July 20th, 2011
Do you ever dine out and feel absolutely sick later?
Could it be that you’re eating a slice of cheesecake with 59 grams of saturated fat, a shake with more than 2,000 calories, fries with 930 calories, or a pasta dish with more than 1,500 calories? Uh, most of us only need 2,000 calories for the entire day!
If you’re feasting on dishes from any of the Xtreme Eating Awards recipients, then those crazy numbers should be in your head.
The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) has honored Cheesecake Factory, Denny’s, Applebee’s, IHOP, Cold Stone Creamery, Morton’s Steakhouse, and Great Steak with their eight Xtreme Eating Awards for 2011.
The Cheesecake Factory received two of those awards: One for Ultimate Red Velvet Cake Cheesecake, which contains 1,540 calories per slice, and another for The Farmhouse Cheeseburger, which has 1,530 calories.
Read a full list of the honorees and their unhealthy dishes at CSPI.
What’s the cure for all this craziness?
When restaurants are finally made to list their calorie counts on menus, I think some of the more fatty options will fall out of favor. If you do choose to eat out, you can try looking up nutrition info on the restaurant website, but a recent study by Tufts University has shown that 19 percent of dishes studied had 100 or more excess calories not reported on restaurant websites! Major chains like Olive Garden were found guilty on that one.
The one thing you can do for yourself is to eat at home. By the time you drive to a restaurant, order, wait for food, wait for check, then drive home, you could have cooked yourself a great meal.
In addition, when you cook at home, it’s much easier for you to choose organic or locally grown ingredients. Plus, you’ll save money!
Need some inspiration for home cooking?
Here are some great places to find recipes:
How to Cook Everything Vegetarian: Simple Meatless Recipes for Great Food
How to Cook Everything, Completely Revised 10th Anniversary Edition: 2,000 Simple Recipes for Great Food
250 Treasured Country Desserts
(because some dessert is OK!)
Jamie’s Food Revolution: Rediscover How to Cook Simple, Delicious, Affordable Meals
Jamie Oliver’s Meals in Minutes: A Revolutionary Approach to Cooking Good Food Fast
Where do you find your best recipes?
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