Restaurant Portion Size: Nearly All Entrees Exceed Nutrition Recommendations

I’m sure that it is no surprise to you that nearly all restaurant entrees exceed nutrition recommendations for portion size. Why is this a problem? Because so many of us grew up with depression era parents and learned to not wasted food and to clean our plates.  In the U.S. we perceive the value of a restaurant meal by the quantity of food on our plate. The more food, the more value. If you are a dieter eating out, weight loss becomes even a greater challenge. You get a lot more fat and sodium in a restaurant meal than if you made the same meal at home. What’s the solution? Hypnosis. If your goal is to lose weight, hypnosis for weight loss can help you choose healthier items on the menu and help you to stop eating when you have enough fuel in your body. Learn weight loss hypnosis for portion control.

Restaurant Portion Size: Nearly All Entrees Exceed Nutrition Recommendation

The Huffington Post, May 22, 2012: We’ve long known that restaurant meals aren’t a paragon of healthy portion sizes — but a new study shows they may be even worse than we think. A whopping 96 percent of America’s chain restaurant entrees fell outside the range of the USDA’s recommendations for fat, saturated fat and sodium per meal, according to a new analysis from the RAND corporation, published in the journal Public Health Nutrition.

“If you’re eating out tonight, your chances of finding an entree that’s truly healthy are painfully low,” lead researcher Helen Wu, assistant policy analyst at RAND, told USA Today. Wu and her team evaluated 28,433 regular menu items and 1,833 children’s menus at 245 restaurants around the country between February and May 2010. They looked at the USDA recommendations for daily maximum intake in calories, fat, saturated fat and sodium and divided that by three to arrive at a government recommendation for a single meal. And while the majority of dishes fell below the USDA’s calorie limit for a meal (667 calories), they did not meet the requirements for fat, saturated fat and sodium (which, according to the government regulations, should not exceed 767 mg per meal).

“Many items may appear healthy based on calories, but actually can be very unhealthy when you consider other important nutrition criteria,” Wu told the Los Angeles Times.

Sodium, in particular, was problematic — according to the report, the average dinner entree packs a whopping 1,512 mg, more than the CDC’s recommended adequate intake for an entire day (and not too far from their recommended maximum intake of 2,300 mg). And while the average calorie total was a more reasonable 674, fat and saturated fat counts were well above limits at 32 g and 12 g, respectively.

And don’t think you’re doing your diet any favors by ordering an appetizer instead of a main dish — the researchers reported that those meal “starters” often had more calories, fat and sodium than any other item on the menu.

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For most of us today, our cupboards and refrigerators are full, there are grocery stores close to our home and restaurants nearby. Lack of available food is not our problem. Our problem is too much food. It is also human nature to eat the food that is placed in front of us. With weight loss hypnosis you can stop eating at that place where just enough feels perfect.

My book, Becoming Slender For Life and it’s hypnosis CD set can support you in your goal to lose weight. No matter where you live, contact me and learn how you can learn hypnosis for weight loss.

Check out Slender For Life™ and call (206) 903-1232 or email for your free consultation.

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