The Most Nutritious Menu Items At Wendy's

If you're looking for a nutritional meal, odds are Wendy's is one of the last restaurants to cross your mind. Delicious though it may be, the fast food chain is known more for its sodium and saturated fats than its vitamins, protein, and fiber. However, if you start digging into the nutritional information of its menu, you may be surprised by how much its offerings can vary from item to item.

We're not saying that Wendy's is nutritious, per se. What we are saying is that some of its menu items can slot into a balanced diet much easier than others. We've studied the beloved burger joint's entire menu to identify those with the most nutritional value. You'd be surprised to learn that doesn't just mean listing out the entire salad section. In fact, some of the menu items that you'd think are up there with the healthiest of the bunch are actually dragged down by the highest amounts of sodium, sugar, or fat. Instead, the highlights span burgers, chicken, and beyond — meaning that no matter what you're craving, you can almost find a nutritional (or, to be more accurate, nutritional-ish) choice.

As one of the most basic burgers on the Wendy's menu, the Jr. Cheeseburger is precisely what you'd expect. It's a relatively small burger, with just the one beef patty (cooked from fresh, never from frozen, as is the Wendy's way), stacked with a slice of American cheese, onion, pickles, ketchup, and mustard. Simple, yet delicious — and not too high in calories either, at just 290 a pop.

What gives this burger a nutritional edge is its protein content. Each burger contains an impressive 14 grams of protein, which is roughly a third of the amount you're recommended to consume per day. The pickles not only add some much-needed crunch but play an important role in regulating your blood sugar, while onions are also packed with antioxidants that have a similar effect.

There are still 6 grams of saturated fat, so we wouldn't recommend making this a daily treat. Still, the fact that this burger contains 640 milligrams of sodium (which is low compared to the numbers you'll find elsewhere on the Wendy's menu) makes it one of our favorite healthy-ish orders from the fast food chain.

Burgers may hog the limelight at Wendy's, but we're huge fans of its non-meat offerings. First introduced in the 1980s, the Plain Baked Potato isn't the most complex or decadent of fast food orders, but it's surprisingly filling and boasts an impressive nutritional profile that's far superior to the alternative of french fries.

Each Plain Baked Potato contains 7 grams of dietary fiber, as well as zero saturated fat (thanks to the absence of any toppings like cream or cheese) and only 40 milligrams of sodium. To be clear, you'll need to eat the entire potato — from the fluffy interior to the crispy skin — to reap those nutritional benefits. The skin is where you'll find most of a potato's fiber, vitamin C, magnesium, and potassium.

Consuming the whole potato may also have a positive impact on your digestive health, with the specific kind of fiber found in spuds — known as resistant starch – acting as a prebiotic that supports the bacteria in your gut. Potatoes have also been praised for their concentration of antioxidants, which help prevent cell damage. Obviously, we're not saying you need to order a Wendy's Plain Baked Potato for the sake of your health, but it doesn't hurt to have these facts at the ready to justify your next order.

If you prefer a little bit more flavor in your carbs, the Sour Cream and Chive Baked Potato is a solid choice. This is exactly the same as the Plain Baked Potato, except, well, it's not plain. Instead, this hot baked potato is topped with a dollop of sour cream and a scattering of chopped chives that marginally increases the calorie count from 270 to 310 calories.

This has the exact same amount of dietary fiber as its plain counterpart and boasts all the other nutritional benefits such as vitamin C, magnesium, and potassium (again, that's only as long as you eat the skin, too). The primary difference is that the Sour Cream and Chive Baked Potato does contain saturated fat. However, at 1.5 grams per serving, this is relatively minimal — especially when you start comparing it to anything else on the Wendy's menu, particularly the potato-based sides. For context, a medium portion of Wendy's French Fries contains nearly twice that amount and only 4 grams of fiber.

The Crispy Chicken Sandwich is the cheapest and smallest of Wendy's chicken burger offerings. Each burger is a simple combination of lightly breaded chicken, crispy lettuce, and mayonnaise that not only takes a light toll on your wallet, but only eats modestly into your daily recommended values at 330 calories apiece.

Like the majority of healthy-ish fast food menu items, the protein content (13 grams per burger, thanks to the lean chicken meat) is what really earns the Wendy's Crispy Chicken Sandwich our stamp of approval. At 540 milligrams, the sodium content also isn't as alarmingly high as some of the restaurant's bulkier burgers, such as the Pretzel Baconator (1,690 milligrams), the Asiago Ranch Classic Chicken Club (1,740 milligrams), and the Crispy Chicken Sandwich's more elaborate older sibling, the Classic Chicken Sandwich (1,450 milligrams).

Again, while it does contain 3 grams of saturated fat, this pales in comparison to the amount of saturated fat in some of Wendy's other burgers. The aforementioned Asiago Ranch Classic Chicken Club, for example, contains 8 grams. If you're looking for an even more nutritious option, you can also try whipping up a copycat Wendy's Crispy Chicken Sandwich at home.

By their very nature, kids' meals tend to be more nutritionally balanced than their adult counterparts because they're smaller. Wendy's Kids' Hamburger is no exception, combining a relatively low calorie count (250 calories) with a proportionately decent 12 grams of protein. True, it's nowhere near as elaborate or exciting as some of the adult-sized burgers on the menu, instead slapping a grilled beef patty between two slices of bread with some ketchup. However, it does the trick when you're absolutely ravenous — and isn't that the point of fast food?

As an added bonus, Wendy's kids' meals come with a choice of Apple Bites or French Fries, plus your pick of the regular Wendy's drink lineup. If maximum nutrition is the goal here, we recommend choosing the Apple Bites (actual vitamins! In a fast food meal!) and either the Nestlé Pure Life Bottled Water or milk for an extra calcium boost.

Chili has been a beloved string in Wendy's bow since day one. Made with leftover hamburgers that are boiled and combined with vegetables, pinto and kidney beans, and spices, the end result is the very definition of warming, filling comfort food. It also happens to be relatively decent from a nutritional standpoint, as is often the case with a bean-based dish.

Both the small and the large Wendy's Chili are low in calories at 240 and 340 calories per serving. No matter which size you order, you'll get a generous dose of protein (16 grams and 22 grams) and fiber (6 grams and 8 grams). The large Chili contains a quarter of your daily recommended iron intake, which is pretty impressive. You'll also get to reap the usual health benefits of pinto and kidney beans, such as their high concentration of polyphenols and flavonoids — aka antioxidants that prevent cell damage — and their positive impact on blood sugar regulation.

Before you start bulk-buying Wendy's Chili and calling it meal prep (it's crossed our mind before), we will note that its sodium content isn't ideal. Even the small size contains nearly 1,000 milligrams of sodium. However, if you're looking for a filling snack in a pinch, this is still one of the stronger options on the Wendy's menu.

McDonald's may have abandoned its attempts to nail the niche of fast food salads, but its biggest burger-based competitor's salad offerings are still going strong. Just don't mistake a tasty salad for a healthy one. While Wendy's salads are stuffed with veggies, the harsh reality is that several of the "healthy" offerings on its menu contain more sodium or fat than some of its burgers.

One of the best nutritional picks from Wendy's salad lineup is the Parmesan Caesar Salad. Made fresh daily, it provides a whopping 31 grams of protein and a respectable 290 calories. Each individual component plays its own vital nutritional role. For example, Romaine lettuce — which makes up the bulk of the salad and serves as the bed for the grilled chicken, Italian cheese, and Parmesan crisps — is packed with high levels of folate, vitamins A and C, and potassium, all of which can have positive effects on cardiovascular health.

Tempting though it may be to drizzle on all of the Caesar dressing, we recommend doing so sparingly — or even skipping it completely. A single portion contains nearly as many calories as the Parmesan Caesar Salad itself (240 calories) and an extra 4.5 grams of saturated fat. Yikes.

There's been some drama over Wendy's Crispy Chicken Nuggets in the past, with data from Kraggle concluding that they're only 37% chicken (despite being advertised on the Wendy's website as "100% white-meat chicken"). Another study from Consumer Reports found that the nuggets contained the highest concentration of phthalates (aka the chemicals that give plastics their flexibility) of all the fast food items tested.

If we ignore the drama surrounding what they may or may not contain, the nutritional profile of Wendy's Kids' 4PC Nuggets benefits massively from the fact that it's a small portion size. Just like the regular Crispy Chicken Nuggets, they're made with 100% white-meat chicken, coated and fried in a seasoned breading with your choice of one of six dipping sauces: Ketchup, Honey Mustard, Sweet & Sour, Ghost Pepper Ranch, BBQ, and Buttermilk Ranch. (If you don't know which one to pick, our personal favorite is BBQ). 

The four nuggets contain a modest 180 calories, backed up with 10 grams of protein and just 380 milligrams of sodium. While they also contain 2.5 grams of saturated fat, that's a much more palatable number than the 6 grams in the biggest portion of Crispy Chicken Nuggets. Plus, the added benefit of ordering the nuggets as a kids' meal instead of from the regular menu is that you can also get a side of Apple Bites and the drink of your choice.

We know that french fries are tempting, but the healthiest side you'll find at Wendy's is the Apple Bites. While they're most commonly served as a side to the kids' meals, they're also available for purchase on their own, making for the perfect snack or nutritious add-on to the rest of your order.

When you compare the numbers to any other Wendy's side, the most significant difference is that there's zero saturated fat or sodium and just 35 calories. There's not much to delve into ingredients-wise here because Apple Bites are, well, apple (plus a touch of calcium ascorbate, a form of vitamin C, for freshness). The serving size isn't huge, but any amount of apple gives you some dose of fiber, vitamin C, and antioxidants that have been proven to support digestion and optimal brain function.

Other benefits include a recorded ability to lower cholesterol, support bone health, and reduce the risk of a stroke. How does the saying go? A packet of Wendy's Apple Bites a day keeps the doctor away ... Or something else along those lines.

There's a lot going on in the Wendy's Cobb Salad. Each bowl contains a blend of Romaine lettuce, grilled chicken, tomatoes, cheddar, chopped eggs, applewood smoked bacon, fried onions, and ranch dressing. That equals a wide range of vitamins and minerals, such as vitamins C and K from the tomatoes, immune system-boosting selenium from the eggs, and vitamin A — which plays a critical role in eye health — in the lettuce.

When you put those ingredients into numbers, that equals a hefty amount of protein (36 grams, to be precise), 420 calories, and 20% of your daily recommended intake of calcium, iron, and potassium. Not too shabby. Like most salads, the thing that drags the Cobb Salad down is the dressing. This adds an extra 4.5 grams of saturated fat to the salad's existing 8 grams, plus another 310 milligrams of sodium and 250 calories. Although that doesn't eliminate the nutritional perks offered by the salad's veggies and protein, you may want to keep the dressing to the side (or drizzle sparingly) to keep the caloric content low.

Breakfast is a touchy subject at Wendy's. The fast food chain first attempted to break into the market in the 1980s, only to pull the entire menu nine months later due to what they claimed was a "service problem" (via Los Angeles Times). Three more failed attempts followed over the decades until the latest iteration launched in 2020 — and was met, finally, with some degree of success.

Today, there are plenty of tasty options on Wendy's morning menu, from croissants to breakfast burritos. The most nutritious of the bunch is the Bacon, Egg & Cheese English Muffin. Sandwiched between two halves of a toasted muffin is American cheese, applewood smoked bacon, and a Grade A egg, fresh from the shell (yep, Wendy's uses actual real whole eggs — a rarity in the world of fast food breakfasts). The finished product is indulgent and surprisingly well-balanced. There's a reason why eggs are the de facto breakfast food. Combined with the bacon, they give the Bacon, Egg & Cheese English Muffin a filling protein count of 17 grams. They also perk up the iron levels, with each muffin providing 15% of your daily recommended values.