Apparently the recent healthcare legislation forces restaurants to put calorie counts on the menus, and it turns out that isn’t doing any good whatsoever! A few cities and companies have gotten out ahead of the new healthcare legislation, and early studies are showing the menus aren’t changing and patrons aren’t changing the choices they’re making.
The problem with this approach is that many people “turn the brain off” when they eat out, or they eat out with the intention of it being a break from their diet. Recent studies of restaurant sales before and after the change show people aren’t making different choices. We’ve previously discussed secrets to losing weight while eating restaurant food. As we’ve suggested before, it’s not about finding out what the calorie and fat content is, but rather it’s about making healthier choices!
Restaurants serve large, fat-heavy portions for many reasons. First, the fattening ingredients are cheaper. Secondly, and this might be a by-product of the cheapness of the ingredients, but fattening foods are actually addictive, and restaurant executives might consider that getting you hooked on their products increases the chances that you’ll come back. Though I wish I could say that was a paranoid thought, the cigarette companies have been accused of increasing addictive ingredients in the past. Serving size is simply a way to make it acceptable for you to pay more for a single meal—whether or not you eat it all at once is simply not the restaurant’s concern, that’s yours! So if you choose to eat a double-sized meal all in one sitting so they can charge you an extra $5, they’re not going to stop you.
A modern solution to the restaurant dance is to access nutrition info on your smartphone.
Several companies are currently offering iPhone calorie counting apps. Lance Armstrong’s Livestrong offers one, for example, which contains nutritional data from 450,000 different items sold at restaurants so you can calculate the impact your choices will have before you place your order. This way you don’t have to remember to check the restaurant’s website before leaving home, you can actually make informed choices on the go! Isn’t that the way it should be?
So you wouldn’t be here if you didn’t want to know how to get a flat stomach. Americans are overweight in tremendous numbers—2/3 of us are overweight or actually obese, so it’s truly a modern day epidemic and you’re definitely NOT alone in wanting to shape up. You have to resist the urge to splurge—restaurant dishes with only some exceptions are ridiculously fattening and unhealthy, so you have to approach the occasional meal out as working with an adversary. Take the time to be diligent, because they are NOT out to help you stay healthy.