Restaurant perception vs. reality
If you have a diet soda instead of a regular one, do you think that means you have more "room" for a big piece of cake? It sounds kind of crazy, doesn't it? Odds are the piece of cake would be more calories than the soda, and what does one thing have to do with the other anyway? According to Brian Wansick PhD, author of Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think, that type of reasoning isn't unusual. In the Journal of Consumer Research, Wasnick states "We found that when people go to restaurants claiming to be healthy, such as Subway, they choose additional side items containing up to 131% more calories than when they go to restaurants like McDonald's, that don't make this claim."
So when we perceive a restaurant as being "healthy," we become more liberal in our choices -- potentially choosing more calories than we might have consumed at a restaurant with fewer healthy choices. Wansick calls habits like ordering cookies to go with your low-cal sub the "halo effect." While having cookies or other treats isn't necessarily a bad thing in and of itself, it's the fact that many people are consuming these calories mindlessly; they aren't viewing them as treats, but more of a regular item that they have made space for by eating foods that they perceive as healthy.
Remember, restaurants don't always tell the whole-truth-and-nothing-but about their nutrition information. Check out Bev's post and learn why it's more like the whole-lie-and-a-bigger-butt.


We now know that
To combat rising food costs and less customer turnout, many restaurants are turning to pre-fixe menus to help them weather the economic storm. By offering three-course meals, restaurant owners hope to lure in diners who are looking to get the most for their money. This same approach can easily be applied to the investment you've made in
Since I've been working on a series of stories featuring the efforts being made on behalf of
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Today, due to a sudden onslaught of severe hunger, I headed to a nearby restaurant for a satisfying lunch. I ordered something healthy -- chicken, veggies and rice -- and was amazed at the amount of food they brought out. It took serious muscle to lift that plate. It was literally overflowing with food. Despite being famished, I could only eat a third of what was on my plate, and I felt grossly full afterwards.
Want an easy way to cut a good chunk of calories from your meal when you eat out? Here it is: skip the bread basket. Dinner rolls can have between
The city of brotherly love has decided to spread some nutritional love. A Philadelphia city council has given the thumbs up to requiring area
Of all the burgers out there, I think the general consensus is that veggie burgers are the healthiest of the bunch. They're low in saturated fat, and fat in general, plus they're lower in calories than regular beef or chicken burgers. As a non-vegetarian, I always get the same reaction when I order a veggie burger at a restaurant: 'Huh? Are you on a diet or something?' But I suspect that what veggie burgers lack in calories and fat they make up for in add-ons like cheese and sauce. But then again, I could be wrong.
Since my return to working in an office (at least on a part-time basis,) I've been giving some consideration to lunches. The consensus, at least among most of my co-workers, is that bringing your own lunch is not only healthier for the wallet, but healthier for the waistline too. But these days, it seems like healthy choices are available everywhere -- even fast foods joints have some sort of customizable salad option, and with nutritional information often available, it's easy to make a healthy choice. And considering I don't spend every day at the office, eating out two times a week isn't such a financial burden.
I hardly ever order dessert when I eat out, so on the rare occasion that I dine at a Chinese restaurant, I look forward to the inevitable coming of the fortune cookie -- I like to finish off the meal with something light but sweet. Plus, I love cracking it open to find my fortune. I carry the good ones around with me in my wallet. 







