Restaurant Menu Calorie Shock

New York City's recent mandate to post calorie content at the point of purchase is proving to be quite interesting. It is very clear from this recent MSNBC.com article  that we either won't order something unhealthy and fattening when just how bad it is for us is made clear before we order, or we prefer not to be told and just keep stuffing our bodies with junk!

Nora Cara was flabbergasted.

She was about to order her usual morning coffee and muffin at Dunkin’ Donuts when she saw the new calorie labels. The chocolate chip muffin she had her eye on was 630 calories. “I was blown away,” said Cara, a 27-year-old homemaker from Forest Hills in New York City. “I’m not a no-carb type of person, and I usually don’t even think about it. But you pick up a little muffin with your coffee, and it has 630 calories in it? That’s a bit extreme!”

I chuckled when I read that! An innocent enough "little muffin" that the woman thought she was consuming all this time was, in reality , chock full of 630 calories. It really doesn't matter what else she ate for the rest of the day, that was not going to be a "weight loss" day but rather a weight gain day as she was bound to exceed 2400 calories if she was making "little" choices like that throughout her day.

I am not throwing stones, I know first hand what she is talking about. When I was 300+ pounds and "ON" one of my many "diets" I would drive to the local bread co. on my way to work and get a big diet Coke and a "little bran muffin". Like Nora, I was shocked to find out that mine had 600 calories and 35 grams of FAT!

Little wonder" I kept getting bigger!!

At a Wendy’s nearby, where calorie counts were just posted next to prices on the menu-boards behind the counter, customers didn’t flinch. “I figure I’ve got 1,350 calories here on my tray,” said Tristan Rowe, 26, who lives in Brooklyn, pointing to his lunch of a chicken club sandwich, junior bacon-cheeseburger, large fries and a large Coke (which actually added up to 1,680 calories).

“It’s not going to change what I order — I’m not watching my waistline. I have a very active lifestyle.”

Despite the eye-opening revelations, whether New Yorkers will switch to lower calorie meals remains to be seen. They may just switch menus.

That’s what this woman did .

At T.G.I. Friday’s, one of the few sit-down chain restaurants to have already added calorie counts to menus, a group of young women gasped as they studied the menu, barely able to find a meal under 1,000 calories, never mind an appetizer or dessert. Both Stephanie Fowler and Lindsay Green asked about the suddenly popular Classic Sirloin — at 290 calories, it was one of the lowest calorie items on the menu — but learned the restaurant ran out by the time the dinner rush started. “I’m so upset,” she said, noting some entrees — like the Jack Daniels ribs and shrimp dinner — contain almost 2,000 calories, and the desserts were more of the same (the brownie obsession is 1,500 calories). “I wish they wouldn’t have done this.” But then Fowler noticed that the waiter had handed her friend an old menu, which didn’t have calorie counts on it.

“You got a menu without anything on it?” she asked her friend. “Can I have yours?”

 

New York City, along with the rest of the World is obviously in BIG trouble!

Twenty-six-year-old Tristan Rowe is NOT watching her waistline? Right! She's 26 but regardless of her active lifestyle, by age 40 this woman is going to be HUGE if she doesn't start watching what unhealthy garbage she opts to give her body in the name of nutrition; that is if she is even still alive! I hate to break it to young Tristan but heart disease cares about her waistline and the fatty foods she eats! You don't have to be obese or even overweight to die of causes directly brought on by the foods you eat!

Switching menus? Good grief, it doesn't make a bit of difference if you SEE or don't SEE the calories; your body is going to realize the ill-effect of them either way!

Take the blinders off America, start reading the fine print and making better decisions, your lives or the quailty of them is at stake!

Julia Havey
The Source for Obesity Solutions
http://www.JuliaHavey.com