Meals Away from Home and Your Health

Did you know that eating one meal away from home can increase your daily intake by an average of 134 calories?  Holding everything else consistent (e.g., activity level), that means you can gain approximately 2 pounds per year if you eat out only once per week.  In February 2010, the USDA’s Economic Research Service (ERS) released a report, The Impact of Food Away From Home on Adult Diet Quality, which presents findings from an analysis of data derived from two studies – the 1994-1996 Continuing Survey of Food Intakes by Individuals (CSFII) and the 2003-2004 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES).  This investigation looked at the affects of dining out on caloric intake, overall diet quality, and quality of  meal choices for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks.

What were the results?

• Daily caloric intake increases by approximately 134 calories on the days one meal is eaten away from home.
• Eating one meal away from home per week can result in an average weight gain of 2 pounds per year.
• Dining out for one meal lowers the quality of your diet – shifting the average adult diet from a classification of “fair” to “poor.”
• The number of servings of fruit per 1,000 calories decreases by as much as 22.3%  when one meal is eaten away from home.
• The intake of dark green and orange vegetables is reduced by approximately 31.4% when dining away from home.
• The consumption of whole grains is decreased by an estimated 26.8% when a restaurant meal is chosen.
• Dining out results in an increase of sodium, added sugars, solid fat, saturated fat, and alcohol by 1.9-9.3%.
• Affects of diet quality vary based on which meal is eaten away from home.  Dining out for breakfast results in a decrease in intake of whole grains and dairy per 1,000 calories consumed and an increase in the consumption of added sugars, alcohol, solid fat and saturated fat that day.  Eating out at dinner results in a decrease of vegetables consumed per 1,000 calories.  Lunch-time meals away from home result account for the biggest drop of fruit intake per 1,000 calories (22.3%).
• Dieters appear to have a greater difficulty choosing healthy items when away from home compared to nondieters as evidenced by a greater increase in intake of saturated fat for breakfast and lunch meals eaten away from home and a greater consumption of added sugars, salt, alcohol, solid fat and saturated fat when snacks and breakfast are dined out.
• Negative effects on diet quality have decreased between the study periods of 1994-1996 and 2003-2004.  Improvements were noted for whole grain consumption at breakfast and saturated fat when snacking away from home.

Recent increases in public awareness, changes made by restaurants to offer healthier options, and new federal mandates that nutrition information be provided to patrons of restaurants can contribute to continual improvement of  diet quality when dining out.

How do you try to eat healthy while dining out?  Share with us, we want to know!

Source:

Todd, Jessica E., Lisa Mancino, and Biing-Hwan Lin. The Impact of Food Away From Home on Adult Diet Quality, ERR-90, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service, February 2010.

Putting it on the Plate with PICKKA – Eat What?

Eat What? recommends what to eat from grocery stores and restaurants.

Last month, PICKKA launched a cool new app for the iPhone – “Eat What?“. This nifty app provides you with a list of recommended products to buy at the grocery store and/or suggestions of menu items from a restaurant based on your dietary objectives (e.g., management of diabetes, prediabetes, weight, cholesterol, and high blood pressure, and/or adhering to healthy eating).  Eat What? is simple to use.

First, select your health objectives.

Second, specify whether you want to search restaurant menu items or products from the grocery store.  Then, type the name of the restaurant, product brand, or food category for which you would like recommendations.

Third, review the list of recommendations.  Nutritional information is provided as well as consumer ratings of taste to help you narrow your choice.

“Eat What?” eliminates the guess work out of deciding what to eat so you can spend more time enjoying your food and less time analyzing it.  For an easy way to stay on track, download the “Eat What?” app for your iPhone.

Don’t have an iPhone?  Try PICKKA’s “Eat This?” app now available for the Android market.  Visit “Eat This?” to learn more and to download the app to your Android phone.

How Many Calories are Really in that Meal?

I am sure you are familiar with the standard suggestions given in the interest of weight management and health – “Read the nutrition label,” “Count your calories,” “Compare the caloric density of  meals.”  In theory, it is sound advice.  Body weight is maintained when there is a caloric balance -“calories in equal calories out.”  To lose weight calories consumed should be less than calories expended. If intake is greater than expenditure, then weight gain occurs.

The nutritional information listed on prepackaged foods, and now provided by some restaurants, should help you to determine the amount of calories you are consuming.  After all, the best way to calculate how many calories you take in throughout the day is to rely on the information of the nutrition label, right?  Not so fast say investigators of a study published in the January 2010 issue of the Journal of the American Dietetic Association.  The study, which evaluated the energy content of 39 commercially prepared frozen entrees and restaurant meals (obtained in the Boston, MA vicinity) indicated that there is a significant discrepancy between the caloric content listed and the actual values contained in the food.

The purpose of the investigation was to determine the accuracy of claimed energy values of food targeting consumers interested in weight management.  To be included in the study, criteria for restaurant meals were as follows:

• Total energy content less than 500 kcal
• Typical American food fare
• One of the menu offerings that was lowest in caloric value

For frozen entrees obtained from the grocery store to be included in the study they had to be considered an alternative choice to dining out.

The test meals were sent to a research lab for analyzing.  The results?  The average caloric value of tested restaurant meals was 18% greater than the stated energy content, with some foods containing twice as many calories than listed (i.e., 200% more than claimed).  Frozen meals purchased from the grocery store had, on average, 8% more calories than purported.  The investigators note, however, that “the underreporting of energy by restuarants and food manufacturers notwithstanding, the majority of foods tested were not out of compliance with US Food and Drug Administration regulations because most fell within the 20% overage the Administration allows for packaged food (no ceiling of overage is specified for restaurant foods).”

Although these discrepencies fell within the acceptable range based on federal guidelines, they can still have a major negative consequence for the well-meaning consumer trying to adhere to a diet conducive to weight management.  What can/should be done about this?  The investigators suggest that steps be taken to improve quality control during commercial preparation of food and that stricter federal and state regulations be put in place with a better means by which to ensure compliance by food manufacturers.

Consumers need to arm themselves with the knowledge that the actual caloric content of the foods they eat may be significanly more than what is stated.  Therefore, if you are counting your calories and exercising but still having difficulty maintaining body weight, you might want to reconsider your food choices.  Switching to more meals prepared at home from whole foods and foods in their natural state may be the better alternative.

What do you think?  Should there be stricter federal and state regulations on energy content claims made by food manufacturers?  Share with us, we want to know!

Resource:

J Am Diet Assoc. 2010;110:116-123.  “The Accuracy of Stated Energy Contents of Reduced-Energy, Commercially Prepared Foods,” Urban, L.E. et al.,.