Does 'Healthy' Fast Food Exist?

Q. All the fast-food restaurants now have healthy entrees and salads -- or so they claim. How healthy are they really?
-- Katie, via e-mail

A. The idea of "healthy fast food" is probably more wished for than great sex and more mysterious than the contents of the McRib sandwich with its 70-plus ingredients and not a rib in sight. Love ribs? Try this low-fat Red Curry Bison Short Ribs recipe.

You need a degree in food science -- or 20/10 vision to read the nutritional wall charts -- to figure out whether a virtuous-sounding salad or smoothie is a heaping serving of ill-repute. Discover what makes fast-food menu options so unhealthy. Hint: It's not the calories or the fat.

But with a little sleuthing you can find good-and-quick choices at many fast-food restaurants. In fact, McDonald's now sells more apples and walnuts than anyone. Still, at Mickey D's, like many places, you gotta sweat the small stuff (salad dressings, for example). A Caesar salad with grilled chicken has 190 calories and 5 grams of fat. But add Creamy Caesar dressing and, boom, you're at 380 calories and 23 grams of fat. Opt for Low-Fat Balsamic Vinaigrette, though, and you're at 225 calories, 7.5 grams of fat (less than 3 of it saturated), and little sugar. Impressive. It actually meets the tough criteria of Cleveland Clinic's GO! Foods program.

Even fast-food chains with a healthy rep can smack you in your expanding fanny. A 16 oz. Aloha Pineapple smoothie from Jamba Juice has 1 gram of fat but 290 calories and 63 grams of sugar (though lots from fruit). The just-as-delish 16 oz. Berry Fulfilling Light has 0.5 grams of fat, 140 calories, and 24 grams of sugar. Easy-peasy.

Here's the tricky part: While it's now possible to find healthier choices at fast-food joints, once you're inside, will you? Smell the fries and suddenly you've eaten a bagful. While almost half of us say we want healthier choices, only about a fourth actually order them.

Our advice: Do fast food only when there's NO healthier alternative. Even then, don't go in. Pick a salad, use the drive-through, and keep repeating: YOU deserve the rewards of good, nutritious food: a bigger brain, snazzier sex life, more energy, and a RealAge sweeter than any 650-calorie, artery-clogging McFlurry. Fast-food alternative: Try this Double-Chocolate Malted Shake recipe that's less than 230 calories, instead.

Need to eat on the go? Choose frozen dinners over a fast-food fix.