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Happy Sunday! You might be inclined to hit up the fast food establishment today in lieu of cooking at home–but before you pull the car around the drive-thru, read on. Experts we spoke to recently warn that fast food ordering comes with some obvious health pitfalls that you should avoid. What are they?
READ MORE: This Is The Worst Mistake You Can Make When Ordering Breakfast At A Fast Food Restaurant
kuudose founding celebrity trainer and fitness/nutrition expert Joey Thurman, CPT, CES, FNS, NASM: The worst mistake you can make at the drive thru is ordering fries, a big fat meal, and sugar combined. In other words, ordering a meal with high carbs, fat, and sugar all together. That immense sugar spike with the fat is highly likely for those calories to be stored as fat. This will also intensify the brains reptilian pleasure response and cause you to crave even more calories, especially more processed foods.
Jinan Banna, registered dietitian and professor of nutrition: The worst mistake you can make at the drive-thru is to agree to super-size your food. Portion sizes have grown enormously over the years, and even small sizes these days provide tons of calories. Consider taking a look at the nutritional information provided for the establishment to get realistic about just what you are consuming.
Tiffany Joy Yamut, RN, co-founder of Ketogenic Buddies: Not double-checking if the food in the paper bag is the one you ordered. This is especially important for those customers who follow special diets like low-carb keto.
Lisa Richards, nutritionist and author of The Candida Diet: Avoid common drive-thru and fast food mistakes by avoiding drinking your calories and adding saturated fat to your otherwise healthy salads. The easiest and most overlooked way to cut out excess calories and sugar when dining out is to pass on sugar-sweetened beverages. Opt for water instead, which will keep you from drinking your calories and cutting out unnecessary carbs in the form of sugar.
