sign in sign up
<<
Home , Taco Bell

Rescue!

According to the National Restaurant Association, American adults out on average of 4 times per week or about 200 meals a year. Those who work are more likely to purchase at least one meal a day, and because of busy schedules, are increasingly relying on “” and “grab ‘n go” items. Typically we know little about what’s in purchased food in terms of fat, cholesterol, salt or carbohydrates. Often times, these foods are not as healthy as what can be prepared at home.

In June, we sent out a “Where do you eat?” survey to help us know more about where employees are purchasing meals and beverages during their workday. 815 of you responded and the 3 most frequented fast food places are , Bell and McDonald’s. We asked our dietitian, Toni Bloom, MS, RD, to give us a restaurant rescue so below you’ll get the skinny on items at these chains along with tips to make your order a healthier one. When survey respondents were asked to share what items they purchased outside of a fast food joint, it was perfectly clear that the 2 favorite meal options were deli and Mexican food. Those cuisines will be reviewed here too. Happy reading, and healthy eating!

Starbucks ...... 2 Coffee Beverages ...... 2 Items...... 2 New Beverage Launch...... 3 New Breakfast Offerings...... 3 Lighten Up...... 4 Go Non-Fat...... 4 Skip the Whip ...... 4 Lighten the Frapp...... 4 Free Your Syrup...... 4 Taco Bell ...... 5 Dining al Fresco ...... 5 Supreme-ly Bad Choice ...... 5 South of the Border Surprises ...... 5 McDonald’s ...... 7 Mc D’s Meal Suggestions...... 7 Toni B’s Meal Suggestions ...... 7 Fries Free...... 8

Starbucks

Coffee Beverages When it comes to sipping your calories, the least caloric you can get at Starbucks is brewed coffee, just 15 calories for a grande Caffe Americano, not a bad deal for your morning (or afternoon) hit of caffeine. Plus, ordering a coffee leaves you room to be able to eat some calories not just drink them. The vente White Chocolate Mocha however, served without whipped cream or any special requests, doesn’t allow for a meal with your drink, it is the meal clocking in at 510 calories (and 15 grams of fat). If you’re wondering where your usual drink falls on this 15 to 610 calorie scale, check out the table below for more details. Note, all stats shown below are based on ordered “as is” without special requests or whipped cream and for a “grande” portion, the most commonly requested size.

Calories Fat (g) Sat Fat Carb (g) (g) Caffe Americano 15 0 0 3 Caffé Misto 100 3 0 13 Cappuccino 120 5 3 12 Light Mocha (or Caramel) Frappuccino 150 1 0 29 Light White Chocolate Mocha Frappuccino 190 2 1 35 Latte 90 7 5 19 Iced Caffe Mocha 190 5 2 35 Frappuccino 230 3 2 45 Caramel Macchiato 240 6 4 34 Tazo Chai Latte 240 4 3 44 Mocha (or Caramel) Frappuccino 250 3 2 52 Vanilla Crème 265 7 5 37 Caffe Mocha 270 8 4 42 Hot Chocolate 310 9 5 50 White Chocolate Mocha 410 12 8 61

Bakery Items The variety of food items available at Starbucks varies by location but almost all have bakery items. The law doesn’t require these pastry items to be packaged with a nutrition panel making it difficult for anyone watching their waistline to make an informed decision. You might think a Cherry Orange Muffin is a great choice because its name includes two fruits but the reality is that one of these muffins is 410 calories. Add that to whatever drink you’re ordering and you might be well over the calories your breakfast should contain. Some of the larger Starbucks stores have to-go sandwiches and salads in addition to their bakery items and because these come with a nutrition label, it makes it easier to pick a healthy choice.

The table below highlights the calorie, total fat, saturated fat and carbohydrate grams found in many of the popular bakery items. If your main health goal is weight loss, focus on the calorie amounts. If instead you’re working on lowering your cholesterol, concentrate on the saturated fat grams because the goal is to eat no more than 20grams per day, this is just one meal of your day! If you’re working to lower your blood glucose numbers then it’s the carbohydrate column that should be your aim. Diabetes guidelines recommend keeping your main meals to no more than 45 to 60 grams of carbohydrates. Look below and you’ll see that it’s hard to accomplish this with many of the Starbuck’s choices, and remember, these numbers don’t include carb grams you might be drinking!

Calories Fat (g) Sat Fat Carb Sodium(mg) (g) (g) Biscotti 110 5 2 15 80 Raspberry/Cream Cheese Croissant 260 12 7 34 270 Cinnamon Twist 320 17 2 37 280 Morning Sunrise Muffin 330 12 5 54 550 Almond Croissant 330 18 7 39 230 Strawberry/Banana Yogurt Parfait 340 4 Chocolate Croissant 350 19 8 43 210 Apple or Raspberry Danish 370 19 2 44 350 Blueberry Muffin 380 19 4 49 380 Cherry Orange Muffin 410 20 4 53 400 Bagel 430 1 0 92 660 Raspberry Scone 440 18 8 65 350 Cheese Danish 460 28 7 43 400 Maple Oat Nut Scone 490 22 9 69 430 Cinnamon Roll 620 29 7 80 740

New Beverage Launch As this article goes to print, Starbuck’s is launching Vivanno Blends, a fruit smoothie of sorts in a variety of flavors such as Banana Chocolate and Orange Mango Banana. The company appears to be competing with on these and is highlighting the protein and fiber content of their Blends. They’d like you to view these as great snacks, something to consider after a workout or in place of a less nutritious vending machine purchase in the afternoon. Below is a quick nutrition highlight for 16 ounces of their Blends.

Calories Fat (g) Protein Fiber (g) (g) Banana Chocolate Blend 270 5 21 6 Orange Mango Banana 250 2 16 5

New Breakfast Offerings As of September 3rd, stores across the US will be offering new breakfast items designed with health and taste in mind.

Perfect Oatmeal is whole grain and served hot in a cardboard to-go bowl. Consumers get to pick two of three mixes for the oatmeal: dried fruit (100 calories), nuts (100 calories) or brown sugar (50 calories). Apple Bran Muffin replaced the current Bran Muffin and is 330 calories. It has 9 grams of fat and 7 grams of fiber. It’s made with whole-wheat flour, oats, wheat bran, apples, cherries and honey. It replaces the current bran muffin. Multigrain roll contains 280 calories and packs in 7 grams of fiber. It's served with almond butter (100 calories) or strawberry preserves (40 calories). Chewy Fruit & Nut Bar is and “energy bar” made with oats, dried fruit, nuts, seeds and honey. It has 250 calories, 10 grams of fat and 4 grams of fiber. Power Protein Plate has a hard-boiled egg, a small whole-wheat bagel, a 70-calorie pack of peanut butter, a cheddar cheese wedge, apple slices and grapes. The whole plate is 330 calories and has 16 grams of protein along with 5 grams of fiber. It will only be sold at stores that have cold cases. Berry Stella is the new fruit pastry made with whole-grains and seasonal fruits. It contains 280 calories including 9 grams of fat and 6 grams of fiber.

Lighten Up If you’ve read this far it must mean you are interested in learning how to make your Starbuck’s purchases work better for your health and weight goals. If so, there are some simple things you can do when you step up to the counter that will help lower your fat, saturated fat and caloric intake.

Go Non-Fat In 2007, Starbuck’s changed the type of milk they use in their beverages switching from whole milk to 2% milk and they also removed all artificial trans fat from their menu items. So unless you request otherwise, your coffee drink contains 2% milk but you can lighten it up by choosing non-fat milk. This special request will save you approximately 40 to 50 calories per drink and a few grams of saturated (bad) fat.

Skip the Whip If you don’t say “hold the whip” you are adding an extra 70 calories to your grande drinks and as if that isn’t bad enough, the whip contains 7 grams of fat, 4.5 of which are saturated. Worried about cholesterol and heart disease? It’s time to skip the whip.

Lighten the Frapp Frappuccino Light Blended coffees have 1/3 fewer calories than the original versions because the ice they are blended with is calorie-free and makes up much of the volume. You get less “frapp” but the same flavor just chilled.

Free Your Syrup Some of the flavor “shots” included in your beverage have a sugar-free option including vanilla, hazelnut, caramel and cinnamon dolce. These sugar-free syrups have 0 calories up to 4 pumps and can reduce the overall calories of your beverage without giving up the flavor you crave. Taco Bell Many of you said that Taco Bell is a common work day restaurant and unlike Starbucks, they make the nutrition information for their menu readily accessible and easy to understand. In addition to specifics about menu items, and a nutrition calculator that helps you add up your intake, you can find a downloadable copy of their Nutrition Guide at http://www.tacobell.com/. There’s no excuse now, if you want to know what you’re eating when you go south of the border, you can!

Dining al Fresco The Fresco menu at Taco Bell makes it easy to select a healthy, low calorie and low fat meal. When an item is “fresco” it means that it’s cheese and/or sauce has been replaced by salsa making it a big improvement in nutrition. This menu contains 9 items with less than 9 grams of fat and no item with more than 2.5 grams of saturated fat. If you’re looking to eat a few items that are less than 200 calories each, go for the Crunchy Taco, Beef, Ranchero Chicken or Grilled Steak Soft Taco. If your lunch calorie needs allow you to pair together two 330-calorie items then choose the Steak or Chicken Supreme, the Fiesta Chicken Burrito or the Bean Burrito. Keeping with Taco Bell’s motto of “thinking outside the bun”, why not eat outside of their usual menu and order two Fresco items. If you had two items, along with a diet drink or bottle of water, you can easily have a lunch meal for sub-500 to 600 calories….not bad! Remember, these are “Fresco” items so request it that way when ordering or you’ll be getting the fuller fat, higher calorie regular menu item.

Supreme-ly Bad Choice When you order a “supreme” item at Taco Bell it typically means that you are asking for extra fat via sour cream. Supreme is a smart marketing gimmick because nobody watching their weight wants to request more fat and calories but that’s exactly what you’re doing if your usual menu item is a Supreme. Look below to see the nutrition effect of ordering your items “supreme”, more calories, more fat, more sodium, and possibly more you!

Calories Fat (g) Saturated Sodium (mg) Fat (g) to Nachos Supreme + 110 + 5 + 4 + 270 Fiesta Burrito to Burrito Supreme + 50 + 4 + 3 + 140 Beef Soft Taco to Supreme Beef Soft Taco + 70 + 6 + 3 0 Crunchy Taco to Crunchy Taco Supreme + 60 + 5 + 3 0

South of the Border Surprises If you take the time to study the nutrition information provided by Taco Bell, there are a few items on the menu that might surprise you. For example, if you’re working on your weight and your inclination is to find salads wherever you go, think again! The Fiesta Taco Salad is 840 calories and the Chicken Fiesta Taco Salad isn’t much better at 790 calories. Sure, it’s the shell that contributes 370 of these outrageous calories but don’t you find it difficult to not eat the shell? The goal when dining out should be to minimize the portions and calories in front of you so that you don’t eat past full and consume more than your brain, and stomach, want.

Another eye-opener on the Bell’s menu is the Stuft Burrito. No matter which flavor you choose (beef, chicken or steak) be prepared to literally be “stuffed” because each one is approximately 650 calories and contains almost half your day’s goal intake of saturated fat. Some of us might be able to get away with this item on our usuals list but many of us order a 2nd item in addition to this one. Stuft for sure.

Another shocker on the menu is the popular Nachos BellGrande. The 770 calories this item contains might sway many to avoid it when ordering but it’s the 44 grams of fat that should really make people think twice. That’s 2/3rds of a woman’s fat gram allotment for the day. Ouch, it doesn’t leave much room to eat anything else if this is your Taco Bell staple. McDonald’s The 3rd most popular place County employees said they eat during the work day was McDonald’s, which is no surprise, because it’s still one of America’s most popular fast food . McDonald’s provides ample information on their website for consumers interested in making the healthiest food choices they can off their menu. In addition to letting you see how each ingredient impacts the overall nutrition make up of each item, they provide a detailed nutrition analysis of their menu which you can access at http://nutrition.mcdonalds.com/bagamcmeal/nutrition_facts.html#download. People with diabetes will be happy to know that Exchanges are provided for menu items too or, a quick scan of the carbohydrate column can help in decision making.

Mc D’s Meal Suggestions For those of you hoping to stick within the recommended guidelines for fat, sodium and calories, McDonald’s has a useful section to their website where they suggest a meal options and then provide you with a tally of the two or three items in the meal. If you want to try some of their healthiest meal combinations, click here and see if any of these “combos” would please your tastebud.http://nutrition.mcdonalds.com/bagamcmeal/nutrition_mealSuggestions. html

Toni B’s Meal Suggestions I’m approaching my meal suggestions including first, an item that I don’t want to go without when I eat at McDonald’s – French fries. I consider them the best of all the fast food chains. If you agree, then let’s allow ourselves a “small” order (yes, that’s the size that comes in the little bag, the size included in a Happy Meal). Since a small fries contains 230 calories, we need to find a or other menu item that is 320 calories or so because that would keep our meal around 550 calories if we don’t include a sugared beverage. A reasonable meal for females, or inactive men, is considered to be between 500 and 600 calories. If you’re an active male you can add another 100-150 or so. You can see from looking below that a low calorie meal at a isn’t always a low fat meal, a few of these items are above the goal of no more than 30-35%, what most dietitians call a low fat food. The items below are ranked in order of their percentage of calories from fat meaning that the first few items are better for your heart health than the last few items. So, what can we add to a small fries order that keeps this 2-item meal sub 550 calories? Read on:

Calories Fat % Fat Saturated Sodium (g) Fat (g) (mg) Caesar Salad with Grilled Chicken ** 220 6 24 3 890 Honey Mustard Snack Wrap (grilled) 260 9 31 4 800 Chipotle BBQ Snack Wrap (grilled) 260 9 31 4 830 Bacon Ranch Salad with Grilled Chicken ** 260 9 31 4 1010 250 9 32 4 520 Ranch Snack Wrap (grilled) 270 10 33 4 830 Snack Size Fruit and Walnut Salad ** 210 8 34 2 60 Cheeseburger 300 12 36 6 750 Small fries 230 11 43 2 160 Chicken Nugget (6 piece) * 280 17 55 3 600 Chicken Nugget (4 piece) * 190 12 57 2 400

* add 50-60 calories if you dip it in one of the sauces ** to keep under 550 calorie meal, dressing must be either Newman’s Low Fat Balsamic or Family Recipe Italian

Fries Free If the choices above aren’t ones you’re willing to make then it must mean you are willing to go fries-free in order to allow a larger sandwich or meal. If so, the following additional sandwiches clock in under 500 calories so long as you drink a diet beverage or unsweetened iced tea and don’t have any other items. By the way, a large fries contains 500 calories so if the thought of having only one of these items for lunch you crave fries, then feel free to order nothing but a large fries but again, that’s lunch!

Calories Fat (g) % Fat Saturated Sodium Fat (g) (mg) Grilled Chicken Classic 420 10 21 2 1190 Grilled Chicken Ranch BLT 470 12 23 3 1500 Southern Style Crispy Chicken 400 17 38 3 1030 McChicken 360 16 40 3 830 Quarter Pounder 410 19 42 7 730 Filet-o-Fish 380 18 43 4 640 Double Cheeseburger 440 23 47 11 1150 Big-n-Tasty 460 24 47 8 720 McRib 500 26 47 10 980 Crispy Chicken Snack Wraps 340 18 48 5 800