[Extasee58865]

Just read this article and thought it might be worth passing on, I know I always eat off the "low fat/low cal" menu when I go to chain restaraunts.

TAMPA, FL -- Restaurants often claim to have low calorie meals or things on their menus with half the fat. But our two month investigation back in May found that some restaurants making those claims aren't always serving up what they advertise.

Now, a customer has hired an attorney to put the restaurant and weight loss industry on notice.

It's known as your 'neighborhood grill' but Applebee's Restaurant is accused of being not such a good neighbor.

Applebee's parent company and Weight Watchers are accused in a 27 page lawsuit of making low fat claims about meals, often loaded with fat and calories.

This follows an ABC Action News investigation from May, when we worked with sister stations in seven different cities around the country. We bought and tested seven meals, claiming to be low in fat and calories from Applebees Weight Watchers' menu. And the results were not always what the restaurant claimed they would be.

While the calorie difference was slight, the fat was over on every item we tested, doubling and even tripling in three of the meals!

That's why a northeast law firm filed a class action suit on behalf of consumers across the country.

Lawyer Alison Foster said,"This lawsuit is really about the false advertising, where people bought something that was advertised different than what they thought they were getting."

They claim the entrees on Applebee's special Weight Watchers section are listed as 'healthy menus' but often "inaccurately represent the caloric and fat content of the food at issue."

"It's sort of a betrayal--it's taking advantage of people who want to pay attention to their health and instead selling them something that's going to hurt them," Foster said.

Meanwhile, Weight Watchers says "the company does not comment on current litigation."

And an Applebee's spokesperson said, "We take claims about our Weight Watchers menu
seriously. We believe variation between listed and actual food nutritional content is inevitable. We are reviewing the claims, but we don't think they have merit."

During our investigation six-months ago, ABC Action News purchased low fat, low cal items at some of the most popular restaurant chains and put them to the test.

Following our labs instructions, each menu item was placed in a ziploc bag, labeled, packed on ice, shipped, and tested for caloric and fat content at EPA certified AnalyticalLaboratories in Boise, Idaho.

Test results showed the cajun lime tilapia meal on the menu at Applebee's, which was supposed to have six grams of fat, instead had 12-grams of fat!

Also, the italian chicken and portobello sandwich was supposed to have six-grams of fat, but tested three times that with 18.6 grams!

"We want to have an informed consumer," registered dietician Nancy Holder said from
University Community Hospital. She analyzed our findings and suggested that viewers think about what they're eating.

"What is concerning is that what they're presenting as being healthful meals really have more calories and fat than the individual might think," Holder said.

[mudskippersgrl]

jeeze.... nothing gets easy when trying to watch what you eat...

Interesting article, thx for posting it

[JulieJ08]

It's interesting anyway. If it were just random variation, some would estimate more and some less.

[hotpod]

good lord you cant even trust the menus!!! i suppose ill just ask for a diet water. lol lol lol

[eilla05]

I dont like anything on that menu anyways but still nice to know. thanks for posting

[Blinky963]

Wow, thanks for posting this. I don't eat out often but when I do I usually stick to places that offer calorie/ fat breakdowns (like Applebee's). It's funny, so many times we would be there and say something like "mmmm, this is so good, there's no way it's only 6 grams of fat"..... guess we were right.

You can't make rice in butter and put it on the "diet" menu.

[cdiem4994]

Eat this not that is a great book to educate yourself about menus. Some of the 'healthy' items are horrible. It's an easy book to read and full of great information on just this sort of thing.

Thanks for posting!

[aphil]

Actually...

There have been MANY independant studies done on Applebee's Weight Watchers menu items by different places.

The calorie content varies, and the fat content varies from what is advertised...but IN GENERAL, it is actually very close to what they advertise it as on the menu. In some cases the calories were actually LOWER by 10 or 20 calories than what is advertised, and in some cases, the fat content and the calorie content is a little higher.

The reason for this, is that the cooks back in the kitchen are not measuring and weighing the food exactly. They are portioning out the dishes using their scoop, and using the chicken breasts, etc. that are delivered to them, etc. One chicken breast might be 3 ounces, and the next might be 3 1/2 ounces....one scoop of rice might be a tad bit bigger than the next scoop that they scoop out.

They are a restaurant, and they are not going to sit and measure everything out EXACTLY like we might at home.

If you make a recipe at home, say a reduced calorie soup-and divide it into how ever many servings that it makes...and then send in EACH individual serving in to be analyzed, there ARE going to be calorie differences between the servings. One serving might be 130 calories, the next 108, and the next 136. You aren't going to sit and make sure that every serving has exactly 4 cubes of potato, and 5 slices of carrot.

The Applebee's restaurants are given the recipes for the WW menu, and those recipes INDEED are for the correct calorie/fat content advertised. In any instance, you have to account for individual preparation. There are going to be some discrepancies because of this.

In the studies that I researched on this VERY SAME study (Applebees) even when the fat content came in higher than stated-the CALORIE content was actually very, very close to what is advertised. It isn't like they are saying it's 330 calories, and you end up getting 700. It IS very close.

I think the lawsuit is a bunch of bunk, myself. I think they just need to train the employees to monitor the serving sizes a bit better.

[RangerChic]

Yeah, Jillian Michaels is always saying to watch out for those things in restaurants listed as low-fat or diet. Still, this is pretty bad.

[asparagus4sale]

Originally Posted by aphil

Actually...

The reason for this, is that the cooks back in the kitchen are not measuring and weighing the food exactly. They are portioning out the dishes using their scoop, and using the chicken breasts, etc. that are delivered to them, etc. One chicken breast might be 3 ounces, and the next might be 3 1/2 ounces....one scoop of rice might be a tad bit bigger than the next scoop that they scoop out.

They are a restaurant, and they are not going to sit and measure everything out EXACTLY like we might at home.

Actually, if you think when you go to Applebee's the cooks are actually "cooking", you are wrong. Almost all of the entrees come in frozen and pre-packaged. And if Weight Watchers and Lean Cuisines can measure their products then it is just as easy for Applebee's to do it too.

[aphil]

Actually, with Applebees, they have certain set ingredients that are used for multiple dishes.

For instance, the breaded white meat chicken pieces:

They use the exact same chicken pieces for the boneless buffalo wings, the boneless BBQ wings, and as the chicken in the orange chicken stir fry bowl. When it comes time to prepare them, they just toss them in a DIFFERENT sauce. The chicken is exactly the same, however. It isn't in a single serve package with the sauce/side dishes already included, like a Lean Cuisine would be.

[PhotoChick]

Almost all of the entrees come in frozen and pre-packaged.

Actually, no they don't.

The components of the various meals are frozen and prepackaged. But the cooks still put everything together, add the various sauces, saute frozen veggies, etc.

It's not a reheat the frozen dinner place.

.

[JulieJ08]

Originally Posted by aphil

I think the lawsuit is a bunch of bunk, myself. I think they just need to train the employees to monitor the serving sizes a bit better.

I think the point is that obviously Applebee's was not going to make that happen on their own . Not that I'm not horrified by the state of lawsuits in this country.

I wonder it they ordered a bunch of entrees at once, or if they were obtained at lots of different times and locations. If you get them all from one over-worked, lazy, having-a-bad-day cook, they're all likely to be skewed in the same direction.

[aphil]

Originally Posted by JulieJ08

I wonder it they ordered a bunch of entrees at once, or if they were obtained at lots of different times and locations. If you get them all from one over-worked, lazy, having-a-bad-day cook, they're all likely to be skewed in the same direction.

Exactly. A much better study would be for them to take 100 entrees from various locations and states, and work out the AVERAGE...not get 5 of the same thing, from the same restaurant.

[JayEll]

I like Applebees WW menu choices, and I'm going to continue to order them when I go out, especially since aphil has found data that the calorie counts are close to the same. I've never had a bad weigh-in because of Applebees--usually it's from um, other choices I've made.

If I think that a restaurant is adding fats (which isn't hard to tell, because the food tastes good to me if they do!), then I add extra fat to my calorie count when I record it.

Jay