Daily Archives: August 21, 2017

Low Carb Fast Food – Wendy’s

Low Carb Fast Food - Wendy's

I was a little fearful of eating fast foods, but you don’t have to be!  There are almost always options! This is my first fast food post, but I will continue to add new ones as I discover and try them!

Rule of thumb… basically, leave off the breads, breading, potatoes, onions, high carb fruits and veggies and desserts.  Get lettuce wrapped double meat proteins or salads.  Beware of hidden salad carbs, especially in croutons and sugars in dressings or toppings!  If you follow this rule of thumb you can find quite a lot to eat.

Wendy’s is one of my favorite “go to” fast food restaurants!  

My favorite is a single or double cheeseburger with lettuce.  No bun.  No condiments.  Ask for a knife and fork.  They usually put it in a little salad container.  I am always satisfied with the quantity of food. The small amount of carbs keeps my sugars level.



Their 1/4 lb. hamburger patties have 0 Net Carbs!  Cheese has 1 Net Carbs.  Lettuce has 1 Net Carbs. You can go ahead and get the tomato (1 Net Carbs) and pickles, if you like (0 Net Carbs).  I sometimes do and sometimes don’t.

You can do the same for their grilled chicken sandwiches.

Just so you know… their buns have 33 Net Carbs!  Something to be aware of!

My only complaint is that they save money on the buns but they will charge you 20 cents for the lettuce!  Five Guys makes a point of their regular condiments, like lettuce, always being free.  McDonalds also charges 25 cents for the lettuce even though they keep your bun.  My frugal husband thinks you should go ahead and get the bun anyway and just not eat it.  He never wants the establishments to win if the consumer is being gouged a little.

Their salads you will have to watch out for.  Their Taco Salad has 63 Net Carbs!  Their Chicken Salad has 52 Net Carbs!  The lowest carbs I could find on their salads was their Garden Side Salad at 19 Net Carbs, but if you get rid of the croutons (12 Net Carbs) then it has 7 Net Carbs!  You can get that down to 5 Net Carbs if you switch from the Ranch Dressing to a vinaigrette.

See… so their are ways to eat at fast food restaurants!

And just a word about their products. Their burger patties are like I make at home.  You can tell they are “fresh, never frozen” beef patties.  I say this in comparison to McDonald’s.  If there is a choice between the two, I am going to Wendy’s!  (I’d still go to McDonald’s in a pinch, but their burgers are really unappetizing to look at!  And when you are wolfing down a Quarter Pounder with Cheese that is inside of a bun, you don’t really notice what they look like!)  But, I still have a lot of other fast food restaurants to try!  And I will.  And I will report on them all here!

Fatty Liver

liver-2934612_1280So what does “fatty liver” exactly mean?  Doesn’t sound too harmful at first.  We have fat deposits all over the body.  However, fat deposits on organs that keep your body functioning is NOT a good thing!

There is Non Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease or NAFLD.  More than 10% of your liver is fat.  There is Alcoholic Fatty Liver (ALD).  Similar to NAFLD but brought about by heavy drinking.  You can reverse these unless it has lead to cirrhosis of the liver.  Cirrhosis is incurable and has a host of causes including fatty liver diseases, hepatitis B & C and heavy drinking. There is also Acute Fatty Liver in Pregnancy which is rare and life threatening in the third trimester.

A severe form of non-alcoholic fatty liver is called nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (or NASH) and is like the damage heavy alcohol use can do to your liver and can lead to irreversible damage, scarring and progress to cirrhosis and liver failure.  Liver failure means a transplant is your only option to continue living.  Scary right?  It should be!

Fatty liver often happens with the combination of being overweight or obese, have high blood sugar, have high fats (triglycerides) in your blood and your insulin are not working with your cells to utilize sugar properly.  Type 2 Diabetes often increases chances of having a fatty liver.  Insulin resistance is definitely linked to having a fatty liver. Sometimes this all progresses to NASH, but not always.

So how do you know you have a fatty liver?  Your doctor has to diagnose it. There are blood and other tests that they will perform. Usually there are no signs or symptoms.  However, you may have an enlarged liver, pain in that area and be fatigued. (NASH has a whole other set of symptoms that are quite visible, particularly jaundice.  ALWAYS see your doctor if the whites of your eyes or your skin is yellowish.)

The thing is, you can DO something to sometimes reverse this or at the very least lessen its affects. Okay, maybe your genetics plays a small or large hand in this, but you CAN reduce your weight, sugar and blood fats through diet and exercise leading to better managed diabetes and fatty liver.  Aim to reduce your weight by at least 10%.  Don’t let this progress to liver failure!

For more information, follow this link:
Mayo Clinic – Fatty Liver (non-alcoholic)