Restaurants do the wrong thing

If restaurants have a chance to do the right thing...they don't.

Calorielab.com reports: In an effort to get around rules requiring chain restaurants to post nutritional information on menus in New York City, several chains have removed nutrition facts from their restaurants and websites. The rule only applies to restaurants with standardized menu options that were making their nutritional information available by March 1, so chains like Wendy’s, White Castle and Quiznos removed nutritional information from stores or deactivated the nutrition information pages on their websites to avoid having to meet the city’s requirements.

The changes brought a tart response from Health Commissioner Thomas Frieden.

"If some restaurants stop displaying calorie information to avoid making it useful to customers, we should wonder what they're so ashamed of," he said in a statement.

The companies say the move is temporary while they figure out a long-term strategy that will work for customers.

What would work for customers is to provide more information, not less. Wendy's, White Castle and Quiznos need to do the right thing by not listening to lawyers, but to their customers.

Just one Tuesday burger equals 5 Big Macs

CNN went to Ruby Tuesday's and Uno Chicago Grill and -- surprise, surprise -- found outrageous portions. Even bigger than you can imagine. How about one burger that has the same amount of calories and fat as 5 Big Macs.

Or an appetizer of potato skins that has the same calories as 3 pizzas plus 3 pats of butter.

Both restaurants defend its menus, and both say it's "impractical" to expect nutritional information to be posted on its menus. "Impractical", or is it determential to its profits? Extreme portions lead to extreme profits in the restaurant business. While Americans get fatter, so do the pockets of mega-chain CEOs.

View the CNN report.

Receive an extra $1,000 this year!

This only works for 66% of Americans who are obese or overweight:

Eat less food.

NOT eating trans fats might kill you!

How could not eating trans fats kill you?

For the past several years -- and now it's heated up with various banishments -- nutritionists have screamed, loud and clear, that trans fats are our biggest diet problem.

Wrong!

The entire debate about trans fats have taken our "eyes off the prize". Trans fats are bad, but just a tiny, tiny part of the problem. Most restaurants and food companies are simply substituting one bad fat for another big, bad fat. Supersized non-trans-fat french fries are still not going to be any better for you. And that's what is going to kill you. By removing trans fats, most Americans are going to think it's OK to eat more french fries, and fried chicken and gooey, extra-large muffins. And that's how not eating trans fats might kill you.

USA Today points out some companies have removed trans fats, but added more calories and saturated fat to the product.

Kraft Foods has reportedly removed trans fats from Oreos, but in the process added 33% more saturated fat. (You can bet that McDonald's is not taking this opportunity to make its fried food any better.)

Today, trans fats account for less than 2.6% of the calories in Americans' diets. But saturated fats make up about 12%. So, RightSizing the problem means eating less fats...all of the fats, including trans fats, animal fats, even too much, olive oil fat can't be good for you. Trans fats have been "overemphasized when you consider the big picture," says Shelley Goldberg of the International Food Information Council. "My concern is as a registered dietitian is that with all this focus on trans fats, there's not enough focus on an overall healthful diet, including fruits, vegetables, whole grains, as well as fish and vegetable oils."

Sheila Weiss of the National Restaurants Association, a trade organization, said, "We want to make sure we are moving toward a healthy alternative and not just getting a quick fix."

Goldberg worries that "if we make these changes too quickly, we may put something else in that we don't know the long-term effects of, and it might be worse."

Goldberg's concerns are coming true. Kraft could have figured out a way to make Oreos just a little more healthy, but instead, they now have added 33% more saturated fat. That's just one food, how many other foods are going to get worse for us?

Empires are not built on small portions (but large portions may topple empires)

When we Americans go overseas we can't help but feel sorry for the people that have so little to eat. Then again, maybe, we shouldn't feel too sorry. Martin Booe spent a little time in France and wrote about how small the portions are there. Here's Martin -- with his tongue in his cheek -- and his article from Epicurious.com.

Sometimes, being an ambassador of goodwill — and a food writer — is a tough job. There I was, in a café in the Provençal village of Fayence, when I spied a poor little French boy nibbling at a croissant. I felt sorry for him so I gave him a euro.

"Pourquoi?" he asked in astonishment.

"Poor little French boy," I said. "I feel sorry for you. Your French croissants are so small. Come and visit me in the United States and I will treat you to a California croissant. They are as big as king-size feather pillows. It would take five of your dinky French croissants to make one of them."

"How do they taste?" inquired the impudent little devil.

"That is beside the point," I said. "Our California croissants are so big because our self-esteem is high. And our California cookies? They're as big as wagon wheels. They make your pathetic little petits fours look silly!"

"How do they taste?"

"Listen to me. That is beside the point. All over America, our food has gotten bigger and bigger. And so have Americans."

"Yes, they are very fat."

"No, that is the critical mass of their self-esteem you're seeing! And let me tell you something else. Our meals are bigger all the way around. I just had a meal at a one-star Michelin restaurant here in France! And what a rip-off it was. Seven courses and I didn't feel the least bit sick or overstuffed. So I had two more."

"Two more courses?"

"No, I had two more seven-course meals. You see, Americans have such abundant self-esteem that they're not happy unless they get enough food for three people. And you know, our plates are bigger too," I continued. "Your wimpy European plates are only nine inches in diameter. Ours are 11! Some are 13!"

"The Americans are gluttons!" the boy snarled.

"Listen," I said firmly. "Empires are not built on small portions. And if you French had decent size croissants, you might still have your empire! And if I had a big American croissant, I would use it to knock you upside your little head. Then I would eat that croissant with immense pride."

It's Fat Tuesday...and Fat Wednesday, and Fat Thursday, and Fat...

It's Fat Tuesday.

And for most Americans who eat at restaurants it's always Fat Tuesday and Fat Wednesday and Fat Thursday, and, well, you get the idea.

Today -- on the only day named for obesity -- Milwaukee's NBC Channel 4 looked at local restaurants to see how big the portions really were. In just one salad, they found more than a 1,000 calories and enough fat for the entire day...in a salad! How about lasagna that has 1,700 calories and two days worth of fat. And Chili's Awesome Blossom weighs in with 2,700 calories and three days worth of fat. (And, remember, the Blossom is just an appetizer.)

It seems it's always FAT Tuesday when you eat out.

Here's what they found when they picked up dinners from restaurants all around the Milwaukee area:

From the Cheesecake Factory... Jambalaya and a BBQ salad.

From Maggiano's Italian restaurant... lasagna.

Chicken Tequila Fettuccine from the California Pizza Kitchen.

And a huge burrito from Pedro's in Brookfield.

We took our enormous lunches to SF Labs in West Allis to have them analyzed.

The initial response from our food scientist Mark Meuer: "Man this could feed a family of four."

When we asked him to guess the weight of a particularly large entree, he told us "That's over two pounds at least. You can see that, and then this is supposed to go with it too?"

As for our salad, he guessed we'd find plenty of fat hidden among the greens.

The BBQ Chicken salad weighed in at 1,100 calories, and two pounds. A full day's worth of fat too.

The jambalaya: 1,500 calories and 100% of your fat for the day.

Maggiano's lasagna... just like mom used to make? Maybe. If Mom served two pound slices with 1,700 calories and nearly two days worth of fat.

The pasta from California Pizza Kitchen is a relative lightweight, at 1,300 calories and 135% of your day's fat.

But the big kahuna: the aptly-named three pound burrito from Pedro's. Weighing in at 2,700 calories and two full days worth of fat in one meal.

So, you think, you'll just have an appetizer? Think again. Chili's famous Awesome Blossom has as many calories as the burrito: 2,700. And three days worth of fat!

Outback Aussie cheese fries? Better plan to share! 2,900 calories, and another three days worth of fat.

At this point, maybe you want to skip dinner and just have dessert. Just one piece of cookie dough cheesecake has 1,100 calories-- ouch-- and a little more fat than you need in the whole day.

"The bigger the portion the more we eat and the more we eat the bigger we get," dietitian Laurie Meyer points out.

Restaurant food "horrors"

Some foods are so bad for you, they qualify as a nutritionist's nightmare. They are nearly always the WrongSize as well.

Last year, WebMD asked several registered dietitians and other food experts to nominate their favorite "food horrors". Their submissions ranged from empty-calorie foods masquerading as nutritious, to outlandish concoctions that tip the scales with obscene amounts of fat and calories.

Here are the foods you find outside the home. If you find them, be very afraid!

1. Frightful Fried Foods

From a nutritional standpoint, some of the scariest foods are the deep-fat fried concoctions you can find at carnivals and state fairs.

Americans have tossed everything from turkeys to Twinkies in the fryer, but have you ever heard of deep-fried cola? Debuting at the Texas state fair -- and winning the creativity honor at the Big Tex Choice Awards contest -- was this deep-fried, Coca-Cola flavored batter, drizzled with cola fountain syrup, and topped with whipped cream, cinnamon sugar and a cherry.

2. Scary Steakhouse Specialty

Nutritional nightmares are readily available at many of your favorite neighborhood restaurants. Christine Palumbo, RD, nominated the deep-fried onion appetizer popular at some chain steakhouses.

One such appetizer, Outback Steakhouse's Bloomin' Onion, has more than 800 calories, 58 grams of fat and 22 grams of saturated fat, plus 1,520 milligrams of sodium. These numbers don't include the dipping sauce, which is also loaded with fat, calories, and sodium.

3. Monstrously Misleading

Marion Nestle, PhD, MPH, a New York University nutrition professor and author of What to Eat, takes issue with not-very-nutritious foods that are labeled or advertised with healthy-sounding terms. She nominates "kids' fruit snacks that have no fruit whatsoever and are basically candy in disguise" as one potentially misleading food.

4. Big, Bigger, Biggest Burgers

There appears to be no end to the amount of calories and fat you can fit onto a bun.

Hardee's has the Monster Thickburger, boasting 1,420 calories, 107 grams
(g) of fat, 45 g of saturated fat, and 2,740 milligrams (mg) of sodium.
Carl's Jr. takes it a step further with the Double Six Burger, featuring two burger patties and three slices of cheese -- weighing in at 1,520 calories, 111 g fat, 47 g saturated fat, and 2,760 mg sodium.

Burger King is not far behind with its BK Stacker, loaded with four burgers, four slices of cheese, and 8 strips of bacon, coming in at 1,000 calories, 30 g saturated fat, and 1,800 mg sodium.

And the list doesn't end at fast-food chains. Ever hear of the "Hamdog"?
This culinary creation from the former Mulligan's Tavern near Atlanta starts with a hot dog padded with cheese and half pound of ground beef.
That's dropped in the fryer, then loaded onto a hoagie roll and topped with chili, bacon, onions and a fried egg. Mulligan's was also famous as the home of the "Luther Burger," a giant bacon cheeseburger with a Krispy Kreme doughnut for a bun.

Someone call the food police!

Of course, "most people know when they order one of these that it is not good for them," says Jayne Hurley, RD, senior nutritionist for the watchdog group, Center for Science in the Public Interest.

If you are thinking of your health, try ordering a plain burger with sauce on the side, along with a side salad.

The bottom line is that we should eat no more than 20 grams of saturated fat per day. The U.S. Department of Agriculture's 2005 Dietary Guidelines recommend no more than 2,300 mg of sodium per day (equal to about 1 teaspoon). If you're salt-sensitive (that is, if your blood pressure is highly affected by salt), the number drops to 1,500 mg.

5. Appalling Appetizers

Dietitian Cynthia Sass, RD, nominated TGI Friday's "sizzling triple meat fundido -- a combination of cheese, pepperoni, bacon, and sausage served with breadsticks." While nutritional information for this appetizer was not available on the restaurant's web site, the fat-laden ingredients ensure that the fundido is a nutritional no-no.

6. Calorie-Laden Cakes

As if cheesecake were not high enough in fat and calories, the Cheesecake Factory adds chocolate candy, cookies, mousse, ganache, flourless chocolate cake crust, and other equally caloric extras to the rich dessert, says Jayne Hurley, RD. Even if you're just ordering a plain slice, cheesecake will set you back 630 calories.

Looking for a little nosh with your coffee? Starbucks Old Fashioned Crumb cake looks innocent enough, but that little square packs 670 calories.

7. Diet-Demolishing Drinks

The real problem with high-calorie drinks is that they go down easily, and don't tend to fill you up.

"Coffee drinks and smoothies don't set off bells and whistles to alert you to the calorie load," says Hurley. "Starbucks' white chocolate mocha is a Quarter-Pounder in a cup; any Frappuccino Blended Crème has 490-580 calories; and a venti Java Chip Frappuccino has the equivalent of 11 creamers and 20 packets of sugar.

To reduce the calories in your favorite coffee drink, order a small size, make it "skinny" (with low fat milk), and skip the whipped cream.

8. Mammoth Mall Munchies

Most people know when they order a gigantic burger that it is not good for them. But what really scares Hurley are the not-so-obviously fattening foods that people snack on at the mall.

"The highly aromatic cinnamon used in a Cinnabon (810 calories) or the smell of Mrs. Field's milk chocolate macadamia cookie (320 calories) tempts mall goers into thinking nothing of eating a snack that has half a day's calories or fat," she says.

Bring along a 100-calorie pack of crackers, some trail mix, or raw veggies to help you resist the tantalizing aromas of such high-calorie mall treats.

9. Dining-Out Diet Disasters

"Fifteen years ago, when I first started evaluating restaurant food, I was blown away by the 1,500 calories in a serving of Fettuccine Alfredo, but the trend has gotten worse, not better," says Hurley.

Fried macaroni and cheese and cheese fries were other nominees in the category of frightening foods found on restaurant menus.

10. Stupendous Servings

It's not just fast-food meals that have been super-sized in the last couple of decades.

"Muffins, bagels, salads, sandwiches, pasta servings -- almost everything is much larger today than it used to be or needs to be," says Hurley. "You can expect most restaurant appetizers, entrees, and desserts to each weigh in around 1,000 calories."

Here's a sure-fire way to start your day off on the wrong dietary foot:
the enormous omelet sandwich at Burger King. This fork-free meal is loaded with two slices of cheese, three slices of bacon, two eggs, and a sausage patty on a giant bun, totaling 730 calories and 47 g fat.

Do Food Horrors Really Matter?

Yes, dietitians say, there are some truly frightening foods out there.
But do they really matter to the average American's diet?

Michelle May, MD, author of Am I Hungry? What to Do When Diets Don't Work, thinks that once a person indulges in a decadent dessert or monster burger, it triggers the "'I've already blown my diet, so why bother?" mentality.

Beyond that, May believes, the real horror may be the American mind-set about food.

"We were raised to clean our plates so we could be rewarded with dessert, which further enhances our desire to eat sweets and eat meals without recognition of fullness," she says.

Further, consider that many of the most frighteningly fattening foods are sold in restaurants. Americans now spend 48% of their food dollars in restaurants, according to the USDA Economic Research Service. And the most popular restaurant food eaten by both men and women is the hamburger, according to the NPD Group, a market research firm.

Hurley thinks most people would think twice about ordering food and drinks that they realize are "hideously high in fat and calories." She'd like to see nutrition information about restaurant foods become more readily available, and believes this would encourage restaurateurs to offer more healthful options.

"Let's give consumers the choice and educate them with the nutritional information of restaurant foods at the point of purchase, not the web site," she recommends.

Can you find healthy, good value food at chain restaurants?

In marketing fast-food restaurants, it's assumed that diners will associate larger portions with "value".

Michael Pollan tells the story in Omnivore's Dilemma, that David Wallerstein convinced Ray Kroc in 1968 to "supersize" portions, because Wallerstein knew most people don't want to be perceived as "piggish". Wallerstein demonstrated that the taboo against gluttony could be broken with larger portions for just a little more money. Kroc thought that if people wanted more, they just would order a second bag of fries. Kroc was wrong, and Wallerstein's dubious achievement, SuperSize, was born.

But could the tide be turning against SuperSize? Maybe the tide has turned into a tsunami!

A survey just released Monday found people don't believe chain restaurants give them value or healthy foods. Sandelman & Associates, a San Clemente, Calif.-based market research firm, looked at what people thought about 115 US-based chain restaurants.

On average only 30% of the surveyed diners thought they got value for their money at the chains. And only 23% of the people agree that the restaurants had healthy or nutritious food.

And people want healthy food for their money. Fully 43 percent of customers rated “availability of healthy/nutritious food” “extremely important” in their selection of a fast-food restaurant in 2006, up from 35 percent in 2001. In fact, it is the only attribute of 12 studied that posted increases for five consecutive years.

And 56% think it's extremely important to get value for the money.

Americans are trying to eat better; restaurants don't seem to be responding.

(Read the quarterly syndicated Quick-Track® research report here.)

Respondents provide an rating for selected chains they have patronized in the past three months on 12 key attributes that define a chain’s image, including food, service, cleanliness, convenience and value. A five-point rating scale is used, with “1” being “poor” and “5” being “excellent.”

Here are the percentages people responded as excellent for the restaurants in two categories.

Healthy/Nutritious Food
Importance 43.0%
Subway 54.9%
Submarina 50.8%
Panera/St. Louis Bread 47.9%
ALL CHAINS AVERAGE 23.1%

Value for the Money
Importance 56.0%
Chico's Tacos 64.4%
Little Caesars Pizza 58.3%
In-N-Out Burger 49.1%
ALL CHAINS AVERAGE 29.8%

Portion distortion: "You CAN'T have it your way"

Statistics from the U.S. Department of Agriculture show that Americans' total daily caloric intakes are 148 calories higher than they were in 1980. This amount leads to a weight gain of 15 pounds every year. (See today's report from McClatchy Newspapers.)

Every year. And trend is going up.

Why? Portion distortion.

Saturday night, along with my family, I ate at the "Cookhouse", Connecticut's best BBQ. Well, you know BBQ not going to be portion-friendly, but I believe you can eat anything, just in the right portions. But restaurants continue to fight you.

My wife wanted pulled pork without the bread and without the french fries. She wanted a salad with the pulled pork. Sorry, the waiter said. Wait a minute, he didn't even say sorry. He simply said, " 'they' can't substitute salad for fries, and the pulled pork comes on a bun." It's $2.99 extra for the salad (iceberg lettuce with a little carrot and one slice of tomato). My 7-year-old son figured his options were grilled cheese sandwich and chicken fingers, and he went with the chicken.

I chose the mahi mahi and collard greens as a side.

We ate appropriate portions, but we were not served appropriate portions!

Let's see how much food was wasted, even though we tried to order "our way".

A bread basket of 3 cornbread muffins and 3 biscuits. My son ate two muffins and my wife and I shared one. My wife left the bun and most of the supersized french fries. And my son ate at most five french fries and left the rest of the 1/2 pound of potatoes.

Contrary to reports, people do not have portion distortion. Restaurants do.

Most chefs don't give a damn about calories!

When restaurant chefs consider portion size they don't think about calories at all. That's what a recent Pennsylvania State University research study found. Chefs said these factors strongly influence portion size: food presentation (70 percent), cost (65 percent) and customer expectations (52 percent). Only 16 percent said calories were a big influence.

So don't expect chefs to help out diners. In fact, while it may make diners happy to get piles of pasta and mountains of meat, they'll pay the price in pounds, said doctors at the annual meeting of the Obesity Society, where the survey was presented.

Chefs agreed that big servings encourage people to eat too much, but said it's up to the diner to decide how much to consume — and how much to take in a doggie bag.

"As you increase portion sizes or the variety of meals served, people are going to consume more calories," said Thomas Wadden, president of the Obesity Society.

"Most of the chefs thought they were serving regular-sized portions," the study said, but four out of five gave more than the recommended 2 ounces for pasta and 3 ounces for strip steak. If they were worried about competitor restaurants, they served more pasta and steak and used bigger plates, researchers found.

Portions are a touchy subject for many restaurants and some chains outright refused to discuss it.

But at Cheesecake Factory Inc., "we're known for our generous portions" and the value they offer, said Howard Gordon, a senior vice president of the chain whose signature dish is dozens of varieties of cheesecake.

One slice of cheesecake is almost 800 calories, which is 40% of your calories for the entire day. It also coats your heart with 150% of the daily recommended saturated fat.

"There is a 'wow' factor in the way that it looks," he said of the food. The chain doesn't provide information on calories and customers ask for it "very, very rarely," he said.

This is why we need to stop the portion poison in America. Don't you want your chef to at least think about calories when preparing your meal. It's only your life.

States get bad report cards

The University of Baltimore Obesity Initiative gave out report cards this week to the 50 states and graded each on how it is responding to the obesity health crisis. The news wasn't good. Just six states received A's. Nine states received D's and F's. These states are failing Americans and its children.

Idaho, Wyoming and Utah received Fs for taking no action -- that's zippo -- to combat obesity. Tennessee received an A, but that state is in dare need of some help. It has the 8th highest rate of obesity. Mississippi has the nation's highest rate of obesity. It received a C.

The Initiative looked at eight different types of legislation, some of which dealt with childhood obesity. Some of the things they looked at were:

• controlling the types of food and drinks in schools
• controlling the types of food in school's vending machines
• mandatory physical education
• establishing obesity education

The good news is that grass roots efforts are being taken by school boards and local governments to make eating away from home a healthier experience. But the work is far, far from done.

CNN reports we now spend (and it's us, as in taxpayers and higher insurance premiums) more than $130 billion on direct costs related to obesity. Indirect costs triple that to $390 billion.

On the Calif. menu: helping you choose the RightSize

When you order a Big Mac or a Whopper or Grand Slam breakfast, how can you determine what the calories are in each bite? Well, it’s not easy unless you have an internet connection right there. And in the case of some chain restaurants you must first email them, before you’ll get a response.

Now, a San Francisco lawmaker wants to make it easier for us to see what we are eating. Sen. Carole Migden has introduced legislation that would require chain restaurants to count calories and post them for each menu item.

“Californians need to know the calorie content of their meals,'' Migden said, "to make healthier decisions about the food they consume.''

The knee-jerk reaction from the restaurant industry was predictable: It’s unfair and it will cost us money. (Let’s see...McDonald’s had a profit of $3,000,000,000 during the past 12 months.)

Restaurants shouldn't take all the blame for America's expanding waistline, said Jot Condie, CEO of the California Restaurant Association. He says the bill would add unfair costs to doing business -- "in the millions'' for the restaurant industry.

Condie said restaurants with fast-changing menus would bear the biggest costs in posting calorie content on menus and menu boards -- what you see above the counter at a McDonald's, for example -- as well as conducting nutritional analysis.

"Something has to be done about obesity, but the reality is that 81 percent of our meals are consumed at home,'' Condie said. "Information that people get at grocery stores isn't moving people to change their eating habits. If they don't engage in active lifestyles, that's their choice. It's easy to assign blame to the restaurant industry.''

Many fast-food chains make nutritional content available on posters, in leaflets and online, but this bill would force them to display that information more conspicuously.

"More and more people are getting their meals away from home,'' Ritchie said. "That makes it harder to know what's in your foods if you're not preparing it. This is not something everybody would use, but people will be surprised and shocked after they saw how much they're putting into their bodies.''

Migden cites studies that show children eat nearly twice as many calories when they eat at a restaurant than at home.

Would you change your eating habits, if you saw on the menu that chicken wings on a menu had more than a thousand calories on it. In the past, I loved the 99 Restaurant’s boneless chicken wings. Then I email the 99 and ask for a calorie chart. I was shocked to see that my beloved wings were the highest calorie item on the list. And here I thought chicken was good for me. I definitely changed my lifestyle based on that information. The CEO of the California Restaurant Association is definitely wrong. People will change their eating habits based on this information, and that’s what the restaurants are afraid of!

Let's burn the bread basket!

I went out to dinner with my wife, daughter and her boyfriend Saturday night. The waiter came around with fresh rolls, and asked each of us if we wanted one.

It was so easy to say no to this one offer. I enjoy the bread at Petite Syrah restaurant, but I decided my appropriate portions that night didn't include bread. Then my daughter made the economic observance regarding not putting a huge bread basket on the table, and just giving the three people at the table an appropriate portion. She said, it saves the restaurant money. How right she was.

What a great concept. One, it seemed very elegant to have the waiter walk around offering a small yeast roll or a slice of freshly baked olive bread. Two, it didn't violate "mindless eating" by having a big basket of bread on the table. And three, it saved the restaurant money.

I think I have found another perfectly portioned food, the hand-delivered slice of bread.

You have to admit that when one of those chain steakhouses flops down a whole loaf of bread, it's just the wrong portion to expect us to eat it all. And if we don't eat it all, it's wasted. And of course, if you don't eat it, well, it's included in your cost for the dinner, so you are paying for it any way.

Think about it the next time you are out. Wouldn't you prefer just one roll hand-delivered? If so, tell the restaurant.

To help Americans eat, look at the world

In order for us, Americans, to eat better, let's take a look at the best food traditions in the world.

The magazine Cooking Light came up with 5 of the World's healthiest food habits.

Healthy Habit #1
Eat Plenty of Produce and Whole Grains
Countries known for putting it into practice: China and Greece
Research finds that three servings or more a day of produce can lower the risk of stroke, heart disease, and some cancers. Harvard University's Nurses Health Study, for example, which examined almost 85,000 women over 12 to 14 years, found that those who ate the most fruit and vegetables had a 20 percent lower risk for heart disease.

[Everyone knows that fruit -- not fruit drinks -- fills you up. But it's a rare restaurant that serves fruit for dessert.]

Healthy Habit #2
Savor Leisurely Dining
Countries known for putting it into practice: Italy, France, Spain, Greece, Japan
A meal in these countries often lasts several hours. In fact, one of Greece's dietary guidelines, its version of our usda dietary guidelines, is to "eat slowly, preferably at regular times of the day, and in a pleasant environment." Sharing a meal is so important that Greeks call someone a friend "by saying we have shared bread together."

[If only we had the time. It's probably rare for a family to eat a nice leisurely dinner together. So when we find the time at a restaurant, it's even more important that they serve us appropriate portions. See habit #3.]

Healthy Habit #3
Practice Portion Control
Countries known for putting it into practice: France, Japan
We have an abundance of delicious and nutritious food available in America; we just need to pay attention to portions. An average meal in France is 25 percent smaller than one in America, according to a 2003 University of Pennsylvania comparison, which examined portion sizes at 11 similar pairs of establishments, from pizza parlors to ethnic restaurants. The study also found that a typical carton of yogurt sold in Philadelphia was 82 percent larger than one offered in Paris, and a soft drink was 52 percent larger. In Japan, foods also come in smaller sizes and are often eaten out of bowls, rather than large plates or platters.

[Do I need to say more?]

Healthy Habit #4
Eat a Variety of Unprocessed, Fresh Foods
Countries known for putting it into practice: Italy, France, Greece, Japan, the United States
Shopping in countries such as France and Italy may also involve several stops—at the butcher, the greengrocer, and the baker—which not only increases the shopper's activity level, but also results in meals made with unprocessed ingredients. Studies show that fresh foods provide more fiber; fewer calories, saturated fats, and trans fats; and less added salt and sugar.

Healthy Habit #5
Spice Up Your Plate
Countries known for putting it into practice: India, China, Thailand, the United States
Herbs and spices add delicious, attractive, and healthful flair to your plate. In addition to being low in calories and virtually fat free, researchers are discovering that herbs, such as garlic, thyme, and rosemary, and spices, like cinnamon, cloves, and curcumin (also known as turmeric), may fight disease.

[I spice up my plate, because it makes appropriate portions more tasty and inviting.]

Everything is Super on Sunday, including our stomachs

America loves food...and football. We prove it each year around this time, by eating our way through four quarters of Super Bowl football, 50 commercials and 3 million pizzas. That's right, 3 million pizzas.

According to the book, "Mindless Eating", the Super Bowl ranks #1 in home parties and #2 in food consumption (right behind Thanksgiving). We also eat 4 thousand tons of popcorn, 11.2 million pounds of potato chips, 8.2 million pounds of tortilla chips, 4.3 million pounds of pretzels, 3.8 million pounds of popcorn and 2.5 million pounds of nuts.

Hungry Super Bowl snackers will chow down on a total of 30 million pounds of food, with 4 million pounds of fat. Per individual, that's about 1,200 calories with 50 grams of fat from snacks alone, the Calorie Control Council and the Snack Food Association says.

By kickoff most people will be in a guacamole stuper.

Robin Steagall, a dietitian with the Calorie Control Council, recommends building a pre-game strategy.

When you arrive at the party, navigate the food table carefully, looking for healthy fruit or vegetable platters. And while Andrews admits plain raw things might not be the most appetizing, he suggests spicing them up with a healthy protein dip, such as a bean or hummus spread.

If there won't be healthy options at the party, bring your own, Andrews says. The host will love that you contributed something, and you know you'll have a something besides grease-laden food.

Andrews emphasizes that if you have good nutrition day in and day out, there is nothing wrong with indulging on the traditional Super Bowl foods. Just watch your portions so you don't overdo it.

"Go eat and enjoy it. ... Eat what you want and get back on track ... the next day," he says.

Hey, I'm just like the next guy. I love love and football. But I'm not having inappropriate portions of pizza and chips. I'm fixing my famous Cincinnati Chili and substituting ground turkey for ground beef. [Here's one recipe; I like the Joy of Cooking's.]
What I have found that helps me keep my portions reasonable is lots of flavor from my spices. And Cincinnati Chili has a rich heritage of Far East spices. No one believes how good it is with cinnamon, allspice, cloves, cumin, and unsweetened chocolate. We serve it 4 Way.

For those not from Southern Ohio, 4 Way is chili served over spaghetti topped with a little cheddar cheese, chopped onions and a few cooked red kidney beans. I skip the Oyster crackers which would make it 5-Way Chili.

Make it a super day, not super portions.

There is at least one celebrity against obesity

Just after I posted my latest entry, Star Wars: Anorexia vs obesity; thin beats fat, Thursday, I sat down to read the Wall Street Journal. And right there on page D7, is the headline, "Shek, a Massive Beast, Stars In Campaign Against Obesity". For a change, the government is thinking like me. That's scary.

So to make sure I give credit where credit is due here's the news release:

Shrek Flip-flops in Obesity Fight
Animated Ogre Who Shilled for Sugary Cereal Will Serve as Spokesman for Healthy Living

By Ira Teinowitz

Published: January 30, 2007

WASHINGTON (AdAge.com) -- Shrek is switching sides in the kids' obesity fight.

None other than DreamWorks Animation's green ogre -- whose promotional efforts for a sugary General Mills cereal named in his honor were pummeled by Sen. Tom Harkin ("We got rid of Joe Camel. We've got to get rid of Shrek," the Iowa Democrat said in a press conference) -- is becoming a spokesman for good health.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Ad Council are hosting a press conference Thursday to announce that Shrek will be a featured addition to their Small Step obesity-prevention campaign, which encourages children and families to lead healthy lifestyles. PSAs from GSD&M, Austin, Texas, are expected to feature Shrek and his sidekicks, including the donkey voiced by Eddie Murphy in the films. (Shrek is voiced by comedian Mike Myers.)

Other Shrek promotions

The switch comes as McDonald's and Mars ready promotions tied to the May release of "Shrek 3." Mars will offer a Snickers candy bar featuring green "Shrek filling" and "ogre-sized" peanut-butter M&M's. McDonald's in July 2005 announced a two-year marketing and promotional relationship with DreamWorks that begins with the new movie. McDonald's has said it will use Shrek to promote more-healthful offerings such as Apple Dippers.

Growing controversy over the marketing of unhealthful food products to kids prompted the Walt Disney Co. in October to announce it would rein in its licensing efforts, including those of DreamWorks rival Pixar.

Disney unveiled new licensing guidelines that limit most of its characters to foods low in total fat, saturated fat and sugar. Disney also moved to make fast food in its parks more healthful.

Small Step campaign

The Ad Council's Small Step public-service campaign began in 2003 and focuses on fitness, nutrition and disease prevention. The first ads from Interpublic Group of Cos.' McCann Erickson were aimed at adults; a second "Can your foods do that?" campaign aimed at kids launched late in 2005.

Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt, DreamWorks Chairman Roger Enrico and Ad Council President-CEO Peggy Conlon will unveil the Shrek ads in Washington, according to the Department of Health and Human Services.

Star Wars: Anorexia vs obesity; thin beats fat

I see all the celebrities talking about anorexia on TV, the news shows, the morning shows, the red carpet; but I don't see anyone talking about obesity. Is the O-word, an obscene term in Hollywood? Well, we know the A-word isn't. Just take a look at how everyone is outraged by the thinness of supermodels.

Reading newspapers, magazines, and blogs you would have thought anorexia had replaced heart disease as the #1 killer in America. It seems that every celebrity has something to say. Tyra Banks, Dr. Phil, Paula Zahn, Katharine McPhee, all have come out against anorexia recently.

In fact at the end of this month is National Eating Disorders Awareness Week.

Anorexia nervosa kills between 100-950 people a year, that's the same as lightning or accidental discharge of guns. That is horrible. But no more horrible than obesity.

Obesity kills between 100,000-365,000 people a year, and costs about $130 billion in direct medical care. (How many it kills is a huge political and scientific issue.) There's little doubt however that the rate is rising, as is heart disease and diabetes.

Why is it OK to talk about anexoria? However, I've never seen a celebrity on the red carpet come out against huge food portions and obesity. And it would be so easy. They don't have to endorse a particular diet program, or diet food, or tell people that obesity doesn't look good. They don't have to endorse gastric bypass. All they have to do is tell people to eat appropriate portions, and ask restaurants to serve the RightSize.

Of course we know the answer why. No celebrity wants to be associated with obesity. Who wants to be the poster boy or girl for that addiction. Even former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee -- who lost more than 100 pounds, and promotes appropriate food portions and exercise -- didn't mention that topic on "Meet the Press" last week. Too bad. He had probably the biggest audience in America he'll ever have. What a good message he could have sent to Americans.

Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not advocating that we stop fighting anorexia, because more people are dying of obesity. But because hundreds of thousands are dying, because our children are getting diseases and illnesses, and because it's the right thing to do, I am advocating we do something about food portions in America.

Dr. JoAnn Manson, chief of preventive medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, said, "We can't afford to be complacent about the epidemic of obesity." Note, she's chief of preventive medicine. Obesity is one of the few completely preventable diseases. Unfortunately, nearly everyone thinks you are the problem, not the government, not farmers, not restaurants, not Kraft or Nabisco or the beef industry. It's only our problem.

Let's share the blame, and the solutions. Let's have a Star War against inappropriate portions. Maybe Jubba the Hut could be the spokes...alien.

Calling room service, and not getting a busy signal

Maybe, the "not-at-home" food preparers are starting to listen...just a little.

The New York Times reports Tuesday the hotel industry is starting to listen to its customers when it comes for room service.

“For many years, room service was looked at as, ‘Gee we have to do it,’ but now I think more hotels are looking at it as, ‘How can we solve our customers’ problems?’ ” said Michael Beam, managing director at HVS/American Hospitality Management, a consulting firm that spent several months last year researching travelers’ room service preferences.

Among the findings: people who travel 10 to 15 days a month order room service the most, and cravings are the No. 1 criteria when they select from the menu — the research found hamburgers to be among the top choices — followed by healthfulness. But the latter category does not mean a preference for bland tofu stir-fry or poached salmon.

“If anything, it’s a move away from traditional ‘healthy’ items to what I’d call balanced,” Mr. Beam said. “It’s reasonable portions of good things that you wouldn’t necessarily call health food.”

I think most business travelers would welcome an appropriately portioned meal (at an appropriate price). When I was traveling, it was rare to find healthy portions on any room service menu. Most of the second-tier hotels and motels, simply have the local pizza place menu in the room. Or worst, the appetizer menu from some fat-laden chain. (What's the worst room service menu you have seen?)

“I’d love to be able to get a chicken breast and vegetables and some light starch that’s prepared nicely, or a selection of healthy soups,” said Gabriel Levy, an executive with a digital music company in New York City, noting that these options are especially scarce on late-night menus. “You can get burgers and sandwiches and that kind of stuff, but that’s exactly what I don’t want to eat when it’s late.”

Why is it, that the most unhealthy foods are always available? And the Hilton or Marriott isn't McDonald's. They don't have any excuses.

It's the mindset of second-rate chefs and cooks throughout America. They think: give them the fattiest, unhealthiest foods possible. And while you're at it, give them a lot of it.

Scott Kraft, the executive vice president for marketing for a San Francisco software company, echoed that desire for well-prepared vegetables and appetizing mixed greens, adding that he would like to see more distinctive dishes. “You’re paying $250 a night minimum in most of these places, and then you’re getting this generic room service experience,” he said.

You might be saying to yourself, well, the hotels serve that food because it's cheap and easy. It may be easy, but the hotels are making little if no money on room service. Despite the outrageous prices sometimes charged for the smallest room service order — and hotels sometimes add a delivery charge on top of a 15 to 20 percent service charge — room service is not a cash cow.

“At best, it’s only marginally profitable and at worst, it’s costly,” said Kirby D. Payne, president of HVS/American Hospitality Management.

Now, hotels have no excuse at all. Serve the RightSize food all the time. Your customers want it. Soon, they will start to demand it.

We're not doing our children any favors

Here's a study that anyone could have predicted the conclusion.

Children who are obese and overweight have more complications in surgery than non-obese children.

What's the only thing we adults have to do in this world? Just leave it a little better than we found it.

We aren't doing that by making our children overweight. We make every aspect of their lives less than what it could be. Now when they get sick, we potentially make them sicker.

Now, some of you, are getting my message completely wrong. I'm not for "normal" weight because of supermodels, or movie stars, or even because of looks at all. My mom always said to me that beauty is only skin deep. And no matter what your weight is people can be beautiful. Appropriate weight people can be "ugly". And I'm not saying that the BMI is the only way to measure the RightSize.

I'm just saying that if you are overweight it's just not healthy. I know it's a bit trendy right now to condemn the diet industry and the celebrity business. But let's get those portions appropriate because we want to leave our children healthier, not mimicing Paris Hilton or Nicole Richey.

Here's part of the NY Times article.

The risks associated with the growing problem of obesity among young people may be extending to the operating room table.

Researchers have found that almost a third of the children who needed surgery there over a four-year period were overweight.

The researchers said it was widely accepted among surgeons and anesthesiologists that obese adult patients presented “enormous” challenges. With a threefold increase in weight problems among American children and adolescents over the past three decades, they said, doctors who operate on younger patients are already facing the same issues.

The extra weight can cause difficulties, including maintaining open air passages for patients who are anesthetized. There is also evidence that in overweight people, surgical wounds are more likely to become infected.

1977 Gov't report: Eat food. Not too much. But it never happened!

In the New York Times Sunday magazine's cover story, Unhappy Meals, Michael Pollin lays out at length what happened with our food as scientists, nutritionists, the government and even journalists got involved. Pollin's conclusion: everything about food is extremely confusing. But what is not confusing, is that we should be eating less than we currently are eating.

If you care at all, in what you eat everyday, you should not miss this article.

A couple of facts jumped out at me:

In 1977, a Senate Select Committee on Nutrition, headed by George McGovern drafted a recommendation advising Americans to actually reduce consumption of meat and dairy. But after outrage by beef and dairy industries plain talk was replaced by confusing: “Choose meats, poultry and fish that will reduce saturated-fat intake.” The new language exonerates the foods themselves; now the culprit is an obscure, invisible, tasteless — and politically unconnected — substance that may or may not lurk in them called “saturated fat.”

Instead — 30 years later — we have an obesity epidemic.

We produce 3,900 calories in total food calories every day for each American, but the average number of those calories Americans own up to eating is only 2,000.

Not only are we eating twice as much than what we need, but we lie about as well.

In plain talk, we're big fat liers.

And we seem to jump from one food fad to another.

Of course it’s also a lot easier to slap a health claim on a box of sugary cereal than on a potato or carrot, with the perverse result that the most healthful foods in the supermarket sit there quietly in the produce section, silent as stroke victims, while a few aisles over, the Cocoa Puffs and Lucky Charms are screaming about their newfound whole-grain goodness.

In Pollin's final analysis he gives us a few rules of thumb, one of which is:

Pay more, eat less. The American food system has for a century devoted its energies and policies to increasing quantity and reducing price, not to improving quality. There’s no escaping the fact that better food — measured by taste or nutritional quality (which often correspond) — costs more, because it has been grown or raised less intensively and with more care. Not everyone can afford to eat well in America, which is shameful, but most of us can: Americans spend, on average, less than 10 percent of their income on food, down from 24 percent in 1947, and less than the citizens of any other nation.

“Eat less” is the most unwelcome advice of all, but in fact the scientific case for eating a lot less than we currently do is compelling. “Calorie restriction” has repeatedly been shown to slow aging in animals, and many researchers (including Walter Willett, the Harvard epidemiologist) believe it offers the single strongest link between diet and cancer prevention.

Eat less everywhere, at home, on the road, in restaurants.

Research confirms portion control is the RightWay

In one of the few studies done under controlled conditions, the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism reports that cutting food portions reduces fat, and that exercise doesn't help burn any more calories, than cutting portions.

Eating less and exercising more are equally good at helping take off the pounds, U.S. researchers said in a study that challenges many of the popular tenets of the multibillion dollar diet and fitness industry.

Tests on overweight people show that a calorie is just a calorie, whether lost by dieting or by running, they said.

They found there is no way to selectively lose belly fat, for instance, or trim thighs. And their carefully controlled study added to evidence that adding muscle mass does not somehow boost metabolism and help dieters take off even more weight.

"It's all about the calories," said Dr. Eric Ravussin of the Pennington Biomedical Research Center, part of Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge.

His team found some small suggestion that cutting 25 percent of calories by either diet or diet and exercise might extend life.

So, forget all those diet claims. It's doesn't cost a thing to cut your own portions and live much healthier...and longer.

Do you think restaurants are catering to you?

The National Restaurant Association is telling us that restaurants are catering to us.

Do you think that's true?

In their survey, they say that:

• Six out of 10 adults say tableservice restaurants make it easy for them to choose the portion size they want.
• 70 percent of customers say they often order larger portions to turn tonight's dinner into tomorrow's lunch.
• Roughly eight out of 10 restaurants offer vegetarian entrees.*

Even if that is true, 40 percent of adults say that they are not getting the portion size they want (and this survey was done in 2001). And 70 percent admit that the portions are so big that they have to turn their dinner into a leftover the next day.

That doesn't seem to be giving people what they want. Even by the restaurant's own confession 40 percent of people don't want big portions and yet, are forced to buy them. (Don't forget you must pay good money for the bigger portions.)

Let's keep telling them that we want appropriate portions at an appropriate price.

*Source: National Restaurant Association, Tableservice Restaurant Trends 2001

French women do get FAT!

We have been told that French women don't get fat, because they are so disciplined, and eat such small portions and such healthy food. You are told in the book, "French Women Don't Get Fat: The Secret of Eating for Pleasure", that if you have a chocolate croissant for breakfast, have a vegetable-based lunch--or take an extra walk and pass on the bread basket at dinner.

They are just so civilized over there!

But, wait. Times they are a changin'. Maybe the French are just like you and me. They aren't disciplined. They don't eat healthy food. They don't eat small portions and excise regularly.

National Public Radio reported on Wednesday that obesity for French men, women and children has doubled over the past few years. That's right, it's doubled. It didn't go up by 25 or 50 percent, but by 200 percent.

What could cause a nation obsessed with food and dress sizes to suddenly start to expand? Restaurants!

Yes, restaurants. The French are now working more, and eating at home a lot less. They have lost the tradition of eating at least two meals en famille. As their beautiful home-cooked meals, have given way to snacks and fast foods, the evidence is now 40 percent of French women take a dress size bigger than a 14.

Despite a best selling book, there's nothing magical about French women's diets, or something magical about the Mediterranean genetics or the Japanese fish heritage. If you eat big portions of restaurant food, you are going to get obese. It took Morgan Spurlock ("Super Size Me") just 30 days to gain 25 pounds by eating exclusively at McDonald's. And 14 months to lose the weight.

Keep eating out, French women, the Supersizing of France has begun.

Is salsa the perfect RightSize food?

I love salsa. Ever since I lived in California in the 70s, I have enjoyed salsa. Now that I'm watching portion sizes, I realize that salsa may be the perfect food.

Why? Well, first, when you take down your calorie count, you still want lots of emotion surrounding your food. You may be saying, what? lots of emotion. I mean, you want to still enjoy your meal as always; as my wife says, the meal should be a celebration.

That's very difficult to do for every meal, but, one way to try to celebrate each meal, is with a little extra kick of spices, or heat or something that makes it a little special. And of course, if that little extra is the RightSize, then it's twice as nice.

Salsa seems to fit the bill perfectly. Good salsa adds spice, tons of flavor, heat and little fiesta in every bite. I use La Mexicana salsa on my egg whites in the morning, on my salad at lunch and sometimes on my chicken or baked potato at dinner.

How perfect is it? It's only 10 calories for 2 tablespoons, which is just the RightSize for eggs. It transforms bland egg whites into a spicy mixture of cold and hot flavors for the tongue. I could eat the entire pound in the container and it would only be 160 calories. (Or the same calories as one breadstick from Papa John's.)

For a salad it is the ultimate replacement for dressing: as even the "lite" salad dressings have between 50 and 90 calories in 2 tablespoons. And the salsa becomes both a dressing and part of the salad with pieces of tomatoes and onions.

I've tried hundreds of salsas over the past 30 years. Homemade cooked salsas by my sports editor's wife in Ventura. Gallons and gallons of free salsa and chips at the Red Onion Restaurant, after working late. With my dad, I've eaten good salsa at South of the Border in Columbus, Ohio (not exactly a hotbed of Mexican food.) It was in San Antonio on a consulting assignment, that I had cilantro, spicing up the salsa at Taco Cabana. And at home, I've tried the commercially bottled picanta sauce and pico de gallo sauces. I may not be an expert, but I am a well informed amateur salsa taster.

The best part of La Mexicana salsa is it's freshness. Even here in Connecticut you can find it in the refrigerated section of the produce department. The salsa company calls it the healthiest food around.

La Mexicana Fresh Salsa is among the healthiest foods around. We use only fresh tomatoes, fresh onions, fresh peppers, and fresh cilantro. And unlike other salsas sealed in cans or jars, La Mexicana Salsa is never cooked, torted or heated. This means that each fresh ingredient can be individually savored.

I call it the perfect RightSize food.

The only problem now, is how to bring it to the restaurant. I'd love to scatter it on my salad there. Or put it on my fish, instead of a butter sauce. Maybe we can get La Mexicana to sell it in "to-go" packets. For now, I'm eating at home all the time.

Who's has a (food) vision for America?

Last night President George W. Bush laid out his vision for America for the next two years. It was lacking specifics and it was lacking a connection to most Americans.

Good health is one of the top 5 issues for Americans. The world has changed. We -- as a whole -- are living longer, we have access to the best health care in the world, yet, many, many people are not living longer and don't have access to that great health care.

The senior senator from New York, Chuck Schumer, has just released his vision for America in his new book, "Positively American: Winning Back the Middle-Class Majority One Family at a Time."

He looked at all the issues facing Americans, especially the middle-class majority. He looked at taxes, war, employment, retirement, children, and health. He said that his political party needs to specifically address 11 issues -- and one of the issues is childhood obesity. Of all the issues facing America, he recognizes -- and thinks the Democratic party should recognize -- that obesity is a urgent, pressing issue that needs to be fixed now. Before it robs this country of its greatness.

We support Senator Schumer in this cause. The nation's resources need to be mustered against this fight against obesity. Otherwise we are consigning children and, then, later young adults to early deaths.

From a financial viewpoint, it will cost us a lot less to solve this problem now than to treat the heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure and all the rest of the diseases than will come later.

One way to combat childhood obesity (and all obesity) is to serve the appropriate portion at the appropriate price. That's all we are trying to do here.

What do you think?

Children's menus or building an obese person for the future?

Most nutritionist agree that RightSizing Americans is a three-legged stool of portion control, exercise and behavior modification.

Two of these legs are manipulated by marketing, corporate goals of profit and growth, and 25 years of poor choices.

Portion control and behavior are cunningly skewed everyday for you. Even if you are the most disciplined person, it's difficult to buck habits and upbringing.

It's doubly difficult for children.

Even in Ireland, they are asking why the restaurants don't serve the RightSize portion and the RightSize of nutrients to children.

“Of course, I’m not surprised when you consider the way children are exposed to junk food. When you go to a restaurant, these so-called Children’s Menus are totally oriented to food with high fat and sugar content. Why doesn’t this menu offer the option of half portions of the main menu, meat and two veg?” asked principal of Clare Island’s national school, Mrs Mary McCabe.

Parents and children cannot do it alone. The restaurant industry needs to wake up.

It's Real Simple: humongous is good.

Do you realize how many times we are told that bigger portions are better?

We make hundreds of food decisions a day (says Brian Wansink in this book, Mindless Eating.) And we are influenced in thousands of ways through cues, settings and out-and-out direct marketing.

I'm sure even the people doing the influencing don't realize how they are keeping Americans fat and (happy). Just minutes ago on Real Simple, the PBS smart [my emphasis] living show, the host, Dena Querbubin-Blizzard, learns how to make a vegetable burger. Sounds healthy enough. But wait. As she bites into the bun, she doesn't call it delicious. She doesn't call it yummy. She simply says it's "humongous". I guess a "humongous" burger is a good burger.

Unfortunately, that's one of hundreds of cues and clues we get each day on eating.

No wonder we eat too much. Everyone is telling us it's good.

STOP and read your (restaurant) labels

We are not the only country that too big for our britches.

In the British Isles, obesity is on the rise. But the British government wants to do something about it. The Food Standards Agency has developed a simply, but effective (maybe too effective, some say), system for figuring out what are the healthy foods you should buy.

You’re standing in a supermarket aisle looking at two similar products, trying to decide which to choose. You want to make the healthier choice but, as usual, you’re in a hurry. Well, help is on the way. Products on sale have traffic light colours on the label to help you make your choice. With traffic light colours, you can see at a glance if the food you’re looking at has high, medium or low amounts of each of these nutrients in 100g of the food.

Red = High
Amber = Medium
Green = Low

You will also see the number of grams of fat, saturated fat, salt and sugar in what the manufacturer or retailer suggests as a ‘serving’ of the food.

So, if you see a red light on the front of the pack, you know the food is high in something we should be trying to cut down on. It’s fine to have the food occasionally, or as a treat, but try to keep an eye on how often you choose these foods, or try eating them in smaller amounts.

Makes sense for the government to standardize the labeling, and provide some direction for its citizens, especially its children.

In America we have food labeling -- although not as simple as the British system. But it only covers a little more than half the calories you eat. The other 40-50 percent is eaten outside of the home (and your foods properly labelled). Try to get nutritional information -- or just the calories -- on those meals is like eating one french fry. No one knows because it hasn't been done yet.

Some restaurants provide some information on its food. But not one restaurant in America gives you complete nutritional information on a meal you eat there. Don't you think it would be important -- given the fact that so many people are obese -- to know how many calories you are eating when you sit down to a nice Italian meal at your favorite ristorante?

It's important to me as I try to shed 53 years and 100 pounds of incomplete information and too-big-of portions.

But, as most of you know, it's near impossible to calculate the calories or fat in just one dish at a fast food place, let an entire meal. Is that olive oil or trans-fat that the calamari was fried in? Is that lean or prime beef the meatballs are made of? Is that fresh broccoli rabe sautéed in butter, oil, lard or pasta water?

And that's just the tip of iceberg.

So don't the restaurants, cafeterias, fast-food places, convenience stores, and every other place that sells food have a responsibility to provide just a little information so we can have options.

Imagine looking at a menu below. Which would you pick? Who knows. But at least your decision would be based on both food choice, nutrition and what's good for you.

And let's face it. You wouldn't pick the last item, and plow through four red lights.

File this under: Worst-sized new food of 2007.

Hardee's launches new Monster Biscuit

ST. LOUIS — Hardee's announced Jan. 16 the launch of its newest creation, the Monster Biscuit, a sequel to its Monster Thickburger that was introduced in 2003.

The Monster Biscuit is made using three half-strips of bacon, a sausage patty, four slices of shaved ham, a folded egg and two slices of cheese, all piled on a Made-From-Scratch Biscuit.

Value meals? No such thing if you split your dish.

In a completely unscientific survey of restaurants in Monmouth County, New Jersey, guess what I found on the menu? Something very disgusting and revolting. Something that is very tough to swallow. Something so bad, that it's always in small type at the bottom of the menu.

What is this unappetizing item on many menus?

Extreme extra charges for eating appropriate portions. Sometimes as much as 75 percent more.

Here's what they look like. These were taken from actual online menus. It's like they are proud to be charging you so much more for eating correctly sized portions.

Split Charge of $2.00 per Plate for Appetizers

$4.00 entree split plate

Sharing charge of $7.00 per person

A sharing charge of $7.50 will be charged for any one dinner served for two People. This will include an additional salad and side dish

All items sold a la carte
Shared Entree Charge - $10.00 per person

Plate Sharing Charge $5.00

Why do we continue to put up with these charges? Isn't restaurant food expensive enough? Aren't the portions too big?

If you want to be healthy, then restaurants will punish you. Stop this portion poison. Tell every restaurant, you won't pay extra.

Just lip service, not food service.

More and more chefs and restaurant owners are recognizing that patrons want appropriately sized portions.

But is it all lip service? Is it just being politically correct? On one hand they smile, tell you that healthy eating is eating healthy portions. And on the other hand they want to financially punish you if you try to eat appropriate portions.

Here's an example.

In today's Connecticut Post, the owners of St. Tropez Bistro Francais, talked about healthy foods and portion sizes.

They are quoted, "To eat healthy, you control your portions. If you use a small amount, smaller portions, it is healthy. You can have variety. One day you eat meat, next day you eat fish. It's a combination of foods to make yourself healthy."

But what if you want to split with your wife or husband a simple appetizer of Warm Brandade of Codfish Served within Olive Tapenade Crouton? Then St. Tropez Bistro is going to charge you 22 percent more...to enjoy an appropriate portion. Think that's inappropriate? If you want to split the Onion Soup Gratinée, then they'll charge you 28% more.

Not all restaurants charge for splitting dishes. We need to make sure none do. In fact, restaurants should encourage us to eat appropriate portions, not penalize us when we try.

Boston asks restaurants for at least one appropriate portion

The city of Boston has started a unique program-- Boston BestBites -- to help eaters identify at least one meal at a restaurant that is served at appropriate portions. Unfortunately, only 15 restaurants have decided to participate.

The guidelines were pretty simple and were reviewed by nutritionists using the most current scientific evidence. The meals had to be under a 150 calories for an appetizer, under 200 calories for a dessert and under 650 calories for an entrée. Again, right now only 15 restaurants would participate. And remember this is to have at least one item on the menu that meets the guidelines.

The limit of 650 calories for an adult entrée is based on Dietary Guidelines for Americans, which recommends intake of 2000 calories per day for an average American adult. Dividing this moderate daily intake by 3 meals a day gives a calorie limit of 650 calories for each meal.

Why did Boston start this program.

Bostonians love to eat out. We love the convenience and the variety at hundreds of neighborhood restaurants. And we’re eating increasing numbers of our meals away from home – more than 40% of our ‘food dollar’ is spent on food eaten away from home, according to the Massachusetts Restaurant Association.

But it’s easy to eat too much when we eat out. Restaurant portion sizes are larger than we’d usually prepare at home. And it’s hard to tell the amount of calories, fat, and sodium that are in prepared dishes. Studies show that consumers consistently underestimate the calories in restaurant meals (Anyone’s Guess, Center for Science in the Public Interest).

Even though the list of restaurants is small, it's one small step for mankind...

According to restaurant owner you can't stop people from killing themselves

The Boston Globe reports that according to some restaurant owners the only way they can sell food is in large portions. The city of Boston launched a new program -- Boston BestBites -- to promote restaurants that have at least one appropriately portioned entreé. Amazingly, most restaurants won't sign up.

It's easy to see why with this restaurant owner's attitude:

"We're known for big portions, our incredible meatloaf and our super breakfast -- that's our thing; that's what's made us popular," said Jay Hajj, who owns Victoria's Diner, which is participating in the program, and Mike's City Diner, which is not.

Hajj doesn't talk about how inappropriate portions are killing Bostonians.

Officials cite figures showing that 51 percent of Bostonians were overweight or obese in 2003, which is better than the 66 percent of overweight adults nationwide.

But the rate is higher among Boston's minority and poor residents. About 64 percent of blacks and 63 percent of Latinos in Boston are overweight, compared with 43 percent of whites, according to the Boston Public Health Commission. City officials say the program is intended to raise awareness before obesity becomes an epidemic in parts of the city.

The Globe reports, "so far, about a dozen restaurants have signed up for the program, many of them locally run, neighborhood haunts that traffic in greasy French fries, bacon cheeseburgers, and cheesy omelets. Owners say they are wary of losing their base, and they emphasize they'll continue to offer the popular less healthy options. But they insist that now they'll provide more options for the health-conscious. "

And for those who want to live.

Kudos to NYC restaurant

As the blog goes on, we want to hear from you on what restaurants are serving appropriate portions at appropriate prices.

Although it may be out of the price range for many of us, The Bar Room at the Modern (9 West 53rd St. NYC), may be the best restaurant in all of New York City.

The New York Times today gave it 3 stars and had many kind words on the food.

The Bar Room adheres to an increasingly popular small-plates approach, intended to give diners more tastes of more things and more control over their meals. And it aces that approach perhaps better than any restaurant around town...
Some small-plates menus make you feel that you’re being exiled to an island of sorry leftovers, asked to swoon over salumi, or subjected like gastronomic guinea pigs to experiments a chef would never try on an entree-size canvas. The Bar Room’s menu makes you feel that you’re eating in an easy — but no less privileged — fashion.

Kudos to Alsatian-born executive chef, Gabriel Kreuther, and owner, Danny Meyer.

RightSize portions are coming to America, one restaurant at a time.

Let us know what restaurants served you the right portion.

Let's humiliate 7-year-old overweight kids

That's what's happening in schools all over Pennsylvania. Throughout the commonwealth of PA students from kindergarten through eighth grade must receive body mass index (BMI) scores along with their report cards, the NY Times reports.

So you would think then Pennsylvania is doing something about child obesity. But you'd be wrong. All they are doing is humiliating children. What's the cafeterias doing to help? Basically nothing.

"To successfully change students' eating habits, schools would need to counsel each child and provide really high-quality nutrition and physical activity assessments," said Marlene Schwartz, director at the center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale.

And wouldn't the schools have to provide high-quality nutrition in the cafeteria? I guess not. The school district has revamped its menus, eliminating Gatorade and only the powdered sugar from the funnel cakes. But it still sells ice cream sandwiches and Rice Krispie treats.

But the real kicker is that the cafeteria starting serving appropriate portions of good foods, like kiwi and field greens. But because of the high cost, they stopped. It's back to canned fruit and iceberg lettuce.

Good nutrition, appropriate portions cost too much, say the schools. But there's always plenty of money to humiliate students.

Food critics don't get it.

Food critics are part of problem. They contribute to the obesity problem by perpetuating the myth that more food is good food.

Anytime a restaurant serves appropriate portions they pathetically call it French-style cuisine. Or even worst, nouvelle cuisine.

Oh yes, the food critics definitely point out good tasting and inventive food, but they also praise the restaurant with the biggest portions. This kind of criticism is not helpful.

This kind of criticism continues to equate big with better, when appropriate portions should be the highest standard.

Today, in the bible of daily restaurant reviewing – The New York Times – comes the typical restaurant review:

The blacksmith salad remains my favorite salad, with the gargantuan mozzarella salad a close second.

Not big. Not huge. Not giant. No, the NY Times said that the second best thing to eat at a pizza parlor is the “GARGANTUAN” salad.

The “big is better” doesn’t stop there either:

If you choose well, you can eat well at the restaurant for very little money, even if you splurge on a Kentucky Derby pie (it tastes like a big, soft, warm chocolate chip cookie) for dessert.

There’s that “big” word again.

Finally in the last line of the review is where you’ll find something about appropriate portions. And of course it’s relegated to the smallest of children.

The restaurant also serves children’s pasta portions, making it a small slice of heaven for parents with little ones who are likely to find the model train as appealing as the pizza.

Stop by the NY Times website and let them know that we want appropriate portions, critical reviews and not cheerleading for a super-sized nation.

By the way, they can’t help themselves. Right next to the restaurant dining column was a muffin shop review. Yep, you guess it. The reviewer equated goodness with bigness and proclaimed the muffins “huge”. Makes you want to gag.

Can we change McDonald's?

The answer is maybe.

McDonald's CEO, Jim Skinner, told the Wall Street Journal today that it is possible for the golden arches to start serving healthier food. It's not going to happen right away, and it's not going to happen unless you, I, and the government push really, really hard.

Skinner said that, "when you look at the kinds of choices we've provided, we've done more work here than probably any other restaurant company in trying to be part of the solution. We are not going to solve the world's obesity problem...We have to provide choices...Remember, we were a hamburger company."

I don't think McDonald's would have provided any choices at all if it hadn't been for critics attacking the company for being part of the obesity problem. They wouldn't have provided any choices if the competition hadn't pushed them.

But if we take Skinner at his word, we can get them to change. When asked if McDonald's would ever sell organic food, Skinner answered, "It's possible. We look at everything. We are customer driven. We are talking to our customers every day."

I believe that. If everyone -- who reads this blog -- started telling McDonald's that we want appropriate portions at appropriate prices, then they would listen, and change. They would even listen more if we can get Starbucks, Wendy's, Burger King, et. al. to change. It will only take one success to get the ball rolling.

Warning: This diet is NOT easy!

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Are we stupid? To lose weight in America is damn hard. Nobody can make it easy for us. And let me tell you, it's the exact opposite. They make it not easy for us. At every opportunity America wants you to overeat.

Trying buying a small popcorn at the movies. My wife did just yesterday. The 15-year-old behind the counter warned her that it was better to buy the bigger sizes: "you save money." (First, how do you save money by spending 75 cents more than you want to.) And second how is it better to eat more popcorn.

Trying buying a normal-sized candy bar. Can't do it. Try buying a small coke. Sorry, sizes start at large and work their way up.

We did find one thing you could buy in a small size: The bottled water.

You're saying to yourself, this is silly. Of course, movie theaters have large food items. That's how they make their money. But start looking around the next time you are out. Every food item is supersized now.

Last week, after seeing the Nutcracker we went to an Italian restaurant in Torrington. It didn't have a child's menu for our 7 year old, so we ordered a little penne with butter and little cheese. Out comes the biggest bowl you have ever seen. It must have been a pound of pasta. There must be some mistake, I said. No, that's the normal entrée portion; they couldn't RightSize it for my son. (I have been to Italy, and no Italian restaurant would have served that much pasta for any adult, let alone a child. In America it's normal.)

What's the most amazing is that the restaurant people thought I was the weird one. "You can always take it home," said one.

Good luck eating out in America. Until we start changing these Texas-sized portions into Rhode Island-sized meals, we all will be paying for Alaska-sized health bills.

2007 New Year's Resolution: No more diet books

Every newspaper and every TV news show is packed with diets, diet books and diet authors.

Let's resolve not to buy another diet or diet book as long as you live.

You don't need a diet book. You don't need someone to tell you what you already know.

The only way to lose weight is to reduce calories. That's it. The way to do that is eating appropriate portions.

This blog is dedicated to changing the way we are fed.

Most opinions are that we are weak and lacking self-control. It's the individual that needs to change for America to lick the obesity problem.

That's just a very small part of the problem. The #1 way to prevent obesity is to stop us from being served large portions of food. That's it. So simple.

Join me in my 2007 resolutions: stop portion poison. Lobby your congressman. Lobby your local government. Lobby your local restaurants. Lobby McDonald's. Lobby your mother. Lobby your grandmother. Lobby your children.

Let me (and America) hear your comments.