Two Men’s Health columnists have uncovered some dirty little secrets that the restaurant industry would rather keep quiet. In some cases, the true contents of what’s put into your meals at restaurants (both fast-food and sit-down) are shocking. In others, the information could not even be drawn out of corporate employees.
How can a restaurant hide the nutritional facts of its food? Because of The Nutrition Labeling and Education Act of 1990. This legislation says that fast-food and chain restaurants are not required to provide calorie, fat, or sodium information for any of their menu items unless they describe them as “low sodium” or “low fat.”
Not surprisingly, many of the restaurants took advantage of this protection and kept their nutrition facts to themselves. Here is just a sampling of the secrets the restaurant industry has been keeping (you can click the link below to find out all 16).
1. Arby’s “100 percent all-natural chicken” contains artificial flavoring, and its “all-natural smoothies” may contain high-fructose corn syrup.
2. An order of Aussie Cheese Fries at Outback Steakhouse has 2,900 calories.
3. Hooters wouldn’t disclose any nutritional facts about their food, but investigation revealed that its wing sauce contains partially hydrogenated margarine, maltodextrin, propylene glycol alginate, xanthan gum and other additives.
4. A medium-size fruit-and-yogurt smoothie from Dunkin’ Donuts has more than four times the sugar in a chocolate-frosted cake doughnut.
5. Pastries at Panera Bread contain synthetic food colorings that have been linked to irritability, restlessness, and sleep disturbance in children.
6. A large order of pasta at Maggiano’s contains two pounds of noodles.
7. The top four ingredients in Baskin Robbins’ Blue Raspberry Fruit Blast are Sierra Mist soda, water, sugar and corn syrup.
8. The French toast sticks at Burger King go into the same fryer as the pork sausage, pork fritters, Chicken Tenders, chicken fries, Big Fish patties, hash browns, onion rings, and Cheesy Tots — and all of these contain harmful trans fats.
Sources: http://www.menshealth.com/16secrets/
read Dr. Mercola’s Comments at: http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive
/2008/1/15/16-secrets-the-restaurant-industry-doesn-t-want-you-to-know.aspx