Last night I ate dinner out with a dear friend at a local Applebee's.
This particular Applebee's had calorie information for a few items on its print menu. It had comprehensive nutrition information on its website. You can see that information here. I accessed (and assessed) the information prior to my visit, but I could have seen it from my smartphone while at the table. Not everyone can do either of those two things.
While dining, I told my friend that I saw some items on the menu that had over 2000 calories. This was in reference to the research articles I talked about here, which showed the average restaurant meal has over 1000 calories, more than half a days worth for many of us.
She asked me which items, but I could not remember at the time. I looked again today and it was the appetizer sample and two dishes with riblets.
My friend and I both ordered the blackened tilapia meal which had a very reasonable 410 calories (as opposed to the fish and chips which had 1690!). My meal had less than 410 calories because I asked the chef not to use butter and I replaced the potatoes with steamed broccoli (great service from the wait person and manager, Winston Salem, NC). My friend and I ate similar volumes of food but I had fewer calories (I make these choices because I like to eat many times a day).
The tilapia looked like a good choice and it was a good choice. I can't say the same for the grilled chicken salad which had 1290 calories. There was also this great find on the children's menu. The item was titled 'Kids Celery Side with Dressing." In case you didn't know, 3 whole cups of chopped celery has less than 50 calories. This 'low calorie' vegetable side item had 220 calories - I am guessing that about 200 of those calories were from the dressing. To be fair, the celery - even with this dressing - had half the calories of the kids french fries.
Speaking of kids meals, remember this post regarding the nutrition in children's meals at certain restaurants. Applebee's did make it to the low end of the upper half of the list with 4 to 8 % of its children meals meeting expert nutrition standards. It paled in comparison to Subway and even Red Lobster and IHOP.
Oh and btw - I just started a twitter feed so if you want to follow me there you can. I expect I will mostly tweet photos of volumetric meals and maybe an occasional research update, esp related to diet quality and public health policy. @DeirdreDingman
Showing posts with label dining out. Show all posts
Showing posts with label dining out. Show all posts
Thursday, June 27, 2013
Thursday, January 6, 2011
30 dollars gets you 2 Grand
My classes start in less than a week and could prove quite challenging – Hence, today I take a break from heady research and talk about the special at Red Lobster Restaurant.
Two people can dine for $29.99 which includes a choice of one of eight entrees, either a Cesar or garden salad, as many cheddar cheese biscuits as they’d like ( and MOM tells me they like ‘em plenty), and a choice of an appetizer or dessert – but just one to split between the two.
WHY am I talking about this? It relates to my passions of obesity prevention and informed eating and thus it caught my attention. The promotion is advertised in the restaurant (point of purchase), on the Internet and on the TV. A full meal for fifteen dollars at a restaurant is not necessarily cheap but certainly inexpensive.
Two of the issues that come up in the obesity discourse are marketing (advertising) and cheap foods. To expand, the cheap food is often high in calories, low in nutrients, and marketed heavily and disproportionately to children. This “special” meets most of the criteria. I wanted to break down the meals to see just how many calories were packed into that 30 dollars.
I have two sample meals, but first let me give you some numbers to ponder.
The guests can choose one entrée each from a list of eight. The entrees range from 210 calories (tilapia) to 1260 calories (a pasta and meat dish). The fat grams are from 3 to 60. Can you imagine 60 grams of fat in one dish?! The average then is 625 calories and 29 grams of fat. There are only two options under 300 calories.
The entrees come with broccoli and a side starch – unless it is a pasta dish. The broccoli has 45 calories, fries 330, plain potato 220, mashed 210 and rice 180.
Each person gets a salad. A garden salad has 90 calories and a Cesar has 270 (cheese). The lowest dressing is 60 cals and the highest is 280 with an average of 170 for the salad dressing.
A biscuit has 150 calories. I did not look into butter or any sauces. I did not look at beverages. All that would be EXTRA calories.
There are three appetizers and three desserts from which the couple can choose only one. If they are looking at the appetizers, the shrimp cocktail is the clear winner at 120 cals. The cheese sticks are a scary 680, which make the 380 calorie stuffed mushrooms, look reasonable. The desserts range from 580 to 1490 calories. Yes, I said that one dessert (a chocolate something) has about 1500 calories – or the amount of calories many less active women need in a whole day.
So I created two meals. The first is the lowest calorie choice from every category – with the appetizer or dessert at ½ the calories (a shared item). The second is the highest of everything, but again only half the dessert. The low meal gets one biscuit, the high gets two. No drinks or dipping sauces included. READY??
Best Case w/ ½ appetizer - 795
Best case w/ ½ dessert - 880
Worst Case w/ ½ appetizer - 2495
Worst case w/ ½ dessert - 2900
My point is not to tell you what to eat. Just know what you are getting. I have no beef (ha) with Red Lobster. Their own website provided all the calorie and fat information and I can see that they have reduced some of the calories in the last couple of years.
I ate dinner at a Red Lobster last night. My meal was tilapia and broccoli without any oil, fat or butter and a garden salad (no croutons) and my own dressing. Add 95 calories for that deliciously ice cold Michelob Ultra. Oh, it was $17.50 before tip – supporting the notion that healthy costs more!
If you go to Red Lobster in Bradenton Florida – say HI to my MOM for me.
Two people can dine for $29.99 which includes a choice of one of eight entrees, either a Cesar or garden salad, as many cheddar cheese biscuits as they’d like ( and MOM tells me they like ‘em plenty), and a choice of an appetizer or dessert – but just one to split between the two.
WHY am I talking about this? It relates to my passions of obesity prevention and informed eating and thus it caught my attention. The promotion is advertised in the restaurant (point of purchase), on the Internet and on the TV. A full meal for fifteen dollars at a restaurant is not necessarily cheap but certainly inexpensive.
Two of the issues that come up in the obesity discourse are marketing (advertising) and cheap foods. To expand, the cheap food is often high in calories, low in nutrients, and marketed heavily and disproportionately to children. This “special” meets most of the criteria. I wanted to break down the meals to see just how many calories were packed into that 30 dollars.
I have two sample meals, but first let me give you some numbers to ponder.
The guests can choose one entrée each from a list of eight. The entrees range from 210 calories (tilapia) to 1260 calories (a pasta and meat dish). The fat grams are from 3 to 60. Can you imagine 60 grams of fat in one dish?! The average then is 625 calories and 29 grams of fat. There are only two options under 300 calories.
The entrees come with broccoli and a side starch – unless it is a pasta dish. The broccoli has 45 calories, fries 330, plain potato 220, mashed 210 and rice 180.
Each person gets a salad. A garden salad has 90 calories and a Cesar has 270 (cheese). The lowest dressing is 60 cals and the highest is 280 with an average of 170 for the salad dressing.
A biscuit has 150 calories. I did not look into butter or any sauces. I did not look at beverages. All that would be EXTRA calories.
There are three appetizers and three desserts from which the couple can choose only one. If they are looking at the appetizers, the shrimp cocktail is the clear winner at 120 cals. The cheese sticks are a scary 680, which make the 380 calorie stuffed mushrooms, look reasonable. The desserts range from 580 to 1490 calories. Yes, I said that one dessert (a chocolate something) has about 1500 calories – or the amount of calories many less active women need in a whole day.
So I created two meals. The first is the lowest calorie choice from every category – with the appetizer or dessert at ½ the calories (a shared item). The second is the highest of everything, but again only half the dessert. The low meal gets one biscuit, the high gets two. No drinks or dipping sauces included. READY??
Best Case w/ ½ appetizer - 795
Best case w/ ½ dessert - 880
Worst Case w/ ½ appetizer - 2495
Worst case w/ ½ dessert - 2900
My point is not to tell you what to eat. Just know what you are getting. I have no beef (ha) with Red Lobster. Their own website provided all the calorie and fat information and I can see that they have reduced some of the calories in the last couple of years.
I ate dinner at a Red Lobster last night. My meal was tilapia and broccoli without any oil, fat or butter and a garden salad (no croutons) and my own dressing. Add 95 calories for that deliciously ice cold Michelob Ultra. Oh, it was $17.50 before tip – supporting the notion that healthy costs more!
If you go to Red Lobster in Bradenton Florida – say HI to my MOM for me.
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