Few of us would choose to eat all of our daily calories, fat, and sodium in one sitting. But that’s exactly what you’ll get if you order some of America’s worst restaurant entrées. Thankfully, the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) releases an annual Xtreme Eating Awards report, calling out the unhealthiest chain restaurant entrées out there, so we don’t have to make the mistake of ordering them. This year’s awards feature shockingly bad dishes and desserts that will set you back 1,500 to 2,300 — just for one serving! Of course we know that dining out isn’t the healthiest choice, and that milkshakes and burgers won’t put you on the fast track to weight loss anytime soon, but there’s a difference here. You can usually sensibly indulge your cravings without eating the equivalent of seven McDonald’s Sausage McMuffins — which is exactly what you’ll get if you…
7 Keto-Friendly Drinks From Starbucks
So you have the keto thing down no problem when you cook at home, but when you go out to eat, things can get pretty tricky. Sometimes you might just decide just to skip the restaurant entirely if you’re not sure of its menu options, but skipping out on Starbucks? Well, is that really ever an option? The good news is that you don’t have to give up your beloved coffee run. The java giant offers plenty of keto-approved caffeinated drinks so you can have your morning pick-me-up, while still staying true to your diet. Overall, keep in mind when ordering any drink at a Starbucks or another coffee shop, you’re going to need to order sugar-free, since sugar is basically just carbohydrates. Also, order heavy cream or coconut or nut milk instead of regular milk. That will help you customize most drinks to be more in-line with keto, but here…
Nutrition labels are about to look different
The next time you pick up a bag of chips at the grocery store, flip it over and look for the new nutrition label. The Food and Drug Administration announced that nutrition labels would be receiving a makeover that reflects new scientific findings. The changes will ultimately help you make better-informed choices about foods you and your family eat. The new labels will only be required of manufacturers who sell more than $10 million in food a year. Companies in this category have until 2020 to adopt the new label. Some manufacturers have already incorporated the new label into their packaging, so it might already look familiar if you’re a frequent label checker. One of the most noticeable changes comes with the serving size and calories. Serving sizes have been adjusted to reflect how much people actually eat, rather than an arbitrary number some companies were perviously using to skew…
Your workplace is adding 1,300 calories to your diet every week
The next time Karen from accounting brings in a box of baked goods for the big morning meeting, remember to stay strong. All of those extra office goodies are adding an extra 1,300 calories to your diet every week! A large CDC study of 5,222 people found that about a quarter of Americans eat food at work at least once a week. Free food made up most of the excess calories, while food and beverage vending machines in the cafeteria rounded out the count. In other words, employees are eating unnecessary empty calories — almost always of the processed variety — while they’re at work. The food tended to be high in solid fats and/ or added sugars. The most common foods were pizza, soda, cookies, brownings, cakes, and pies, NBC reported. And since most of this food is offered for free, it makes it difficult to avoid temptation. The CDC offered one solution.…
“How to Taste” handbook is a game changer for home cooks
Perhaps the best handbooks are the ones we didn’t know we needed. If you’ve ever wondered why your dinner turned into a disaster, or you think salt is the savior of all your culinary problems, Here to Taste ($17.99, 240 pages) is here to help. Everyday, home cooks fiddle in the kitchen without really understanding why we do the things we do — some spices here, hotter temperatures there. But are these decisions really making our food the best it can be? There’s a lot that goes into the underlying principles of flavorful food, and certainly most of us wouldn’t have time to research it all (I mean, that sounds fun and all…). But you’ll be thankful that author Becky Selengut made this her mission as well as the focus of her latest book, How to Taste. Her approach to writing includes just the right about of geeky food science, laugh-out-loud humor, and aha moments on every page to keep your attention and make you…
Calorie counts on most fast food menus are now required
You know that fast food is totally terrible for you, but if you had nutrition information in front of your face while you ordered, would you practice some restraint? The next time you head to a Taco Bell or even Coldstone Creamery you’ll be tested. Starting May 7, the Food and Drug Administration will require any food outlet with more than 20 locations to list the calorie counts for each menu item — every restaurant from Auntie Annes to Chick-fil-A, Orange Julius and Panera are affected. And the information won’t be posted exclusively online, or in some dark corner of the restaurant either. The calorie counts will be front and center on the menu, so you won’t be able to throw caution to the wind and order those Doritos Locos Tacos and hope for the best. You’ll know exactly the size of the caloric gut-bomb you’re eating. It’s an Obama-era policy that…
U.S. obesity epidemic not budging
NEW YORK — America’s weight problem isn’t getting any better, according to new government research. Overall, obesity figures stayed about the same: About 40 percent of adults are obese and 18.5 percent of children. Those numbers are a slight increase from the last report but the difference is so small that it could have occurred by chance. Worrisome to experts is the rate for children and teenagers, which had hovered around 17 percent for a decade. The 2-to-5 age group had the biggest rise. The years ahead will show if that’s a statistical blip or marks the start of a real trend, said the report’s lead author, Dr. Craig Hales of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The bad news is that the numbers didn’t go down, experts say. In recent years, state and national health officials have focused on obesity in kids, who were the target of the…
Celebrity chefs give tips for making the perfect gravy
Thanksgiving dinner is nothing without a boat of steaming gravy to smother it in, but somehow the sauce is the hardest thing to make. It can be too lumpy or runny or flavorless — but not this year. Look no further than your favorite celebrity chefs for foolproof tips and recipes on how to master their techniques and make a perfect gravy every time. And if there is one thing they all agree on, it’s that you have to make plenty of gravy — it’s the best part! Alton Brown Alton Brown’s adds a little something special to his Best Gravy Ever — wine. And not even white, but rather, a red wine that adds a rich flavor to his hearty gravy recipe. In a large roasting pan he deglazes the bottom with 24 oz. of low sodium chicken broth and 8 oz. of red wine. As it boils and reduces, scrape the bottom to…
America’s most horribly unhealthy chain restaurant meals announced by watchdog group
The Center for Science in the Public Interest, a national nutritional watchdog group, just released their annual list of the most shamefully caloric items on menus across American chain restaurants. Titled the Xtreme Eating Awards, the list aims to inform Americans of the amount of calories, cholesterol, fats, sodium and sugars they consume when eating out. Top honors went to The Cheesecake Factory — no stranger to lists of culinary shockers. It’s Pasta Napoletana took the “Worst Adapted Pasta” award for its 2,310 calories and 79 grams of saturated fat and shocking 4,370 milligrams of sodium — a full three days worth of the daily recommended salt intake. The dish was the brain child of Donald Moore, Chief Culinary Officer at TCF who asked in a Facebook Live video in March, “How can we turn a meat lover’s pizza into a pasta?” Moore and TCF might have been successful in their…