Fast-Food Swap: Salads

Taco Bell

Need a Taco Bell fix? The Fiesta Taco Salad isn’t the healthiest menu pick. Go for a Fresco Chicken Soft Taco instead to save 680 calories, 40 grams of fat and 1,020 milligrams of sodium. Or choose anything from the Fresco menu: Each item has nine grams of fat or less. Olé!

Instead of: Fiesta Taco Salad

850 calories
45 grams fat (11 grams saturated fat)
1,690 milligrams sodium

Order this: Fresco Chicken Soft Taco

170 calories
5 grams fat (1.5 grams saturated fat)
670 milligrams sodium

Burger King

Salads aren’t always the healthiest choice. Such is the case with Burger King’s Chicken BLT Salad. Go for a Veggie Burger with a side salad instead and you’ll save 190 calories, 31 grams of fat (10 grams satur­ated) and 130 milligrams of sodium. (But beware: That sodium is still high.)

Instead of: TenderGrill Chicken BLT Salad (grilled chicken, iceberg and romaine lettuce, tomatoes, cheese, bacon bits, with Caesar dressing)

500 calories
39 grams of fat (13 g saturated fat)
1470 mg sodium

Order this: BK Veggie Burger (soy patty with lettuce, tomatoes, ketchup, mustard) and a side garden salad (with low-calorie Italian dressing)

310 calories
8 g fat (3 g saturated fat)
1,340 mg sodium

Wendy’s

At Wendy’s, make this salad switch and save 220 calories, 21.5 grams of fat (8.5 grams saturated fat) and 595 milligrams of sodium. Careful, though; the better salad still has 1350 mg sodium (Health Canada says the adequate daily intake for sodium is 1500 mg). To cut back even more on calories, fat and sodium, order the half-size salad, and skip the pecans and dressing.

Instead of: Baja Salad (greens, cheddar and pepperjack cheeses, chili, guacamole, pico de gallo, tortilla strips and red jalapeno dressing)

740 calories
47.5 g fat (17.5 g saturated fat)
1,945 mg sodium

Order this: Apple Pecan Chicken Salad (greens, apples, pecans, blue cheese, dried cranberries,  grilled chicken breast, pomegranate vinaigrette dressing)

520 calories
26 g fat (9.5 g saturated fat)
1,350 mg sodium

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