I just did a quiz on this site: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/...n1676483.shtml There is also an article there:
"Report: Restaurants Should Go On Diet" which I wasn't very impressed with. Very basic information, mostly common sense.
There are several quizes under: "are you food savvy" located on the left-hand column on the web page
The one that REALLY got my attention was the restaurant quiz.
A slice of cake from the cheesecake factory with over 1500 calories! Appetizers for OVER 1000 calories! A chinese entree that contains as much fat as 4 quarter pounders!!!!
OMG!
It really reinforces the idea that you should prepare yourself when you go to a restaurant---don't take a chance with wrecking your hard work (diet) with one meal! Educate yourself about what they serve--many restaurants have online menus and even nutritional information.
Maybe they should have warning labels on restaurant doors?!??!?
What's most interesting is that I have eaten most of those foods listed on the quiz and never thought twice about the calories...that was before my new lifestyle, though. We truly live in an obesegenic environment.
I was deliberately blind to the calorie count of food - I did not WANT to know. I used to eat nachos at Qdoba twice a week. The way I poured on the toppings, the nachos had more than 1200 calories. Everytime we went to OUtback, I had to get the Bloomin' Onion, it was my favorite! 2000 calories.
For breakfast every morning at work I had the same thing for 4 years - cranberry walnut muffin and a venti caramel latte with whip - nearly 700 calories and 50 grams of fat. I can't believe what I used to eat so blindly. I'm hyper aware of food now.
The Cheesecake Factory is reeeeeeeeeally really bad. Not to mention they charge too much to make you fat. My husband, son and I ate lunch there one day. $70 for 2 and a half people.
Restaurants are in the business of making food so decadently delicious you want to go back again and again. Restaurants do things with food that most of us would never do at home, just bathe things in butter, drown food in creamy sauces. And so, the 2000 calorie Bloomin' Onion is born.
I think there should be a law that any restaurant that has over a certain number of location should be forced to provide nutrition information in their locations and on their website. Some do, but a lot of places - the Cheesecake Factory comes to mind - don't publish nutritional info. I really think they should be made to provide this info so people can find out exactly what is in the food they are choosing.
I think there should be a law that any restaurant that has over a certain number of location should be forced to provide nutrition information in their locations and on their website. Some do, but a lot of places - the Cheesecake Factory comes to mind - don't publish nutritional info. I really think they should be made to provide this info so people can find out exactly what is in the food they are choosing.
I AGREE!! They should publish nutritional info on the menu! ha! I think that would force them to tone down the fat and calories a little bit!
I completely agree with you too, Nancy. I can see how it might be a hardship for a mom and pop kind of restaurant to provide nutritional info, but the chains can afford it - and probably already have the facts. Until then, we can vote with our feet by not patronizing restaurants that wouldn't provide nutritional info and by emailing them and telling them why we aren't eating there.
Well the reason many specialty restaurants don't provide nutrition information is because their recipes and entrees change so often that they'd constantly be re-writing the info.
Or at least that's the excuse most of them give.
Plus, if you've ever worked in a restaurant like I have in the past, they're not consistent with the way they cook the food. Meaning they don't measure out every single portion of what goes into a particular recipe. They normally measure out a certain amount of meat (mostly to make sure they don't use too much and go over-budget) but with the way many of those chefs are, they just start tossing things into the pans. So exact nutrition info on many of these dishes would be nearly impossible to calculate.
I just assume it's all 800+ calories and order appropriately (grilled salmon NO BUTTER, veggies on side NO BUTTER, salad NO CHEESE dressing on SIDE). I know that anything fried, breaded, creamy or in a buerre sauce is going to be hella bad for me. I already know I wouldn't order Kung Pao chicken at a Chinese restaurant (breaded/fried), doesn't matter if they post the nutritional information or not!
I think there should be a law that any restaurant that has over a certain number of location should be forced to provide nutrition information in their locations and on their website. Some do, but a lot of places - the Cheesecake Factory comes to mind - don't publish nutritional info. I really think they should be made to provide this info so people can find out exactly what is in the food they are choosing.
It would be too costly and time-consuming.
Again, like I said above, it would cost them too much money (not that they don't make enough off the ridiculously high prices they charge) to have to re-write the nutrition guides all the time. Plus they'd have to start measuring everything. Again, too time-consuming.
If you order grilled chicken with sauce slathered over top and a side of mashed potatoes, they don't measure out exactly how much sauce they put on. They dip their ladle in the sauce and slop it over the chicken. With the mashed potatoes, they just scoop out a glop and plop it on the plate. So there's a very good chance that the calories they'd report to you wouldn't be accurate anyway.
The best thing for US to do is simply avoid eating in places that don't provide info. Or use our own good common sense as to what to order.
We don't need anymore laws. Our society is getting ridiculous with the laws as it is.
Are you food savvy--a quiz
