Healthy Pick and Makes Me Sick: Baja Fresh

By Sarah Matheny on September 15th, 2009

Anything that has “Fresh” in its name has got to be healthy, right? Not so, mis amigos.

When your kids are clamoring for a little Latin flavor, don’t be fooled into thinking that you are during your family a favor by skipping the Taco Bell drive-thru and classing it up at Baja Fresh. Here’s the rundown, for los ninos y sus padres calientes (translation: the kids and their HOT parents…that’s you).

THE WORST for kids:

Mini Cheese Quesadilla w/Chicken Kids’ Meal

With 650 calories, 27 grams of fat and a horrific 13 grams of saturated fat, this kids’ meal is a poor choice even for a grown up. In fact, all of the kids’ meals come in at over 500 calories and over 7 grams of saturated fat. Apparently Baja Fresh hasn’t heard about the obesity epidemic raging in this country.

BETTER for kids:

Chicken Taco

Skipping the Kids’ Menu entirely is a better bet. The Chicken Taco has only 230 calories, 10 grams of fat and 4.5 grams of saturated fat. I bet if you asked nicely, they’ll even throw it in the Kids’ Meal packaging and your little one might not know the difference. I won’t tell.

WORST for adults:

Bean and Cheese Burrito w/Steak

Ay caramba! This bad boy has 1030 calories and 43 grams of fat, 21 of which are saturated. You might as well wrap a slab of bacon in a tortilla and call it a day.

BETTER for adults:

Baja Ensalada w/Chicken

If ordered without tortilla strips, this salad has 237 calories, 7.5 grams of carbs, an impressive 46 grams of protein and 1 gram of fat. With that much muscle building protein, you’ll look like Madonna in a sombrero in no time.