Nutrition information

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Nate359
Nate359 Posts: 1 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Ever go to a restaurant only realizing after you get there that they have no nutrition information available on the menu nor on their website?

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  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,081 Member
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    Yeah, I agree with Kriss. In addition to logging giving you an idea of how to make a good guess, logging every day will keep your food intake more consistent so that when those restaurant meals are unavoidable (yum) it will just become one meal in a journal and it won't be stressful. You'll understand that one meal doesn't change the long-term results.
  • Alatariel75
    Alatariel75 Posts: 17,959 Member
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    Yup, at that stage I just try to make the best choice I can, and find something comparable in the database to log. If I've been consistent with my other logging, then it isn't that big a deal.
  • pebble4321
    pebble4321 Posts: 1,132 Member
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    I would be more surprised if the nutrition info was there. Just look for something close in the database.
  • Alatariel75
    Alatariel75 Posts: 17,959 Member
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    pebble4321 wrote: »
    I would be more surprised if the nutrition info was there. Just look for something close in the database.

    Yeah, there are very few restaurants in Australia that have the nutritional info available. It's mostly fast food places and chains (and not even all of them). Most restaurants we go to are one offs and have changeable menus.
  • Machka9
    Machka9 Posts: 25,139 Member
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    When they do, it's usually on their website, not on the menu.
  • Reaverie
    Reaverie Posts: 405 Member
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    Just had that issue today. Took the kids to the park to play and stopped at the grocery store so they could grab a deli sandwhich for a little picnic lunch while there. I thought to be realllly good and did the RIGHT thing and grabbed a salad.. Or so I thought. There was no nutritional info on it, it looked awesome with chives and egg and blue cheese crumble and bacon bits. How bad could it be? Food lion has NO INFO ANYWHERE on their salads! So I had to look up the basic ingredients and the CLOSEST thing I found to it was a cob salad. Only difference was this didnt have chicken in it. Guess how much calories for 18oz of cob salad? OVER 1200 if I go by OTHER sites nutritional info. MFP says it was 290 but I cant rely on that as MFP ALSO says that food lions chef salad (same container same size) is 519 calories!! And it had less stuff in it.. so I have to assume whoever logged the cob salad had wishful thinking. I hope it someday becomes a LAW in the US that nutritional info MUST be logged on ALL items sold from stores and restaurants. I would have chosen a sandwhich.. which ironically had less calories.. Guess tomorrow is a fasting day to make up for my good choice.
  • pebble4321
    pebble4321 Posts: 1,132 Member
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    Reaverie wrote: »
    Just had that issue today. Took the kids to the park to play and stopped at the grocery store so they could grab a deli sandwhich for a little picnic lunch while there. I thought to be realllly good and did the RIGHT thing and grabbed a salad.. Or so I thought. There was no nutritional info on it, it looked awesome with chives and egg and blue cheese crumble and bacon bits. How bad could it be? Food lion has NO INFO ANYWHERE on their salads! So I had to look up the basic ingredients and the CLOSEST thing I found to it was a cob salad. Only difference was this didnt have chicken in it. Guess how much calories for 18oz of cob salad? OVER 1200 if I go by OTHER sites nutritional info. MFP says it was 290 but I cant rely on that as MFP ALSO says that food lions chef salad (same container same size) is 519 calories!! And it had less stuff in it.. so I have to assume whoever logged the cob salad had wishful thinking. I hope it someday becomes a LAW in the US that nutritional info MUST be logged on ALL items sold from stores and restaurants. I would have chosen a sandwhich.. which ironically had less calories.. Guess tomorrow is a fasting day to make up for my good choice.

    I think this is pretty unrealistic. Small places that change their menu with the season or based on availability would be majorly disadvantaged. Do you want every single meal that you eat out to be from a chain restaurant with the same few dishes? Sounds terrible to me.
    It's also unlikely to be very helpful, because unless it's a fast food chain with a very tight control and supervision on quantities, you are always going to get variations in amount of ingredients from day to day and chef to chef, so the calories are only going to be a guideline anyway.

    I think it's a much better strategy to learn about the kinds of foods that fit best in your day. You learnt today that a salad isn't always the lowest calorie option - great, next time you will be more prepared to make a choice that suits you better on that day. Surely becoming an educated consumer is the best outcome.
  • bbell1985
    bbell1985 Posts: 4,572 Member
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    I pretty much never go to restaurants with nutritional information. I don't like chains.
  • JohnnyPenso
    JohnnyPenso Posts: 412 Member
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    Look_Its_Kriss wrote: »
    Lots of times, thats why logging in general is so important, the more you get to know food the easier it becomes to log a good guess at what you're eating at the restaurant..
    Yes, so true. I bought a kitchen scale a few months ago and after weighing dozens and dozens of things I can usually guess weights within a few % points now. Makes estimating those restaurant calories much easier.
  • Alatariel75
    Alatariel75 Posts: 17,959 Member
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    I shake my head at the "it should be law for all restaurants to have nutritional info". Jaysus, no thank you. I like my restaurants to be experiences, not production lines. Way to completely destroy creativity and imagination in food service. After many, meany years working in, eating in and enjoying a very eclectic blend of restaurants, diners, ethnic foods, degustations etc etc... it's like saying all art should come with a "how to paint this" guide. Sure, chains where everything is made specifically to an exact recipe over and over can have nutritional info, and a lot of places choose to put it out there because it actually does attract customers, but sheesh. All restaurants? Way to kill it.

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