Look Before You Eat

If you eat out often, you will either want to ignore or pay close attention to the Men's Health article about the 16 secrets the restaurant industry doesn't want you to know.

If ignorance is bliss, don't read this. If you fear eating an appetizer with 2,900 calories, read on.

Some offenders in the article are better than others. Places like Applebee's advertise low fat items that are laden with calories and carbohydrates. Hooters sneaks all sorts of unpronounceable chemicals into its chicken wings. Arby's puts artificial flavoring into its "All Natural" chicken because the FDA can't regulate the term "All Natural" (Luckily, little of this affects my vegetarian eating habits).

But there are a few more insidious culprits. IHOP offers a 1,335 calorie omelet with more saturated fat than a crock of Crisco. Outback Steakhouse was the guilty party with the 2,900 calorie appetizer. I'm sure they meant you to share it.

There are a number of other establishments that offer food with artificial coloring (Panera Bread), fry French toast with four grams of fat per stick in oil laden with trans fat from their poorly prepared pork, chicken and fish menu items (Burger King) and sell smoothies with more than 60 grams of sugar (Dunkin Donuts).

The worst offenders, like Fuddruckers, Maggiano's Little Italy and Red Robin, refused to release the information to the authors of the article. Apparently restaurants are now allowed to plead the fifth.

The article in Men's Health describes how professional restaurant organizations and the Governator in California ignored legislation that simply would have required restaurants to post nutritional information on their menus. Apparently ignoring this practical suggestion might help to explain why Arnold is looking so soft around the midsection (the article is in Swedish, but don't worry--you don't need a translator to understand the pictures).

The consumer is responsible for what they put into their body. But being unable to figure out what crap is in the food you're eating makes keeping tabs a difficult proposition. I don't eat at these places, but on behalf of those who do, it's about time that the powers that be allowed the public to know exactly what they are eating.

If I buy a 9-millimeter hand gun, it would be fairly easy for me to judge what would happen to me if I point the gun at myself after firing it at a practice target a few times. Without being able to find out how many calories are in your lunch, you might be killing yourself thinking that by eating you are gaining simple sustainence.

Nutritional values should be public information. By keeping this information secret, and further, by serving food with no available nutritional value, the restaurant industry is playing a huge role in the nation's obesity epidemic.