Restaurants: Our Modern False Prophets

05/06/2008

"Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are raving wolves." Matthew  7:15

While the restaurant industry claims they offer plenty of healthy choices and people just need to order them, doing so, and knowing which ones are the healthiest seems impossible to do.  I meet people every day who tell me they order the "healthy" items in restaurants, yet, are not experiencing the health they are seeking.

The main reason is that on restaurant menus (and food packages), all the unhealthy foods are now being marketed as heallthy.   They have become the "raving wolves in sheep's clothing."

The California Center For Public Health Advocacy (CCPHA) recently conducted a poll of 523 people, to see if they could pick the healthiest food on a restaurant menu. Four menu items from popular restaurants were presented and the respondents had to pick the ones which were lowest in fat, calories and salt.

None, let me repeat... NONE!...  

 ...of the respondents answered all four questions correctly and 68% failed all of the questions.

Less than 1% answered three of the four questions correctly and education and income level of the respondents had no impact.  Even the executive director of the CCPHA, Dr Harold Goldstein, who has a doctorate in public health, failed the quiz.

Why?

It is actually simple when you step back and understand what is going on.

In spite of all the hype of healthier foods, when you look at restaurant menus, they still mostly all offer the same junk food that they have been offering for years, but with fancier names and descriptions.

Restaurant food is still loaded with calories, fat, saturated fat, cholesterol, salt and sugar, yet low in total nutrient density.

A recent report from the Center for Science in the Public Interest analyzed the food at Chinese and Italian restaurants, which many people think of as "healthy". These foods were loaded with calories, fat, cholesterol, salt and sugar.

But the real health foods have never changed. These are the same ones that have been around for ages. The ones our grandparents would recognize as "food".

They are the fresh fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, starchy vegetables. Minimally processed and simply prepared.

Don’t be fooled by restaurant promotions of healthy foods. It should take a rocket scientist to figure out what to eat, or what to order.

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