Because life happens, and the drive-through can definitely be better than nothing.
Starbucks / Panera Bread / McDonalds
Sometimes you're in a damn rush, and you don't have any food in the house, and you have a million things to do, and you basically have only two choices: Starve until lunch, or hit up a fast-food restaurant. And if you're hungry, you should eat.
Here's the thing to remember: Eating fast-food on occasion isn't going to destroy your health or ruin everything. Especially if you aim to eat the healthiest things on the menu.
But what does it mean to eat a "healthy" fast-food breakfast, anyway?
Here are some rough guidelines for the following suggested meals. Not all of them fit perfectly into these requirements, but most of them do.
• Reasonable portion sizes: Almost every one of these breakfasts has less than 400 calories.
• Low sugar and sodium: Too much of either one is tied to serious health issues. These limits were hard to follow, but most of these meals have less than 20 grams of sugar and under 1,000 milligrams of sodium.
• Reasonable amount of protein: Eating protein can help you feel fuller for longer, so you won't be as likely to get peckish well before lunch. Most of these meals have at least 10 grams of protein (although a few of them aren't quite there).
• Ideally some amount of fiber: Fiber can also help you feel full for longer. When it came down to choosing between two different meals, I went with the ones that had more fiber content.
• No trans fat: Trans fat is tied to heart disease. So none of that.
Wait, a quick note about drinks:
All nutrition info here refers to just the food listed. In order to stay within these guidelines, you should probably stick to drinking water or black coffee with your meal, instead of a smoothie or sugary coffee drink or soda.
And one more obvious disclaimer:
These meals aren't for everyone — some people may want to eat more than 400 calories for breakfast, for instance, and other people may feel seriously uncomfortable with the idea of eating processed food at all. The choices you make about the food you eat are totally personal, and there's no judgment attached to it. Just trying to show you that it's totally possible to keep your calories and sodium and sugar and so on in check at fast-food restaurants, if that's what you care about.
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