Enemy of the Plate: RESTAURANTS

Not ALL restaurants. Just, you know...a lot of them.

People go to restaurants for an endless variety of reasons: Dates, birthdays, receptions, holidays, anniversaries, for hanging out with friends, to watch sports, for eating while out of town, business, celebrating achievements, for convenience and (let us not forget) lethargy. Going out to eat several times a week can take take a toll on your health depending on where you go. If you are having a hard time maintaining a healthy weight, BMI, acceptable cholesterol or blood sugar levels, you may need to check what you are eating.

Whether it is fast food, a sit-down dinner with a serving staff or the prepared foods/“grab n’ go” section of your nearest grocery or convenience store, there is no place where you have less control over what you are eating than in a RESTAURANT. Now wait! Before you cancel your reservations (or hell, before you even make a reservation) consider what you are about to read. Aside from (what should be) obvious advice to avoid restaurants with mostly fried foods or foods high in fat and calories there are also other points to consider.

Portions


From what I have seen, I am convinced the commercial restaurant’s target demographic is the grizzly bear. Why the hell are America’s portions so freaking big? Well, part of it is the wide spread “get more bang for your buck” attitude. This is why the restaurant industry makes BILLIONS in sales every year. Since the cost of food is not that high (compared to other costs a restaurant takes care of), a menu item can expand in diameter an inch or two and only cost an extra 50 cents in ingredients (that would be an extra several dollars for you, sucker). If there is a lot of food on the plate and the price is not too high, a customer will be more likely to purchase the meal. While there are some people who do not eat the entire contents of the larger portion (they take home leftovers, split the meal or waste what is left), there are many that do, grazing FAR past the point of a 300-400 calorie meal. This, as a repeated action, is a recipe for obesity and poor health, unless of course you have a triathlon the next morning...after every single one of those meals.

Thankfully, in addition to the ever-growing gigantic meal portions, the trend of smaller portions is catching on in many chain restaurants. The rising nutritional trend of choosing to eat several smaller meals a day as opposed to fewer large meals is a contributing factor. Also, First Lady Michelle Obama’s campaign, “Let’s Move,” asked restaurant owners to offer smaller sized meals. So, smaller portion availability? Check.

On to the next problem...

Ingredients


You don't get a gold star if you are eating a smaller portion of fried food or foods rich in saturated fat. If you eat a smaller portion of food, it should also be good for you! This is where your awareness of ingredients should come in. Not only should the food be low in sugar and without hydrogenated oils or trans-fats, one should also consider pesticides and industrial chemical residues that come with many conventional foods.

There is a reason why food cost is not so expensive for chain restaurants. Most ingredients are purchased in bulk and chances are that all of the ingredients are conventional (non-organic). That’s right. You might as well order a side of DDT pesticide with your main course. Considering that pesticides are poison, we would all do well to avoid high traces of its residues. How do I know that chain restaurants are most likely not cooking with organic ingredients? With organic food being the fastest growing sector of the food industry, a restaurant would have to be foolish not to boast of organic, all-natural ingredients! Since I have not seen a single pop-up ad, billboard, mail-in advertisement, TV commercial, or application ad during Fruit Ninja boasting of organic ingredients in one of the many chain restaurants in my town, I think it is safe to conclude we are all dealing with conventional foods.

FEAR NOT! There are many conventional produce items that are less dangerous than others when it comes to pesticides, chemicals, carcinogens, etc. according to chemical research conducted by David Steinman in his book, Diet For a Poisoned Planet. Be sure to AVOID the following conventional, non-organic varieties of what Steinman calls ”red light” foods, containing the highest amounts of chemical residues.

Fruits
You may give yourself a pat on the back for ordering a fruit plate over the brownie sundae your restaurant is offering, but NOT if it contains apples, apricots, cherries, grapes, peaches, pears, plums or raisins.

Vegetables
Say no to sides or mixes that contain celery, collard greens, cucumbers, green peppers, white potatoes, summer squash and tomatoes.

Nuts
Absolutely NO peanuts or mixed dry roasted nuts.

Grains
Pass the plate (away from you and NOT toward anyone you love) when you see buttery-type crackers, fruit flavored sweetened cereal, commercial muffins, popcorn (popped in oil), raisin bran cereal, rye bread, white bread and whole wheat bread.

Meat
These are ripe with pesticides and industrial chemicals: Bacon (pan cooked), beef pork roast (baked), bologna (sliced), chicken nuggets (fast food), frankfurters (beef, boiled), ground beef, ham (baked with nitrite preservatives), ham (luncheon meat, sliced with nitrite preservatives), hamburgers (fast food), liver (beef, fried), meatloaf, pork sausage (pan cooked), veal cutlet and venison (Europe-imported).

Seafood
Sorry, but you need to avoid bass (freshwater), black cod, bluefish, buffalo fish, carp, catfish, caviar (Michigan, China), chub (freshwater), cod, croaker, dace, Great Lakes salmon, lake trout, lobster (Maine, Massachusetts), mackerel (New York), mullet (California, North Carolina), northern pike, sable fish, sea herring, shark, sheepshead, striped bass, sturgeon, swordfish, trout, tuna, walleye, weakfish, white bass, white croaker (California), white perch (Pennsylvania), white fish (New York, Pennsylvania), yellow eel (China), or yellow perch (Pennsylvania).

Dairy
Butter (regular, salted), also high in saturated fat, contains the highest amount of chemical residues out of all dairy products! Also high in residues were cheddar cheese, cream cheese, American cheese, Swiss cheese and margarine.

You're still here? Awesome. I thought I lost you at "no bacon."

Acceptable Ingredients
The good news is that many “green light” and “yellow light” foods are listed in Steinman’s book. Green light vegetables include: Asparagus, Black-eyed peas, cabbage, cauliflower, corn, eggplant, green peas, lima beans, okra, onions, pinto beans, radishes, red beans, sauerkraut, sweet potatoes, chives, cilantro, daikon, fennel root, garlic, jicama, kidney beans, leeks, lentils, mushrooms, navy beans, radicchio, red chard, shallots, snow peas, watercress and yams.  Green light fruits include: Grapefruit, watermelon, coconut, dates, figs, lemons, limes, papayas, passion fruit, pineapples, plantains and tangerines. Other foods low in residues are pecans, corn bread, corn flakes, crisped rice cereal, grits, pancakes, meat sauce or tomato sauce (with pasta), cooked rice, saltine crackers, chicken, pork roast (baked), buffalo steak, duck, turkey, venison (U.S.), crawfish, dover sole, flounder, halibut, imitation crab, mahimahi, octopus, orange roughy, Pacific salmon, red snapper, scallops, sea bass, shrimp, sole and talapia.

Almost all of the food items David Steinman tested came with a brief explanation of specific chemical residues found and why these “red light” foods pose a greater threat to our health than others. Also, in the seafood category, the tests showed some regional types of seafood to be safer than others (California lobster and other imported lobsters are safer than Maine and Massachusetts lobster). I suggest a trip to the book store or library to check out this important work. He is also so environmentally conscious that he printed the books on recyclable paper. Kudos, David.

One last thing…

Preparation

The ultimate perk of going to a restaurant is that you do NOT have to cook the food. This seems so great but it can also be SO bad if you are not specific about how you would like your food to be cooked. You do not have to succumb to the foods in the menu ONLY as they are cooked by the chefs. For example, I went to a seafood restaurant with my parents over the holiday. I ate plenty, mostly vegetables. I kindly asked my waiter to order my veggies steamed or lightly sautéed, and I asked that the chefs NOT use butter. The handsome waiter was awesome and he got me exactly what I ordered (he got a killer tip from me in return). You CAN have your sweet potatoes lightly roasted with extra virgin olive oil instead of white potatoes fried in hydrogenated oil. You can ask for several different sides of veggies like asparagus, green peas or corn, instead of a plate full of cellulite and regret.

If you don’t think a certain restaurant will accommodate for you then don’t give them your business. There are a number of local restaurants in many cities that make all natural meals with local, in-season and/or organic ingredients. There are stores, like Whole Foods, that list all of the ingredients on the prepared food item, PLUS you can ask the manager exactly how it was made. There are websites devoted to finding healthy restaurants near you (like www.happycow.net ).

All of this said…it is best if you prepare most of the food you eat at home. Pack your lunch and/or dinner. Lower the amount of times you go out to eat per week. By cooking at home you don’t have to fish the few healthy foods out of a sea of heart-failure-inducing or potentially carcinogenic-laced menu items. NO FAST FOOD, PERIOD. If you get "grab n' go" items from a store, flip it over and check the ingredients! Pick foods without refined sugar or high fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated oil, trans fat or ingredients that may contain high amounts of pesticides or chemical residues. If you have to go to a restaurant and the choice of restaurant is beyond your control, be sure to pack a few "emergency" food items in your car, office, briefcase or purse to curb your hunger. Drink at least 64 oz. of water a day and throw in some detoxifying herbal teas to wash your system clean of anything that doesn't belong in there.

Finally, you don’t have to go to a restaurant to have a good time. After all, some of the best celebrations, birthdays, dates, receptions, holidays, anniversaries, times hanging out with friends and parties I have ever experienced have been within the walls of someone’s home and always had the BEST food. 

Sources:
Food for Thought: Why Are Restaurant Portions So Big?
National Restaurant Association: Facts at a Glance
Food, Inc. Dir. Robert Kenner. Magnolia Pictures, 2008.
Steinman, David. Diet for a Poisoned Planet. New York: Thunder's Mouth Press, 1990.

Links:
Diet For a Poisoned Planet - Amazon
Whole Foods Market
A Co-op Grocer Near YOU!

Happy Cow 

Enemy of the Plate: HYDROGENATED OILS & TRANS FATS

I don't even know where to begin. The existence of hydrogenated oil makes me so mad I that I want to curse for a whole paragraph without making a point.


Hydrogenated Oil 

Once upon a time there were two unsaturated fats, Poly and Mono. Poly and Mono, derived from plants, roamed the earth in liquid form, slaying cardiovascular risk and lowering LDL (bad) cholesterol, giving rise to better vitamin absorption, higher energy levels and increased HDL (good) cholesterol levels. Then along came some evil bastard from the food industry, who discovered if you strap down unsaturated fats and put them through a process called "hydrogenation," what results is a cheaper way of producing saturated solid or semi-solid fats (cheaper than using animal fats or other naturally occurring saturated fats). This practice of hydrogenation became normal and its dark, money-driven cloud covered the land, resulting in higher body fat percentages, raised LDL (BAD) cholesterol and an increased risk of cancer and cardiovascular disease in humans.

You do not have to be part of this sad story. Go to your kitchen and rid your pantry, refrigerator and freezer of any food that contains an ingredient that says hydrogenated-, partially hydrogenated-, margarine or shortening, pronto!

Trans Fat

This is just another way of saying "partially hydrogenated," since the unsaturated fat has not become fully hydrogenated or saturated. WARNING! You may pick up a prepared food item from the shelves in the grocery store that boasts of having "no trans fats." Flip the box over and read the ingredients. If there is an ingredient that says partially hydrogenated-, margarine or shortening, IT CONTAINS TRANS FAT! Why? The FDA ruled that if a food item contains less than 0.5 grams of trans fat per serving then the phrase "no trans fat" may be plastered over the box with confetti around it. The manufacturer can do that! Then this begs the question, how many of us eat the actual serving size written on the box? Don't lie to yourself (especially you, America).

Still not sold on how bad this stuff is for you? Here's the final blow. Consider your weekly exercise regimen about "half as useful" to "not useful at all" if you have hydrogenated oils and trans fat in your diet. Your arteries will build plaque, your immune system will suffer and your body will lower its ability to detoxify itself of carcinogens and drugs. These non essential fatty acids can prevent your body from using and benefiting from any essential fatty acids.

Ok, so unless you want to keep your fat and risk for disease, no more hydrogenated oil or trans fat. Capiche?

What else needs to be said? Ah, yes. Though there are many forms of naturally occurring saturated fats, that doesn't mean you can go to town and start eating them out of a bowl. Prefer to eat as little to none of these saturated fats as possible. Say NO to animal fats, cream, cheese, butter, ghee, suet, tallow, lard, fatty meats, coconut oil, cottonseed oil, palm kernel oil, and chocolate.

I know, I know, I know. Some of you I lost at "cheese," some of you I lost at "meat," and I lost 99% of women at the mention of lowering chocolate intake. I'm not backing down. Lower your ingestion of these ingredients, watch the pounds fall off. Stick to polyunsaturated fats and monounsaturated fats, AKA good fats! These are found in olive oil, vegetable oil, sunflower seeds and peanut oil. Go for organic, cold pressed or expeller pressed oils. This way you are guaranteed that the oils are not hydrogenated and BONUS-organic oils are pesticide free!

By the way, if you are flirting with the idea of ridding you diet of meat, cheese and dairy, be sure to take a supplement for B12 and eat plenty of iron rich foods.

Do you cook with oil?

If cooking at high temperatures, be sure to use organic or expeller pressed olive oil, avocado oil (medium temperatures) or canola oil (medium high temperatures). Other oils that cannot withstand high temperatures will change in composition once it is cooked past its smoking point, creating cancer-causing free radicals and destroying any essential fatty acids the oil naturally contains. NEVER reuse old oil.

Would this be a good place to say no more fried foods? You knew I was going to say it anyway.

Ah, entry over. Blood pressure lowering...

Sources:
Good Question: Labeling for Trans Fats and Partially Hydrogenated Oils?
Saturated Fat, Wikipedia article
Hydrogenation, Wikipedia article
Trans Fat, Wikipedia article
Benefits of Unsaturated Fat and Protein in a Diet
Steinman, David. Diet for a Poisoned Planet. New York: Thunder's Mouth Press, 1990. pp. 254-266