Healthy Food Alternatives

[lundyt]

As I sit here nomnomnoming on some Nandos chicken it got me thinking. Is Nandos really that healthy. It is compared to McDonalds but what about some of the other alternatives out there.

What are some healthy alternatives if your eating out and quick.

Pho?
Subway?
Quiznos?

where do they rank?

I'm trying to eat healthier but some times the smell of churches chicken is sooooooo

[Santofu]

Honestly, you're better off making food at home if you want to eat healthy
However every meal you eat out contains a little or a lot of fat. It's not a bad thing really.

[chin3se604]

Originally Posted by lundyt

I'm trying to eat healthier but so times the smell of churches chicken is sooooooo

peel off the skin and just eat the chicken

[unit]

honestly it depends on your definition of healthy...
-weight loss
-chemical content
-specific diet
etc...

[lundyt]

^lets go with weight loss and non artery clogging food.

[RacePace]

Nando's with a side of coleslaw is probably the best you can do.

Others will chime in on the other ones, blah blah Subway blah blah carbs

[unit]

eat fewer carbs.... weight lost.
easy peasy. hard part is doing it.

[sonick]

Originally Posted by lundyt

Pho?
Subway?
Quiznos?

None of these could be considered really "healthy."

Pho, although less processed, has a poor macronutrient mix with a lot of carbs in the rice noodle and not much protein.

Most of Subway's ingredients are processed and full of sodium and preservatives. Their chicken breasts are suspiciously consistent in shape and grill marks. I would avoid.

Quiznos is better than Subway in terms of ingredients, but they use a lot of sauces and the calorie count on them is likely pretty high compared to subway.

+1, Nandos is probably the healthiest, albiet not the cheapest. Quarter chicken breast with peri veg is solid.

In terms of weight loss, the most basic formula is burn more calories than you eat. There are other schools of thought besides this such as low-carb or calorie-timing, but the easiest rule of thumb for beginners is to burn more calories than you eat.

It is possible to eat ONLY church's chicken and still lose weight, so long as you don't eat a LOT of it. What trips many people up is that fat is more calorie dense than carbs or protein by more than double (9 cal per gram vs. 4 cal per gram), fatty foods make it easier to take in too many calories. Fat doesn't make you fat, eating too much makes you fat.

Artery-clogging is due to cholesterol deposits. Dietary cholesterol and fat do not clog arteries. Sugars and processed carbohydrates do. Avoid them where possible. This includes sugar, bread, white rice, etc. Soft drinks and candy are the WORST. If you have those on a regular basis, simply cutting them out of your daily diet will do wonders.

Lastly, eat more vegetables wherever possible. Iceberg or romaine lettuce in salads don't count, so if given the choice between sauteed veggies or a side salad for a meal, go with the veg.

[Splmash]

Not all carbs are bad. And Nando's is not healthy.

[RayBot]

Everything so far in question is 'fast food.' Nothing fast food is meant to be a lifestyle food. Its meant to eat if youhave only 15+/- minutes to spare. Nothing more or less than that.

Having said that, compared to the rest of the fast food....Subway is an EXCELLENT fast food choice. Sure, none of their trimmings are organic and cold cut meat is crap quality, but same is the stuff you'll find in deli and produce section at safeway. The meatballs have a similar texture to spam, and I am sure that the chicken has a lot more filler than they claim to have. But theres 30 items on the menu...so, go pick and choose. I usually have a wrap whenever I go and I am content.

No matter what fast food chain you go to...you'll find 'better' alternatives (except for Jack in the Box, that stuff is bat shit nasty!) But bottom line is....its fast food. But a body needs to eat!!! If you can't get to your kitchen within an hour, and you're hungry now....McDonald's is better than starving your body.

[gdoh]

i always try to go with subway whole wheat bread very small amount of sauce and chocolate milk but if you cant, then just eat less of the shit tier food as long as your not eating bad every single day then it should be fine if you live a active lifestyle....or have a shake for now and eat when you get home

thats what i would do if i was really concerned but mostly i just go with a half assed diet and when i need to cutting is easy and quick

[sonick]

+1 on half-assing it. Strict dieting (absolutely no white bread, no pasta, chicken breast only, etc.) is very, very hard, which makes it very easy to fall out of it and will drive you crazy.

My philosophy is eat what you like, but make it a habit to make the better choice when given the choice (i.e. go to mcdonalds but don't get pop and fries, if have the choice of veggies and potato get the veg, get the roast chicken vs. the chicken alfredo) and eat in moderate portions.

Yes strict dieting will get you in good shape way faster and if you have the discipline to do so, all the power to you. But if you don't, half-assing continually is better than whole-assing it for a week then failing, then binging for two.

[RayBot]

Originally Posted by lundyt

As I sit here nomnomnoming on some Nandos chicken it got me thinking. Is Nandos really that healthy. It is compared to McDonalds but what about some of the other alternatives out there.

What are some healthy alternatives if your eating out and quick.

Pho?
Subway?
Quiznos?

where do they rank?

I'm trying to eat healthier but some times the smell of churches chicken is sooooooo

I assume that you go to the Garden City and Blundell location a lot.....whenever I go for a quick bite at the Subway there, the Church's chicken just steals her away.

[SkinnyPupp]

Subway is 10x worse than McDonald's btw. Quiznos too

[gdoh]

Originally Posted by SkinnyPupp

Subway is 10x worse than McDonald's btw. Quiznos too

how could that be??

[sonick]

Originally Posted by gdoh

how could that be??

Nice job tee-ing it up. Eagerly awaiting Skinnypupp subway/quiznos rant

Not sarcastic, I do enjoy when he puts people in their place about McDonalds vs. Subway.

[SkinnyPupp]

We discussed this before somewhere, do a search. Basically they lower the good stuff (the pure meat) and increase the bad stuff (the bread) and convince you to leave out the only real food they offer (cheese and mayo) and on top of all that, market it as healthy.

[tubbyboi]

im on a low carb diet right now and honestly after the first 2weeks of doing it, the withdrawal isn't bad bad anymore. I haven't had any rice, pasta, bread (any sort of strachy carb) for about 2 months but the results have been good (about 2.5p every week).

Kept myself motivated by telling myself that yeah sure i can binge here and there with the carbs but if i didn't then i would get to my goal a lot quicker. I say try it for yourself even if its just for 2 weeks and weigh yourself after 2 weeks, once the results start rolling in it'll keep u going.

[unit]

what i find gross about subway is how half the time their lettuce looks brown and rotten, and its already chalk full of preservatives. must be some OLD ass lettuce.

[Death2Theft]

Not sure why fried chicken gets such a bad rep. Looking at the nutritional numbers on the website vs mcdonalds u could eat 2-3 peices of churches to equal a mcdonalds burger.

[RayBot]

Originally Posted by SkinnyPupp

Basically they lower the good stuff (the pure meat)

Is there a fast food joint that sells pure meat thats not deep fried? Honestly, I can't name a single chain that does.

Originally Posted by SkinnyPupp

and increase the bad stuff (the bread)

I don't recall bread being evil. Bread is bread.
If you are referring to carb intake, yeah...carb intake should be limited but if the bread in a 6 inch is all the carb intake you take in for the day, thats definitely not bad at all. Depending on lifestlyle like regular runners, people is gonna need carbs to function. Of course, picking your carbs is essential....i'll have toast for breakfast but I actually never touch white rice and potatoes anymore.
If you are talking about the quality of the bread...as I recall McDonalds has most of their menu served on buns. Last time I checked (which is still 10+ years ago), McDonalds makes their buns with potato starch. I can't imagine that being better than subway, or subway being worse than McDonalds.

I prefer wraps....but those have TONNES of preservatives, but thats my preference above eating a 6inch. [/QUOTE]

Regardless, both joints are fast food....nothing less to expect. And its not like sit down joints make'em any better. But realistically, if you're looking at every aspect in your bread, vegetables and meat make and it makes that much of a difference...you're gonna be spending a lot in organic product. And going there, thats nowhere near the topic of fast food. Pick and choose your poison.


However, all this can be put to a (fun but not fully conclusive) test. Buy the healthiest value meal you can find and eat it. Do a spin class an hour later. Whatever makes you feel like shit the fastest....is the unhealthiest. Again, as i said, not fully conclusive, but still worth a shot.

[BrRsn]

You guys need to find a cheap greek restaurant to visit on a regular basis. Thee's a place on hastings I go to regularly and it's pretty damn healthy. I usually just get kebabs and veggies.

If you want the easiest way to cut calories though, don't drink anything but water. If you think about it, anything that you drink with food is just there to help you eat the food and make you less thirsty, if it contains any calories they're extra. So drink water, and avoid diet soft drinks, the aspartame isn't good for you either.

If you can eat BBQ chicken breast 3-4 times a day, and have access to a barbecue, I got a wicked easy recipe I use. I make 6 chicken breasts (a box) every night before I go to the gym, and eat them all the next day. 90 calories a breast, takes 20 seconds to heat up in microwave after they're cooked, and about 25 minutes to cook the night before. Heat up and serve with any veggies.

There's tons of ways to lose weight, once you figure that out its easy. The hard part is sticking to your diet when all your friends are eating double cheeseburgers with fries and coke, and you're nibbling away at a lukewarm chicken breast with a few veggies.

[DaFonz]

Originally Posted by dhillon09

If you can eat BBQ chicken breast 3-4 times a day, and have access to a barbecue, I got a wicked easy recipe I use. I make 6 chicken breasts (a box) every night before I go to the gym, and eat them all the next day. 90 calories a breast, takes 20 seconds to heat up in microwave after they're cooked, and about 25 minutes to cook the night before. Heat up and serve with any veggies.

How did you calculate 90 calories a breast? Chicken breast is about 1cal/g, so for just the meat alone it'd be at least 130 calories (average half breast being 130g).

Can you post your recipe?

[SkinnyPupp]

Originally Posted by RayBot

Is there a fast food joint that sells pure meat thats not deep fried? Honestly, I can't name a single chain that does.

All McDonalds burgers use nothing but pure beef. And they aren't deep fried (not sure why you said that)

Originally Posted by RayBot

I don't recall bread being evil.

That doesn't make it not true

Anyway, going to ANY chain restaurant, be it fast food, slow food, or marketed as healthy, you are going to get crap. The only way to really eat healthy is to do it yourself. If you can't or don't want to do that, you have to do the best you can.

[mkings]

Just avoid the junior chickens and the nuggets, its all preservatives and chemicals and a mixture of flour, 10% chicken and bones......

edit : at dhillon09, damn all this food gets pricy man. LOL