To prepare a piece on the healthiest fast food restaurant chains is almost as demanding as writing an article on the most charismatic economists. It probably is possible, but feels like an oxymoron. Fast food is, in general, not terribly healthy, with all the sugars and fats and salt and artificial ingredients we associate with the products. But does it have to be this way? Is it possible to combine the fast food values of rapid service, low costs and plastic chairs with nutritious wholesome food that won't make you feel as though you've betrayed your colon within ten minutes of eating it? Can we have our deep-fried saturated fat cake and eat it?
While it is possible to cook healthy food for yourself at home very cheaply, the sad fact is that unless the price of sheeps' eyelids and cows' willies rockets dramatically due to the global economic crisis, it is cheaper for restaurant chains to serve us up the unhealthy rubbish. And it is we, the consumers, who insist on those low prices. We are complicit in our own poisoning, and just so we have enough change from our meal to buy a newspaper on the way home. In other words, the answer is no, we can't have our cake and eat it.
Having ranted, it can be said that some chains are healthier than others, but there are certain caveats with most of these.
1) McDonalds. There never used to be anything healthy in McDonalds, you knew exactly what you were going to get. A choice from one of the six 'value' meals with fries, a drink and a McFlurry for dessert. Then Morgan Spurlock made his documentary Supersize Me, which centred around the 'surprising' revelation that eating three large McDonalds meals a day for a month would make you put on a lot of weight and feel a bit unwell.
Now, you can get pure orange juice, and fresh (well, quite fresh) baguette sandwiches. They serve mineral water. Some of the salad looks as though it might have once actually been growing in the ground. However, it's all just window dressing, and the chain has made little effort to adjust the staggering salt/fat content of its basic menu. Nutritional information on the calorie and fat content of their meals is now displayed in many McDonalds restaurants, but you rarely if ever see anyone even glance at these statistics, sadly. The fact remains though, that it is now possible to get a perfectly healthy meal at McDonalds, very cheaply.
2) Subway. An international fast food chain that consists of freshly-made sandwiches filled with quality ingredients! Who saw this coming? A firm favourite in city centres across the world, wherever there are a lot of office workers who eat lunch at their desks a lot, you will see a Subway. You even get to choose what sort of bread you want in the larger branches!
It has to be said though, that even though you can't really fault the basic business model of freshly-prepared sarnies on artisan bread, the salt content of Subway sandwiches is frightening. Eat, enjoy, but do not kid yourself even for an instant that you're extending your lifespan by eating there rather than McDonalds. Healthy ingredients, sure, but worrying levels of hidden extras.
3) Nandos. A Portugese chain specialising in grilled chicken and mostly employing South African staff, Nandos is slowly conquering the UK with its very distinct atmosphere. It's probably at the very slowest edge of fast food (ie, you actually get cutlery), but the Nandos grilling process means your chicken contains a lot less fat than, for example, the Colonel's crunchy offerings. Also, the side dishes contain a lot of emphasis on salads and corn on the cob and that kind of thing. The corn is... not the best I've had, but it's usually very nice indeed for all that and the chicken is incredible, particularly with the array of piri-piri sauces ranging from 'lemon and herb' to 'extra hot'.
It tastes too nice to be conspicuously good for you and, again, in the grand scheme of things it's no match for a salad. Portions are also insanely huge, verging on belt-busting. It could be argued that portion control is an even more crucial tool in the fight against obesity than fat content, but you will see precious little evidence of it in a branch of Nandos. They even have loyalty cards which can entitle you to a free half chicken if you manage to eat a frightening amount of food in their restaurants...
4) Einstein Brothers Bagels. Bagels are a fairly high carb snack at the best of times, but the cream cheese that most of us like to spread on the top is, well, the icing on the cake. Einstein's hummus / peanut butter alternatives go some way to reducing the fat and calorie content of this bready treat. My only problem with this approach is that, well, to be honest I LIKE cream cheese on my bagel, not to mention a few slices of smoked salmon...
5) Yo!Sushi. Everyone knows sushi must be good for you. After all, the Japanese eat it and they have the longest life expectancy on the planet, so it must be good, right? This author would not presume on the general health benefits of sushi, but would like to suggest that there is a big difference between seafood that has been freshly caught and prepared by a highly qualified and experienced sushi chef, and the sort of thing you get in Yo!Sushi which has been slapped together by the kind of people who are maybe half a step up from working in McDonalds and have almost certainly never been to Japan... also, pay attention to how much soy sauce you slosh over your sushi treats, it could contain as much as half of your daily recommended salt intake!
On the other hand, Yo!Sushi and other Japanese fast food restaurant chains certainly have the edge in terms of speed - just take the dishes you want from the conveyor belt. And they do have a nice variety of green dishes, from the Edamame beans to salads and miso soups.
Hopefully you have found a few useful suggestions for healthier fast food chains - however, it must be said that if you really want to eat healthily, just make your own salad and eat it at home... fast food is unlikely ever to be truly healthy, and the above options should be viewed as damage limitation rather than nutritional advice.