I literally had 5 minutes for dinner last night before going to a meeting. There are tons of restaurants and delis near my midtown nutrition office, however I didn’t even have an extra 5 minutes to have a sandwich made or eat a salad. So I turned to good old Subway. I haven’t eaten there in years. Intellectually, I know it has low cal healthy choices for sandwiches - after all, if it’s good enough for Jared who lost over 100 pounds, it must be good enough for me! However I kind of associate it with “fast food” and boring sandwiches. I am used to the fancier more interesting (and yes, fattening!) sandwiches served at other locations.  (Pic is of Jared)

But I decided to give it a try. I ordered the 6″ turkey sandwich with cheese (only adds 50 calories and 4 gm fat because the slices are so thin) with extra turkey (an extra 50 calories and 1gm fat), lettuce, tomatoes, veggies and mustard. It came to about $5.00. This is a lot cheaper than most of the sandwiches from other places such as Au Bon Pain, Pax, Metro Cafe, Hale and Hearty. I must say that it wasn’t bad! I was actually suprised at the low calorie content as it seemed like a fairly large sandwich with a lot of bread. I think the trick is that the bread is light and airy, which lessens the calorie content. Total calories: 380  Total fat: 9.5 grams

Overall, I would recommend certain Subway sandwiches for a low calorie, relatively tasty, inexpensive lunch or dinner. It beats the 700 calories or more fancy wraps and sandwiches  (that can cost $8.00) that are sold at other locations!

6-inch Jared Sandwiches with 6 grams of Fat or Less Values include wheat bread, lettuce, tomatoes, onions, green peppers, pickles and olives. I would recommend adding in extra meat, as the portions they give you are on the small side. Mustard is the lowest calorie/fat condiment.

Ham
Oven Roasted Chicken Breast
Roast Beef
Subway Club®
Sweet Onion Chicken Teriyaki
Turkey Breast
Turkey Breast & Ham
Veggie Delite®
6-inch Sandwiches

Check out this link for the complete listing of sandwiches under 7 gm of fat and 400 calories or less (most of them are 300 calories or less!)

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It’s a warm day and you are looking for something “light” to eat. You are also trying to drop a few pounds so your attention automatically turns to the salad section of the menu. A Cobb salad sounds healthy, after all it contains grilled chicken and heart healthy avocado. 1200 calories later, you have finished your “light” lunch.

One of the biggest misconceptions I see in my private practice is that salads are low calorie. Sure, then can be … but they can also have more calories and fat than a bacon cheeseburger. Chef, Caesar and Cobb Salads are the biggest culprits. Today, I’m going to address Cobb Salads. The calories in a Cobb Salad will vary depending upon where you get it. Think about the ingredients in this salad: greens and other assorted vegetables, bacon, blue cheese, maybe grilled chicken and some kind of fatty dressing. The dressing alone can add up to over 600 calories!

Here is a sampling of Cobb Salads from a variety of places. As you can see, some are acceptable choices (especially if you order a light dressing), while others can make up over 75% of your calories for the day! Looks like McDonalds and Pax take the prize for the lowest calorie Cobb Salads!

1. Pax Turkey Cobb Salad  220 cal / 12 gm fat    Blue cheese dressing 160cal /17 gm fat  Fat free italian or lemon herb dressing ~ 20 cal /0 gm fat

2. Cosi Cobb  425 cal /28 gm fat   Reduced fat sherry Shallot dressing 94 cal /6 gm fat   Cosi Vinaigrette 357 cal/ 39 gm fat

3. Generic Cobb salad per cup 179 cal /15 gm fat (from fitday.com)  However, keep in mind that the average salad = 4 cups.   This would bring the total to 716 cal /60 gm fat 

4.  Cobb_salad  Jerry’s Famous Deli (Marina del Rey, California)  757 cal/ 50 gm fat

5. McDonald’s Grilled Chicken California Cobb Salad - 280 calories/14 fat grams  Newman’s Own® Light Balsamic Vinaigrette - 90 cal/8 gm fat

6. Southwestern Cobb Salad from Chilis  970 cal/60 gm fat

7. Typical restaurant Cobb Salad 1000 - 1,200+ cal /90 gm fat

8. Au Bon Pain  330 cal /19  gm fat  Blue cheese dressing 230 cal/ 24 gm fat   Fat free raspberry vinaigrette 70 cal/0 gm fat

Bottom line, think twice before ordering a Cobb Salad. If you are going to a chain restaurant, check out the calories on line first to see what you are dealing with. If you really must have this salad, at least order dressing on the side and try to order a low fat dressing. If they are generous with the blue cheese and bacon, eat only 1/2. At least this will do some “damage control”.

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You only have a few minutes for lunch and see the street vendor selling hot dogs, gyros and chicken kabobs in pita. You may be wondering if these are appropriate lunch choices.  In my quest to provide CGB readers with knowledge on healthy and not-so-healthy lunch choices, I decided to buy one of the chicken kabobs in pita and dissect it in the privacy of my home. I would weigh and measure it to determine the caloric content … and then eat it for lunch if it looked appealing and wasn’t too high in calories.

So I went to a street vendor across the street from the hospital where I work on York and 69th Street.  BTW - I was a little hesitant about eating food purchased from one of these vendors (given there has been some publicity in the past about cleanliness…) however there is always a long line at this particular vendor so I figured the food was probably ok.

I purchased a chicken kabob sandwich. It bascially consisted of a chicken kabob wrapped in a pita with some hot sauce. Nothing fancy. I noticed that the pita used for my sandwich was the last one in the plastic bag (that contained a food label!). So I asked the street vendor man if I could have it as I wanted to read the nutrition info.  He seemed to think this was a strange request but gave it to me.

My findings:
- pita (called “pre-oiled gyro bread) contained 250 calories and 3 grams of fat
- the chicken weighed 4 ounces and therefore contained ~ 180 calories and 4-5 grams fat 
- minimal fat was used in cooking
- the hot sauce contains negligible calories
- overall calorie content was 430 calories and fat content was 8 grams
- it was cheap (~ $3.00). This is a lot cheaper than the sandwiches in most delis and gourmet stores
- I actually ate it for lunch and it wasn’t bad. It would have been better with some veggies but overall it is an acceptable choice for a lunch on the run

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You’re in a rush - no time to stop to eat a salad or wait in line for a sandwich. But you pass the pizza shop and see the slices ready to go. You have probably wondered at times - how bad is pizza? It turns out, not so bad - as long as you don’t get the slices loaded with pepperoni or sausage. An average slice of NYC style pizza has approximately 500 calories. The thinner crust slices would have less (I haven’t figures these calories exactly yet!).

For a woman watching her weight, I usually suggest a 400 calorie lunch. Go ahead and have your slice … if you can keep it to one! It wouldn’t be a bad idea to add a salad to help fill yourself up. Avoid the slices with pepperoni or sausage as they will add another 200 calories or so. If available, choose a whole wheat slice or one with vegetables.

For guys, I usually recommend a 500-600 calorie lunch.  Your best bet would be to try to stick to one slice with a salad. If you NEED to have 2 slices, just make the other meal a bit lighter.

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Do you grab your lunch on the run? Wondering how healthy or unhealthy your favorite lunch choice is?  Or maybe you are stuck on the same old turkey sandwich or salad with grilled chicken and are looking for new lunch ideas.

I’ve decided instead of always bringing lunch from home (’m such a good nutritionist!), I’d start buying more lunches from the outside so I could investigate the nutritional content. Ok - so I’ll deal with the ridiculous prices for a lunch bought in midtown NYC for the sake of research. In the privacy of my office, I’ll dissect my take-out lunch by weighing and measuring the ingredients. Keep in mind that my reported calorie and fat grams will be only estimations as I don’t know exactly how the food is prepared.

So today, I decided to order the Lunch Bento Box Special for $11(from Ginza, NYC ). Here is what arrived:

- salmon teriyaki (3 oz - tiny portion - 180/15 gm fat),
- small california roll (175 cal/3 gm fat) 
- 3 pieces of a steamed vegetable (~ 15 cal/0 gm fat)
- 2 cups miso soup (100 cal/3 gm fat) salad with 4 T. (2 oz ) of orange Japanese salad dressing (200 cal, 20 gm fat)
- 2 shumai dumplings (60 calories)
- 1 cup rice (170 cal/0 gm fat) 

Total calories if you eat the entire meal: 900 calories / 45 gm fat.

Tips to improve this meal:
- omit the side portion of rice
- use only 1/2 of the salad dressing
- eat only the soup or salad

New and improved lunch: 550 calories and 25-31 gm fat.

My comments on this lunch: While the Bento Box appears very healthy, it is deceptively high in calories if you eat the whole thing! It is also a bit on the pricey side for lunch. The salmon teriyaki was dried out and the vegetable portion was very small. On the positive side - I like the fact that you get several different kinds of food in this “box”. It makes lunch more interesting.

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