i watched on the today show (an open fitness post)

[acroyear]

and was shocked at how bad some restaurant's foods can be, even the ones you think might be healthy.

one example, Outback's salmon dinner w/ baked potato is actually far worse than the 8oz prime rib (mind you, with broccoli and baked sweet potato).

tgif's salads are mostly over 900 cal each thanks to the fried meats and excess dressings or sugars.

the loaded chili-cheese burger + fries at chili's has as much sodium at 14 large McDonalds fries.

ick.

Comments

[queenmaggie.livejournal.com]

That's why I usually look up the nutrition stuff on line before going anywhere...and have all salad dressings on the side, and argue with the cooks about "no butter" on sandwiches that are toasted.
And sodium has been an archenemy of mine for decades...

[acroyear70.livejournal.com]

the "no butter" item was discussed last week on the today show :)

all three of your items here were mentioned in the "3 healthy ways to eat out" entry!

[queenmaggie.livejournal.com]

I'm sure. That's why I despise reading articles like "10 Simple ways to loose weight, and never notice what you're missing" They're always things that I've been doing for years (like substituting water for real sodas) (or eating whipped cream cheese instead of butter) (or diet mayo for real) and I'm still heavy. Got anything you can recommend for me? No. Because I'm on meds that add weight, I've been fighting high BP, and salt sensitivities, and I have to be hungry and up my exercise to at least 1.5 hours a day... and no one can live like that all the time.

[voltbang.livejournal.com]

The goal of restaurants is to appeal to people's appetites and sense of economy. You can't taste good for you, but salt tastes good, fat tastes good, and most people like sweet at any cost. A pile of potato product makes the meal look larger, which makes people think they are getting a bargain, even though a ten pound sack of potatoes costs $5.

The bigger the national chain, the better they are at providing a lot of appealing food for your dollar, which means more salt, more potato, more more more. I saw a top ten list for sodium and it was freakin scary. People bust on Mcdonalds all the time, but if you eat no fries, or a small fies, and one sandwich, it's not so bad, especially compared to so many of the alternatives. I saw a guy at McDonalds the other day who had four of their bigger sandwiches, 6 orders of fries, soda, and he was picking at his kids three happy meals. Guess how well he fit in the booth.

[cozit.livejournal.com]

I looked up Uno's honey crisp chicken salad the other day... it says 410 calories... then you look at the top and realize that the single order you get is supposedly "2 servings"! Even better... the salads all come with a breadstick... that one breadstick? 210 calories all by its little self.

(Turns out it's not quite so horrid as far as meals out go for me, despite the fried chicken part... because I rarely eat more than half an order anyway, and always have them skip the bacon and put the dressing on the side to begin with (omg... if they *really* put that much dressing on one salad? Eeew... even 1/4 of what they send out is way more than enough!)

Still wouldn't do it every day or anything, but... heck of a lot better than the chicken strips at McDonalds across the way, with better greens :-)