Are you on a special sort of diet? Perhaps you’re trying to lose weight, so you’re watching your calorie intake, and the amounts of saturated fat, trans fat, and added sugars you consume each day.
Or maybe you’re having hypertension issues, and that’s why you’re on a low-sodium diet.
Either way, visiting a fast-food joint may just wreck that diet you’re on. In fact, plenty of doctors will tell you that regular visits to fast-food restaurants isn’t recommended even for people with generally good overall health.
Still, if you do find yourself at a Sonic Drive-in, there’s a good chance you’ll order something that your doctor won’t approve of (see full Sonic menu here). But you can reduce the damage by sticking to these particular menu items:
Breakfast Toaster with Ham
Starting your day at a fast-food joint may not exactly earn the approval of your dietician. But they might not scold you all that much if you opt for the breakfast toaster with ham in the morning. The bacon may be the more popular breakfast meat option, but the ham is actually healthier for you.
With this breakfast sandwich, you only get 540 calories. The bacon sandwich has 610 calories, in comparison. This ham sandwich also contains a smaller amount of saturated fat, at only 7g. It doesn’t come with any trans fat, either. You get all that, along with the 29g of protein to start the morning right.
It’s true that this comes with a rather large amount of sodium at 1,850mg. But it contains more protein than the other breakfast options that contain lower amounts of sodium. Plus, the sugar amount is just 9g.
Junior Burger
Yes, there are plenty of delicious burgers in the menu to choose from. And while you can always get yourself a cheeseburger for over $5, you’re better off with just the Junior Burger. This is a rather plain cheeseburger with pickles, but without the lettuce, tomato, and onion. It’s rather small, as well.
But it works nicely as a snack, and you only get 330 calories with just 4.5g of saturated fat. There’s still the 1,070mg of sodium to consider, but all in all it’s not all that bad for a fast-food burger. Things can get a lot worse out there.
With this, you might even enjoy a nice dessert without feeling too guilty!
Classic Crispy Chicken Sandwich
Some people say that as a general rule, you’re better off with grilled chicken, instead of opting for the breaded and fried option. With this option, you reduce the calorie to intake to just 470 calories, instead of 550 calories with the Classic Crispy Chicken. You also get only 4g of saturated fat with the grilled chicken, while the classic crispy comes with 6g of saturated fat.
But those are minor differences. The major difference is with the sodium content. The classic grilled chicken comes with a whopping 1,340mg of sodium. That’s really bad in comparison with the crispy chicken with only 870mg of sodium. This makes the crispy chicken seem downright wholesome in comparison.
6-Inch All Beef Regular Dog
The first rule when it comes to eating hotdogs in a healthy manner is that you don’t go with the footlong version. Control yourself, and just get the 6-inch version.
While there are several yummy versions to choose from, you should just go with the All-Beef Regular Dog. This is mainly because it has the lowest sodium level at just 800mg. All the other options have sodium levels that exceed 1,000mg. The worst offender is the Chicago Dog, which is also only 6 inches long but comes with 2,010mg of sodium.
The All-Beef Regular even comes with the lowest calorie level among all the other 6-inchers, with just 360 calories. All the others have more than 400 calories.
Soft Pretzel Twist
This is a fairly healthy choice for your side, as it only has 250 calories, 1g of saturated fat, and 440mg of sodium. Many of the sides in the Sonic menu come with much higher calorie levels, like the large Fritos Chili Pie with 990 calories (and a horrendous 1,940mg of sodium).
It’s still nice to go with your main sandwich, plus it helps to make you feel full.
Vanilla Cone
In general, you should really try to avoid ordering desserts at a fast-food joint. Choose wrong, and you’ll be consuming dangerous levels of calories and sugar. There’s just too much risk and not much benefits.
But then again, for some people a meal isn’t complete without something sweet to top things off. If you believe this, then you should just go with the vanilla cone instead of sugar monsters like the Shakes.
At least with the Vanilla Cone, you limit yourself to an additional 250 calories and 8g of saturated fat. And the 17g of sugar isn’t all that bad, considering that it’s dessert. With the shakes, you can easily exceed 100g of sugar in one go!