Do you trust the nutritional info listed on a menu?

mmstone13

Hi- Just wondering if you all trust what a menu says for calorie count, etc. or if you make adjustments. For example, I just had the garlic sirloin meal at Applebees, which they claim the meal plus sides clocks in at 460 calories. But when I look at that plate of food, I think, REALLY, all this for 460 calories?

So, do you trust it or not?

Francl27

Yes I've wondered the same thing about that one! But it's actually not impossible, I've made several meals with the same stuff for about the same amount of calories.

Bottom line though, it's all approximations anyway, so I just log that.

magerum

+/- 20% for all nutrional information is the standard variation. It's all you really have to go with, so might as well trust it.

willdob3

Knowing the ingredients is more important to me than getting the calories exactly correct.

Chief_Rocka

I don't even count breadsticks

wolfgate

Just be glad you live someplace that has nutritional info on the menu. It's hard down here to figure out what to order...

itsjustdawn

Not really...

TinaBean007

I have a good friend that I go to lunch with fairly often who is an insulin-dependent diabetic. I've watched her learn the hard way that the menus can be grossly incorrect. (She uses the carb listing to moderate her insulin injection after the meal.) She can tell how far off it is by her sugar level response after the meal. I can tell you that she won't eat at Panera anymore.

LAW_714

There's plenty of room for margin of error.

On the other hand, it's better to have some frame of reference than none at all, so having calorie counts and serving sizes is helpful (if not 100% accurate).

kelciebananas

I don't trust generalized nutritional information. It's often inaccurate.

http://www.ktvu.com/news/news/special-reports/special-food-labels/nXsJZ/