Restaurant Confessional

by: AndreaDow
Total views: 365
Word Count: 307

Sunnday, June 8th

Are you looking for healthier options when dining out and relying on the restaurant menus to give you accurate nutritionals? Well, you better think twice about relying on the restaurant's information. According to a recent story, eight Scripps-owned TV stations in various cities across the U.S. assigned their reporters to order about twenty "healthier" meal options at Applebee's, Macaroni Grill, Chili's, Cheesecake Factory, and other chains. The food was then sent to labs to determine if the nutritional information the restaurants were providing was accurate. Not surprisingly, many of the meals came back with many more calories and fat than promised on the menu.

According to the HungryGirl website, the worst offender of the bunch was from Macaroni Grill. Their Pollo Magro "Skinny Chicken" samples a whopping 1,000 calories and close to 50 grams of fat. That is far cry from the "less than 6g fat and 500 calories" that the menu claims. Even worse when you compare it to the website nutritional information for the dish at 330 calories and 5g fat. One of the other "Skinny Chicken" samples taken from another city DID actually have only 320 calories, but still contained 14g fat. Even the Guitless Grill items from Chili's had more than twice the fat that they claimed on their menu's nutritional information. Many of the other samples tried came in at least 100 calories over what was listed on the menu and much more fat.

The Bottom Line: You are probably still better off ordering from the "light" menu options at a restaurant or special ordering something than chosing from the regular fare. If the lighter items were this far off, imagine what the regular items would be! Be wary of meals that look way too big to have the amount of calories and fat that are listed.

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