Do You Know What You Just Ate?
For people who are trying to lose a few pounds the conventional wisdom has always been to try to avoid going out for meals. For one thing, you usually can't control the portion size and for another you're never quite sure what ingredients were used to make the items on the menu.
This is all changing rapidly as more and more restaurants are now including nutritional information right on their menus. In some states, this is mandated by law and in others the more forward thinking restaurants are taking it on themselves to be up-front about what you're getting in that lasagna you just ordered.
Calorie counts, saturated fat, sodium, cholesterol and carbohydrate content are now finding their way on to menus right alongside the mozzarella and the sun dried tomatos. Unfortunately, you sometimes have to take their word for it that a menu item is "heart healthy" just because it's low in sodium. You also have to take the overall nutritional impact into account. Lowering your sodium is a good goal but if it comes with an increase in the calorie count you can easily offset the health benefit.
The increased focus on providing the information on what's in your food has lead some food makers to get a little creative with the claims they put on the labels. Package labels now boast of ingredients that can cure your cancer, lower your risk of heart disease and make you immune from Alzheimer's disease based on ingredients that have changed only slightly or in some cases, not at all. After all, slapping a label on a bag of apples that says "Gluten Free" is a little misleading to people who don't realize that apples never did and never will contain gluten.
The best thing about the increase in information available is that shoppers are also learning to be a little wiser about studying the nutrition information printed on food packages. In a 2008 Health and Diet survey done by the FDA, over half of all respondents claimed that they now usually read the nutrition labels that now come standard on food labels. In addition, almost 40% of shoppers claim that they are not influenced by misleading product labels that claim to be "high in fiber" or "low in fat".
Many restaurants and grocery stores are beginning to understand that it's good for business to recognize that people want more transparency in what goes into their food. More and more restaurants are offering gluten free and other specialty menu items to bring in those customers who, because of food allergies, had little choice in where they went out for dinner. Ultimately, this is good for the customer and good for the business as well.
This is all changing rapidly as more and more restaurants are now including nutritional information right on their menus. In some states, this is mandated by law and in others the more forward thinking restaurants are taking it on themselves to be up-front about what you're getting in that lasagna you just ordered.
Calorie counts, saturated fat, sodium, cholesterol and carbohydrate content are now finding their way on to menus right alongside the mozzarella and the sun dried tomatos. Unfortunately, you sometimes have to take their word for it that a menu item is "heart healthy" just because it's low in sodium. You also have to take the overall nutritional impact into account. Lowering your sodium is a good goal but if it comes with an increase in the calorie count you can easily offset the health benefit.
The increased focus on providing the information on what's in your food has lead some food makers to get a little creative with the claims they put on the labels. Package labels now boast of ingredients that can cure your cancer, lower your risk of heart disease and make you immune from Alzheimer's disease based on ingredients that have changed only slightly or in some cases, not at all. After all, slapping a label on a bag of apples that says "Gluten Free" is a little misleading to people who don't realize that apples never did and never will contain gluten.
The best thing about the increase in information available is that shoppers are also learning to be a little wiser about studying the nutrition information printed on food packages. In a 2008 Health and Diet survey done by the FDA, over half of all respondents claimed that they now usually read the nutrition labels that now come standard on food labels. In addition, almost 40% of shoppers claim that they are not influenced by misleading product labels that claim to be "high in fiber" or "low in fat".
Many restaurants and grocery stores are beginning to understand that it's good for business to recognize that people want more transparency in what goes into their food. More and more restaurants are offering gluten free and other specialty menu items to bring in those customers who, because of food allergies, had little choice in where they went out for dinner. Ultimately, this is good for the customer and good for the business as well.