Help, I'm at a Fast Food Chain!

When we are desperate to grab something fast and we only have a 5-spot in our pockets, many of us gravitate toward the nation's top 5 fast-food places. As a nutritionist, I have to say that we couldn't do a worse thing for our weight or our health. But I'm also an American, and unfortunately it's the American thing to do. I do it, you do it, we all do it. Here's Elaine's "Golden Arch" Rule in case it helps you: Don't let yourself eat fast food more than once a week.

But when we do find ourselves under the golden arches or walking into Wendy's, don't despair. With our help, you can go "fast fooding" knowing how to choose wisely.

Actually, uncovering the most and least healthful fast food selections is easy because many of the chains, like the ones below, provide nutritional analysis on their menu items.

You'll notice the better choices listed below have 10-15 grams of fat or less and the worst choices have 25-30 grams of fat or more. We want to have some fat in each meal to keep it appealing, satisfying, and slowly digested so we don't feel hungry right away, and 10-15 grams gives us some fat without giving us too much.

Here are some of Fast Food's best and worst offerings:

Choices