Credits for this comic belong here. I'm still adjusting to blogger, so please forgive me if I've failed at linking this more correctly.
I was working on a blog post about this very topic, but I believe the webcomic does a better job getting my point across.
It was quite by accident that I discovered the calorie count for menu items at Claim Jumper. They keep it at the back of the bar menu all nicely hidden away from the average diner. Really!
The Fam and I went to Claim Jumper a few weeks ago. When I saw the numbers for the calorie count, my eyes just about popped out of my head! OMGeez! Are they trying to kill their customers??
You know, I’m glad I stumbled across that calorie listing before I ordered. I had planned on ordering the Black Tie Chicken Pasta. And I can tell you that no matter how good it may have tasted, it wasn’t worth those 3773 calories I’d have consumed.
Not everything on the menu was a total bust. I did have to look pretty hard though. Even the salads were calorie loaded.
What I ended up eating was a Loaded Baked Potato for 440 calories. I wanted a bit of a splurge as going out was a treat in its own right. And the potatoes are huge! However, you can probably shave a few of those calories off as I didn’t eat the skin like I usually do because it was coated in coarse salt. I also had a side of grilled asparagus, which is my favorite. Really, I’d happily eat an entire platter of it! At 51 calories per serving, it sure was yummy and worth it!
Now, the lowest calorie item I found on the menu was Vegetable Soup for 82 calories per cup. That would make a lovely snack or as a starter for a low cal meal!
Needless to say, that little trip to Claim Jumper was eye opening for me. I feel lucky that I stumbled upon the calorie counts for items on the menu when I did. I’d like to see the calorie content of items more openly disclosed on menus and more low-cal, healthy, filling items included. And I’d love to see Americans become more health conscious over all.
So, if you’re paying any attention to calories what-so-ever, how do you select what you’ll eat when you eat out?
7 comments:
Wow - good thing you checked the calories! Not many restaurants here have the calories handy. I noticed on my recent trip to the US that TGI Fridays had all of the calories printed right on the menu.
Yeah! Why can't more restaurants post their calorie counts? And why did Claim Jumper have to hide theirs in a menu full of alcoholic drinks? If I hadn't been flipping through it out of boredom, I wouldn't have found the calorie counts!
In all honesty, I try to avoid thinking about calories. And "diet"... This however, could be a shortcoming, making things harder on me!
Chelsi already spoke about calories a bit on her personal blog a couple months ago. I'll be talking about a no counting calories type plan later on. I have a lot of info that I'm more than willing to share!
Salads are often a hidden pitfall. Most restaurant salads have far more calories than we'd think. Too much meat, cheese, rich dressings, etc.
We own a small family restaurant. I'd be awful scared to see how many calories some of our menu items contain! As you may guess from that statement we don't have a calorie count available, but then again I think it may be a bit difficult for small private restaurants. Definately something the big chains should have though, they have the money and resources to do it.
It would be great to have this info more readily available. One of my coworkers is a real calorie hunter and can find values for almost anything (I'll have to find out how). We were shocked to see that the menu from a common lunch location was eating up the vast majority of our daily allotted calories for one meal. Needless to say, we don't go there anymore
There are some little pocket books you can get that list all of the basic calorie counts for a lot of foods...after a while it becomes much easier to just guess the calories of things that are not listed. I believe that calorie counting works short term because it is based on the science of what your body needs but it is not a long term solution.
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