It’s amazing but you can walk away from a meal at McDonald’s feeling healthy and light ( and a little heavier on the salt intake). But the good news is, you don’t have to blow your diet if you’re stuck at McDonald’s.

McDonald’s has salads with grilled and crispy chicken!

• Stick to the grilled stuff.
• Just because it’s a ‘salad’ does not mean it’s healthy. Putting crispy (really fried in disguise) chicken on salad adds unwanted calories and fat.
• I would also stay away from the Cesar salad at McDonald’s. Once again, if you’re going to intake the calories in a Cesar (even with the light dressing) there is no point in eating a salad to begin with.
• Lettuce is not magically still healthy with crap on it.

Here are my picks for McDonald’s Salads and the dressings to go with them:

McDonald’s has all sorts of new fun things on their menu that never used to be there when we were kids. You’ll see things like wraps, new desserts and fajitas. So my first piece of advice is to stay away from this stuff. Having a wrap at McDonald’s is not worth it!!! If your going to splurge you might as well do it on what you grew up on!

Now, here is the compromise – you end up at McDonald’s because your kids cooperated at Walmart, or whatever the reason- this is NOT THE TIME to have a little fun! This is the time where you should look at the above chart and have a salad.

You should have a treat at McDonald’s when it’s something you want so bad that you actually get in your car and specially go out to get it, it doesn’t just happen to appear in front of you. And in this situation – here are a few standards that won’t break the calorie bank.

So here are some tips!

• The bun in the hamburger is actually where you are getting most your calories. So feel free to put a second normal patty on the bun for an extra 80 calories and six grams of fat.
• Feel free to have only half the bun and make it an open face burger. You’ll save over 75 calories, 2 grams of fat and 125mg of sodium.
• If you’re having the four piece McNuggets treat yourself to half an order of small fries.
• Careful with those dipping sauces! Each contain an average of 50 calories and are made with LOTS of sugar! Try to stick to one.
• If you’re just going for Nuggets get the 6 piece, if you’re just going for fries have the small.
• If you LOVE McDonald’s ice-cream, it’s actually not such a bad treat because it’s made with ice-milk.
• But stay away from the McFurry- over 700 calories! And stay away from tricky ‘healthy” things like muffins (more calories and fat than a cheeseburger or a 6 piece nugget!)