What is the healthiest fast food?
Build-your-own bowls usually grade best, because you pick each part: a protein, beans, vegetables and salsa. On a fixed menu, order a grilled protein, a vegetable side and water. A grilled chicken breast, a buttered baked potato and a side salad grades A in our checker. A cheeseburger, fries and a soda grades D.
On any given day, about 37% of US adults eat fast food, and almost 45% of adults in their 20s and 30s, according to the CDC. For most people the useful question is what to order.
Most people look for the healthiest restaurant. We’d look for the healthiest order instead, because the menu decides less than the three choices you make at the counter: grilled or fried, a vegetable side or fries, water or soda. Get those three right and almost any place has a decent plate.
A fast food menu is like a vending machine with a few good buttons. Learn which buttons and you’re fine anywhere.
How do common orders grade?
The grades are for a 170 pound person eating 2,000 calories over three meals. Food values are from the USDA’s Nutritive Value of Foods, which lists fast food items without brand names.
| Order | Calories | Protein | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|
| A bowl: chicken, half a cup of rice, black beans, peppers and onions, salsa, cheese, lettuce | 590 | 54 g | A+ |
| A grilled chicken breast, a buttered baked potato and a side salad | 490 | 34 g | A |
| Two hamburgers and a side salad, water | 570 | 27 g | C |
| Six chicken nuggets, an apple and water | 400 | 18 g | C |
| A cheeseburger, small fries and water | 590 | 20 g | C |
| Three slices of pizza and a soda | 570 | 24 g | D |
| A cheeseburger, small fries and a 12 oz soda | 740 | 20 g | D |
| A fried chicken sandwich, small fries and a 12 oz soda | 960 | 28 g | D |
Look at the soda. The cheeseburger and fries are a C with water and a D with a soda, because one 12 oz can has about 37 g of sugar, almost four times the guidelines’ 10 g line for a meal, and it sinks the Glucose meter.
Why does the bowl win?
A bowl lets you clear all six jobs a meal does on purpose. The chicken and beans bring protein for Muscle, the beans and vegetables bring fiber and minerals for Hunger and Nutrients, salsa has no added sugar, and going light on the rice keeps the size and the fast carbs down. Burgers, nuggets and pizza are ultra-processed from the start, so they miss our Processing meter before you’ve chosen anything, and a plate that misses one meter can’t be an A. In a 2019 NIH study, people ate about 500 more calories a day on ultra-processed meals than on unprocessed ones.
What to do
- Order grilled over fried. The 2025 to 2030 US guidelines say to swap deep-fried for baked, broiled, roasted, stir-fried or grilled.
- Swap the fries for a side salad, fruit or a baked potato.
- Drink water and skip the combo drink.
- At a bowl place, get protein, beans and vegetables, and go half on the rice. Is a burrito bowl healthy? has the details.
Try your usual order in the meal checker.
4 sources
- National Center for Health Statistics, Fast food consumption among adults in the United States, 2013 to 2016, NCHS Data Brief 322, 2018cdc.gov
- US Department of Agriculture and US Department of Health and Human Services, Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2025 to 2030, January 2026cdn.realfood.gov
- Gebhardt and Thomas, Nutritive Value of Foods, Home and Garden Bulletin 72, USDA Agricultural Research Service, 2002ars.usda.gov
- Hall et al., Ultra-processed diets cause excess calorie intake and weight gain: an inpatient randomized controlled trial of ad libitum food intake, Cell Metabolism, 2019pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
