Eating out can run up hefty tab of fat, calories

By Nanci Hellmich
USA Today

It is just as easy to drink calories as to eat them. A Starbucks White Chocolate Mocha has just as many calories a a McDonald's Big Mac.

The folks who told us that fettuccine Alfredo is a "heart attack on a plate" and movie popcorn is the Godzilla of snacks have analyzed the fat and calorie content of hundreds of restaurant foods.

This time, nutritionists with the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a Washington, D.C.-based consumer group, say:

• A Starbucks White Chocolate Mocha (venti, 20 ounces) made with whole milk and whipped cream, has 600 calories, about the same as a McDonald's Big Mac.
• A steakhouse appetizer of more than 1 pound of french fries smothered in cheese, sprinkled with crumbled bacon and dipped in ranch dressing has 3,010 calories, more than most people need for the day.
• Nine fried mozzarella sticks have 830 calories and 51 grams of fat. "You might as well sit down and eat a half-stick of butter," the nutritionists say.

The center's executive director Michael Jacobson and senior nutritionist Jayne Hurley have taken an in-depth look at the calories, total fat, saturated fat, cholesterol and sodium in a variety of restaurant foods and published their findings in a new book, "Restaurant Confidential" (Workman Publishing, $12.95).

The "magnitude of the fat and calories" in some of the foods surprised even them, Hurley says. "Yes, we knew a pecan roll wasn't good, but we didn't know how bad it was," she says. A Cinnabon Caramel Pecanbon has 890 calories.

The fat and calories in restaurant foods are playing havoc with Americans' waistlines, the authors say. It used to be that eating out was a treat, but now Americans are getting about one-third of their calories away from home, Jacobson says. As dining out has become more routine, obesity rates have skyrocketed, he says.

"The fact is that most restaurants serve huge portions, and the food is loaded with fat, calories and sodium," he says. "If you are going to eat out, you need to search around the corners of the menu to see if you can construct a meal that's reasonably healthy."

Center nutritionists spent nine years and several hundred thousand dollars analyzing about 250 menu items. Some of the dishes are composites of meals they gathered from several restaurants.

Some people have criticized the consumer group's research methodology of using composite samples, but the group defends its work, saying this is the best information on restaurant food that's out there.

Some facts the food detectives uncovered:

• Appetizers, in general, are some of the worst things you can order, Hurley says. "Instead of whetting your appetite, they bludgeon it.

  "The cheese fries are the worst food we've ever analyzed. It's like starting your meal with two T-bone steak dinners with Caesar salads and baked potatoes with butter," she says.

  A batter-dipped, deep-fried whole onion (like the Bloomin' Onion at Outback Steakhouse) served with dipping sauce has 2,130 calories and 163 grams of fat. The average person needs about 2,000 to 2,500 calories a day, they point out.

• An order of kung pao chicken, diced stir-fried chicken with peanuts in hot pepper sauce, has 1,620 calories and 76 grams of fat.
• An order of fettuccine Alfredo contains 1,500 calories and 97 grams of fat.
• It's hard to go to the mall and find a snack that's fewer than 500 calories, Hurley says. A 7 1/2-ounce Cinnabon has 670 calories; a Dunkin' Donuts blueberry muffin, 490 calories.
• The size of fast-food french fries has gotten bigger and higher in calories, Hurley says. Burger King's king-sized fries (6 ounces) has 600 calories and 30 grams of fat; McDonald's super-size french fries (7 ounces), 610 calories and 29 grams of fat.