I am constantly struggling with my weight. If I don’t walk about 5 miles a day I gain weight — and if I eat out with any regularity at all I gain weight. The switch that makes my brain relate what I’m eating to my weight and health just shuts off when I’m at a restaurant. And without that switch — I’m out of control.
Ezra Klein is discussing that experience in his post, Calorie Labeling In Action, today
All quite delicious. When I got back to the office, though, I decided to see what it added up to. First, I looked up the cookie. A solid 450 calories, with 19 grams of fat. Yikes. But what might have actually changed my purchase was knowing the content of my sandwich: According to the nutrition calculator, 525 calories.
The calories in the cookie weren’t startling. But their calories relative to my sandwich proved a bit off-putting. I could pretty much have ordered a second sandwich for the caloric cost. Buying them without the information, it was easy enough to just consider them a side dish. As it happened, the cookie was more like a second lunch. I wouldn’t have ordered a second lunch. Good to know.
I had that EXACT experience with a Subway sandwich and a cookie a few years ago. Their cookies are only in the 200 calorie range but, they’re puny. I got two that day (440 calories) and NEVER did it again.
When it comes to calories knowledge isn’t just power — it’s control. And it’s not just me:
The following table comes from a Health Impact Assessment prepared by the County of Los Angeles on calorie labeling laws. It shows how much of the whole county’s projected weight gain would be averted if calorie labeling got X percent of restaurant patrons to make average decisions that were Y calories smaller
Follow the links and take a look (Ezra has a link to a graph) — it’s pretty impressive! And since it’s likely you won’t find the label on the menu at your favorite restaurant, spend a couple of minutes looking at the nutrition information on their website before you go.
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Hey ho!
Ruby Tuesday’s does a pretty good job of including “nutritional information” in their menus, except for sodium (and you get a metric s**tload of that in any restaurant). IHoP, Mrs. Fetched’s favorite place evah, has a “Just for Me” (IIRC) section that also lists calories/carb/fat (but again, not sodium).
We’ve been eating out way-too-damn-much lately, and it’s showing. Too much waist thickness and too much wallet thinness. At least I managed to keep roughly half of my supper last night & ate it for lunch today. One night I just told them to go without me, I wasn’t in the mood to go anywhere, and fixed a sandwich at home. I should probably do that more often.
HI — It’s great to see you, Far!! (I just wish I could really see you someday!)
Monday is the granddaughter’s b-day #10, so she wants to do it up big. Her choice is Red Lobster, although she has no interest in lobster. She says they have things she does like, though.
Need to review their website and see what’s what.
Meanwhile, I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired ! Had a weird episode today where I got very nauseated after lunch. Had to go home and take a nap. No idea what the cause might be. Food poisoning ? Who knows. Went for a business lunch at a place with interesting food. I had a salad, probably too big.
Anyhow, I’m not eating any dinner and just hope this resolves completely in the next few hours…
Catdog, I started getting sick after eating restaurant salads a few years ago. I suspect a cleanliness problem and now I try not to eat anything “raw” from a restaurant.
Take care of yourself — I hope you feel well enough to enjoy the birthday.
Hmmm… I often have salads at restaurants, but only ate at this particular one once before. Not sure if it was that or something else.
I was thinking at first it was a relapse of the pneumonia, but that doesn’t seem to be the case.
The good news is that the crisis seems to have passed. And that’s a good thing since I have a VERY busy weekend coming up in a few hours !
Two meetings, a trip to the Hollywood Bowl, and the b-day dinner. I should be exhausted by Monday.
I’ve never been sick off a restaurant salad… even if I eat too much salad, it processes fairly quickly. I’ve had days where what I ate (usually at a restaurant) feels like this big lump of not-getting-digested, and that’s my cue to skip the next meal.
Maybe KCK is just a dirtier town that other places. I gave a couple of restaurants near where my library SEVERAL chances but, I’d find myself actually throwing up after eating there. It was too sad. I couldn’t keep going.