Panera Bread
With almost 1,300 locations spread out across the United States, Panera Bread certainly qualifies as a chain restaurant--and it offers a wide variety of healthy eating options. Perhaps most importantly, the chain offers "half sizes" of many of its meals so that you can order without bringing enough food to feed a family to the table. In addition, the restaurant is replete with salads and soups. Important, too, are Panera's multiple bread types to go with its sandwiches--including whole-grain breads.
Chipotle
Closing in on a thousand restaurants nationwide, Chipotle allows its customers to build their own meals. You want to ease up on the sour cream or the cheese, or lay off the carb-filled tortillas? No problem. What's more, Chipotle relies heavily on organic ingredients, meaning you aren't eating artificial hormone-filled or antibiotic-packed produce and meats. Many of Chipotle's suppliers are local--which means the food you are eating is lower in preservatives.
McDonald's
This is not a typo; McDonald's, with almost 15,000 restaurants across America (and many thousands more dotting the globe), has made drastic changes to its menu to allow customers to eat healthier. And it's still cheap. From the chain's multiple snack wraps, including a low-calorie grilled chicken option--to its salads, french fry-free and soda-free Happy Meals and chicken sandwiches, McDonald's is certainly a viable option for eating out and eating healthy.
Article Written By William Jackson
William Jackson has written, reported and edited professionally for more than 10 years. His work has been published in newspapers, magazines, scholarly journals, high-level government reports, books and online. He holds a master's degree in humanities from Pennsylvania State University.
