Going out to eat can be tricky if you are trying to order healthy, although things have certainly improved over the last few years. Many restaurants are now incorporating at least the calories for each item on their menu if not all the other nutrition information as well. However, without this information supplied or sometimes even with knowing it, it is still hard to tell how your food is actually prepared.

I make sure to order as health conscious as I can when I go out to eat, as certain items although healthy if cooked at home, have the potential to be fried in oils and fats. An interesting announcement from the Center For Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) was announced today regarding the winner of their contest called “ The Xtreme Eating Awards.” This is not what you think however; these are awards restaurants do not want as it is for the dish with the highest calories, fat and sodium. Turns out the winners for this year were Denny’s Fried Cheese Melt coming in at 1,260 calories and The Cheesecake Factory Farmhouse Burger coming in at 1,530 calories! The winner of all is the Cold Stone Creamery PB&C shake coming in at the enormous amount of 2,000 calories, 131 grams of fat and 153 grams of sugar! Now this is just ridiculous, no wonder the US has an obesity issue.

After hearing about this, I truly appreciate all of the restaurants that have taken a healthy approach to updating their menus with natural, healthy and organic items. I am hoping more and more restaurants will take the healthy approach, especially the fast food industry. Although it is the restaurant like Denny’s or Cold Stone offering these unhealthy dishes, it is also your decision to consume them. Make the right decisions on what you put into your body. Food is fuel!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 20th, 2011 at 10:47 am and is filed under Personal. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.