Restaurant: Bodo's Bagels Features: All of their bagels are made fresh at each location and none have any preservatives, oils or fats. They are made with unbleached and unbromated flour that is healthier and contains more protein than normal flour.
Healthy Choice: A 100 percent whole wheat Bagel with Light Eggs (made from egg whites and have no cholesterol and practically no fat) and, like all their eggs, are fried on the grill with Smart Balance. Or you can glaze your bagel with Neufchâtel cream cheese, which has one-third less fat than regular cream cheese.
To make your meal healthier: Opt for Light Eggs over regular eggs, reduced fat cream cheese over regular, and a whole wheat bagel.
Source: John Kokola, owner
Restaurant: Martha's Café
Features: They offer many vegetarian, vegan and low-fat options. They also offer buffalo burgers.
Healthy Choice: They use Mesclun salad, which has five different types of greens, so it is filled with vitamins and minerals.
To make your meal healthier: Limit the amount of cheese you get on your meal.
Source: Michael Payne, owner
Restaurant: O'Neill's Irish Pub
Features: They offer Bison burgers.
Healthy choice: Salmon salad.
To make your meal healthier: Ask for your sandwich grilled instead of fried and instead of fried chicken, get it baked.
Source: Fred Watkins, general manager
Restaurant: Arch's Frozen Yogurt
Features: They offer Wow Cow, the non-dairy yogurt that is all-natural, fat-free, has 10 calories per ounce and is sweetened naturally with real fruit fructose. Also, gooey brownie topping is low-fat -- it is not made with oil or eggs.
Healthy choice: Any of the Wow Cow flavors.
To make your meal healthier: Get a fruit topping, granola or nuts instead of candy.
Source: Troy Jenkins, manager
Restaurant: The White Spot
Features: They are famous for their Gus Burger (beef patty with a fried egg on top in a bun) and the Grillswith Ice cream (two donuts with ice cream on top), both of which are not at all healthy.
Healthy choice: Greek salad, garden salad and grilled chicken salad, and also deli meats like turkey (which you can even get on wheat bread).
To make your meal healthier: Use wheat bread when possible; however, it can't be used for Gus Burgers.
Source: Miguel Bautista, cook
Restaurant: Starbucks
Features: They offer more than 73,000 beverage combinations!
Healthy Choice: Drinks that are less than 100 calories include brewed coffee, brewed Tazo tea, non-fat cappuccino, Caffe Americano, Shaken Tazo Iced Passion Tea, Shaken Tazo Iced Black Tea Lemonade and iced coffee with classic syrup.
To make your meal healthier: You can get your drink made with skim milk or use sugar-free syrups that are available in vanilla and hazelnut that don't add any calories or fat. "Holding the whip," saves you between 80 and 130 calories and eight to 12 grams of fat. You can also reduce the pumps of syrup and save 20 calories and five grams of fat per pump. Finally, you can get a Frappucino Light instead of a regular Frappucino to save up to 140 calories and 2.5 grams of fat.
Source: Starbucks Food & Beverage Statement
Restaurant: Pita Pit
Features: On the Pita Pit Web site, www.pitapitusa.com, you can build your own pita and find out the exact nutrition information. They offer a vegetarian menu, which includes falafel, hummus, bubba gannoush and a garden pita. The chicken breast is skinless, boneless and comes precooked with no oils or other additives.
Healthy Choice: The Garden Pita.
To make your meal healthier: Get your pita on the pita bread, which has less fat and calories than the wraps or other kinds of bread. Instead of mayonnaise (they only use low-fat), use the tzatziki spread, which is very low in fat and calories compared to the mayonnaise.
Source: Meg Fisher, owner
Restaurant: Mellow Mushroom
Features: They use spring water dough, which is healthier than other dough and 100 percent mozzarella cheese on their pizzas. Provolone cheese is used for the hoagies. They use 90-10 lean ground beef, which is 90 percent lean and 10 percent fat.
Healthy Choice: Spinach salad with one of their two low-fat dressings. The healthiest pizza is the veggie.
To make your meal healthier: Instead of adding beef, you can add tempeh, which is a soy product. Tofu can also be requested.
Source: Kara Watson, co-owner
Restaurant: The College Inn
Features: Everything is fresh every day, including their homemade dough. They use canola oil when frying and change it very often so it doesn't saturate.
Healthy Choice: Any of the grilled chicken options and the chicken or pork souvlaki.
To make your meal healthier: You can order veggie subs, grilled veggies on subs, or ask for your meal grilled instead of fried.
Source: John Ballas, co-owner
Restaurant: Take It Away Sandwich Shop
Features: They serve only all-natural meats, which are the highest grade available, and most of the cheeses they use are aged. They also offer Odwalla drinks.
Healthy Choice: Sliced chicken breast sandwich that is garnished with sprouts, cucumbers and watercress with house dressing or mustard.
To make your meal healthier: Opt for the house dressing (cream base with herb spices and whole grain mustard, which is lighter than mayonnaise) over mayonnaise or add garnishes like cucumbers and watercress. You can also get a side salad instead of chips and choose natural juice instead of soda.
Source: Tom Bowe, owner
Restaurant: Tropical Smoothie Café
Features: They now offer a line of Splenda specific smoothies. They also use top-of-the-line Boar's Head deli meats.
Healthy Choice:The Blue Lagoon Low Fat Smoothie with Splenda that has 130 calories.
To make your meal healthier: You can ask for half the sugar in smoothies.
Source: Chris Fuller, assistant manager
Restaurant: Qdoba Mexican Grill
Features: They have a lot of vegetarian and grilled vegetable options. You can create your own meals online and calculate the nutrition information
Healthy Choice: Naked salad with romaine lettuce, black bean & corn salsa, picante ranch dressing.
To make your meal healthier: Get your meal "naked" (without the tortilla or shell).
Source: Roylene Gardner, assistant general manager
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