The 10 'Healthiest' Things You Can Order At Five Guys
If you're looking for a healthy meal on the go, chances aren't likely you'll be considering Five Guys. The burger-focused fast-food chain with hundreds of locations spread out across the country is known for fast food, not fat-free food, but what it does offer might just surprise you with its health benefits.
While mammoth burgers, generous portions of french fries, and tantalizing milkshakes aren't compatible with most health goals, you can still find items on the Five Guys menu that aren't as high in sodium, fat content, and carbs than you might assume. At the very least, you'll find menu alternatives that make for better choices.
Yes, the Five Guys menu is limited, and there isn't a lot of wiggle room. But you can still find something to chow down on (and enjoy) if you're watching what you eat. Here's what to order at Five Guys.
Healthiest overall burger: Little Hamburger
Five Guys is known for its hamburgers over everything else. You step up to the counter, place your burger order, and lay out the toppings you want, and then the cashier shouts out the number of patties to cook to your order, right then and there. While some Five Guys' burgers come stacked with multiple patties and multiple pieces of cheese, plus some bacon, that's not the case for all and, if you're looking for your overall healthiest option, you'll want to steer clear of those and just go with the Little Hamburger.
Unlike the regular burgers that come with multiple beef patties, the Little Hamburger only features one, and comes with as many toppings as you want. Choose some healthier topping options and maybe forgo a bun for a lettuce wrap and you'll find that this is hardly an unhealthy choice at all. Sitting at 26 grams of fat and 380 milligrams of sodium, it contains nearly a third of the fat and sodium that you'll find in the bacon cheeseburger, keeping you well below the U.S. Food & Drug Administration's daily sodium intake recommendations, intended to help prevent premature illness and cardiovascular disease.
Healthiest overall hot dog: Regular hot dog
Hot dogs are not exactly renowned as a doctor-approved part of a healthy diet. In 2022, the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine published an article on the organization's website literally titled, "Hot Dogs are Hazardous to Your Health." The article mentioned links between processed meats like hot dogs and cancer, and estimated that eating one hot dog a day could increase your risk of colorectal cancer by nearly 20%.
All that aside, though, no one can deny that hot dogs, even fast-food hot dogs, are pretty tasty; so long as you're not eating one every single day, they can be a part of a balanced diet. At Five Guys, you've got four hot dog options. While the most sodium-laden, carb-laden one of them all is covered in bacon and cheese, if you want to go the healthier route, opt for the regular hot dog, which only has about 500 calories. Unfortunately, the dog does come with 1,130 milligrams of sodium, so you'll want to watch your intake for the rest of the day to ensure you don't overextend your consumption, per the U.S. Food & Drug Administration's recommendations.
Healthiest overall fries: Small fries
The great news about Five Guys fries? Even if you order a small, the way the employees stuff those white and red cylinders full of spuds, overflowing into your brown paper bag, means your small serving will hardly feel skimpy. There are two types of Five Guys fries: the original style with just salt, and the Cajun style, topped with Cajun spices. Both are comparable in terms of nutritional content.
While ordering a small serving of the fries will help you cut down on extra fat and calories, you'll be glad to know that all of Five Guys' fries are fried in cholesterol-free peanut oil. While peanut oil isn't all good, it does come with a few health benefits. As Healthline explains, peanut oil boasts high levels of Vitamin E, monounsaturated fat, and polyunsaturated fat, of which the latter two may help reduce cardiovascular disease while possibly improving blood sugar.
Healthiest milkshake if you're cutting out carbs: Strawberry
For a sweet indulgence, look to Five Guys' milkshakes. They come plain, but with the mix-in flavor of your choice, ranging from bacon to Oreo. Depending on which flavor you choose, the carb, fat, and sodium content will all change. But if you're trying to cut down on your carbs, you'll want to go with the strawberry milkshake, one of two flavor options to boast zero carbs (the other is the bacon, but for obvious reasons, that option is less healthy).
Keeping an eye on your carb consumption, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention explains, can help you better manage your blood sugar levels. This results in a longer, better quality of life and prevents a range of diseases, from cardiovascular to kidney disease. While carb requirements differ based on variables like activity level, the Mayo Clinic reports that carbs should account for about 45% to 65% of your daily calories.
Healthiest milkshake if you're cutting out sodium: Vanilla
If you're not worried about carbs at all, but are instead trying to ease up on your sodium intake, you might want to go with a Five Guys vanilla milkshake. Depending on the size, the vanilla shake will only include about 3 to 11 milligrams of sodium — a far cry from the 440 milligrams of sodium that could be found in various Five Guys peanut butter milkshakes.
While this much sodium might not seem like a big deal, federal guidelines encourage no more than 2,300 milligrams of sodium per day; it's worth noting, as the U.S. Food & Drug Administration does, that the average American eats about 3,400 milligrams of sodium per day without even realizing it. Sodium hides in a range of foods, especially processed and packaged foods. This extra sodium can lead to a bevy of health problems, including high blood pressure, stroke, and other cardiovascular issues.
Healthiest sandwich if you're cutting out fat: Veggie sandwich
While Five Guys may be best known for burgers and fries, it also has a few sandwiches on the menu, in case you're not feeling a burger on the day of your visit.
The veggie sandwich is pretty customizable, but the standard consists of grilled onions, mushrooms, and peppers with fresh lettuce and tomatoes on a bun. The overall result is a sandwich that comes in at just a few hundred calories and 15 total grams of fat. However, not all fats are the same. Dig a little bit deeper into the Five Guys nutrition guide and you'll see that most of that fat comes from the sandwich's bun, with its 3.5 grams of saturated fat and 0 grams of trans fat.
So, what does this mean for your health? Well, according to the American Heart Association, you should limit your saturated fat intake to about 13 grams per day if you're following a 2,000-calorie-per-day diet. The American Heart Association also recommends lowering your trans fat intake overall, as much as possible. So, if you go with this sandwich, and are trying to cut down on your saturated fat and trans fat intake, you can rest assured that you'll be well within your healthy limits.
Healthiest sandwich if you're cutting out sodium or carbs: Grilled cheese
While, among Five Guys' sandwiches, the veggie sandwich may boast the least overall fat content, that sandwich does come with more than a thousand milligrams of sodium and 60 carbs, making it potentially bad news if you're trying to cut down on either of those. If that's the case, opt instead for the grilled cheese, which also comes on a bun and with toppings (if you so desire), but a base of American cheese. The sandwich contains the least carbs and the least sodium of all the Five Guys sandwich options, at 41 grams and 715 milligrams, respectively.
If 41 grams of carbs still feels like a lot, it's important to note the Mayo Clinic's designation of carbs as the body's fuel. You need carbs to keep going, so they're not a bad thing. You just don't want too many of them that won't be put to use.
Healthiest grilled topping: Onions
One of the highlights of the Five Guys dining experience is choosing all your toppings. After you've picked out your burger, hot dog, or sandwich, no matter how healthy you go (or don't), you get a list of toppings you can add on at no charge. These choices include grilled vegetables, fresh veggies, and condiments. If you're going the grilled route, your healthiest topping is the grilled onions, with a mere 10 calories, 2 carbs and 1 milligram of sodium per serving.
Beyond this, though, the unassuming onion actually has a lot of health benefits. According to Real Simple, studies have shown that onions can reduce high blood pressure, support your immune system with antioxidants, and even reduce the risk of certain cancers. Some of these benefits are specific to certain kinds and colors of onions, but not all; there's plenty of reason to start adding more onions to your diet.
Healthiest condiment: Mustard
Condiments may seem innocent enough, but they're often hiding large amounts of salt and sugar. As a wellness dietitian from Houston Methodist pointed out, you can find as much as four packets' worth of sugar in just two tablespoons of some barbecue sauces, and nearly 15% of your daily sodium value in just a spoonful of some hot sauces. This is bad news when you consider how often folks just pour on condiments without really even thinking about them.
This isn't the case with all condiments; at Five Guys, you can slather on mustard with no worries, as this healthiest condiment among the restaurant's topping options comes with zero calories, zero carbs, and zero fat. The only thing to watch is the 55 milligrams of sodium.
Do note, though, that while some studies have shown various health benefits related to mustard, if you're eating mustard on a hot dog or burger you're not likely to see those benefits because you're eating it in such small quantities (via Very Well Fit). Think of this as more of a neutral condiment. It's not giving you a lot health-wise, but it's not harming you either.
Healthiest veggie topping: Jalapeno peppers
If you were going to pick the healthiest veggie topping on the Five Guys menu, you'd probably guess your best bet was the lettuce or tomatoes, right? After all, lettuce is basically fat and sodium-free, and tomatoes are much the same.
But for your healthiest veggie topping overall, you'll want to look for the jalapenos. With only 5 calories, no fat, no sodium, and less than 1 carb per serving, these chopped peppers provide a spicy kick that's lower in carbs and sodium than lettuce, and lower in calories, carbs, and sodium than tomatoes. Of course, anyone would tell you that eating all of the above, even in a larger quantity, isn't going to be harmful to your health (in fact, SF Gate points out, lettuce and tomatoes contain a lot of the same health benefits, such as fiber and Vitamins A and C), but for the sake of comparison, the jalapeno peppers take the top spot as healthiest veggie topping on the Five Guys menu.