When restaurants release calorie counts for their menu items many rejoice; however, those calories listed may be off by a hundred calories or more.
Calorie counts. Everyone that's watching their calorie intake live by watching the labels that come on their packaged foods from the supermarket. When restaurants began releasing the calorie counts of their products, they, too became part of the calorie counter's watch list. However, a recent study shows that those counts are not very accurate and they could be the cause of your dieting failure.
A research effort analyzed foods from some 42 restaurants and what they found is likely to shock you. Out of those 42 restaurants, 19 percent had 100 or more additional calories per serving than what was listed. When you are watching your calorie intake and choosing carefully what you eat, that 100 calories is crucial to be aware of.
The research included both sit-down as well as fast food eateries. While 19 percent did indeed have 100 or more calories than listed, one item had as much as 1,000 more calories. A thousand more is a huge difference when you might be aiming for 1,200 or less calories to eat in a day. That's nearly a day's worth of calories in one dish. Average calorie counts appeared to be accurate; however, one area wasn't as accurate.
Interestingly enough, the foods with the lowest calorie values were the ones that showed the most discrepancies in the actual versus listed calorie content. Is this perhaps a scam of sorts aimed at calorie counters to make unhealthy food appear healthier? Perhaps, or maybe it's all an honest mistake. Either way, it's something that needs addressing and correction on each restaurant's part.
Knowing that the food you choose is over what you thought it was might have led you to choose an alternate menu item. Perhaps it might have even made you decide to eat elsewhere. Knowledge is power, and that stands true with calorie counts.
What do you think? Do you count calories? Would you be upset to learn that the items you are ordering might be higher in calories than you might have thought? Weigh in below.
recommend
Facebook
Twitter
bookmark 
print
