If you’re not super-sizing your fries and you want to feast on a fast food salad, proceed with caution. Researchers at Consumer Reports found that a McDonald’s Grilled Chicken Caesar Salad with dressing has 440 calories and 26 grams of fat, while Wendy’s Mandarin Chicken Salad with dressing has 630 calories and 35 grams of fat.

“You want to look at the amount of vegetables you have in the fast food salad, versus whatever else is on top of it. If you have a lot of cheese and a lot of breaded chicken, this is going to be a higher calorie fast food salad,” explains nutritionist, Cathy Nonas.
Consumer Reports experts compared the nutritional profiles of sandwiches and fast food salads from 16 chains and sent 2 sensory experts to the restaurants to taste items at different locations. Nutritionist Cathy Nonas encourages consumers to pay attention to fast food salad dressings.
“Fast food salad dressing is really the major culprit, because oil is fat,” says Nonas.
Many fast food salad dressings contain saturated fats, mayonnaise and sugar.
“Even if it’s low calorie, they usually give you more dressing than you need. Put it on very carefully, using, say, a quarter of a packet. If you can share your packet with somebody, bring home the other packets and use them on another salad later,” explains Nonas.
Nonas also says don’t dismiss the additional dose of calories you get when bacon bits and croutons are added to the mix. “The more colorful a fast food salad, specifically, the more a green salad is, the more nutrient rich it is. Make sure the fast food salad that you’re eating does have vegetables in it and that the protein is lean, meaning not fried, and it’s not breaded.”
But if your heart and stomach are longing for the quintessential fast food burger or chicken, Nonas says you can indulge wisely. She suggests choosing from the dollar menu, since portions are smaller, which means less calories.
“It’s getting easier to get healthy foods in restaurants, whether it’s skim milk, or whether it’s apple slices. They’re beginning to realize that they have a responsibility towards the country,” says Nonas.

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