The Best (and Worst) Fast-Food French Fries, Guilt Free Finds, Best Bergers, Calorie Counter Links

[Mrs. Sharon B. Hodge]

The Best (and Worst) Fast-Food French Fries


Worrying about calories seems silly after you've consented to a French fry grease-fest, but sometimes you can't help it. During one such conflicted experience, I wondered if some fast-food fries were less hard on the body than others. Looking at the nutritional facts of some common French fry purveyors, I found that you can, indeed, save some serious calories if you know which fries to buy.
I looked at these seven:
-Arby's Curly Fries
-Burger King's French Fries
-Carl's Jr.'s Natural-Cut Fries
-Dairy Queen's French Fries
-Jack in the Box's Natural Cut Fries
-McDonald's French Fries
-Wendy's French Fries

Notes: The numbers below are estimated reports by each restaurant's official website at the time of this article.

Calorie-wise:
The Best
Dairy Queen wins with 2.69 calories/gram
Jack in the Box is close behind with 2.71 calories/gram
The Worst
McDonald's it is, with 3.25 calories/gram
Those stats may sound like just a few calories' difference, but that's a 21% difference, which adds up since a large serving tends to be around 190 grams.

But there are other stats to look at...

Here's the zero trans fat team:
Burger King
Carl's Jr.
Dairy Queen
McDonald's
Wendy's
This one is the trans fattiest:
Jack in the Box

How about saturated fat?
The Best
Dairy Queen (0.018g saturated fat/gram of fries)
The Worst
Arby's (0.037g saturated fat/gram of fries)

Also remember that a good deal in dollars, doesn't translate to your diet, and a "large fries" means something different to everyone:
Large Fries Serving Sizes
McDonald's: 154g
Carl's Jr.: 184g
Wendy's: 184g
Dairy Queen: 186g
Arby's: 190g
Burger King: 194g
Jack in the Box: 236g

Top Ten Guilt-Free Fast Food Finds

Just when you thought you had to ditch the drive-thru, Hungry Girl is here with some truly amazing finds! Here are our top 10 guilt-free fast food finds (in no particular order)...

10. Burger King TENDERGRILL Chicken Garden Salad
(Salad without dressing: 230 calories/ 8g fat/ 11g carbs/ 3g fiber/ 3g sugars/ 720mg sodium/ 32g protein)

This tasty salad combines juicy chicken, tomatoes, crispy carrots, fresh lettuce, and three types of cheeses. All that for under 8 grams of fat. Top with half a packet (they're huge) of the Light Italian dressing (1/2 packet = 60 calories/ 5.5g fat) or Fat Free Ranch dressing (1/2 packet = 30 calories/ 0g fat), and give yourself a little pat on the back for making this smart choice (if you can put the fork down for long enough!).

9. Taco Bell Fresco Style Ranchero Chicken Soft Taco
(170 calories/ 4g fat/ 20g carbs/ 2g fiber/ 2g sugars/ 560g sodium/12g protein)

Just say the magic words, "Fresco Style!", and your Taco Bell order is instantly transformed into a better-for-you food choice! They swap out their usual cheese and sauce combo for a kicky blend of chopped tomatoes, onions, and cilantro (aka Fresco Salsa). That'll save you 10 grams of fat and 100 calories on this terrific taco!

8. McDonald's Apple Dippers with Low Fat Caramel
(100 calories/ 0.5g fat/ 24g carbs/ 0g fiber/15g sugars/40mg sodium/ 0g protein)

Mickey D's gets an "A" for creativity by managing to put a really fun spin on what could be a reeaaallly boring dessert option (c'mon...apple slices?!). Let's face it; their yummy low-fat caramel would taste good with anything dipped in it (fingers included), but this modern day version of a caramel apple gets TWO YUMS UP from HG!

7. Subway Soups - Chicken & Dumpling, Cream of Broccoli, Minestrone, Roasted Chicken Noodle, Spanish Style Chicken with Rice, Tomato Garden Vegetable with Rotini, and Vegetable Beef
(90-140 calories/ 0.5-5g fat/ 12-20g carbs/ 1-4g fiber/ 1-8g sugars/ 910-1,230mg sodium/ 3-7g protein)

While not all of Subway's soups are great choices (avoid the chili, cream of potato, chicken with brown and wild rice, broccoli cheese, and New England clam chowder), we were thrilled to put rich "Cream of Broccoli" and hearty "Vegetable Beef" on the list. And although stores usually only feature two soups per day, with seven great options under 140 calories, you've got a good shot of finding one at your local Subway on any given day. Soup-er!

6. McDonald's Asian Salad with Grilled Chicken
(Salad without dressing: 290 calories/ 10g fat/23g carbs/6g fiber/12g sugars/ 890mg sodium/ 31g protein)

This is definitely our favorite fast food salad of all time. It's got orange-glazed chicken, mandarin oranges, crisp veggies, toasted almonds, and even edamame!?! Awesome! Top it off with half a packet of one of their low-fat dressings (1/2 packet = 20-45 calories/ 1-1.5g fat). There are many dressings to choose from, so read labels carefully!

5. McDonald's Vanilla Reduced Fat Ice Cream Cone
(150 calories/ 3.5g fat/ 24g carbs/ 0g fiber/ 18g sugars/ 60mg sodium/ 4g protein)

That Ronald really knows his way around a soft-serve machine. He's managed to conjure up insanely creamy ice cream that's actually delicious AND low in fat. Pssst...we think this frozen treat is one of the country's best-kept guilt-free secrets. Pass it on.

4. Taco Bell Fresco Style Grilled Steak Soft Taco
(170 calories/ 5g fat/ 21g carbs/ 2g fiber/ 3g sugars/ 560mg sodium/ 11g protein)

Yet another "Fresco" option from our amigos at the Taco Bell. This one's soft and tasty with real hunks of juicy steak. It's a must-chew for beef-lovers.

3. Wendy's Mandarin Chicken Salad
(Salad without dressing, almonds and noodles: 170 calories/ 2g fat/ 18g carbs/ 3g fiber/ 13g sugars/ 480mg sodium/ 23g protein)

By skipping the crispy noodles and almonds, this fast food salad achieves record-breaking low calorie and fat counts! And if you've really gotta have that added crunch, those noodles'll only cost you 60 calories and 2 grams of fat. We also recommend swapping the fatty, calorie-packed Oriental Sesame dressing for their Fat Free French (1 packet = 80 calories). HG Tip: Read dressing packets carefully (have we warned you enough about this yet?).


2. Taco Bell Cinnamon Twists
(160 calories/ 5g fat/ 27g carbs/ 1g fiber/ 10g sugars/ 780mg sodium/ 1g protein)

Dessert at the drive-thru doesn't have to mean sundaes and hand-held pies exploding with fat and calories. Our friends at Taco Bell are offering up a sweet option with these twisty, cinnamonlicious little critters. Flaky and crunchy, these seriously hit the spot. Yet another fast food secret courtesy of your pal HG.

1. Subway 6 Grams of Fat or Less Subs, 6" Turkey Breast with Honey Mustard and Cucumbers
(310 calories/ 4.5g fat/ 54g carbs/ 5g fiber/ 13g sugars/ 1,130mg sodium/ 19g protein)

We love Subway's 6 Grams of Fat or Less Subs. Their Turkey Breast with Honey Mustard and Cucumbers Sub is particularly yummy and sweet. Feel like being extra careful? Skip the honey mustard and you'll save about 30 calories!

America's Best and Worst Burgers
By David Zinczenko, with Matt Goulding

The burger industry in America is looking more and more like an arms race these days. Every few months, we watch in horror as another bacon-enhanced, cheese-embalmed, ranch-riddled weapon of mass inflation hits menu boards at the country’s largest restaurant chains.

The Baconator, the Monster Thickburger, the FlameThrower — they sound like weapons, not something you’d order for dinner.

What makes our hamburger habit particularly scary is the Super Size Phenomenon, which for years has been mutating our burgers into double burgers and our double burgers into 1,250-calorie Triple Whoppers with Cheese.

A 1957 burger contained little more than one ounce of meat, but by 1997 that same meat wad had grown to six ounces. Stack one of the bloated burgers out there next to a beverage like those among these unhealthiest drinks in America and you’re risking two days' worth of calories in a single, misguided meal.

Each year Americans eat about 40 billion burgers, which means that each of us downs nearly 150 of them. Choose better burgers, and you can save 10 or 15 pounds over the course of a year.

To get you started on your own burger war, we’ve compiled a list of the seven greasiest patties ever to be sandwiched between two buns. But because we understand you still need your burger fix, we’ve thrown in five of our favorites that you can eat with relative impunity (along with a delicious burger recipe at the end of this post).

Chili’s Smokehouse Bacon Triple-The-Cheese Big Mouth Burger with Jalapeno Ranch Dressing
2,040 calories
150 g fat (53 g saturated)
110 g protein
4,900 mg sodium

You know this burger's in trouble when it takes more than 20 syllables just to identify it. If you think the name’s a mouthful, just wait until the burger hits the table. You’ll be face to face with two-and-a-half day’s worth of fat — a full third of which is saturated. To do that much damage with roasted sirloin, you’d have to eat about eight 6-ounce steaks. It’s nearly three days’ worth of saturated fat.

T.G.I. Friday’s Cheesy Bacon Cheeseburger
1,590 calories
unknown g fat
unknown mg sodium

Although Friday’s is mum on the fat and sodium, it takes only one number to realize that this burger suffers from bigger-is-better syndrome. T.G.I. Friday's average burger has 1,250 calories, and their appetizers are some of the toughest in the country to swallow, calorie-wise, as we've shown with this America’s worst appetizers list.


Red Robbin A.1. Peppercorn Burger
1,440 calories
97 g fat

There’s hardly a burger on Red Robin’s menu that contains fewer than a thousand calories. What pushes this particular burger to the position of worst — aside from the gratuitous use of cheese and bacon — is the bed of fried onion straws wedged between patty and bun. Now we’re beginning to understand why, while researching the story 16 Secrets the Restaurant Industry Doesn’t Want You to Know, it may have taken Red Robin so long to come clean about the impact of its burgers.

Denny’s Double Cheeseburger
1,540 calories
116 g fat (52 g saturated, 7 g trans)
3,880 mg sodium

Add this to our ever-expanding list of the Trans-Fattiest Foods in America. (This burger has more than three days' worth of the stuff.) In fact, with as much saturated fat as 52 strips of bacon and more sodium than 21 small bags of Lay’s potato chips, this burger also belongs on the salt-packed list of 20 Foods Your Cardiologist Wouldn’t Eat.

Dairy Queen ½ lb. FlameThrower GrillBurger
1,140 calories
82 g fat (27 g saturated, 1.5 g trans)
1,940 mg sodium

Regular consumption of the FlameThrower will torch any hopes you have of losing weight. This potential aortic uh-oh contains 60 percent more calories than the Bacon Cheddar Grillburger and more than twice as many calories as DQ’s own Double Hamburger.

Hardee’s Two-Third Pound Monster Thickburger
1,420 calories
108 g fat (43 g saturated)
2,770 mg sodium

Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr. take a misplaced pride in their shamelessly caloric approach to everything they put under a heat lamp, which is probably reason enough for some to find another place to eat. Need more motivation? Many of their burgers break the perilous 1,000-calorie barrier; their worst bun-buster has nearly 75 percent of your entire day’s calories and as much fat as a dozen Taco Bell soft tacos.

Ruby Tuesday Bella Turkey Burger
1,057 calories
65 g fat

The scariest part about this burger is how completely harmless it sounds: a slice of Swiss melted over sautéed mushrooms and ground turkey. Yet somehow Ruby Tuesday manages to slick it up with as much fat as five Baby Ruth bars. The kid’s version of this — the Turkey Mini — has an astounding 893 calories, earning it the No. 7 spot in our list of the 20 Worst Kid’s Meals in America. (To find out what’s best (and worst) for your kids at the nation’s big restaurant chains, check out this revealing report first.)

THE EAT THIS! BURGER HALL OF FAME

DQ Original Burger
350 calories
14 g fat (7 g saturated)
680 mg sodium

Wendy’s Quarter-Pound Single
430 calories
20 g fat (7 g saturated)
870 mg sodium

Burger King Whopper Jr. w/o mayo
370 calories
21 g fat (6 g saturated)
570 mg sodium

McDonald’s Quarter Pounder
410 calories
19 g fat (7 g saturated)
730 mg sodium

In-N-Out Protein-Style Protein-Style Cheeseburger
330 calories
25 g fat (9 g saturated)
720 mg sodium

And to make your very own gourmet burger at home with great supermarket brands — with just 350 calories and $3.79 a serving — check out this great recipe.

After you’ve conquered the burger field, make sure to nail down the rest of the all-time best restaurant swaps while you’re at it. With knowledge and discipline, you can eat all of your favorite foods — without ever being on a diet — and still lose weight!

http://rds.yahoo.com/_ylt=A0oGkliU9X9JtwUBdixXNyoA;_ylu=X3oDMTEzcmp...**http%3a//www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/flash/health/caloriecounter/calorieco...
Fast Food Calorie Counter

http://rds.yahoo.com/_ylt=A0oGkliU9X9JtwUBfixXNyoA;_ylu=X3oDMTEzZTc...**http%3a//www.calorieking.com/foods/
calorie king