Healthy Fast Casual in New York City
A Blueprint for Ladies Who Lunch
I often get asked by clients: what are the best options for healthy fast casual restaurants in New York City? Many of my clients are busy professionals whose office culture doesn’t promote bringing tupperware to work. In those cases, it’s important to have a few key restaurants where you know you can trust your ordering choices.
I have the blueprint available (with my top nine restaurant choices) at the bottom of this blog post so that you can download it for keeps.
But before you read it, I want to make a few disclaimers first…
Whoa, Sodium!
My very first caution about your lunch choice is sodium content. When it comes to dining out, even the healthiest fast casual spots have far more sodium in their menu items than you would have with home-prepared food. The daily upper limit for most people should be 2300 mg per day, but really you should taper off at about 1500 mg. Many menu items – even at the best, hippest, and good-for-you restaurants – have more than 1200 mg of sodium per serving.
What To Do Instead
While you can limit sodium intake by opting out of the default sauces and dressings in favor of lemon juice and olive oil, my overall advice is to moderate the total number of times you eat out per week. If you need to eat lunch out every day, then you need to closely monitor your sodium content the rest of the day, and try to eat a home-prepared breakfast and dinner. Too much sodium, too often, can lead to high blood pressure, heart problems, and/or strokes over time, and it’s an important nutrient to moderate as part of a balanced diet.
Extras
When you’re at a trendy fast casual place in New York City for lunch, it can be tempting to add on the gluten-free brownie or the chia bowl. It’s healthy, right?
Watch out for those extras. While the entrees at the restaurants that I suggest tend to be notably well-balanced, you can throw off the health index of the meal by adding on snacks, sides, and desserts.
What To Do Instead
Treat “healthy” treats like the “regular” versions. In other words, they are a healthy option for the occasional treat, but shouldn’t be in your daily lunch repertoire. Just because the fries are sweet potato fries, you shouldn’t have them every day. The chia bowl may be dairy-free, but it’s probably not sugar-free. Instead, if you have a craving for that bit of “extra” in your afternoon, I recommend getting a skim latte and sweetening it with a stevia-based sweetener like Truvia.
Beverages
Even restaurants that tout the health benefits of their special smoothies, juices, or coffees may not be totally transparent about the nutritional content of their designer beverage creations. Yes, the base may be “no sugar added” apple juice, but it could be the juice of 10 apples.
In general, I tell my clients to avoid juices, smoothies, and special coffees. To get a beverage to taste as electrifyingly sweet as a consumer wants, juice bars use a lot of sugar. It could be natural and plant-based, but it’s still a highly concentrated amount of sugar in a small package nonetheless.
What To Do Instead
A simple solution is to eat fruit instead of drinking a smoothie. However, if you love smoothies (I do!), make them at home. If you blend a sliced apple with yogurt, protein powder, peanut butter, and spinach, the result will be a truly-good-for-you smoothie that packs a nutritional punch, leaving you feeling full and satisfied all morning.
Lack of Protein
If a rice bowl has nothing but veggies in it, it may be extremely healthful, but it may leave you snacking throughout the afternoon. Even if you live a vegan lifestyle, make sure that there are at least beans or tofu involved in your dish so that you get enough protein to be satisfied. If you eat meat or at least eggs/dairy, you can find many options to make sure that your meal includes a protein source.
It can be tempting to feel virtuous and ultra-healthy by restricting your meal to nothing but spiralized carrots and a lime vinaigrette, but the reality is that your body needs more than that. In other words, there are no bonus points for eliminating food groups that your body really needs.
What To Do Instead
A good rule of thumb, when you’re making a menu choice, is to scan your options and ascertain which menu items have a respectable amount of protein. Whether the protein is beef, chicken, tofu, or beans, it will make a tremendous difference in your feeling of satiety for the afternoon. You will probably be less snacky, and – depending on the time of your dinner – you may be able to wait until your next meal to eat again.
Health Halos
You may have noticed this theme throughout the previous four points. When you’re in a metropolitan area like New York City, restaurants vie for your attention by presenting increasingly ultra-elite versions of trendy “health foods.” However, there is a phenomenon known as a “health halo,” in which we judge foods to be healthier than they really are because of their presentation, packaging, and marketing.
Just because a brownie is gluten-free, doesn’t mean it’s necessarily a healthier brownie. Sometimes it’s even less nutritionally valuable. A smoothie is often just a glorified milkshake, even if it’s dairy-free.
What To Do Instead
Look past packaging and use your common sense. Make decisions based on reliable nutritional principles, and remember that a healthy label like “organic” or “gluten-free” does not automatically transform a rich treat into a calorie-free one. Sustainably-sourced fried fish is still fried fish. A gluten-free brownie is still a brownie. Sugar is still sugar, even if it’s labeled as “organic cane juice” or “brown rice syrup.”
Want to download my blueprint for healthy lunch spots in New York City?
Download my guide, “Fast Casual,” for free! It lists my nine favorite New York City healthy eateries (and menu suggestions) for an on-the-go lunch that leaves you feeling satisfied and energized. Fill out the form below to have it delivered directly to your inbox for keeps!
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