[gmdavis]

My husband hates that I'm just not willing to eat out much anymore. We used to be good for 3-4 times a week in restaurants, but I can make myself much better meals at home and then I'll know what's in them!

[nelie]

Nancy,

There is a medical center near here that has partnered with some restaurants to declare some of their food dishes 'healthy approved' or something like that. One of my alternate Chinese restaurants has many of their dishes with the approved rating. I thought it was interesting that a medical center would take the initiative to work with restaurants to declare healthier choices.

[ANOther]

That tears it! Remind me never to go out for dinner again

[mandalinn82]

This is why when I don't want to cook, I really only go to one place...a local salad bar, where I know the owners and have seen them actually grilling the chicken, asked them about how much oil they add, and see them putting the raw veggies into the containers. And then I come home and add in my own dressing!

If I go out somewhere, it's an event, not an everyday affair. Otherwise, how could you keep yourself relatively on plan??

[preetyladyserenity]

2900 FOR FRIES!!!

That's 2 days worth of eating!

[EZMONEY]

Glory I used to get a chicken burger at the one in Escondido at the mall. So good! Bun, chicken patty, guacamole, lettuce, red onion, cheddar cheese and honey mustard....I don't see it on the menu now...must have dumped it. The California one comes close.

I love the shrimp portifino at Macaroni Grill, when I started my journey last year I looked it up....almost had a heart attack right then and there!

Now I just figure it's not gonna be good so I just do the best I can and try to not eat out as often.

[Eves]

Wow, I needed this today. I'm back in Kansas and I was thinking about eating out once or twice. Now make this only once, the last day, the last meal with the crew.

Ugh.

Today we stopped at a brewery in Columbia, Mo. I had the tuna steak sandwich (one half bun), the cucumber salad, and the grilled veggies. I looked at the veggies and they had this bready stuff on them. I asked about it and they added bread crumbs in oil to them! Aaack!

Ended up getting the cucumber salad and raw veggies. Unbelievable.

[PhotoChick]

Apparently, the pancake batter makes the omelettes "Fluffy". I think there should be some sort of disclosure from restaurants if they're adding someting so ridiculously outlandish to a food item. PANCAKE BATTER? Give me a break.

Well ... but ... um ... they do!

It says right on their menu in the omelette section that they add a "splash of our buttermilk pancake batter" to every omelette to make it light and fluffy. It's pretty out there in the open.

Edited: http://www.ihop.com/index.php?option...id=31&Itemid=2
Our hearty omelettes are made with a splash of our buttermilk and wheat pancake batter for extra fluffiness ...

.

[Tealeaf]

I eat most of meals at home (and, well, at work. Things I've brought from home, though). I do think that if you are eating out often, losing weight will tend to be more difficult. When I do go out, it is so rare, say once in a couple of weeks, I don't really knock myself out trying to find the lowest calorie thing. Sure, I might stay away from the Onion rings with a southwest creamy dip and the double bacon cheese burger. But I don't kid myself that I am eating a low calorie meal. I just have something that looks like it might not be too outrageous, and consider my "off" meal for the week.

[lifechange]

Hi Tea Leaf- I have to eat out all the time due to my job. I have not had any trouble losing weight. I just have to be very careful with my choices and portion sizes- stick with grilled chicken, steak, fish, shrimp and veggies as sides. Ribs are a no go- my husband and son had them the other night and I ate 2 of them- so good! Checked the calories on the web site after- and just about died. Oh well, it didn't impact my weightloss that time. Never quite as happy going out on my own tab though- since the meals are so expensive and I am only eating part of it. My dog is very happy though- he greets me at the door and sniffs my purse.

[mandalinn82]

Photo - wow, it's been a while since I ate ANYTHING at an IHop...never was much of a fan. When I first learned about the batter, it wasn't on the menu...apparently the information was added in early 2006. It was added in response to a fairly massive email campaign by the Low Carb community primarily, who felt blindsided...they'd been ordering omelettes thinking they were a low carb option, only to find out that there was pancake batter. So they started emailing and it got added to the menu...Good to know they've added it, at least!

I'd love to see some sort of regulatory requirement, though...something that required restaurants to list ingredients on menus. I mean, some of the stuff you can't even imagine, which I think is the problem. A list would make people pause and think, you know?

[ggmugsy]

I have a friend who worked at Red Robin and she told me they regularly spray the lettuce leaves with oil to make them look more appetizing. I'm sure other restaurants do this, too.

Very sad. I've all but given up eating in restaurants and choose to cook at home.

[Apple Cheeks]

Originally Posted by ggmugsy

I have a friend who worked at Red Robin and she told me they regularly spray the lettuce leaves with oil to make them look more appetizing. I'm sure other restaurants do this, too.

Yikes! Talk about hidden calories!

It seems like restaurants are the new snake oil salesmen: they are shady hucksters selling us crap!

It's kind of sad knowing that I can go to Taco Bell and eat healthy (their new Fresca menu is yummy!), but I can't have a regular old salad at a "real" restaurant without them sneaking in hidden calories and junk.

No wonder there is an obesity epidemic! People can't even try to eat healthy while dining out without unknowingly sabotaging their diets!

[PhotoChick]

I don't understand all the hostility towards restaurants - snake oil salesmen, shady tactics, etc.

I don't understand what people expect when they go out to eat. Do you really expect that a restaurant is going to compromise the flavor of their food (i.e. use less yummy fats and oils and salt and so forth)? That's not what brings people in to eat. What brings people in is that they can get food that they can't (or don't know how) to make at home. Foods made with butter, oil, etc. Sure salads are tossed with oil to make them glossy looking and attractive. Bread is toasted with butter or oil on the inside to prevent it becoming soggy from mayo or mustard and to give it an appealing color and texture. Steaks are finished with a pat of butter for richness and a glossy appearance.

Do people really not know that this is done? Do they really think that when they order a grilled chicken breast, there's no oil or butter involved?

I just don't understand what people expect when they go out to eat a restaurant. I expect restaurant food to be high calorie and often high fat and very definitely high sodium - and I have known that even before I began losing weight. It just is.

.

[horsey]

Best idea - light bulb minute for me - is to NOT eat out. Stick one of those Boca burgers in the microwave and add a bit of lowfat cheese, lettuce and a tomato and viola a burger. Throw in those orange cut up sweet potatoes and viola fries. I got FAT eating out. The restaurant industry knows we get fat eating out, don't tell us "what they dont' want us to know" in an article because it's common knowledge there's few items on menus for US (those trying to be slim in a non slim overeating plot orientated world). Red Robin, I used to go there with my boy for the balloons, used to eat those huge burgers. We'll I think it's time to pop the baloons - cute restaurant but don't need to go there anymore. NADA. DONE. Off my list. By the way I'm only keeping a very few restaurants on the list - and a few items at those restaurants (McDonalds chicken sand 1/2 bun, stuff like that). No need to research menus if you just don't go there (side bonus - save $200 plus per month by not supporting FAT FOOD places)!