, you've taken in more than double your trans fat limit for the day. It gets worse if you build a full meal around the chain's chicken. A half dozen boneless BBQ wings with a large side of fries will deliver a full 15 grams of trans fat—about 7 1/2 times the recommended level. But wait—there's more bad news. Those six wings and fries also serve up 1,155 calories, 50 grams of fat, and a whopping 3,000 milligrams of sodium.
Survival Strategy
Choose wisely and you may just make it out alive. Go for the Spicy Chicken Sandwich, which carries a reasonable 456 calories. Coincidentally, it's also among the few items on the menu that's not polluted with artery-clogging trans fat. Make it your go-to entree, and for a side dish, choose a regular-size portion from the following nonfried options at Church's: mashed potatoes and gravy, corn on the cob, Cajun rice, or coleslaw. That will keep your meal hovering right around 600 calories if you skip the soda.
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