Eating Diabetic Friendly At The 10 Most Popular Fast Food Chains Nationwide

A large part of behavior change is being realistic when setting goals. For example, if you’ve only ever run 3 miles in a row, you wouldn’t set off for a marathon (26.2 miles) tomorrow. While this example is extreme, it can be challenging to keep our goals realistic because we have high aspirations for ourselves. And we should! It’s important, however, to remember that big changes take time. We’ll get to that 26.2 mile marker eventually, but there are small steps along the way to tackle first- 5 miles, 10 miles, 15 miles, etc… until we build up the experience and strength to confidently set out on that long 26.2 effort.

Some coaches may tell you to avoid fast food stops completely. For some of us, this may be an option. For some of us, this just might not be realistic. The kids, the work, the expenses, the time crunch… fast food is a popular and enticing option. In fact, the CDC reported over one-third of adults in America eat it on any given day and 45% of Americans aged 20-39 eat it daily.

So, today we’ll explore diabetic friendly options at the 10 most popular fast food chains nationwide. Some will be the simple as-is, and other will be edited options for you to give a try!

Stop #1 McDonalds (Sales of $46.0 billion)

Breakfast

1. Fruit and Maple Oatmeal: Order without cranberry blend or cream

2. Egg McMuffin (or Egg White Delight McMuffin): If you order without the muffin and butter, there’s only 3 grams of carbs.

Lunch/Dinner

1. For McDonald’s salads: you can remove croutons and choose a salad dressing with as little ‘added’ sugar as possible. I recommend the low fat balsamic vinaigrette.

2. Order the grilled chicken sandwich: If you remove the bun, you bring the carb count of down from 44 grams to only 2 grams. If this isn’t your style, try tossing 1/2 of the bun and enjoying the other as an open-faced sandwich.

3. Overall, simply ask for burgers and sandwiches with the bun removed, or you can ask them to wrap it in lettuce in place of a bun.

Stop #2 Starbucks (Sales of $24.3 billion)

Drinks

1. Overall, the less additives to your coffee and tea, the better. Unsweetened iced teas and cold brews are refreshing as is.

2. For the syrup lover: 1 pump of regular syrup adds 5 grams of carbs while 1 pump of sugar free syrup adds 0 grams of carbs.If you enjoy the flavorings, try sugar free options OR combining sugar free with regular to reduce overall consumption.

3. For the cream lover: Adding 2% milk provides protein and fat that can help manage blood sugar as opposed to regular sweet cream.

Breakfast

1. Rolled and Steel Cut Oatmeal: You can choose to sweeten it with no added sugars. You can also forgo the accompanying brown sugar and instead flavor the oatmeal with cinnamon.

2. Egg White & Roasted Red Pepper Egg Bites

Lunch/ Dinner

1. Chickpea Bites & Avocado Protein Box: This protein-packed box has only 7g of sugar.

2. If #1 is unavailable, the Eggs & Cheddar Protein Box will be your next best bet. Opt for a sugar free beverage as a pairing.

Stop #3 Chick-fil-A (Sales of $16.7 billion)

Breakfast

1. Breakfast Proteins: You can order a Grilled Breakfast Filet topped with egg white, tomato, and mustard for 22g of protein and 1g of carb!

2. Egg White Grill: Without the bun has 1g of carb. You can also opt for 1/2 the muffin to cut your carbs from 29g to 14g.

Lunch/ Dinner

1. Grilled Nuggets

2. Spicy Southwest Salad with Grilled Nuggets or Grilled Filet. Leave the tortilla chips and Chili Lime Pepitas out and opt for using 1 dipping sauce as dressing. You can use the dipping sauce ranch or honey mustard as a more portion controlled salad dressing compared to the dressing packets.

3. Similarly to McDonald’s, simply ask for burgers and sandwiches with the bun removed, or you can ask them to wrap it in lettuce in place of a bun.

Stop #4 Taco Bell (Sales of $12.6 billion)

Breakfast

1. Ask for a breakfast sausage quesadilla off the breakfast menu without the tortilla shell. Request that the cheese, egg, and meat be wrapped together or put in a bowl. 

2. Soft tacos (bacon, egg & cheese, or sausage) at approximately 15 g carbs each.

Lunch/Dinner

1. The Power Menu Bowl (Veggie or Chicken): Swap the ranch sauce for their hot sauce or red sauce

2. Customize the side of black beans by adding double portion, chicken (if desired), lettuce, tomato, etc. You can essentially make your own bean bowl here!

3. Fiesta Veggie Burrito: Without the wrap but sub a bowl instead.

Stop #5 Wendy’s (Sales of $11.1 billion)

Breakfast

1. The Classic Bacon Egg and Cheese: If desired, edit this item to include double egg, and substitute a lettuce wrap for the bun. This will give you a high protein (19g) and low carbohydrate (1g) meal as opposed to the 25g of carbohydrates in the original.

2. If you want to get creative, you can order the above:

   1. Without the cheese, meat, or bun

   2. Double or triple the egg (Some stores have egg whites as an option)

   3. Add it over lettuce

   4. Get light Ranch or Honey Mustard sauce to pour over

Lunch/Dinner

1. Parmesan Caesar with Grilled Chicken: Consider forgoing the dressing and asking for 1-2 packets of Ranch or Honey Mustard dipping sauce instead.

2. Grilled Chicken Wrap: As is (only 2g of sugar), or consider opting it as a lettuce wrap to eliminate 21g of carbs.

Stop #6 Dunkin’ (Sales of $10.4 billion)

Drinks

1. Iced Coffee/ Coffee/ Latte: Use coconut milk. A medium sized with coconut has only 1g of sugar and 50 calories for a latte, and 0g of sugar and 15 calories for a coffee or iced coffee

2. The Blueberry Unsweetened Iced Tea: 0g of sugar and the blueberry is a nice touch.

Breakfast

1. Egg White & Veggie Omelet Bites

2. The Wake Up Wrap: Customize with no meat, or opt for the bacon

3. Egg and Cheese: If you enjoy the breakfast sandwich as a whole, opt for an english muffin over a bagel. Otherwise, you can order it without the bread.

4. New Breakfast Taco: Available since March 22, one taco has 180 calories and 2g of sugar

5. Cinnamon Munchkin: This is the munchkin to have if you are having one. A 60-calorie doughnut hole with 6 grams of carbs and 2 grams of added sugar.

Stop #7 Burger King (Sales of $10.0 billion)

Breakfast

1. Egg and Cheese Croissan'wich: Removing the bread gives you just 1g of carbs. Or, opt for removing 1/2 and enjoying 1/2 the bread.

Lunch/Dinner

1. Grilled Chicken Sandwich: Try this wrapped in lettuce

2. Impossible Whopper: Try this meatless version of the whopper. Again, you can order it as a lettuce wrap

3. Some chains have a side salad available to order, which is always a great addition

Stop #8 Subway (Sales of $9.4 billion)

When ordering the bread here, opt for the whole wheat

Breakfast:

1. Enjoy the egg and cheese with lots of veggies on wheat: you can add as many as you please

Lunch

1. Chicken and Veggie Delight sandwich options are paired nicely with whole wheat bread and some hot sauce for a kick (or added mustard)

2. Similarly, Chicken, Turkey or Veggie salads are low sugar and carb options to enjoy. You can ask for double meat on the chicken or turkey if you want a bit more.

Stop #9 Domino’s (Sales of $8.6 billion)

Lunch/Dinner

1. Chicken Wings: . A 7-wings serving has just 4.7 grams of carbs and 203 calories. Go for the regular or Frank’s Red Hot Wings and avoid the BBQ option. These have just 1 gram of sugar

2. Specialty Chicken- Classic Hot Buffalo: Has 190 calories with 1 gram of sugar.

3. Chicken Caesar Salad: Instead of the caesar dressing, try 1-2 of the garlic dipping sauces as your dressing. It has 0g of carbs or sugar.

Stop #10 Chipotle (Sales of $7.5 billion)

Lunch/Dinner

1. A salad with Chicken, Fajita Veggies, Cheese and Salsa will give you 39g of protein and only 4g of sugar.

2. The Go Half Veggie Bowl: Opt for light brown rice over white & fresh tomato salsa over the chipotle honey vinaigrette.

3. A Veggie bowl with pinto beans, sour cream and cheese has only 4g of sugar.

Overall, there are good choices you can make at these fast food chains and knowing them will be helpful when it comes time to order - so you don’t reach the window and panic order (we’ve all been there). Planning allows you to enjoy these favorite and convenient options without impacting your prediabetes or diabetes. And remember, when in doubt, focus on vegetables, lean proteins, and healthy fats!

Questions about what you’ve been working on in your diabetes journey? Contact me here to schedule a time to speak.