restaurants – The No Salt, No Fat, No Sugar Journal

Chicago is in the midst of its annual restaurant week, a time when local restaurants offer specially priced menus to draw people in on cold winter days and nights. It’s a good time to try new places but can you find healthy offerings? Well, sort of.

Restaurant food is notoriously high in salt, fat and sugar. So you need to be picky, and also know you’ll likely go off your healthy menu more than once.

My wife and I so far have gone to two restaurants, Pescadero, a suburban seafood place; and Big Jones, a Cajun restaurant in Chicago. We also plan a trip to L Woods, another suburban spot, since we live in the suburbs.

Seafood dishes tend to be healthier per se, assuming they aren’t loaded with sauces heavy in fat and salt.

I opted for the oysters to start my Pescadero meal, they’re served raw, so aren’t mucked up with salt or fat. I had the octopus for my main course. It was grilled and wonderfully tasty, if you love octopus as I do.

Continue reading →

Restaurant menus are notoriously filled with high-salt, high-fat, high-sugar offerings. If you’re trying to lower your consumption of those that evil threesome, you need to do your research before eating out. That’s why we have an entire page of this blog devoted to eating away from home.

*Halibut on a carrot puree at a restaurant in Milwaukee which is, sadly, no longer there. What was the salt content? We asked for it without salt added.*

Are people doing their research? A recent study by foodservice supplier US Foods shows a large chunk of the population is checking menus before going out, for a variety of reasons.

The study found 83% of people eating out review menus from home before going to a restaurant, and of those, 50% decide what they’ll order before setting foot in the restaurant.

Also encouraging, from a health standpoint, 58% say nutritional value information impacts their ordering, although here portion size and calorie content seems to be the major concern.

More people need to be checking salt content, it’s the most dangerous in most restaurant options.

US Foods gathered this data by surveying 1,003 people last September, reflecting the demographic makeup of the general American population.

Tag: restaurants

Eating healthy on restaurant week, sort of

A reminder to check ahead when eating out

Blogs I Follow

Start here