FitSugar

The Counter: Healthier Burgers You Custom Build

FitSugar — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 11:45:00 -0700

I am not in the habit of eating at fast-food joints regularly, but when traveling sometimes I just can't avoid them. Next time I'm on the road, I will be looking to feed my family at The Counter. New on the fast food scene, The Counter is going to revolutionize the way we eat burgers. With over 312,120 possible burger combinations, this restaurant allows you to customize your meal anyway you like.

Using a clipboard menu, you build the burger exactly how you want starting with the protein: certified humane beef, turkey burger, veggie burger, or grilled chicken. There are 10 cheese options, and you also get to choose five toppings from a long list including carrot strings, dried cranberries, hardboiled eggs, avocado, and sun-dried tomatoes. Further customize your burger by selecting a sauce and bread. I love that there are healthy choices in each category so you're not just stuck with beef high in saturated fat, iceberg lettuce, and a white flour bun.

To see a sample of their menu read more.

Pretty inventive, huh? With all these choices it's possible to create a uniquely delicious burger that's also healthy. Locations are cropping up all over the US so I'd definitely choose The Counter over Mickey Dee's any day. Have you eaten at The Counter? If yes, tell me what you thought in the comments section below.

Shocking Secrets From Inside a Restaurant Kitchen

FitSugar — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 08:45:00 -0800

Me, I like to think I know how to navigate my way through a restaurant menu when it comes to making the healthiest choices. However, recently eDiets got the inside scoop on common restaurant practices that can sabotage your diet that you might not have considered.

Here are a few practices that shocked me the most:

Even steamed veggies are high in fat. “Fat is what sells food in restaurants,” says Deborah Fabricant, a Los Angeles-based restaurant consultant, former chef and author of Stacks: The Art of Vertical Food. “That’s why it ubiquitous, even in vegetable dishes.”
Egg-white omelets aren’t necessarily better for you. If you’ve been to a fancy buffet brunch with an omelet bar, you’ve seen the chef generously ladle a clear liquid into the pan before making your mushroom-and-spinach favorite. The liquid is fat, and the ladle holds at least 2 tablespoons. That’s 22 grams of fat (16 grams saturated) and 200 calories added to an otherwise healthful dish.

There are more shocking revelations so read more

Those “plain” toasted buns are covered in butter (or worse). It’s pretty obvious when you take a bite of garlic bread at a steakhouse that it’s dripping with butter. But butter or other fat is added to bread a lot more often than you know. It’s common practice to slap sandwich buns with some form of grease to keep them from sticking to the flattop grill. You may think you’re having a plain grilled chicken sandwich, but there’s a good chance those wheat buns were smeared with margarine before being toasted. This adds 5.5 fat grams (4 grams saturated) and 50 calories.
Meat, chicken and fish get a fat rubdown before cooking. At culinary school it was drilled into chefs that before any piece of meat is cooked – no matter how it’s to be cooked – it absolutely must be rubbed on both sides with olive oil. Rubbing a 4- to 6-ounce chicken breast, steak or piece of fish adds up to 10 grams of fat (2 grams saturated) and 90 calories. And if it stops there, you’re getting off easy.

Source

Taste...Worth Dying For

FitSugar — Tue, 12 Dec 2006 07:35:00 -0800

I like to think that I have a sense of humor, maybe you'd agree and maybe you wouldn't, but seriously I think there's a point when you can go too far.

Welcome to The Heart Attack Grill -- Yup, that is the real name. This new theme restaurant, where the theme must be Hooters from hell, has somehow popped up in Arizona.

I am not sure where to begin but let's start with the names of the food, which they call procedures: Single Bypass Burger, Double Bypass Burger, Triple Bypass burger, Quadruple Bypass Burger and Flatliner Fries (which are deep fried in pure lard). What's worse? If you actually eat a Triple Bypass or a Quadruple Bypass (pictured above), the waitresses (who are dressed as slutty nurses by the way) will wheel you outside to your car after you have completed your procedure. I couldn't find nutritional information on the menu but I can't imagine it's good.

Oh and to top it all off, you can add cigarettes to your meal.

The slogan "Taste...Worth Dying For!" is meant to be a joke, I get that, but it's sad because it makes light of an actuality for many obese Americans.

On another note, due to the slutty nurse waitresses, the Arizona State Board of Nursing is threatening a lawsuit against the Heart Attack Grill.

NYC Chain Restaurants Required to Display Calories, Starting Monday

FitSugar — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 03:00:00 -0700

I applauded New York City when it banned trans fat from restaurants and started using healthier oils. I was psyched that fast food chains were also being required to post calorie counts on their menus but annoyed that McDonald's, Burger King, and Wendy's decided that rule didn't apply to them. So it went through the courts, and too bad for them, they're going to have to listen. A judge declared that this regulation is reasonable and will apply to restaurants in NYC that are part of chains with at least 15 outlets across the country. That includes fast-food places like McDonald’s and sit-down chains such as Olive Garden and T.G.I. Friday’s.

The calorie posting rule goes into effect this Monday, April 21. Some restaurants including Starbucks and Chipotle have already started to post calories on menus, but the Health Department won't start fining non-complying restaurants until June 3.

NYC is hoping that by displaying calories, consumers can make healthier choices (like deciding NOT to super-size it), and it will then help to reduce the prevalence of obesity and diabetes (type 2). New York City is the first US city to enact a regulation regarding displaying calories on menus, but Seattle and the state of California are both considering similar bills. Pretty awesome, huh? Do you think this displayed info will affect people's food decisions?

Source

Are You a High-Maintenance Menu Orderer?

FitSugar — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 03:47:05 -0800

The more concerned I get about healthy eating, the more I start to sound like Sally Albright in When Harry Met Sally. The charming neurotic played by Meg Ryan makes endless substitutions when ordering off menus; as Harry points out, "'on the side' is a very big thing for you."

I confess, I'm also a big "on the side" person. I'm also a fan of sharing entrees and enjoying starters as a main course. Are you high maintenance when it comes to ordering off of restaurant menus?

Check Restaurant Websites Before Eating Out

FitSugar — Fri, 22 May 2009 13:30:00 -0700

Many restaurants, such as Chili's, post the nutritional information of their menu items online. If you're curious to know how many calories or milligrams of sodium a certain food has, or what to order on the menu that contains the least amount of cholesterol, then check their websites before you head out the door. That way you'll know that a serving of Texas Cheese Fries contains 1,920 calories and 3,570 mg of sodium, so it's best to share it with a few people.

Top 10 Healthiest Fast Food Joints

FitSugar — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 03:30:55 -0800

When you're out and about, sometimes your only dining option is to pick up some food to go. So if you're faced with a few food chains to choose from, here are the top 10 healthiest fast food restaurants recommended by Health magazine.

Panera Bread
Jason's Deli
Au Bon Pain
Noodles and Company
Corner Bakery Cafe

To see the last five, read more.

Chipotle
Atlanta Bread
McDonald's (yes, this one really did make the list)
Einstein Bros. Bagels
Taco Del Mar

For more details on why these restaurants scored high, check out Health.com.

Tell me, which of these 10 food chains would you most likely grab a quick meal from?

Fittingly Mad: MultiGrain vs. Restaurant Style Tostitos

FitSugar — Sat, 02 Jun 2007 03:00:00 -0700

I made an interesting discovery at the grocery store the other day. Chips and salsa are something I like to have on occasion and I typically buy some au natural chips. My husband, however, prefers Tostitos, and is relentless about voicing his preference.

This time I gave into him, but then I noticed Tostitos is now making a Multigrain variety made with whole oat, whole wheat and buckwheat flours - this was written in a nice font on the front of the bag. So, my hubby got his Restaurant Style, I got my Multigrain - both of us satisfied that we got our way.

The problem happened when I got home and actually read the label -- Not only is the main ingredient of these chips still corn, but the Multigrain chips actually have more calories, fat, sodium and sugar (10 more calories, 1 g fat, 15 mg sodium and 1 g sugar per ounce) than the Restaurant Style chips. I realized that while the Restaurant Style chips are probably more healthy, better tasting and cheaper, Tostitos is marketing toward people who, like me, are easily drawn (like a moth to a flame really) to labels like 'Multigrain' even if it is not in fact healthier. Sure, there is a bit more fiber (1 gram) in the Multigrain chips, but let's be honest; I am NOT eating tortilla chips for their fiber content. What's even worse? Now my husband thinks he is the authority on eating light. Twist the knife even more....

I have decided to take this incident, as I did my tequila to wash down all those chips, with a grain of salt. I should have known better, but I have learned once again to always read the label. And that when I want tortilla chips, I will just stick to the regular tortilla chips from here on out and eat them in moderation.

Chain Restaurants: Nutritional Info on Menus

FitSugar — Mon, 05 Mar 2007 10:30:00 -0800

At popular chain restaurants like Ruby Tuesday's and Uno's Chicago Grill, 2,000 calorie menu items are normal. Order yourself some pizza skins to start and you'll be consuming 2,050 calories, 48g of saturated fat, and 3,140 mg of sodium. You're only supposed to have 2,300 mg of sodium a day. I'll take my check now, please!!!

Some menu items, we know are not exactly healthy for us, but because the nutritional information is not listed, we have no idea just exactly how bad they are.

Starting in the summer, many chain restaurants that operate in NYC will be required to list calories on the menu. I'd like to know what you think about that - take my poll on the matter and voice your opinion.

CSPI (the Center for Science in the Public Interest) believes it is about time for Congress to pass Menu Education and Labeling (MEAL) legislation. Labeling menus will encourage people to order healthier items when dining out. The idea being this will help combat obesity, Type 2 diabetes, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and diet related heart disease.

When nutritional labeling on food products was introduced, it revolutionized the way people shopped for groceries. Nutritional labeling at chain restaurants will help diners make informed decisions when eating out.

Should Restaurants Indicate Unhealthy Menu Choices?

FitSugar — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 07:25:17 -0800

Some chain restaurants have dishes that pack in at least a day's worth of calories and fat, without giving customers the facts about what they are ordering.

For example: Did you know that Ruby Tuesday's offers an entree called Fresh Chicken & Broccoli Pasta that tips the scales at 2,060 calories and 128 grams of fat? [GASP] Or did you know that one slice of The Cheesecake Factory's Chris's Outrageous Chocolate Cake has a whooping 1,380 calories? Or that an order of Uno's Chicago Grill’s Pizza Skins (yup, pizza skins) has about 2,050 calories and 48 grams of saturated fat. Now keep in mind that the average daily calorie requirement is about 2,000 for women and 2,500 for men.

This whole thing got me thinking -- Since we've been talking so much about restaurants keeping us informed about the nutritional content of menu items so we know what is healthy to eat, what do you think about them letting us know what is NOT healthy to eat?