Steak 'N Shake Nutrition
Fast Food Nutrition
Hot on the heels of the success of “Eat This, Not That”, there’s a wildly popular idea that making the best of a bad food situation is the most we can hope for. As a nutritionist, I hope people don’t find themselves in these situations too often. However, if your best laid plans for eating real whole foods have somehow flown out the window, and you find your car on a collision course with a Steak N Shake, here’s what you need to know to survive:
Macronutrients - Protein, Carbs and Fats
In an perfect world, each meal would consist of a healthy balance of lean proteins, complex carbohydrates and healthy fats for around 500 calories. Protein and carbs both have 4 calories per gm, while fat has 9 calories per gm, so high fat foods can really spike the calorie count.
The Grilled Portobello ’n Swiss Burger has 770 calories, a whooping 500 of them coming from fat. That works out to 56 gm of fat (16 gm of artery clogging saturated fat and 3.5 gm of trans fat) The remaining calories give you 43 gm of carbohydrates and 26 gm of protein. Although 26 gm of protein is a good amount, those carbohydrates are “simple carbs” coming from the white bread bun and turn to sugar very easily. This is the worst of the Original Steakburger choices, with the highest calories, most fat, and double the recommended daily allowance (RDA) of trans fat.
Avoid all the Classic Melts, none of which have less than 650 calories with at least half of them coming from fat. The Frisco Melt is the worst of the bunch, with 17 gm of saturated fat; almost the entire day’s worth!
Although you might think chili is a safe best, a bowl of Chili Deluxe is the highest calorie item on the menu (1220 calories) with 74 gm of fat and 39 gm of saturated fat; that’s double the RDA for the average adult. In its favor is its 20 gm of fiber, but that one redeeming nutritional fact doesn’t make up for the 2560 mg of sodium or the 2.5 gm of trans fat.
Small Portions, Fewer Calories, More Vitamins and Minerals
Keep your portion sizes small to minimize the damage of eating fast food. If you absolutely must have a burger, then the Single Steakburger has a mere 280 calories, with 100 of them coming from fat. If you add cheese, you add an additional 50 calories, 40 of them fat calories, which adds 4 gm of saturated fat to your total.
The Turkey Club Sandwich and the Grilled Chicken Sandwich are also decent choices, with only 1/3 of their 420 calories coming from fat. Your best bet is to make a meal of several small sides, starting with a cup of Vegetable Soup or Chicken Gumbo Soup (the soups are high in sodium, so avoid the larger serving).
Enjoy the Apple Harvest Walnut Salad which has 70% of the vitamin A and 45% of the vitamin C needed daily, and choose the Reduced Fat Berry Balsamic Vinigrette, which has 1/3 the calories of the Ranch Dressing. Finish your meal with a serving of Mandarin Oranges for dessert for only 60 calories and 30% of your vitamin C.
There are better choices to be made, and hopefully with this guide to Steak ‘N Shake nutrition, a little common sense, and a lot of self-control, you can occasionally make the best of a bad situation. However, with foresight and good planning, you won’t find yourself settling for fast food too often.
References
Steak n Shake Nutrition Data, https://sns-com.s3.amazonaws.com/pdfs/sept2010/SNS_nutritionals.pdf