The Best Fast Food Orders for Pregnancy, Ranked (With the Real Numbers)

Most "pregnancy-safe fast food" lists stop at "this is fine." That's useful, but it doesn't tell you which order is actually the best one when you're hungry, tired and pulling into a drive-thru. So we did the comparison properly.

We took the orders we recommend in our individual restaurant guides and scored them on four things, using each chain's own published nutrition information:

• Safety: how easy it is to order without a raw, cold or undercooked ingredient to worry about.
• Protein: more is better, since pregnancy raises your needs.
• Sodium: lower is better. The FDA's Daily Value is less than 2,300 mg a day.
• Calories: reasonable for one meal, not half your day.

The list is limited to chains where we've read the nutrition guide ourselves. We'll add more as we go. Here's the countdown.

7. CAVA Greek Chicken Pita

720 calories · 48 g protein · 2,230 mg sodium

The most protein on this list by a distance, with hot grilled chicken and plenty of vegetables. It comes last purely on sodium: at 2,230 mg, it uses almost the whole day's Daily Value in one pita. You also need to ask whether the feta is pasteurized, because CAVA doesn't say. Great for a hungry day, but not an everyday pick. See our CAVA guide.

6. Whataburger (the classic)

590 calories · 29 g protein · 1,220 mg sodium

A solid, simple burger with a decent amount of protein. It lands here because it's the highest-calorie burger on the list, and you need to check there's no pink in the middle of the patty. Pair it with apple slices instead of fries and it's a fair meal. See our Whataburger guide.

5. Shake Shack Single ShackBurger

500 calories · 29 g protein · 1,250 mg sodium

Shake Shack has one of the cleanest safety stories in fast food: it says it uses only pasteurized eggs and dairy across the whole menu, so the ShackSauce, cheese and custard are all fine. The one thing to do is ask for the burger well-done, since diners sometimes describe the patties as pink. Skip the Coffee Shake, which has 211 mg of caffeine. See our Shake Shack guide.

4. Shake Shack Chicken Shack

550 calories · 33 g protein · 1,170 mg sodium

It edges out the ShackBurger because there's no doneness question at all: it's crispy fried chicken breast, cooked through. A bit more protein and a little less sodium than the burger make it the better pick at Shake Shack if you're avoiding the "is it pink?" conversation.

3. CAVA Greek Goddess Steak Salad

470 calories · 34 g protein · 1,250 mg sodium

A big, filling bowl with grilled steak, hummus, tzatziki and vegetables, plus iron from the steak and greens. It scores well on every measure. The one adjustment: it comes with feta, so ask whether it's pasteurized or leave it off. The tzatziki is made with yogurt and is fine.

2. Whataburger Grilled Chicken Sandwich

430 calories · 32 g protein · 1,030 mg sodium

The surprise of the list. It has more protein than the classic Whataburger, with fewer calories, less sodium and no pink-patty question, since it's grilled chicken. Add apple slices and a Minute Maid Light Lemonade, which is a commercial product rather than fresh-squeezed, and it's one of the most balanced fast food meals you can get.

1. In-N-Out Hamburger

360 calories · 670 mg sodium

The winner, on simplicity as much as numbers. It has the lowest sodium on the list by a long way, a fresh patty cooked to order, and almost nothing to second-guess. In-N-Out doesn't list protein in the figures we've used, so it doesn't win on that, but if you're watching sodium or swelling, it's the easiest good choice in fast food. Add a second patty if you need more protein. Interestingly, the fries are low in sodium too, at 150 mg. See our In-N-Out guide.

The Full Comparison

Figures are from each chain's own nutrition information for the standard build, without sides or drinks. Customizing your order will change them.

What the Numbers Taught Us

Chicken often beats beef. At both Whataburger and Shake Shack, the chicken sandwich had more protein, less sodium and one fewer thing to check than the burger.

Sodium is the real fast food problem, not safety. Every order here is safe with one small check. But sodium ranged from 670 mg to 2,230 mg, and a side of fries and a sauce can push almost any of them past the daily value. If swelling or blood pressure is a concern, our pregnancy swelling guide explains what actually helps.

"Healthy" chains aren't automatically lower in sodium. The CAVA pita has the most sodium of anything here, even though it's packed with vegetables. Dips and dressings add up.

The drink matters as much as the food. A large sweet tea or a coffee shake can add more sugar or caffeine than the meal itself. Water, a small soda or a commercial lemonade keep things simple.

The Orders We'd Skip

Ranking the best orders is only half the picture. These are the ones that stood out for the wrong reasons in the same nutrition guides:

• Shake Shack Coffee Shake: 211 mg of caffeine. That's more than ACOG's whole daily limit of under 200 mg, in one drink.
• Shake Shack Big Shack: 2,860 mg of sodium. Over the full daily value on its own, before fries.
• Whataburger Buffalo Ranch Chicken Strip Sandwich: 2,790 mg of sodium. Also over the daily value in a single sandwich.
• A large sweet tea anywhere. Brewed black tea has about 48 mg of caffeine per 8 ounces, according to Mayo Clinic, and fountain cups can be 32 or 44 ounces.

None of these are unsafe in the food-poisoning sense. They just make it very easy to blow through your caffeine or sodium for the day without noticing.

How to Make Any Fast Food Order Better

• Go single, not double, unless you need the extra protein.
• Pick one salty extra, not three. Fries, sauce or bacon, rather than all of them.
• Choose water or a small drink.
• Check the one thing that matters at each chain: doneness for burgers, pasteurization for fresh cheese, and fresh-squeezed juice.

For chains not on this list yet, our eating out guide gives you four questions that work on any menu, and our guides to Arby's, Raising Cane's and Five Guys cover more options.

Rankings are our editorial judgment based on published nutrition data, and they are general information rather than medical advice. If you have gestational diabetes, high blood pressure or another condition, follow the targets your care team has set. Nutrition figures change when chains update recipes.