Health Magazine Grades Best Restaurant Chains
MacDonald’s Rates a B+ / TGI Friday’s Cited for Nutritional Secrecy
Mar 5, 2009
Men’s Health “Eat This, Not That” (ETNT) got even busier this year, evaluating 62 restaurant chains (up from 21 last year) for their issue on “The Best and Worst Restaurants in America.”
The magazine totaled calories per entrée, rewarded for fruit and vegetable side-dish choices, and penalized for excessive trans fats and “gut-busting” desserts.
While many chains cooperated with nutritional figures, some were given an F for stonewalling. See “Dishonorable Mention,” listed with the bottom half.
Here’s how the top half of the class scored. (For the bottom half, read Health Magazine Grades Worst Restaurant Chains.) Included are the magazine’s selected comments and extra credits noted where menu items made ETNT’s list of “The 20 Worst Foods in America”
Some slippage resulted in no chain earning above and A-minus this year. Where there was improvement it came mostly from offering some healthier alternatives to their mainstay calorie and fat-heavy sandwiches and entrees.
A-
- Chick Fil-A – Slipped from A+ last year. “Only two entrees break the 500-calorie barrier”
- Subway – “An impressive selection of 6-inch sandwiches with less than 400 calories”
- Jamba Juice – “Jamba Juice makes plenty of real-deal smoothies, but their menu is sullied with more than a few faux-fruit blends.”
B+
- McDonalds – Up from B- last year. “Burgers are reasonable, but others, like pancake platters, send McDonald's numbers soaring.”Their Double Quarter Pounder with Cheese sports 42 grams of fat, 2.5 grams as trans fat.
- Starbucks – “Slow moving as it is, Starbucks is heading toward a more nutritious menu that includes items such as oatmeal and fruit-and-nut bars, specialty drinks made with skim milk.”
- Wendy’s – “Options such as chili and baked potatoes offer the side-order variety that's missing from less-evolved fast-food chains.”
- Taco Bell – “limit yourself to just two tacos or a single burrito”
- Boston Market – Slipped from an A- last year. “Nutritionally reasonable three-piece chicken meals… but with nearly a dozen calorie-packed sides and fatty meats”
B
- KFC – “To halve calories, order your chicken without skin.” Another grease spot on KFC's menu is their Chicken and Biscuit Bowl at 37 grams of fat.
- Blimpie – Kudos for removing trans-fats from the menu.
- Popeye’s – “With the exception of the mayo-loaded Deluxe Sandwich, Popeyes' menu isn't burdened by any items with more than 600 calories.” But beware “the trans fat lingering in its frying oil.”
B-
- Panera Bread – Improved from a D last year. “The healthy selection of soups and salads offers a much-needed reprieve from the carb-heavy bagels”
C+
- Arby’s – “sandwiches suffer from an abundance of creamy dressings, spreads, and melted cheese sauce.”
C
- Pizza Hut – Improved from a D last year. “Massive pasta portions are nearly 1,000 calories.”
- Fazoli’s – Slipped from a B grade last year. “Pasta portions are thankfully restrained and can be topped with chicken, broccoli, and tomatoes, or garlic shrimp.”
- Bob Evans – Also dropped a grade from last year. “Reasonable egg dishes and extensive sides ranging from broccoli to applesauce”On the other hand, Bob also won both the “Worst Breakfast” and “Trans Fattiest Pancakes” for his Caramel Banana Pecan Cream Stacked and Stuffed Hotcakes at 1540 calories three days worth of trans fat. Please pass the syrup.
C-
- Burger King – “Thousand-calorie-plus burgers”
- Chipotle – A nod for coming out from behind their secrecy veil.They won "Worst Mexican Entrée” with their 1179-calorie Double Macaroni 'n' Cheese)
- Domino’s –“Two slices of any Feast pizza contain from 460 to 880 calories”
- Quiznos – “The bigger subs can easily carry a full day's worth of saturated fat and two days' of sodium.”
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