What are the healthiest options to eat at Culver's?

1/3 of all commercials in America are related to fast food.

Yet, research shows that a diet rich in processed foods leads to cancer and obesity, which also doubles your risk for cancer.

But, what should you do when you are hit with a plethora of information every day, and what happens when you can’t stick to your diet, you are on a budget, or you need to make the healthiest option on your vacation, and you find yourself at Culver’s?

It is never easy to make the healthiest decision when you are at the counter, but below is our list of what you should eat to choose the “healthier” option when you go to Culver’a s.

Healthy options will focus on 4 main factors:

Lowest Calories: We know that a diet with excess calories leads to increased weigh gain, so by limiting how many calories you eat, you will be able to lose fat.
Make sure to avoid extra calories from condiments, sauce, and cooking oil, which quickly add calories to your meal.
Instead, look for options with fresh and raw vegetables, stick with 0 calorie drinks, split your dessert, share your fries, and request your sauce on the side.
Enough Lean Protein: The golden rule is to have at least a 10% ratio of protein to calories.
So, if your meal is 400 calories, you’d want to have AT LEAST 40 grams (g) of protein for it to be considered a high-protein meal.
Eating enough protein fills you up more, reduces cravings, lowers your blood sugar spike, and helps maintain muscle. Protein makes fat loss and muscle gain easier.
Look for options that are grilled instead of fried to reduce calories, poor gut health, unhealthy fats, and sodium content.
Lowest Sodium Content: We know that a diet rich in sodium is a straight road to heart disease and high blood pressure.
The American Heart Association recommends no more than 2,300 milligrams (mg) of sodium a day. However <1,500 mg per day is optimal for most adults.
Even cutting back 1,000 mg of sodium a day can significantly improve your blood pressure and heart health.
Fiber. We know that processed fast foods increase the risk of colon cancer.
So, what you eat and how much fiber it has is particularly important for cancer prevention.
That being said, fast food is NEVER where you should be getting your fiber from, BUT every little bit you have adds up.
Currently, the guidelines for a healthy gut recommend eating a total of 25 - 35 g of fiber a day from your food.

However, that is easier said than done, and when you have 1 minute to order at the Culver’s counter, the healthiest option to eat at Culver’s isn’t the easiest to choose—even with the best effort.

So, let’s dive right in!

Tier 1: The Healthiest options to eat at culver’s

What are the healthiest options to eat at Culver’s?

The healthiest food on the menu at Culver’s will always be a salad with raw vegetables, grilled chicken, and water. But, there are also decent alternative options at Culver’s if you are not in the mood for that.

The Chicken Cashew Salad has 460 calories, 870 mg sodium, 3 g fiber, and a generous 46 g protein. Eating the chicken cashew salad and steamed broccoli will always by far be the healthiest options on the menu and has the best protein content of all the other options on the menu.
Grilled Chicken Sandwich w/ No Pickles. This option offers 390 calories, 910 mg of sodium (or 1070 mg with pickles), 1 g of fiber, and 41 g of protein! While The Grilled Chicken Sandwich may have the most sodium and lowest amount of fiber out of the other options, it does carry the most protein per calories of all the options on the menu. You may not always be in the mood for a salad, so this is a great alternative.

In both of these cases, while the amount of sodium is higher than other options, the freshness of the ingredients, lower calories, and high protein outweigh the downside of the sodium content.

All the options will be split into tiers and are in order of priority—from healthiest to least healthiest in their respective tier.

Tier 2: Surprisingly “better” options to eat at culver’s

These options qualify as “better” because while they’re not the healthiest option on the menu, they are far better than anything else on the menu when you are looking for something filling to eat.

Beef Pot Roast Sandwich is a moderately better option than most other options on the menu with 410 calories, 740 mg of sodium, 1g of fiber, and 31 g of protein. It only has slightly more calories for significantly more protein than any other melts, sandwiches, and/or burgers.
Butter Burger (Single) has only 390 calories, 480 mg of sodium, 1 g of fiber, and 20 g of protein. This is one of the only options on the menu that you could make a double if you wanted to becuase it is tied for the lowest calories and has significantly less protein than any of the other options. This is a good option if you want to keep your calories and sodium low.

Obviously, the best thing to eat will be dependent upon you and your goals. If you don’t need to watch your sodium, then the grilled chicken will be best for you, but if calories and sodium is something to be mindful of, then the butter burger may be better.

Tier 3: Tasty, but you could do better

These options will not qualify as the best or worst things on the menu, but they are nowhere near the healthiest option at Culver’s either.

That being said, you should stick with either tier 1 or 2, as these should be a last option to consider.

Wisconsin Cheese Melt
Sourdough Melt
Each holds an equal value, with ~470-490 calories, 540 mg of sodium, 4g of fiber, and 27g of protein. These are tied on the list because, surprisingly, they have the same amount of protein per calories as the butter burger. While a burger is not really where you should be getting your fiber from, it does add to your daily amount.

Ideally this should be avoided—at best.

Eating processed foods can lead to a lot of weight gain.

Tier 4: Avoid The “Sneaky Sodium”

While these aren’t super high in calories, they don’t contain much protein and can be high in sodium.

This means you are mostly getting empty calories. Eating empty calories is one of the worst things you can do for your health.

Tier 2 would be a better option than this.

70% of the sodium Americans eat does not come from the salt shaker at home, but instead, it comes from packaged, pre-made foods and restaurant meals.

That being said, it is challenging to avoid high-sodium meals when dining at fast-food restaurants or buying prepackaged meals.

So, know that just because something homemade may be healthy, it is not the same when it comes from a fast food joint.

Georges Chili is a great example of a healthy home meal turned bad at a fast food restaurant. Even your smallest order has 310 calories, 1490 mg of sodium (which by the way is 65% of your total recommend amount), 6 g of dietary fiber (not much different than the burger) and only 18 g of protein. In this case you would be better off getting a Beef Pot Roast Sandwich.
Pretzel Bites with cheese have 450 calories, 840 mg of sodium, 2 g of fiber, and 15 g of protein. 15 g of protein may seem like a great amount at first, but that’s only 3% of the calories. Once again, you’d be better off with a single butter burger in this case. You’d get more protein, less calories, and less sodium.

Harvest Veggie Burger may sound like a good option because of the word “veggie” in it. But in reality, it is just processed food in disguise. It has 590 calories, 1080 mg of sodium, 6 g of fiber, and only 19 g of protein. The veggie burger literally has more calories, more sodium, and less protein than a double butter burger, which has 560 calories, 580 mg of sodium, 1 g of fiber, and 34 g of protein. So, it is not your healthier option by any means.
Soups! While they are some of the lowest calorie options on the menu, a home made soup is NOT the same as a fast food restaurant soup. Soups at a restaurant pack a punch on the amount of sodium they bring. You may be thinking you are making the healthier option by getting the broccoli and cheese soup for 250 calories, but with 1250mg of sodium, only 1 gram of fiber, and only 11g of protein, you will find yourself hungry again within an hour, thirsty, and with high blood pressure. A healthier option, in this case, would be steamed broccoli and mashed potatoes with gravy for only 170 calories, 450 mg of sodium, 5 g of fiber, and 7 g of protein.

Tier 5: Eliminate The worst items to eat!

Obviously, anything that is not mentioned in this blog should be avoided, since they wouldn’t be the healthy options on the menu.

However, there are some options in particular that may sneak up as healthier options that can lead you astray

Below you’ll find some of the worst options to have when trying to eat healthy at Culver’s.

Bratwurst Pub Burger PER SANDWICH has 1,010 calories, 2,100 mg sodium, 2 g fiber, and 53 g protein. This one meal maxes out your sodium for the day.
Curder Burger PER SANDWICH has 920 calories, 1,455 mg sodium, 3 g fiber, and 35 g protein. It’s a heart attack waiting to happen.
North Atlantic Cod Dinner PER MEAL has 920 calories, 950 mg of sodium, 0 g fiber, and 37 g protein. Please. Don’t have the fish at a fast food joint.
Bacon Delux PER SANDWICH has 850 calories 1,205 mg sodium, 1 g fiber, 43 g protein. Only 5% of the calories are from protein.
The Ruben PER SANDWICH has 660 calories, 1,840 mg sodium, 4 g fiber, and 37 g protein. With this much sodium, your gut health is guaranteed to be poor.
Pork Loin PER MEAL has 630 calories , 900 mg of sodium, 3g of fiber, and only 18g of protein. This has less calories than the fish with just as much sodium. Not worth it!
Butterfly Jumbo Shrimp PER MEAL has 530 calories, 1,700 mg sodium, only 2 g fiber, 17 g protein. Comes second on the most-sodium-content-per-meal list. It’s just not worth it!

All these items on the menu should be eliminated from your diet when you are looking to eat healthier.

They contain the highest amounts of calories, saturated fats, sodium, and have the least amount of protein per calorie.

In other words, you are eating a bunch of calories, an insane amount of sodium, deadly amounts of fat, and with very little benefit.

how to eat healthier when eating out at culvers

Of course, we know that processed food and sugary drinks is one of the leading causes of cancer in the world

But, by limiting terrible choices for better options, you will be able to reduce your risk of cancer, lower your risk of heart disease, and feel better.

The goal is to make the next best choice when it comes to food. Every time you eat, it is a small investment to your health, so the more you practice it, the better.

This does not mean you need to make a drastic change to your lifestyle. But it does mean you need to be mindful of making small changes where you can.

For example, going from a greasy burger to a salad can be a huge jump for some people, but choosing a grilled chicken sandwich is an easier transition.

Even if you have to choose no fries or small fries with a diet coke, you are limiting your calories and making the healthier choice for you.

The choices you make all add up to a better, healthier lifestyle.

So, we hope this blog helps you make the healthiest choice when going out to eat at Culver’s.