Tag Archives: diet

Read this before you go out for lunch today: Comparing fast food and casual dining restaurant meals.

Posted on April 29, 2013 | 3 comments

Everyone know that fast food is unhealthy. Of course, some fast food is better than others and it is possible to get a reasonably healthy meal at a fast food restaurant. But if you are concerned about calories, fat, added sugar, and sodium in your diet, fast food probably isn’t the best choice.

Eating at a casual dining restaurant such as Applebee’s, Ruby Tuesday, and T.G.I. Friday’s must be healthier, right? Think again! My Health & Fitness column in the Aiken Standard this week addresses this issue.

According to data collected by one of my students, Kyle Sprow, this is not always the case.

He compared a typical meal from McDonald’s, Subway, and  Applebee’s. The Applebee’s menu includes Weight Watchers low-calorie options  in addition to the regular menu items, so he looked at both. We chose these restaurants because of their popularity and because their menus are consistent with other similar restaurants.

He was able to compare typical fast food (McDonald’s), “healthy” fast food (Subway), a typical meal at a casual dining restaurant (Applebee’s regular menu), and healthy options at the same restaurant (Weight Watchers menu). Here is what he found:

  • The sit-down restaurant meal is likely to be higher in calories and fat than fast food. This is due in part to large portion sizes.
  • A meal at Subway may be lower in calories and fat than a meal at McDonald’s, but depends on what type and size of sandwich (and condiments) you choose.
  • The Weight Watchers menu at Applebee’s really is much lower in fat and calories than the regular menu, even better than Subway.
  • No matter where you eat, you are likely to get a lot of sodium in your meal, at least 50% of your daily recommended intake even if you chose the “healthy” options.

So, what will you have for lunch today?

 

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News from CSPI: 97% of Kids’ Meals Flunk Nutrition at Chain Restaurants

Posted on April 26, 2013 | Leave a comment

I just read this today but it is from about a month ago, so you may have seen it already.

97% of Kids’ Meals Flunk Nutrition, as Fried Chicken Fingers, Burgers, Fries, Soda Dominate at Chain Restaurants ~ Newsroom ~ News from CSPI ~ Center for Science in the Public Interest.

Recently I  wrote about how popular children’s breakfast foods—cereal, Pop-Tarts, and “juice” drinks—more closely resemble candy and soda than a healthy meal to start the day.

When it comes to eating at many restaurants it appears that most kid’s meals more closely resemble an unhealthy adult meal than a healthy lunch or dinner appropriate for a child.

While we (parents) are responsible for making healthy choices for our kids, it is challenging given the general lack of good options. There are exceptions, of course, including the Fresh Fit for Kid’s meals at Subway that were mentioned in the CSPI article and healthy kid’s meals at EarthFare.

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Candy and soda for breakfast! The truth about popular children’s breakfast foods.

Posted on April 16, 2013 | 1 comment

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, right? A healthy breakfast can help kids pay attention and do better in school. In adults, a good breakfast can reduce hunger and help with weight control. That’s probably not new.

You may be surprised to learn that many  popular breakfast foods for children—and adults—are anything but healthy. In fact, many of these choices more closely resemble candy and soda than a healthy start to the day!

This is the topic of my Health & Fitness column in the Aiken Standard this week. It was also a project that one of my students, Brittney Austin, worked on this semester. While some of the results clearly showed that some breakfast foods were essentially candy, like frosted Pop-Tarts which have nearly as many calories and as much sugar as a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup.

In other cases, the comparison is more complicated. For example, Sunny D orange drink contains only 5% juice but has as much added sugar as a Coke. It is essentially orange soda without the bubbles. But when you consider that 100% orange juice has as much sugar as the Sunny D, maybe the “orange soda without bubbles”  isn’t so bad.

But it is! While it is true that the sugar content is essentially the same, the real orange juice also contains vitamins and minerals. And  even though some “juice” drinks have added vitamins and minerals, the real juice is still better. Here’s why: children who drink the artificially sweetened juice flavored drinks may become accustomed to the unnaturally sweet taste and find that they don’t like naturally sweetened juice or whole fruit. So even if the nutrients are the same as real juice, the “juice” drinks can lead kids away from eating fruit—a bad outcome!

Take a close look at what your children eat for breakfast. Is it a healthy meal or candy and soda in disguise? And take a good look at your own breakfast. It may not be much better!

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Don’t be an April Fool! Weight loss myths revealed.

Posted on April 1, 2013 | Leave a comment

Diets don’t work!

Exercise will make you gain weight!

This supplement will melt fat away while you sleep! 

Unfortunately, claims like these are not an April Fools joke. They are repeated so frequently that diets and exercise are avoided by many in favor of supplements to promote weight loss. Also unfortunately, they aren’t true. My Health & Fitness column in the Aiken Standard this week busts these common weight loss myths. Here is a bit more about each.

1. Diets don’t work! This is a common claim, usually to explain why most people who lose weight end up gaining it back. But diets do work. Almost every diet leads to weight loss in the short-term and some lead to  long-term weight loss. I have written about selecting the “best” diet and why the diet you pick isn’t the most important predictor of weight loss previously. And it is possible to lose weight and keep it off. But it is difficult, as this article explains so elegantly. Difficult, not impossible.

2. Exercise will make you gain weight! This is another popular myth about weight loss.  The good news is that exercise does work to promote weight loss. In fact, weight loss by exercise alone results in greater fat loss and preserves muscle compared to weight loss by diet. It’s true. But you probably shouldn’t try to lose weight by exercise alone. The best results will come from combining diet and exercise.

3. Melt fat away while you sleep by taking supplement X! This sounds great, which explains why Americans spend billions of dollars on dietary supplements each year. Unfortunately, most of these supplements have not been researched either adequately or at all to determine their effectiveness or safety, or they have been shown to be ineffective, as shown here. A conservative conclusion is that there are no supplements that have been shown to safely promote long-term weight loss.

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If you were paid millions of dollars, you would lose weight too!

Posted on March 4, 2013 | Leave a comment

Jared Fogle has been a spokesperson for Subway restaurants for 15 years now. He has had a huge impact on Subway sales, largely because of his remarkable weight loss which was due, in part, to eating Subway sandwiches. (Of course, there is nothing magical about his “Subway diet.” The weight loss was due to the fact that he was eating far fewer calories!)

What is more remarkable than his initial weight loss is the fact that Jared kept the weight off for 15 years. He has had some serious motivation to do so. First, he has literally been paid millions of dollars to keep the weight off. Second, because his story is so widely known and because he is so recognizable, Jared is accountable to all of us. His weight regain would be noticed by many people, include some who have made him a role model.

Most of us won’t get paid to lose weight (or exercise or quit smoking), but we can find something to motivate us. And by telling people about our goals—or better yet, getting them involved with us—we are accountable to others. In this way we can benefit from the very same factors that have contributed to Jared’s success.

You can read more about motivation and accountability and making health behavior changes in my Health & Fitness column in the Aiken Standard this week.

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Simplifying calorie calculations for weight loss

Posted on February 14, 2013 | 1 comment

Setting realistic weight loss goals and determining how many calories you should include in your diet requires estimating how many calories you eat and how many you burn each day. Sometimes these calculations can get a bit tedious.

The website Lifehacker just posted an article simplifying these calculations. Their approach is useful because a rough estimate of calories is enough to guide your eating and exercise habits. There really is no practical need for more precise calculations.

I would add one more number to know: 100. Walking or running one mile burns approximately 100 calories. The exact number depends on several factors including body weight and speed, but using 100 calories per mile makes calculations simple. For example, how many miles will you have to walk to burn off the the double mocha latte you had this morning?

By the way, Lifehacker regularly publishes articles on exercise and nutrition. I like the way they simplify sometimes complicated concepts and come up with practical solutions to common problems. From what I have seen, their interpretation and advice is consistent with the science, too.

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Simple ways to start your New Year’s resolutions

Posted on December 31, 2012 | Leave a comment

New Year’s resolutions can be easy to make, but difficult to follow through with. This is due, in part, to the fact that some of the most common resolutions—losing weight, starting an exercise program, eating healthier, and quitting smoking—are some of the most difficult behaviors to change.

It is also because the process of making these changes can be complicated. If you want to lose weight you need to decide which diet you will follow, which may require buying specific foods or learning to prepare meals in a particular way. If you plan to eat out you will want to learn which foods fit with your diet. Maybe you will be counting calories or tracking points. That all takes time and practice, which might delay you from getting started.

Fortunately, there are some easy ways for you to jump-start your New Year’s resolutions. In my Health & Fitness column in the Aiken Standard this week I share a few simple steps you can take to get started. This can give you time to figure out the details and learn new skills to help you succeed in the long run.

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