Nutrional Information in Restaurents

One obstacle I'm working on overcoming is the social aspect of eating out. I am frustrated at the lack of nutritional information given in restaurants. I can hardly believe it that macdonalds, subway and other fast food chains post their nutritional info but places like Moxies don't! It should be mandated that the nutritional information is included in the menu. Any thoughts?

Do I think it's helpful when restaurants post the nutritional information for their menu items? Yes. Absolutely. Do I think it should be "mandated" by the government? No. But, then again, I'm not a socialist...I believe in free capitalism.

I don't think restaurants should have to post nutritional information.  It's completely impractical apart from anything else.  Places like McDonalds can give a reasonably accurate count purely because what they call 'food' is mass-produced in pre-formed portions.... like a factory.  There's no input required on the part of the people preparing it - no variation.

Any decent, normal restaurant doesn't make food that way, there's a lot more give and take on the ingredients and the portions.  And that means that the calorie count can be quite different from one day to the next.  

People need to use their judgement when it comes to restaurant food and start exercising a little common sense.  Order more green salad, fewer deep-fried chicken wings....  not exactly rocket science is it?

I do really well in restaurants by ordering "smart" -- things like fish or chicken (not fried), a big salad with dressing on the side, soup, appetizer portions.  When the main dish comes, I draw a line through the starch and protein to leave a portion that looks "normal" for home (usually about half).  Then, I eat slowly, enjoy the social interaction, and box up the leftovers to take home.  I very seldom exceed my calorie count this way, and if I do, it is only one day out of many, and I never see a real impact on my weight loss.

ha ha. I guess I just want things easier for myself. :-) I'm getting kind of obsessive about the calorie counting.

Original Post by dkenworthy:

I do really well in restaurants by ordering "smart" -- things like fish or chicken (not fried), a big salad with dressing on the side, soup, appetizer portions.  When the main dish comes, I draw a line through the starch and protein to leave a portion that looks "normal" for home (usually about half).  Then, I eat slowly, enjoy the social interaction, and box up the leftovers to take home.  I very seldom exceed my calorie count this way, and if I do, it is only one day out of many, and I never see a real impact on my weight loss.

 You got it! That's what i do, too.

The other thing is to ask the server how the dish is prepared - or tell them how to prepare it. Order salads with dressing on the side, ask for food to be broiled using no butter, remove the heavy cheese from the recipe, stuff like that. If they can't or won't accomodate you, maybe you should try another restaurant. Ultimately, a good restaurant will aim to please - and most likely, many other patrons are asking for specific ways to have food prepared -  I doubt we are alone.

CC has a great feature that I have used, although it's not perfect. you can link CC with your cell phone and when you are out at a restaurant, text CC the food item - you will get a response within 10 seconds. I don't always get an exact response, as it's limited, but it helps me when I can't remember how many calories are in what. My kids and I had a blast with this feature when we went to Taco Bell one day - very enlightening! They don't want to go there very much any more!

To get this feature, go to "Tools" and "Go mobile." It's free.