Healthy Eating at Arby’s
Oh yes, here we are again with another Healthy Eating at…post. I originally dreamed up this series because I was struggling making spontaneous unhealthy decisions at fast food restaurants. I KNEW their were some decent choices at fast food joints, but there are also some tricky, sneaky things that hide as healthy food and of course, those completely delicious, completely unhealthy things that are just so darn good!
This series is based on the assumption that sometimes fast food becomes inevitable. Life gets crazy, but fast food doesn’t automatically equal blowing your healthy eating.
Check out the past posts on:
Healthy Eating at Qdoba (my most popular post to date!)
Healthy Eating at a Gas Station
Healthy Eating at Arby’s
Arby’s Pros:
- Nutritional Information on the web so you can easily look up calories, fat, and other nutritional stats before going or while you are there.
- Meats are sliced fresh everyday!
- Nearly all of Arby’s dairy products, including milk and whipped cream, come from the U.S and are sourced locally.
(All info taken from Arbys.com)
Arby’s Cons:
- While their animal products meet USDA standards for humane treatment of animals, we aren’t looking at any organic, hormone-free, grass-fed nothing here.
- Obviously, Arby’s is standard fast food and includes processed ingredients, high sodium and fat content, and generally high calorie counts.
Healthy Choices at Arby’s
Arby’s Roast Beef Classic with apples and water. Yum! I actually had this the other day and it hit my Arby’s craving right on the spot! The sandwich has 360 calories; 14 grams of fat.
Jr Ham and Cheddar Melt. Another yummy sandwich option coming in at 210 calories—you could get two for less than 500 calories or split a few fries with a friend.
Chopped Farmhouse Salad with Roast Turkey. If you’re craving a big salad you can enjoy this one that won’t leave you going “What the heck—how could a salad be 600 calories!!”. Enjoy this salad for 240 calories and top with light Italian dressing for just another 20 calories.
Sides: Grab a side salad with light italian dressing or a bag of apples.
Drinks: Stick to unsweetened ice tea or water.
Definitely Avoid at Arby’s
Source
Sadly, most of these are my favorite Arby’s menu items. (Oh high school, metabolism, come back to me please!)
Beef N Cheddar Mid and Classic range from 450 and 600 calories and 20 and 27 grams of fat respectively. Wowza.
Angus Three Cheese and Bacon. Just don’t. We’re looking at 630 calories and 30 grams of fat and 2220 grams of sodium.
Roast Turkey Ranch and Bacon Market Fresh Sandwich. Let’s clear something up: “Market Fresh” does not mean healthy. at 800 calories and 35 grams of fat this is one of the worst offenders on the menu!!
Sides: 
Curly Fries. You knew they were going to be on here, didn’t you? Yup! Steer clear! Even the smallest size are 400 calories.
Mozzarella Sticks. My mouth waters just thinking of these, but save them for your birthday. 420 calories
Drinks: Shakes. Jamocha shake is a special kind of love to me…it’s what brought me to my love of coffee…but you know, only on your birthday or if you’ve ran 10 miles.
So there are my tips for healthy eating at Arby’s! As you can see it is a difficult restaurant to eat healthy at, but it is not impossible if you end up having to eat there. Think sensibly and plan ahead and you won’t have any unfortunate surprises!
Do you like Arby’s? What’s your favorite menu item? What is your healthy choice there?
Honestly, the only reason I would go to Arby’s is for the fries and horsey sauce. I really don’t care for much of their other food, although I would have a plan small roast beef sandwich if I was super hungry.
We don’t really get fast food often, so when we do, I let myself splurge on things I wouldn’t normally eat.
Their fries are so good…I normally just steal a couple of my husbands fries so I don’t go overboard. 😛
I am not a fan of fast food, but Arby’s is my downfall! I eat it once or twice a year and always get the regular roast beef, small curly fries & a value size jamocha shake.
I KNOW it’s all so bad for me, but I figure 1 or 2 days out of 365 won’t kill me right away! 😉
The Jamocha shake is always a birthday treat for me! SO GOOD!!
I just saw that they sell their fries at the grocery store. I had to really refrain!
I have NEVER set foot in an Arby’s before because I always associate it with garbage. Do they even have salads?
I really like your series of posts in regards to healthy options at Fast Food joints though because I know soooo many people who think stopping in at a salad bar at a grocery store is just SOOOOO time consuming!
They have a few, but they are the unhealthy sort of salads mostly. ha! If I generally eat fast food and have a choice I go to Subway, but a lot of times I’m with other people who make the choice. Also, most grocery stores where I’ve ever lived (granted, mostly small-ish towns in the midwest or deep south Texas,the only excception being Fort Worth) don’t have a hot bar or salad bar. I know they have one at the food co-op here in Kalamazoo that I sometimes go to, but it’s a lot farther away, 40 mins, and is the only store I know of in the city that offers it. 🙁 I WISH there were more options like that around!