Chick-Fil-A Sauces You Need To Avoid
Chick-fil-a is a popular fast-food restaurant known for its chicken sandwiches and waffle fries. Closed on Sundays, this restaurant has developed a passionate fanbase of customers who will drive for miles to get something off the menu. While many people visit Chick-fil-a without calories in mind, some people head to the restaurant looking for a lighter meal.
Chick-fil-a offers a range of healthier meal options, from grilled chicken nuggets to grilled chicken wraps. But when deciding what to eat, many health-conscious individuals forget to take into account an important item: the sauces. Dipping sauces at Chick-fil-a can range from 25 to 140 calories per serving, which can add a lot of extra sugar and fat to your meal (via Chick-fil-a). It's also hard to limit yourself to one container, which means you could be adding hundreds of calories to your meal through sauce alone. While these tasty sauces add a punch of flavor to your meal, they're not always the best choice if you're watching your calories.
Sauces you should avoid at Chick-fil-a
Two of the worst offenders on the menu at Chick-fil-a are the Garden Herb Ranch Sauce and signature Chick-fil-a Sauce. Both single sizes contain 140 calories. If you can limit yourself to a single sauce packet per meal you may be okay, but can anyone really do that?
These two sauces also have a high fat content, with the Garden Herb Ranch sauce containing 15 grams and Chick-fil-A sauce containing 13 grams per serving (via Chick-fil-a). According to the Cleveland Clinic, the average adult should consume no more than 44 to 77 grams of fat each day depending on their total calorie intake. If you're on the lower end of that range, two containers of the Garden Herb Ranch Sauce can take up over half of your daily recommended fat intake. Another sauce you may want to avoid at Chick-fil-a is the Polynesian Sauce. This sauce contains 110 calories per serving with 6 grams of fat and 12 grams of sugar. While this isn't the worst sauce on the menu, it isn't the best either.
Healthiest sauces at Chick-fil-A
Fortunately, your chicken nuggets don't have to be completely dry for you to stay healthy. Chick-fil-A offers nine different sauces to choose from. The lowest calorie option is the Zesty Buffalo Sauce which only has 25 calories per container. However, keep an eye on the sodium level — at 570 grams, it packs a salty punch.
Chick-fil-A's Sweet and Spicy Sriracha Sauce and Barbecue Sauce are two more decent options at only 45 calories per serving. Neither contain any fat and both have a relatively low sodium content, so these are probably your best sauce options when looking at the entire nutrition label. The Honey Mustard Sauce is another healthy option with 50 calories per serving and 0 grams of fat.
What if you absolutely love Chick-fil-A Sauce, Garden Herb Ranch Sauce, or any of the other condiments that didn't make it onto the healthy list? It's okay. As with all indulgences, eating higher-calorie treats is fine as long as you do so in moderation. Keri Gans, MS, R.D.N, C.D.N., a New York City-based registered dietician, told TODAY Food that it's best to stick with one packet when it comes to fast-food sauces and dressings. So go ahead and enjoy the Chick-fil-A Sauce — just don't grab more than one packet at a time.