Eating Out On Duty Series: Runza

If you have ever met a  expatriate Nebraskan one of the first things they will complain about is how much they miss Runza.  Runza of course is the trademarked name for the chain of restaurants in Nebraska, although they have locations in Iowa and Colorado too.  The famous Runza sandwich is commonly referred to as a bierock, which like everything in Nebraska has it's origins in Germany.  For the uninitiated its just a bun stuffed with beef, cabbage, cheese, onions etc. In addition to the Runza sandwich the restaurant also has typical American fast food like hamburgers, chicken sandwiches, fries, ice cream etc.

Pulling into Runza I see there is a special sandwich out called the 'Spicy Jack Runza' which also comes in a 1/4# burger and a chicken sandwich. The Spicy Jack series adds pepper jack cheese, jalapenos, bacon and jalapeno ranch to your favorite sandwiches; it looks awesome. Problem is that looking over the nutritional values on the Runza website it's one of the worst things they offer.  The sandwich as 760 calories, 40 grams of fat, 2370mg of sodium, 68 grams of carbs and 28 grams of protein.  The number of calories and fat are overwhelming but the sodium numbers really jump out. To give you an idea the Mayo Clinic recommends keeping your sodium intake to under 2300mg per day.  Don't worry the Spicy Jack Runza takes care of that in one sandwich.  Let's put this information in the context of a whole meal; a Spicy Jack Runza, medium fries and a drink.

Spicy Jack Runza: 760 calories, 40g fat, 2370mg sodium, 68g carbs, 28g protein
Medium Fries: 320 calories, 15g fat, 430mg sodium, 41g carbs, 4g  protein
Medium Pepsi: 210 calories, 0g fat, 40mg sodium, 59g carbs, 0g protein
Meal Total: 1290 calories, 55g fat, 2840mg sodium, 168g carbs, 32g protein.

Instead let's have a deluxe grilled chicken sandwich, small fries and an iced tea.

Deluxe Grilled Chicken sandwich: 360 calories, 11g fat, 1420 mg sodium, 37g carbs, 30g protein
Small Fries: 220 calories, 11g fat, 310mg sodium, 29g carbs, 3g protein.
Medium Iced Tea: 0s across the board
Meal Total: 580 calories, 22g fat, 1730 mg sodium, 66g carbs, 33g protein.

What you'll be saving: 710 calories, 33g fat, 1110mg sodium and 102g carbs

One of the common themes you are going to find is that chicken sandwiches are gonna be usual substitutions.  Chicken is a leaner meat and has less calories, less fat and more protein.  If you can't stomach another grilled chicken sandwich then get a burger.

1/4# Burger: 360 calories, 18g fat, 730mg sodium, 25g carbs, 25g protein.
1/4# Cheeseburger: 410 calories, 22g fat, 1030mg sodium, 27g carbs, 28g protein.

1/4# Cheeseburger, Small Fries and Iced Tea

You can see that eating out doesn't mean and endless barrage of chicken sandwiches.  In fact hamburgers my actually be the better option for some.  It's in the same ballpark for calories and protein, has less carbs and sodium.  The big negative for the cheeseburger is it has twice the amount of fat as the chicken sandwich.  As far as the regular Runzas go they are not the best option on the menu.  If you have to get one though I would suggest getting the original Runza and avoid adding all the extra toppings and flavors as these things really pack on the sodium, fat and calories.  There are hundreds of menu combinations that you can search through online.

Nutritional info on back; does the grease say it all???