Healthy Restaurant Eating: Chipotle
It can be challenging to make healthy choices when eating out. Luckily, one place that is a good option is Chipotle! Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of high-fat and high-calorie choices here as well, but if you know what to order, you can get a nutritious meal that tastes delicious. In today’s post, I’ll share my favorite go-to options when eating at Chipotle plus give you a few things to stay away from.
Menu
Chipotle’s menu is pretty simple. The idea is that you get to build a burrito, tacos, bowl, or salad with a variety of ingredients, including:
Protein - chicken, steak, barbacoa, carnitas, and sofritas (plant-based protein)
Beans - black or pinto
Rice - white or brown
Fajita veggies
Salsa - 4 different options
Guacamole
Sour cream
Cheese
Queso
Romaine lettuce (or supergreens blend when you order a salad)
Special dietary needs
Chipotle’s website has an excellent resource for those with any food allergies or intolerances. It’s easy to make your meal gluten-free, though be cautious if you have Celiac disease because there is gluten in the flour tortillas which can contaminate gluten-free foods.
Dairy is an easy one to avoid at Chipotle, just be sure you ask for no cheese, sour cream, or queso. All of Chipotle’s foods are free of nuts, eggs, and shellfish. Soy is only present in the plant-based protein (sofritas). As you can see, it’s easy to make a meal that is allergy-friendly!
Nutritional considerations
Chipotle is very transparent about the ingredients present in its food. So many restaurant foods contain numerous ingredients and it can be challenging to find what these ingredients actually are. Additionally, it’s easy to calculate the nutrition of your meal so you know exactly what you are eating.
Carbs
Carbs are delicious and Chipotle has plenty of them: chips, tortillas, rice, beans, and corn. As I’ve discussed in past blog posts, carbs are good for you in small quantities. Eating too many carbs at once can raise blood sugar levels, especially for people with diabetes. Even if you don’t have diabetes, overdoing it on carbs can make you gain weight or make it harder to lose weight. Here is the carb content of Chipotle’s carb-containing menu items (grams of carb listed are for standard portion sizes but can vary):
| Food | Amount of carbohydrate |
|---|---|
| Large chips | 126 grams |
| Regular chips | 73 grams |
| Tortilla (burrito size) | 50 grams |
| White rice | 40 grams |
| Brown rice | 36 grams |
| Black beans | 22 grams |
| Pinto beans | 21 grams |
| Roasted chili-corn salsa | 16 grams |
| Soft flour tortilla (taco-size) | 13 grams |
| Crispy corn tortilla | 10 grams |
As you can see, the carbs will add up quickly when you put your meal together! Just imagine making a burrito with white rice and black beans. All of a sudden you are up to 112 grams of carbs before adding other toppings! If you’d like to lower the carbs in your Chipotle meal, try getting a bowl instead of a burrito or skipping the rice in your burrito. Chipotle has several Lifestyle Bowls to choose from if you are looking for healthier options, including low-carb.
Fat
Chicken, steak, and barbacoa are the lowest fat protein items on Chipotle’s menu, though you could also forgo the meat and make your meal vegetarian. Did you know that you can get guacamole for free if you choose to make your bowl, burrito, salad, or tacos vegetarian? Guacamole does contain fat, but it is the healthy kind so would be a more heart-healthy option than meat. Skipping the queso, cheese, and sour cream would be another way to reduce the less healthy saturated fats.
Sodium
As you may know, restaurant meals are notoriously high in sodium. Here are some of the highest sodium options at Chipotle:
| Food | Amount of sodium |
|---|---|
| Large queso | 980 mg |
| Vinaigrette dressing | 850 mg |
| Large guacamole | 740 mg |
| Tortilla (burrito-size) | 600 mg |
| Large chips | 590 mg |
| Fresh tomato salsa | 550 mg |
| Barbacoa | 530 mg |
| Tomatillo-Red Chili salsa | 500 mg |
It’s recommended to limit your daily intake of sodium to 2,300 mg or less. As you can see, this would be challenging based on the sodium content of the items listed above! It’s impossible to avoid sodium at Chipotle but some ways to lower the sodium in your meal include:
Choose the crispy corn tortillas over the flour tortillas for your tacos (save 160 mg of sodium per tortilla).
Use only half the dressing on your salad (save 425 mg of sodium).
Order chicken, as this is the lowest sodium meat option, or make your bowl vegetarian with fajita veggies instead of meat.
Choose brown rice instead of white rice (save 160 mg of sodium).
Order tomatillo-green chili salsa instead of the fresh tomato salsa (save 290 mg of sodium).
Order a bowl with greens as your base instead of rice or tortilla, both of which are high in sodium (save 600 mg of sodium if you get greens instead of a tortilla).
What to order?
Depending on your health goals, ordering something healthy at Chipotle is possible. Here are some of my top choices:
| Item | Carbs | Fat | Sodium |
|---|---|---|---|
Vegetarian Bowl
|
75 gm | 30 gm | 1,180 mg |
Tacos
|
61 gm | 18 gm | 930 mg |
Salad
|
50 gm | 11 gm | 1,045 mg |
Like any restaurant, it can take a little research to figure out which items are healthiest, but with a little planning, you can make the right choice for you. Try looking at the menu ahead of time so you know what to order next time you go to Chipotle or any other restaurant that makes nutrition information available. Stay tuned for more healthy restaurant eating tips in future blog posts!
