News

Fast-food restaurants do a pretty good job of making nutrition information accessible to customers. You can find out a Big Mac has 540 calories, for instance, by reading an in-store brochure or visiting McDonald's website.

But if asked to cite how many calories come with a plate of nachos, a steak dinner or a bowl of pasta, you might be hard-pressed to get an answer.

Most full-service restaurant chains don't display calorie information on menus or make nutrition brochures available. Only a few chains are able to direct consumers to an online nutrition guide.

While Health Canada has created strict labelling guidelines for packaged foods, critics decry the lack of nutrition information in restaurants.

Last year, a bill calling for improvements to nutrition labelling was defeated. The bill would have required restaurant menus to disclose calories and amounts of saturated and trans fat as well as sodium.

If you knew that a chicken fajita dinner serves up 1,429 calories, 38.5 grams of fat and a whopping 4,450 milligrams of sodium, you might reconsider your order - especially if you're watching your waistline or your blood pressure. Considering the average Canadian eats out about 11 times every two weeks, knowing this information could make a significant difference to your health.

A regular intake of restaurant meals high in fat and sodium can lead to weight gain, high blood cholesterol and elevated blood pressure - risk factors for heart attack, stroke and some cancers.

To help clue you in to what you're eating in restaurants, The Globe and Mail and CTV's Canada AM commissioned an independent lab to analyze popular restaurant meals at four chains - Kelsey's, Jack Astor's, Milestone's and The Keg.

Our findings: Most menu entrées came in at more than 1,000 calories. Sodium ranged from a low of 245 milligrams (lightly dressed salad) to a high of 4,450 (chicken fajitas). Add an appetizer, a beverage and a dessert and calorie counts climb to more than 2,000.

The meals we analyzed were piled high with more than just calories - most also provided more than a day's worth of fat, saturated fat and sodium.

To put the following numbers in perspective, consider that the average adult needs about 2,000 calories and should have no more than 65 grams of fat, 20 grams of saturated fat and 2,300 milligrams of sodium a day.

NOTES
Daily, the average adult needs no more than
• 2,000 calories
• 65 g fat
• 20 g saturated fat
• 2,300 mg sodium

The average Canadian eats out about
• 11 times every 2 weeks

Eating a 2,000-calorie meal once a week could mean a weight gain of
• 20 pounds a year

Show me the numbers
In 2005, the Canadian Restaurant and Foodservices Association established a voluntary nutrition information program for its members. The program required that, by the end of that year, participating chains provide nutrient values for self-selected menu items through in-store pamphlets - their availability to be prominently displayed on menus - and company websites.

Most participating fast-food chains have lived up to that promise, but the majority of full-service restaurants have not. It seems the challenges to offering nutrition information are twofold: The nutrient content of foods supplied by regional manufacturers varies, and menus are updated often. (In other words, restaurant chains would have to spend more money updating nutrition information of menu items. They could, however, provide nutrient values for a few core menu items.) Restaurant sources say nutrition information programs have taken a back seat to the task of reducing trans fat.
Leslie Beck

Avoiding dinners of 2,000-plus calories
During the past 20 years, restaurant portions have increased significantly and are often much larger than what you would serve at home. To help minimize calories, fat and sodium in restaurant meals, practise the following:
• Order two appetizers instead of a large entrée, or split an entrée with your dining companion.
• Don't clean your plate. Ask for a doggie bag before you finish your meal.
• Ask for substitutions – salad instead of fries or steamed vegetables instead of mashed potatoes.
• Request low-calorie items even if they are not on the menu – fat-reduced salad dressings, salsa for a baked potato or fresh fruit for dessert.
• If you're limiting sodium, ask that no salt be added to your meal.
• If you don't know what's in a dish or don't know the serving size, ask.
• The more pressure consumers put on restaurant chains, the sooner you'll see nutrient values of your favourite menu choices.
Leslie Beck