Healthy Fast Food Lunch Picks

Au Bon Pain

In an ideal world, you'd steer clear of greasy, high-fat takeout and pack yourself a perfectly balanced lunch to bring to work every day of the week. In the real world, brown bagging can be an extra hassle that you can't always handle. Here's your guide to the healthiest sandwiches, soups, and salads at your favorite grab-and-go lunch spots.

Au Bon Pain

Best Salad: Steak Salad with Cranberries and Mandarin Oranges, Fat-Free Raspberry Vinaigrette
370 calories
7 g fat, 4 g saturated fat
590 mg sodium
7 g fiber
20 g protein

Best Sandwich: Fields and Feta Wrap
551 calories
16 g fat, 4 g saturated fat
880 mg sodium
14 g fiber
20 g protein

Best Soup: Jamaican Black Bean (Reduced Sodium, Low-Fat)
120 calories
1 g fat, 0 g saturated fat
310 mg sodium
17 g fiber
11 g protein

Worst Overall: Chicken Caesar Salad, Caesar Dressing
920 calories
60 g fat, 16 g saturated fat
1,640 mg sodium
4 g fiber
44 g protein

Takeout Tip: Although the Thai Chicken Salad sounds healthiest (just 140 calories and 2.5 g fat, half a gram of which is saturated), ordering the Thai Peanut Dressing to match more than doubles the calories, almost quadruples the fat, and doubles the saturated fat. Sodium also skyrockets from 470 mg to 1,650 mg total. Stick with "lite" or fat-free dressings.