The argument of “well, at least it’s not McDonald’s” isn’t enough to shield us from our calorie-gobbling selves, it seems. A new study conducted by Tufts University researchers has shown that mom-and-pop restaurants are also guilty of overstuffing our plates with less-than-healthy options.
Using analysis of restaurants in Boston, Little Rock, and San Francisco, the study found that 92 percent of 364 meals from both large-chain and non-chain eateries exceeded the recommended calorie requirements for a single meal. The findings also show that it wasn’t uncommon at all for a main course (not including beverages, dessert, appetizers or other munchables) to exceed the caloric requirements a person would need for their entire day. (30 percent of main courses exist under this umbrella.)
Susan B. Roberts, the director of the Energy Metabolism Laboratory at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University, would like you to know that simply avoiding fast-food options isn’t the only thing someone should consider with their caloric intake. We have to be vigilant no matter where our food comes from.
Although fast-food restaurants are often the easiest targets for criticism because they provide information on their portion sizes and calories, small restaurants typically provide just as many calories, and sometimes more. Favorite meals often contain three or even four times the amount of calories a person needs, and although in theory we don’t have to eat the whole lot in practice most of us don’t have enough willpower to stop eating when we have had enough.”
Basically, it’s stuff you know already. To maintain a healthy diet, you have to be aware of the nutritional content of what you shove into your facehole. The important thing is to not lull ourselves into a false sense of safety because we’re not gorging on something from the drive-thru. Easier said than done, we know.
(via Discovery)
