Eat Chipotle and don't feel bad about it.

I know, you probably don’t believe me.

If you follow these few rules, Chipotle can be a super clean and healthy meal.

1. Don’t add cheese, sour cream, or the tortilla. One flour tortilla is 290 empty calories and 670g of sodium (!!!). You don’t need it.  Don’t do it.

2. Don’t get chips. The bag of chips is supposed to be only 4oz of chips–that’s 570 calories and 420 grams of sodium. Probably more than your bowl will add up to. Also, I’ve measured our chip bags before (on a kitchen scale) and usually it’s closer to 7-8 ounces. That’s over 1,000 calories in chips.

3. If you get the salad….Be aware that the dressing is 260 calories, 700g of sodium. Unless they add more than 2 oz to your container (because they don’t measure, they just pour) then you’re likely looking at more.

So what can you eat?

1. Brown rice

2. Black beans (pinto beans win runner up.)

3. Fajita Veggies! The grilled green peppers and red onions will beef up your bowl, add nutrition, and almost no calories.

4. Any meat. Or go veg! The carnitas is highest in fat and sodium, but it’s not disgustingly high, so if you love carnitas, don’t feel bad.

5. Green tomatillo salsa: Lowest in sodium, delicious, and green. Mmmm.

6. Guacamole!! It adds calories and fat, but it’s made of avocado, which is a superfood. And the fat is the healthy kind that’s good for your heart, cholesterol, and overall health.

Ingredients with Integrity

The Chioptle website boasts organic, locally grown, preservative and hormone and antibiotic free… “when possible”.

This is a screenshot from their website:

To assume that all of their ingredients are 100% certified organic is probably a bit much, and I guess there’s no way to tell for sure. Maybe it’s just semantics, but it seems a little too good to be true. I don’t strictly buy only organic meat and veggies anyway, so I don’t mind that Chipotle might not be perfect. It’s clean. It’s healthy. It’s real. It’s fast. It’s delicious.