Meals at Regular Restaurants are Even Worse Than Fast Food

re: Meals at Regular Restaurants are Even Worse Than Fast Food

HilaryB — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 16:15:05 GMT

One tip is that most restaurants have most of their menu online - fast food and big chains will have calorie count and often ingredients as well. The ingredient part is the important one.

If you're going to eat out, pick out your food in advance when you can. If you get a large portion and you tend to clean your plate no matter the size meal, get a to go box before you start eating and place part of your meal in it before you start so you don't overeat. Oh and the bread on the table, don't eat it or be aware of how much you are eating (I have stopped eating it because I feel better with less wheat.)

Choose naturally colorful foods. They may not be organic most places and you should be aware that a lot of places microwave partially pre-cooked food for that speedy service (that grilled chicken might never have touched a grill.) If you can, seek out restaurants that cook from scratch or feature locally grown food they are more likely to serve healthier food instead of something out of a box from sysco. Some co-op groceries have deli's or small restaurants that can be a good choice while traveling.

I enjoy eating out and part of life is enjoying it - I'd rather try to find healthier options than to just not eat out anymore. Also, I see plenty of people "cook at home" out of boxes and from a microwave - this is sometimes even worse.

re: Meals at Regular Restaurants are Even Worse Than Fast Food

Firebird7478 — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 15:44:58 GMT

Should we just give up on everything and live in a cocoon? Or, should we try to enjoy life, have a good time, even if it means the occasional dinner at Applebee's? It's not gonna kill you.

Sometimes I think Dr. Mercola is really Chicken Little.

re: Meals at Regular Restaurants are Even Worse Than Fast Food

zebragirl — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 15:43:23 GMT

The assumption made in this article is that a person is going to finish the meal that is served in a restaurant. When I eat out the portions are almost always too large and I make an effort to hold back a large portion of the meal to take home. It usually ends up being two meals for me. I don't see why it is necessary to avoid eating out entirely if you have access to places that serve quality food.

re: Meals at Regular Restaurants are Even Worse Than Fast Food

Nancey — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 15:30:56 GMT

I used to use the Metabolic Typing Diet in my office and found that it was just ok. For much better and consistent results read the book, "The GenoType Diet" By Dr. Peter D'Adamo ( the Eat Right 4 Your Blood Type Dr.) On this I can eat about 90 grams of carbs - the right ones for me and still lose weight. This is truly amazing and my clients love me for it!!!

I agree, eating in restaurants can be detrimental to your health, but since we are intelligent and have a brain that can make decisions about how much and exactly what to eat to benefit our health and can ask questions - that is what counts. On this panel we all know what junk food is.....

Nancey

re: Meals at Regular Restaurants are Even Worse Than Fast Food

whiskeylight — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 15:18:19 GMT

This is the first article on this site to truly dissapoint me.

The statement, "Both types of meals are larger and have more calories than meals prepared at home," was the first blow. The author has never eaten at my house or in most homes I have visited.

It is true that many people mistakenly believe that a regular "sit down" restaurant serves healthier food than fast food. Some do, but many restaurants do not prepare their own food. They order premade foods and heat them.

You can get healthy food in restaurants, but you have to take the time to ask questions and find one that makes their food from scratch and uses wholesome ingredients.

I can't get on the bandwagon of holding fast food restaurants responsible for portion control. Most offer a wide variety of sizes on every type of food. Customers have the opportunity to choose how much food they order and eat. If you order pportions that are too large, it is your own fault.

re: Meals at Regular Restaurants are Even Worse Than Fast Food

Heather Marsh — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 14:26:51 GMT

I am currently using 'diet' software which provides a nutrient and calorie breakdown of what I do eat.

It has shortcomings - it does not differentiate between betacarotene and vitamin A, so if I have a lot of fruit and veg in a day it appears I am doing some serious flirting with toxicity, it does not differentiate between the polyunsaturated oils, and it does not include all the vitamins and minerals.

The meal most likely to push my daily intake into acceptable levels of protein and fibre is pork chops and baked beans.

I restarted using the software on 30th December 2008 and have actually lost weight whilst trying to increase my (saturated) fat intake and lower grain- based carbohydrates.

Today I did snack on grapes and walnuts, had some coffee but with half the prior sugar, and black tea.

Plenty of water (14 oz more than the RDA for my weight), a couple of supplements and a hearty dinner. After my evening meal had settled I picked and ate some fresh strawberries.

This still left me with a significant amount of calories to be 'banked' as I just couldn't eat any more.

It has been an education. I have the odd treat, but even with deliberately avoiding most of the grain-based foods and all refined polyunsaturated oils the breakdown of fats into polyunsaturated, monounsaturated and saturated shows that the polyunsaturates are still definitely being ingested. I thought I was getting lots of protein - but I am doing well to eat half of the RDA.

I did one day with a diet shake for lunch - low fat, but it pushed the sugars and carbohydrates through the roof! Protein- despite the literature - was very low indeed. People lose weight on those shakes?

I found out that ONE brazil nut provides more than the RDI of Selenium.

At the onset the program predicted that I would weigh the same in 14 months(based on my last effort). Over a week it has made significant downward adjustments to that prediction.

re: Meals at Regular Restaurants are Even Worse Than Fast Food

jamNjim — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 14:14:22 GMT

Quit all of the fruit and vegetable (food pyramid hoax) FDA bull. We are survivors of the last Ice Age. There were no carbohydrates during the Ice Age for our ancestors to survive on. Cows don’t eat foods high in fat or cholesterol. Yet, beef is high in both. Chickens don’t eat foods high in cholesterol or fat and they are slightly high in both. What does a chicken (chic) come from?......AN EGG, which is nothing but fat, protein, and cholesterol. Look at all the animals in the wild. With very few exceptions, the fat, slow, cholesterol infested animals all eat grass, grains, fruits, leaves, plants, vegetables, etc… The muscular, lean, and mean animals eat protein, fat, and cholesterol. This is not coincidence.

The rule of thumb for choosing what foods to eat is simple. If you can make bread or alcohol out of it don’t eat it. If it comes in a can, bag, or a box don’t eat it. Try this for 1 month and see if your cholesterol doesn’t go down. Your weight will remain the same or go down, but it will not go up! You can do anything for a month. If you are already obese and have high blood pressure and cholesterol just give this a try for 1 month. You may be able to come off all your medications for heart disease like I did and stay off them for 11 years like I have. You’ve got nothing to loose but weight. Go cold turkey off processed foods and carbohydrates for just 4 weeks. It will forever change the way you think about food.

re: Meals at Regular Restaurants are Even Worse Than Fast Food

LoriSmi — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 14:01:01 GMT

When we go out to eat maybe once every 6-8 weeks.

We eat out at Olive Garden or The Texas Roadhouse or some other restaurant in town. At the Roadhouse I get a 10oz ribeye, a house salad with Ranch on the side, and green beans (about 1/2 cup or less). I eat all my salad, all my beans, and usually about 3/4 of the steak. I do not always eat the bread. If I eat a roll, maybe I'll eat 1/2 my steak. The rest comes home in a box to be heated up in the morning. I always get my salad dressing on the side because I don't like my salads drenched. I can control how much I use for my tastes. My husband uses what I don't to add to his. He likes a little salad with his dressing, whether at home or away.

If we go to Olive Garden, I often get their Tour Of Italy and eat about 1/2 or less, take the rest home for lunch the next day. I get two meals for the price of one.

Why is this too much food? Who cares if I get to tote some home for a second meal? I think this is a great way to get a second meal. Does it really matter if I go to Olive Garden and order a plate of Fettucine Alfredo and clean my plate, or make it at home and clean my plate where no one can see? Whatever most restaurants cook, I can cook at home and often do, so what does it matter? Do others really think that people don't know how to cook and can't grill a ribeye at home (which we do often when on sale in the summer)? If I eat a 10oz steak at a restaraunt or at home, who will be noticing when I am at home? I can assure you I eat much more steak at home than I do at any restaurant. And I may end up consuming more of it at home as I tend to buy larger steaks.....Of course I don't have dinner rolls at home, usually, but I bake potatoes, or make veggies and have salad.

My point is: who's business is it what others are eating? Those consuming the food are paying for it, whether at home or out, and it is their business what, when, and how they eat. Last I recall, we live in a "free' republic (USA) and answer to none.

re: Meals at Regular Restaurants are Even Worse Than Fast Food

Gypsy Lou — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 12:42:56 GMT

Everyone I know sees eating out at restaurants as a necessity of life. When I stopped eating out at all, period, (and I do mean I never eat out) over four years ago, my friends just don't know what to do with me. The concept is totally foreign to them. I miss only the social ties with eating out ... and the convenience of not having to prepare and pack a meal for myself if I am going to be away during a mealtime. I do not miss being in pain from ingesting ingredients that I'm allergic to, bloating for days on end and consuming things into my body that I have no idea about where they've come from, what they've been exposed to, what has been added to alter them or even how carefully and cleanly they have been handled. My friends think that it's "just awful" that I can't/don't enjoy the "pleasures" of eating out. I can tell you that it is no sacrifice whatsoever to me at this point. If we are interested in our health, then the whole concept of patronizing restaurants is perhaps something that needs a good re-thinking.

re: Meals at Regular Restaurants are Even Worse Than Fast Food

JayPatrick — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 11:59:42 GMT

Personally, I find restaurants to be great chemical contamination centers. With few exceptions, I don't care what kind of restaurant it is. Well, I'd really go for a slow-food restaurant. Ingredients must be organic, even the wine. All must be cooked from scratch if at all possible.

I've lost about 95 lbs by avoiding all bread, all dairy products, all grains, all corn and all potatoes, as well as all added sugars. I've followed this lifestyle and unlike Oprah, I'm not gaining any of it back.

When I eat out in a restaurant or a friend's home, I break most, if not all my guidelines. I don't seem to put on any fat, but I always bloat up two or three pounds. It couldn't be fat because the food I eat doesn't come close to weighing 2 or 3 pounds.

It takes me about three days to recover. I believe GMO foods, soy derivitive additives, toxic pesticides and preservatives, added sugars, bread, grains, too much added processed salt, and who know what else contaminates my entire body even leaving a constant taste in my mouth, like a demon of craving telling me I must eat more, and soon!

Fortunately, I go back to my "new way of living", and recover. Even my mind becomes more lucid, and I feel so good I wake up singing. Not bad for a 66 year old, is it?

I believe Mercola has already written more inclusive articles than this one. Apparently he's looking to "sell" beginners on the dangers of restaurant food, whereas, fortunately, some of us have already gone about as far as we can without actually living in an organic utopia. Show me where it is, I'm ready to even give up the illusive vestages of so-called civilization such as dining in most fine restaurants. Unfortunately, what we pay for is not what we get.

P.S. I've never counted calories, and I didn't even buy scales until I'd come within 10 lbs of my goal, which was to lose 100 lbs and keep it off. I have gone from the XXLarge, down to where medium is now just a little loose, but okay.

re: Meals at Regular Restaurants are Even Worse Than Fast Food

tinkonthebrink — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 11:54:39 GMT

Duparc? Roy Walford died of ALS. The fact that the onset was so late and he lived so long is very likely due to the healthy changes associated with calorie restriction, which doesn't just increase longevity but healthy longevity. And he recommended avoiding all foods which are not nutrient dense, including carbs with little nutritional value.

re: Meals at Regular Restaurants are Even Worse Than Fast Food

Duparc — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 11:41:05 GMT

Conveniently this leads us to the research on calorie restriction which has been taking place since 1935 and to one of its late but main researchers, Dr Roy Walford, who passed away just short of his 80th birthday. Dr Walford practiced what he observed from his research studies and wrote extensively on the potential of calorie restriction, one book being 'The 120 Year Diet' yet he failed to achieve longevity, his death having occurred around the average age. See www.walford.com. He was also a believer in both exercise and fasting which he practised yet failed to achieve the promise that calorie restriction offers so the obvious question is why?

Alongside calorie restriction research but with less finance and interest to support it is carbohydrate restriction which is highlighting equally as many health benefits, more possibly, yet, delightfully, it ignores calorie restriction, so a paradox.

My own understanding would indicate that the major slow killer to our lives is the delicious carbohydrate, which, to my knowledge, Roy Walford, ignored. Fat, protein, and allowing our stomachs to become empty between meals (so no snacking which is not an easy discipline) brings, in its wake, many benefits. We have a sweet tooth, probably to attract us to take carbs in the form of fruits in the autumn so that, like the animals of the wild, we should put on weight rapidly to allow us to survive winter's lean months but, this may be carbohydrates only purpose to our diet and possibly the reason too why we have crunching teeth and a carnivorous stomach.

The message may be that we should not necessarily ignore carbs but to ramp down their intake and treat as a luxury. The growing evidence is that carbohydrates do appear to be highly deleterious to our health when consumed on a regular basis. Whenever we enter the foodhalls of superstores what confronts us; masses of shelves filled with carbohydrates! Our death through gluttony!

re: Meals at Regular Restaurants are Even Worse Than Fast Food

Dannigirl — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 11:36:10 GMT

I counted calories for a long time (using a computer program), and lost 10% of my body weight that way. Over time, I got to know the calorie content of most things I ate, and I could see where the empty calories were, compared to the fill-me-up foods that were low in calories! Now I'm always right around 140 lb, which is fine for my height, and I thank goodness I learned more about food while dutifully counting those calories. Nowadays, I would say I eat between 1500 and 1700 calories a day, and given that I exercise daily, I maintain my weight with no trouble at all. We (husband, self, and 3 kids) do eat out, but only once or twice a month at most, and the kids like my cooking best of all!

re: Meals at Regular Restaurants are Even Worse Than Fast Food

tinkonthebrink — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 11:31:51 GMT

What constitutes the calories is more important than how many there are or the portion size. Choosing nutrient-dense calories makes it very difficult to overeat -100 calories of vegetables is about a cup full; 100 calories of cheese is about a 1 inch square. The veggies are going to take up more space on a plate and in a stomach and take much longer to eat. They're also going to provide more nutrients. Both fast food and table service restaurants pad their "real" food with empty calories - white flour breads, pastas, white rice, french fries, etc - in part because many American customers expect heaping plates of food to feel that they're "getting their money's worth". But it's possible to make better choices as a consumer, even in fast food restaurants. Several have decent salads now, although those are the only good choices on the menu. Appetizer sized portions in restaurants are often more than I want for an entree and I still end up taking food home. And choosing a restaurant that uses good quality ingredients supports an establishment which supports health and truly good food.

I take a to go container with me anytime I eat out - making good choices is the responsibility of the consumer. It isn't the fault of restaurants that Americans are overwhelmingly obese. The problem is what we all choose to put into our bodies, even though we all know better, both the quantity and more so, the quality. As Michael Pollan puts it in In Defense of Food, "Eat food. Mostly plants. Not too much."

re: Meals at Regular Restaurants are Even Worse Than Fast Food

abbasdaughter — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 10:18:31 GMT

This would suggest that 1 of the major reasons I'm not overweight is that I grew up going to restaurants occasionally rather than regularly and now spend a very limited amount of time at restaurants (I like my own cooking better... and if I'm away for a few days eating out, I really feel it and miss my own food). I should prob'ly check what the "ideal weight" range for my height is, but I don't think I'm overweight... and the more I read, the more I'm thankful my mum cooked us real food when I was growing up.