Whole Foods

First things first — I was charmed by all of you entering the Whole Foods give-away!  It was a chance for me to take my own non-scientific poll on what healthy foods and items you guys are lovin’ and also a way for me to, sneakily, learn about some new blogs out there! Buahah!  Ok, cross your fingers!  The winner is **drum roll**

Andrea at Andreas Wellness Notes! Yay!  Please e-mail me your address and I’ll send right away!

Fatty Foods

Remember when I revealed here that The Cheesecake Factory had released the nutritional information for its menu items? And we all gotta a little bit pissed, crabby and cranky?  (And check out Elina who wrote about it here, too).

Well…I don’t know if this is old news to you guys, but I’m going to run with it anyway.  The boyf and I went to the beach, he was hungry afterward, and so we headed to Claim Jumper. Even though CJ is one of my fave restaurants, I knew I had yummy food at home to devour, so I opted out of ordering anything.  While the boyf was choosing his meal, I perused a little guide called The Saloon Guide (NOT the menu) that was placed inside a little holder behind the drinks menu.  Lo and behold, the back had the NUTRITIONAL INFORMATION posted!  Claim Jumper has notoriously avoided posting calories. How did I not know this info. had been released?  How did it take serendipity (or doom) for me to find it?  There was no press release distributed (you’ll see why), no big televised announcement (ditto), so what gives?  Well, my friends, it’s even worse than The Cheesecake Factory.

Here are the ones that made my jaw drop and made the water works want to pour out (don’t worry, I didn’t actually cry, but I heard a voice inside my belly scream, “NOOOOoooooOOOOOOooooo”):

• Asian Pear & Glazed Pecan Salad (starter/appetizer size):  841 calories, 12 g sat. fat
• Citrus Chicken Salad (large): 2548 calories, 33 g sat. fat
• Citrus Chicken Salad (small): 1497 calories, 21 g sat. fat
• Cobb Salad (large): 1829 calories, 41 g sat. fat
• Both nacho appetizers and artichoke dip appetizers: All 3 are over 2200 calories each
  
• Appetizer combo: 3525 calories (however, says less on online menu), 58 g sat. fat
  
• Ham & Spinach Quiche: 3348 calories, 108 g sat. fat
• Beef Ribs (entree): Over 4200 calories

Tragic. I mean, obviously, you go to Claim Jumper and know you can’t bank on eating a meal for less than 500 calories.  And, obviously, if you’re health-conscious, you’re not going to order something that’s obviously fatty.  But here’s where obviousness becomes ominous.

Did you really think it’s possible to consume over 2k calories in a salad with chicken breast? I mean you can guess that if you order it without the dressing it will be a couple (even a few) hundred calories less; but that is still one insanely fatty salad!  How do they do it? Seriously – that is a feat of ingenuity.  They must covertly stick slabs of lard in between the lettuce leafs. Look, I get it.  Claim Jumper wants their salads to sell.  They want people to think they taste good.  But no one in her right mind would order this salad when she could get an entire cheeseburger for less calories (unless she was a vegetarian, in which case she might just order the 2k calories nacho platter!).

Another thing — do the stats for the burgers, etc., include the sides?  If you search online, you will not find stats for the fries, however, on the hard copy guide, they were listed as about 800 calories.

Any good options?  Few.  Here are three:

• The Halibut Fish Tacos (Small bites appetizer = 2 little tacos): 358 calories, 1 g sat. fat
• Chinese Chicken Salad (lunch-sized portion): 517 calories, 10 g sat. fat
• Vegetable soup (bowl): 147 calories, 2 g sat. fat

All menu items listed online here.  Pass it on.

If you remember from my post here, my favorite thing to order from CJ is the veggie burger with quite a few alterations.  Without alterations, the veggie burger comes in at over 1k calories (found exact facts on hard copy, but nothing is listed online).

Do you guys feel like we should just expect that unless we’re eating at a specialty restaurant the foods are going to be made with the least amount of health-consciousness in mind?  Is it the restaurant’s responsibility to take health concerns into account? To make the info. public and widely accessible? To offer healthy alternatives?  My boyf repeated what Gary Hirshberg, Founder of Stoneyfield Farm Organic Yogurt, said in the movie Food Inc., and that’s that whenever we purchase something we are voting for it.  I agree.  But I also ask…what if we don’t even know what we’re voting for?

How frequently do you guys eat out? Do you have “restaurant food phobia”? Do you check out calories before you eat at a place?

I hope you have a wonderful Friday!

- The Cranky One

p.s. Go check out the cool new site Healthy Yum where people post photos of their delectable and healthy eats (hey, who can really get enough food porn?!)