Restaurant foods - loaded with calories!: General Discussion and Forum Games

fred33colors · **Site Rank:** Healthy Acquaintance

Since I've been seriously trying to shape up, I've been paying much more attention to the calorie, fat, and carb content of foods. We rarely eat out, but on those rare occasions, I've tried to check out the nutrition information before hitting the restaurant. And I have been amazed! For example, Chili's ( a chain that you can find almost anywhere in the US) has a grilled chicken sandwich with fries. Grilled chicken sounds pretty healthy, right? Wrong! That's 1240 calories and 62 grams of fat and over 2500 mg of sodium.

Ok, so forget the sandwich. How about a grilled BBQ smoked chicken salad. Now that MUST be better for you! Um... not so much. It has 1060 calories. And that doesn't count the soda or glass of wine you have with dinner, or the appetizer or dessert.

But this next item has to take the cake! My local newspaper has a weekly feature where readers can write in and request the recipe for favorite dishes at local restaurants. The restaurant chefs are usually happy to share their recipes. This past week, there was a recipe from a local high-end steakhouse for Baked Eggplant. This side dish sounds pretty healthy -- it is a vegetable, and it is baked, not battered and fried. Can you guess the calorie count? An unbelievable 1900 calories!!! And 179 grams of fat! Wowzer! In its defense, the recipes does say that this is the total for one "generous" serving. Perhaps you could share, and cut the cost of your side dish to just 850 calories! For eggplant?!? Hey, if I'm going to be consuming that many calories, I darn sure better be getting something chocolate!!

After reading the nutrition information for just a few restaurants, I'm astounded by how much fat and sodium even the healthy sounding meals contain. It's definitely worth the time to browse menus and nutrition info online before you head out to eat!

What are the most insane meals you have found where you live? What places do you avoid -- and alternatively, are there places that serve healthy meals that make sense for your diet?

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tammy · **Site Rank:** Site Admin

A lot of people think that getting a salad over a sandwich at a restaurant is the obvious more healthy choice, but that is not always true! I don't even know if it is true most of the time. With all of the dressing, cheese, etc. that they put on the salads, they most always end up over 1000 calories. Just be careful with ordering salads at restaurants!

ALICE39 · **Site Rank:** Healthy Friend

Wow interesting post, With certain foods it looks like dining out should be your first and last meal for that day; to eat or drink anything extra will screw up your diet plan.

:shock:

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