Top 5 Restaurant Foods Wearing a Healthy Disguise

We all know eating out is  probably not the best choice when we are trying to follow a healthy diet, but sometimes you just don’t have the time/don’t want to cook. These days many restaurants do offer healthy choices. The trick is finding what is actually healthy and what is just disguised as healthy. The following are some choices which I do not recommend and a healthy alternative.

A poor choice from Subway

1. Tuna Sub from Subway. Usually I give Subway 2 thumbs up for nutritional value. Just hold the mayo, add lots of veggies and you are good to go. But not with the tuna sub, the tuna has so much mayo in it this sub clocks in at 480 calories for a 6 inch. Compare that to a 6 inch turkey breast which has 280 calories. If you are trying to slim down do not order the tuna from Subway. While 480 calories is certainly not a calorie bomb keep in mind that does not include cheese or any condiments. Veggie, turkey, or ham are much better choices at Subway.
2. Creamy Tomato Soup from Panera Bread. Tomato soup, normally a really good choice. Nope, not this one. I think they make it with heavy cream. This soup has more calories than the broccoli cheddar or the potato soup. Loco. The best soup choice would be garden veggie or chicken noodle, with less than 160 calories compared to 450 in the tomato for a cup and a half of soup (1 bowl).
3. Roasted Mushroom Alfredo from Olive Garden. Alfredo is probably not fooling anyone, but the mushrooms seem nutritious, right? Wrong. Instead of eating a bowl of saturated fat and refined carbs try the Lasagna Primavera with grilled chicken. This is actually really good! My Dad ordered it the other night and he loved it. I tried it and I will say it did not scream “diet food” at all. It was flavorful and a decent portion size. Bravo Olive Garden!
4. Hot Pastrami from Urbane Café. I’m going to start by saying Urbane is my favorite “fast” food restaurant ever. I literally had to scour the menu to find something unhealthy because all of their sandwiches and salads are pretty sound nutritionally. But of course, pastrami is a very high fat meat and I just can’t give it my approval. I do recommend the Grilled Portobello Mushroom Sandwich with the delicious side salad for 590 calories. They also have a wonderful assortment of soups and salads; just steer clear of the ranch dressing!
5. Pumpkin Spiced….Scone! from Starbucks. If you want to know what I think about the pumpkin spice latte from
   

   I love these little vanilla bean scones

   Starbucks click here. We can call it a PSS (Get it?). While this scone is delicious, it is definitely a calorie bomb at 480 calories. That should basically be your whole lunch, not just a little pastry on the side. I would recommend a petite vanilla scone instead. Perfectly delicious and a much better portion. No need to order 3, just ask for one scone.

I hope this little guide helps you make some healthy choices this weekend. What are your restaurant recommendations for healthy eats?