Study: 96% of Restaurant Menus Are Unhealthy!

It’s no secret that dining out can pad your waistline, but a new study from the USDA about the unhealthiness of restaurant meals truly blew me away: When researchers looked at the nutrition information for almost 31,000 menu items at 245 restaurants (not just fast-food, but also takeout, family style, and upscale places), they found that 96 percent of them exceeded some combination of daily government recommendations for calories, fat, saturated fat, and sodium, according to USA Today. Also surprising: fast-food joints are not the worst offenders, appetizers are total calorie bombs, and cooking at home could add years to your life. Read on:

Family-style restaurants are worse than fast food

Believe it or not, entrees from popular chains such as Red Lobster and Denny’s had on average 271 more calories, 16 more grams of fat, and 435 more mg sodium than items from fast food places. I suspect a lot of this discrepancy has to do with portion size—most restaurant entrees are two or even three times larger than they should be.

Appetizers add up big time

Sure, appetizers are meant to be shared, but the calorie, fat, and sodium counts of the average appetizer were much greater than those of the average entrée. Appetizers had an average of 813 calories each compared to 667 for entrees, for example. The common habit of splitting an appetizer and then having your own entrée is simply providing too much food. Consider splitting both your first and main course with your dining partner, or stick to light apps like garden salads and broth-based soups.

Calories don’t tell the whole story

The majority of restaurant entrée calories weren’t grossly high—667 is about one-third of what the average adult needs each day, according to the Los Angeles Times. But fat, especially saturated fat, and sodium matter too—especially when you consider that 82 percent of adults eat out at least once a week.

Cooking at home may save your life

I also came across this separate (but ironically related) study from the same journal, which found that people who cook up to five times a week were significantly more likely to be alive after 10 years than people who never or rarely cooked. Now, there are limitations here: It may be that people who are healthier in the first place may be more apt to cook than people who are sick. But cooking at home provides a great combination of healthy meals without all the extra fat, sodium, sugar, and calories that restaurants tend to pack in, plus the physical and mental activity of shopping for groceries, following a recipe, then actually cooking it and cleaning up afterward.

It’s such a seemingly simple thing, yet a great goal to strive for: aim to eat out just a little less and cook at home just a little more.  My book, The Digest Diet, asks that followers prepare most of their meals at home, and they tell me that while it can be a tough adjustment at first, they ultimately love the process—picking out tasty, nutritious ingredients, sharpening cooking skills, enjoying home-cooked meals with their family.

And who knows? It may be the secret to a slimmer jeans size—as well as the fountain of youth.

MORE FROM READER’S DIGEST

100 Easy Ways to Cut 50 Calories and Never Notice >>

Healthy Vegetables You Never Knew Your Liked >>

13 Ways You Could Improve Your Workout >>

Not Just Sugar: Foods That Make You Dumb >>

Take advantage of this exclusive offer: