Eat This, Not That!

Like many people, I try to remain conscious of the food I consume on a daily basis. I know that I can’t eat a Big Mac with large fries and a 32 ounce soft drink every day for lunch without gaining a few pounds. So, when I eat out, I try and select options that are lighter or that I can alter so that they will contain less calories. The problem with this theory is that seemingly light entrees often contain the highest calorie count, after checking out a few lists from the “Eat This, Not That” book, I am much more aware of what to look out for when ordering at restaurants.


Because of the connotation of foods like salad and turkey, people associate meals with those items in them to be healthier options, unfortunately by the time these items reach the table, chefs have somehow turned these originally healthy ingredients into fat monstrosities. Take the Grilled Chicken Avocado club sandwich, sounds innocent enough and yet somehow the chefs at Cheesecake Factory managed to stuff 1,752 calories and more than twice your daily allotted amount of saturated fat into the dish. On “Worst Foods in America 2011” list, starters like fried onion rings, cheese fries and chicken tenders are unsurprisingly on the top of the list. But the more startling meals like a Chipotle chicken burrito or a mushroom turkey burger from Ruby Tuesday also topped the charts as some of the fattiest, worst foods in America. These deceiving foods, along with the obviously supersized portions which have become the norm at eateries from coast to coast, are to blame for the steady weight gain of the average person. You don’t need to buy this book, but I would recommend going onto menshealth.com and taking the quiz to see if you know which option is the better one. Plus, they have a menu decoder which tells you different things to eat at each restaurant. (The sushi menu was particularly helpful for me) Let me know what you think!