Truth on Tuesday

Are the calorie counts at restaurants correct?

You've seen on the news and all over the Internet about how many calories are in some restaurant foods.  It seems hard to believe that seemingly innocent menu items like salads can pack over 1,000 calories in one serving (Enter Chili's and their Quesadilla Explosion Salad).  But how accurate is this information?  And even if you're ordering the "lower calorie" items off the menu, do the meals really contain what they advertise?  Here's some facts and my two cent on the whole ordeal:

A survey of the dietary habits revealed that foods purchased in restaurants provide approximately 35% of the daily energy intake of individuals in the United States (1). Past studies found that from 2005 through 2006, 49% of US residents ate out at least 3 meals per week and 12% ate out more than 7 meals per week (2). So while in the past eating out at restaurants may have been seen as an occasional "treat" in which case indulging a bit wouldn't make a huge dent in terms of weight gain, it appears that restaurant dining has become the norm for many of us and there is a great need to pay attention to what exactly we are putting into our mouths. 

So a recent study done at Tuft's University found that on average, menu items contained about 10 more calories than listed on the restaurant's websites for popular chains like Olive Garden and McDonald's. However, many of the "low calorie" menu options may be off by up to 100 calories (3). WHAT? How can this be?  And who is allowing this?  Susan Roberts, the director of the Energy Metabolism Laboratory at USDA puts is this way: 

“We found huge discrepancies,” Roberts says. “Our statistician gave me this analogy: let’s say you sell 10-lb. bags of sugar, and you sell 15-lb. bags to your friends and 5-lb. bags to your enemies, and you call them all 10 pounds. The average would be accurate but it wouldn’t be fair to individual buyers. We found that’s what may be happening in restaurants. Overall, the main calories on the plate were not very different from what was listed on websites. But low calorie foods that are appropriate for weight control have more calories than listed, and high calorie foods have less calories than listed.”

After reading the article posted, I wanted to delve further into these stats so I looked up the actual research article.  Here is a closer look at some of the key findings from the study:

• A method known as bomb calorimetry was used to assess the energy (calories) at 42 different chain restaurants, both fast food & sit-down places, selected at random in the states of  Massachusetts, Arkansas, and Indiana in 2010
• Bomb calorimetry is a method of measuring the amount of energy in food by assessing the heat of combustion of their chemical reactions.  It is considered to be an accurate method of assessing energy contents of food within a .3% error (4).
• Restaurants were chosen based on their sales in 2008-- Those belonging to a restaurant chain in the top 400 for sales dollars providing nutrition information on their Web site were eligible
• A total of 269 total food items were selected and the difference between restaurant-stated and laboratory measured energy contents were examined
• 50 of the 269 food items (19%) contained at least 100 calories more than stated 
• Those foods with the highest excess energy in the initial sampling were then subjected to a second sampling
• In the first analysis, energy contents differed by 289 calories per serving 
• In the second analysis, energy contents differed by 258 calories 

 

So on the low end they're off by 10 calories but on the high end it could be 100 calories--This can lead up to a 15 pound weight gain over the course of a year!  So much for relying on the nutritional information listed on the menus.  So should you totally ignore it? I don't think so; but I do think that you should limit the amount of times your dine out at restaurants per week, especially if you are trying to lose weight.  BONUS: Limiting the amount of times your dine out will not only help your waist line but also you wallet! 

1. Urban, L., McCrory, M., Dallal, G., Das, S., Saltzman, E., Weber, J., & Roberts, S. (2011). Accuracy of stated energy contents of restaurant foods. Journal of  the American Medical Association, 306(3), 287-294. 

2. Economic Research Service. Diet quality and food consumption: Flexible Consumer Behavior Survey (FCBS). http://www.ers.usda.gov/Briefing/DietQuality /flexible.htm. Accessed June 25, 2011.

3. Park, A. (2011). Are calorie counts on menus accurate? Not so much. <http://healthland.time.com/2011/07/20/are-calorie-counts-on-menus-accurate-not-so-much/#ixzz1qFmgkSPl> 

4. Urban LE, Dallal GE, Robinson LM, Ausman LM, Saltzman E, Roberts SB. The accuracy of stated energy contents of reduced-energy, commercially prepared foods. J Am Diet Assoc. 2010;110(1):116-123.