By Suzanne Schlosberg / January 29, 2011
If you're aiming to lose weight or eat more healthfully, some restaurant food choices are no-brainers. Tomato-based marinara sauce or cream-based Alfredo? Marinara, of course. French fries or baked potato? The potato, assuming it's not drenched with butter and sour cream.
But often the best choice isn't obvious at all.
"A lot of people will choose a muffin over a doughnut, not realizing the muffin is twice as bad calorie-wise – and sometimes not even better in saturated fat," says Katherine Tallmadge, R.D., a Washington, D.C., nutritionist and spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association.
Consider this: A Dunkin' Donuts glazed doughnut contains 260 calories, with 14 g of fat. It's no health food, but it's still a better bet than the chain's wholesome-sounding pumpkin muffin, which is larger, sweeter and weighs in at 600 calories and 26 g of fat.
A new federal law requires chain restaurants with 20 or more locations to include calorie information on their menus, but it's unclear when those rules will take effect – and even then, you may have to search to find other nutritional data.
Until then, knowing what you're really eating will help you make better decisions.
Here's the lowdown on 9 common dietary dilemmas, including my husband's recent breakfast predicament. He ordered French toast. Was it a wise choice?
1. Pancakes vs. French toast
French toast may seem like a virtuous choice because it's coated with egg and milk. But jumbo restaurant servings of the breakfast treat often dwarf pancakes, or even waffles.
The eggs' "added bit of protein won't make French toast a winner," says Tallmadge, especially because the milk is often full-fat and the toast is fried in shortening.
At IHOP, the Original French Toast contains 920 calories and 15 g of artery-clogging saturated fat.
You should get no more than 7% of your daily calories from saturated fat, according to the American Heart Association (AHA). On a 2,000-calorie diet, that's about 16 g per day.
By contrast, five IHOP buttermilk pancakes weigh in at 770 calories and 9 g of saturated fat. (Three pancakes have 490 calories and 8 g of saturated fat.) A plain Belgian waffle: 360 calories and 8 g of saturated fat.
But there's added damage, depending on how much syrup (about 50 calories per tablespoon) and butter (50 calories per tablespoon of whipped margarine) you use."Pancakes need a lot of syrup because they're so dry," says Tara Gidus, R.D., a nutritionist in Orlando, Fla. "French toast automatically has moisture built in because of the egg batter. A waffle has oil in the batter so it's not as dry."
So don't pour syrup on pancakes or French toast. Instead, dip your fork into the side cup of syrup for each bite, Gidus advises. That allows more control over the amount of syrup per mouthful.
2. Bacon vs. sausage
Forget the sausage.
"Bacon isn't a health food, but portions are smaller. And with crispy bacon, a lot of fat is cooked off," says Chicago nutritionist Dawn Jackson Blatner, R.D., author of "The Flexitarian Diet" (McGraw-Hill).
For example, two IHOP sausage links contain 180 calories and 6 g of saturated fat; two bacon strips have 80 calories and 2 g of saturated fat.
At Denny's, four sausage links contain 370 calories and 13 g of saturated fat – far worse than the 140 calories and 4 g of saturated fat in four bacon strips.
Ordering turkey sausage or turkey bacon saves in the saturated-fat department, but you're still not doing your arteries – or waistline – a favor.
"Turkey has such a health halo, but there's no guarantee [a restaurant serves] lean turkey," Tallmadge says.
At Denny's, four strips of turkey bacon contain 10 more calories than four strips of pork bacon (150 to 140). And while you'll get more protein, you'll also get more sodium and cholesterol.
Dietitian Gidus' advice: Skip both the bacon and sausage.
"Go for the tomato slices," she suggests.
3. Toast vs. bagel
Toast almost always wins because bagels are thicker, Tallmadge says. Both are about 70 calories per ounce, but a standard slice of toast is just 1 ounce. A bagel is around 4 ounces.
"Most women shouldn't have more than two servings of starch per meal – about 200 calories' worth, or half a bagel," Tallmadge says.
Some restaurants, however, serve extra-large toast slices. In that case, an English muffin, if offered, is better for you.
"An English muffin will trump them all, because it's standard size," Blatner says.Plus, with English muffins, you have two halves, so you feel like you're eating more, she notes.
But then there's the topping.
At Denny's, the standard serving of two slices of toast with margarine contains 270 calories, an English muffin with margarine has 130 calories, and a bagel with cream cheese has 428 calories.
4. Butter vs. jelly
"Jelly has no redeeming qualities – you're not spreading on fruit – but that little dose of sugar is probably better for most people than artery-clogging saturated fat," Blatner says.
Plus, she says, jelly sits atop the bread, so you can more easily control the portion.
"When spreading butter, you don't know how much you're using because it melts into the crevices," Blatner explains.
5. Muffin vs. scone
Both contain fatty ingredients like butter, and muffins can also include shortening and oils, but they're still the healthier of two high-calorie evils.
"Scones have more saturated fat because they're made with heavy cream and more butter," Blatner says.
For example, at Panera Bread, a wild-blueberry scone and wild-blueberry muffin both have 440 calories. But the scone has 12 g of saturated fat; the muffin, 3 g.
A Panera cinnamon-chip scone contains 600 calories and 19 g of saturated fat – well over a day's worth.
But don't be fooled by the healthy-sounding descriptions of many muffins. When you order a Dunkin' Donuts reduced-fat blueberry muffin (430 calories), you save only 50 calories over a regular blueberry muffin – and you'll still get 41 g of sugar. (That's about as much as in four full-size Reese's Peanut Butter Cups.)
Bran muffins aren't your friend, either.
"Oat bran isn't that tasty, so [bakers] compensate with a vat of sugar and oil," Gidus says.
A raisin bran muffin at Au Bon Pain is a tradeoff: It has 480 calories, nearly a quarter of your daily intake. But it also contains a substantial 10 g of fiber (nearly half of the recommended daily amount).
Starbucks and Panera Bread have introduced mini-scones, donuts and muffins ("muffies" at Panera) that are one-third to one-half the typical size and calories. These are a much better bet – as long as you stop at one.
Still, experts say, you're better off bypassing the pastry shelf and choosing oatmeal or a yogurt parfait.
"Muffins, scones and donuts aren't snacks," Tallmadge points out. "They're desserts."
6. Soup vs. salad
You'd think salad is the better choice. And you'd be wrong.
"Put on dressing, croutons, cheese, nuts, dried fruit and candied nuts, and what started out at 80 calories may edge up to 800," Blatner says. "Surprisingly, soups are often the lower-calorie choice."
Even cream-based soups are often more filling and lower in calories than salads.
At Applebee's, for example, a lunch-combo Oriental chicken salad has 410 calories, 90 calories more than if you ordered the broccoli cheddar soup.
At Outback Steakhouse, a side, blue-cheese-and-pecan chopped salad has 523 calories and a side "classic, blue-cheese wedge salad" has 357 calories, both substantially more than a cup of creamy broccoli soup, with 281 calories. (But watch out for that 546-calorie cup of baked potato soup!)
The lowest-calorie salads are typically called "house salad," "green salad" or "garden salad."
However, when asked, "Soup or salad?" there's more to consider than just calories.
"Soup can be a bowl of sodium," Gidus says.
Applebees' chicken-tortilla soup has just 160 calories, but packs a 1,380-mg dose of sodium – more than half of the 2,300 mg recommended as a daily maximum by current U.S. dietary guidelines.
And it's near the maximum daily total – 1,500 mg – recommended by the Centers for Disease Control for people ages 40 or older. (The average American consumes 3,436 mg of sodium per day, according to the AHA.)
Some soups are triple whammies: loaded with sodium and saturated fat, and relatively high in calories.
For example, at Outback Steakhouse, a mere cup of onion soup delivers 300 calories with 1,287 mg of sodium and 12 g of saturated fat.
If black-bean soup is on the menu, "that's the best choice in a heartbeat," Gidus advises.
7. Creamy dressing vs. vinaigrette
Think you're saving calories by ordering balsamic vinaigrette instead of blue cheese or ranch?
"Just because it's called `vinaigrette' doesn't mean it's lower in calories than a creamy dressing," Blatner says. "The main ingredient is oil, which has a lot of calories."
Some vinaigrettes have as much saturated fat as creamy dressings, depending on the amount and kinds of oil the restaurant uses.
For example, at Chili's, the citrus balsamic vinaigrette contains 250 calories, compared to 240 for blue cheese and 170 for ranch. All have 4 or 5 g of saturated fat.
The best options: low-calorie dressings, such as Chili's nonfat honey mustard (70 calories) or low-fat ranch (45 calories) – or the 15-calorie reduced-fat Italian at IHOP, an enormous savings compared to the 260-calorie balsamic vinaigrette. The house salad itself has just 90 calories.
Low-calorie dressings have a lower ratio of calorie-packed oils to other ingredients, typically replacing them with more lemon juice and vinegar, Blatner says. (They may also have more sugar.)
As with pancakes, Blatner recommends the "dip method" here too: Dip your fork into a side container of dressing rather than pouring it onto your salad.
8. Hamburger vs. hot dog
Think small with this choice.
"A hot dog is usually smaller, so usually you'll get less saturated fat and fewer calories than in a burger," Tallmadge says.
At Wienerschnitzel, a double hamburger has 390 calories and 6 g of saturated fat. But an Original Plain Hot Dog contains only 270 calories and 4 g of saturated fat. (A plain turkey dog is about the same, weighing in at 260 calories with 3 g saturated fat.)
But upgrade to an Angus All-Beef Plain Hot Dog with a seeded bun and you're looking at 450 calories with 9 g of saturated fat.
At A&W, a hot dog contains 310 calories and 8 g of saturated fat. You can just about double that for a Papa Burger, with 720 calories and 15 g of saturated fat.
One burger benefit: You can easily load it with relatively healthy toppings like lettuce and tomato, unlike hot dogs. 9. Fried rice vs. chow mein or lo mein
Even a nutritionist was fooled by this one.
Blatner figured rice was the easy right choice. "But I guessed wrong," she says.
At both Panda Express and PF Chang's, noodles win over rice in both calories and saturated fat.
"It's probably [due to] a surface-area issue," Blatner says. "There are more pieces of rice to absorb oil."
At Panda Express, chow mein noodles have 400 calories and 2 g of saturated fat, though the 1,060 mg of sodium is high.
The fried rice, by contrast, contains 570 calories, 4 g of saturated fat and 900 mg sodium.
The best option, if available, is steamed brown rice. At PF Chang's, it contains 190 calories, no sodium or saturated fat, and 3 g of fiber per serving.
Blatner also recommends steamed veggies and steamed dumplings.
"Steamed is such a good word," she says.
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