Healthy Drive-Thru Secrets!

You're famished—or the family's starving and clamoring for you to pull into the next fast-food drive-through or risk mutiny. Saying a reluctant 'yes' to the double cheeseburger, fries, and biggie cola might make everyone happy...but get a grip. The wrong drive-through choices can rack up over a days' worth of calories, fat, and sodium in a single meal.

It doesn't have to be that way. You can emerge from the drive-through lane with delicious, satisfying food that will make you and your passengers happy--if you take advantage of healthier options offered by most fast-food chains these days...and if you know how to avoid added-calorie pitfalls.

Skip these calorie traps:

• Anything with the words "ig" "double" "triple" "king" or "supersized." A double cheeseburger packs nearly 700 calories; a triple, over 1,000. At one chain, a double quarter-pound cheeseburger's got a half of a day's calories (730) and nearly a day's sodium: 1,330 mg. Another popular chain's whopping big double burger with cheese has 1,060 calories.
  
  
• Medium, large, or supersized fries. Love fries? Resist the urge to go big. A "large" order has about 500 calories and a king-size, 600. If you've gotta have fries, make it a special once-a-month treat and go for the smallest possible portion of salty, greasy fried potatoes. At most chains, it packs about 250 calories.