500 Calorie Restaurant Meals

We have all been hearing a lot about whole grains the last couple of years. We know they are good for us, but you may be wondering why. Whole grains are a great source of fiber, disease fighting antioxidants and phytochemicals as well as many important vitamins such as vitamin E and magnesium. A refined grain (think white flour) has been highly processed, and in the processing, the fiber and many nutrients are removed.

At least half of the grains we eat should come from whole grains.

Some examples of whole grains are oatmeal, brown rice, corn, barley and even popcorn, also products containing “Whole Grain” or “Whole Wheat” flour.

Don’t be confused by the term “Multigrain”, this literally means that it contains more than one type of grain, but the grains are not necessarily “Whole grains”. It could contain many types of refined, highly processed grains. To know if a product is 100% whole grain, look for the 100% whole grain stamp or the words “100% whole grain”

It’s great to see that some restaurants are now offering whole grain options for breads, buns, flatbreads and pastas. If these are offered, make the healthy choice and choose whole grains.

(This blog is written on 100% whole grain internet paper, but please don’t try to eat your screen. That would be bad.)

Another dissertation in an ongoing assemblage of mental mastication by your friendly PocketBook Admin

Let me count the ways...

•A. My IHD (In House Dietitian) created it. I know the hours upon hours she spent pouring over the individual restaurant nutrition information, meticulously combining and calculating the vast number of meals for the guide. It was interesting and fun for her; personally I’d rather have my eye teeth pulled.

•B. It’s FAST! I decided to see exactly how much time the PocketBook Dietitian’s effort saved me. I figured, how long can it really take for me to find this information for myself. Here’s the breakdown for doing it myself:

•1.  Time to decide on what restaurant to eat at. (10 min – I can be very indecisive sometimes).

•2. Time to bring up internet and find nutrition information for McDonald’s (50 sec’s). It was only this fast due to me already being on the PC. If you have to boot up your PC first, this time could be extended to several minutes or even hours if you’re running Vista!

•3. Time to put a 500 calorie meal together

 Cheese Burger – 300

 Premium SW. Salad without chicken – 140

 Newman’s own Low Fat Italian salad dressing – 60 (8 min)

I could have also paired the Cheese burger with:

 4 McNuggets – 190 (no sauce though, that would put me over 500)

 OR

Fruit and Yogurt Parfait – 160

OR

Apple Dippers – 35

At this point I gave up (12 min). I found 3 meals for 500 calories or less. Yippee!!!

Total DIY Time: 18min 50 sec’s if I go with my first choice, 22 min 50 sec’s if I went with my second or third choice.

Now if I wanted to be extra good and find a PBD “Best Choice” (less than 30% total fat, less than 10% saturated fat and less than 1 gram of Trans fat) I would be completely lost. Math makes my right eye twitch, and the sheer volume of data points that are involved in a calculation such as this would cause a severe hemorrhage. In fact it takes the government’s 3 supercomputers 2.38 days to crunch the numbers to figure one meal out, or the PBD can look at a meal, her dietitian sense kicks in and she just knows. Of course being a dietitian she then runs the numbers to verify her highly tuned intuition.

Here’s the breakdown using the PBD Guide to 500 Calorie Restaurant Meals:

•1. Time to decide on what restaurant to eat at (5 min – I’m still indecisive, but I now have a list of 24 restaurants to choose from. Before I had to generate the list out of my head, which I won’t lie, hurt a little.)

•2. Time to open the PBD Guide to 500 Calorie Restaurant Meals and find the McDonald’s page [it’s pg 20 BTW] (2.5 sec’s)

•3. Time to put a 500 calorie meal together (0 sec’s! 20 of them are already listed right there before me. Hardest part now is choosing which one.)

Total PBD Guide to 500 Calorie Restaurant Meals Time: 5 min 2.5 sec’s. And it was only that long because I didn’t know where I wanted to eat. If you know which restaurant you want to eat at going in, it’s only 2.5 sec’s to have a 500 calorie or les meal chosen and you’re ready to order. That is a 13 minute 47.5 second time saving. Now that is impressive. Just think of all the things you could do with that extra 14 minutes. So while it can be done by a layperson, why in the world would I want to do that to myself? Especially since the PBD has already taken the time to do it. It just doesn’t make sense!

•C. It’s HANDY! At 4.25” X 5.5” it can go wherever you go. I have one in my car and one in my lunch bag I take to work. That way I have it for when I’m waiting to order in the drive up lane, or if I’m sitting at my desk pondering what I would like to go get. And yes I normally do take my lunch to work, even having this handy guide I don’t eat out all my meals, please engage your brain. Having an IHD help you pack your lunch is an amazing benefit; I highly recommend you marry a dietitian if you haven’t already.

•D. It helps me make decisions, informed decisions. Many times I have no idea where I want to go, let alone what I want when I get there. With the PBD Guide to 500 Calorie Restaurant Meals I can thumb through the different restaurants, find a couple different meals that sound good, and then decide between those meals. It really does help me, and I’m not just saying that because my IHD is looking over my shoulder. Before I would just get whatever I felt like and think “oh, it’s ok, I’ll work out a little harder tomorrow.” Or “I’ll eat a little less for the next meal.” And of course that never happens. I’m realistic in my dining and know that from time to time due to time constraints or needing to satisfy a craving I WILL EAT OUT. With the PBD guide I won’t completely blow all the hard work I’ve done.

Wow that’s a whole lotta blog. I’ll cease serving and let you digest!

-The PocketBook Admin

Pizza gets a bad rap, but it really can be a very healthy choice. Let’s break it down...

Pizza with a whole grain crust, tomato sauce, veggies and lean meats for toppings is actually a really healthy, well balanced meal. There are plenty of healthy choices available at almost all pizza restaurants. Two slices of The Natural^TM Veggie Lovers® pizza from Pizza Hut contains only 440 calories, 12 grams of fat, 6 grams of saturated fat and has 16 grams of whole grains. An example of another good choice is two slices of Thin ‘N Crispy® Ham and Pineapple Pizza from Pizza Hut, which contains only 360 calories, 12 grams of fat, 5 grams of saturated fat. Stay clear from the Meat Lovers Pan Pizza at Pizza Hut; two slices have a whopping 660 calories, 36 grams fat, and 14 grams of saturated fat.

*Nutrition information is taken from medium (12”) sized pizza.

If you like non-diet soda...

watch out!

These calories will defeat your quest for a low calorie meal. Let’s say you order a 32 oz size non-diet soda with your meal. This adds about 375 extra calories to your meal. These calories all come from sugar, and there are about 27 teaspoons of sugar in one 32 ounce soda. Ok....so then you have your drink with your meal and refill it on your way out. You have now consumed 750 calories and 54 teaspoons (that’s just over 1 CUP!) of sugar just from the soda you drank.

To put that in perspective, fill a 12oz soda can ¾ full of sugar. That is how much sugar you’ve consumed in your non-diet soda. You can see how non-diet soda does not fit into a lower calorie meal.

I happen to love take out, because it is convenient and easy to supplement with fruits and vegetables from home to round out your meal. I keep a couple bags of cut up veggies, salad and fruit in our fridge. Then I eat a smaller portion of the take out meal (often split a meal) and add fruits and veggies to increase the “fullness factor”. This also decreases total calories and increases the overall nutritional content of the meal. I challenge you to reduce the portion of your next takeout meal and supplement with the fruits and veggies. For example: the next time you order a pizza to be delivered, have at least 1 fewer slice than typical and substitute that slice with a light salad (one with veggies and a light dressing) or cut up veggies.