'Would a 1,600 calorie salad put you off?' blog discussion

MERLIN_2

Hang on a sec, aren't salads good for you? Just what was in the salad Martin? (so we know what made up that amount of calories)

MERLIN_2

Ur spot on pmduk. I would like the answer to that too

winnoch

As stated several times already, it's not the green stuff that has the calories, it's the dressings and bits of meat, pasta, etc that restaurants add to the salad that are full of fat and sugar. I think some people have forgotten that a basic, original salad is just a mixture of plant leaves, NOTHING else (with calorie content in single figures probably).

But I don't think I've ever seen such a salad served in a restaurant - there is always a dressing, croutons, meat, cheese, etc, etc, etc.

KimYeovil

beecher2 wrote: »

I have a brain too but I have no way of knowing accurately how many calories a meal contains. Could you share your expertise with the rest of us?

I think it'd be a great idea and really helpful to know what was the healthiest option.

Bit of a contradiction, that opening sentence.

KimYeovil

In America, as in China, you are not expected to eat the whole thing. You are supposed to take two-thirds of it home for your doggie.

1600 calories is pretty low - more of a garnish, by American standards.

camaj

I think a 1600 cal salad is bad if you assume a salad should be low cal. I personally love a good salad and a 1,600 salad is no better or worse than any other 1,600 cal meal. I suppose the point of posting this is that people don't really know what they're eating calory wise so more nutritional information would help quash those ideas.

Someone mentioned McD's. One thing I love is they print the nutritional info right on the wrapper, as you'd find when you buy something in a supermarket. As someone who looks at the labels it's good to see them being upfront, when other companies would probably think it's too risky.

Someone else mentioned that eating out is supposed to be fun etc. While that's true, I feel I could make a sensible choice and still enjoy the meal. If you went to extremes and barely ate, that wouldn't be fun but you don't have to go for the 1,600 meal either.

MacMickster wrote: »

I suspect that if chefs were legally required to work out and provide full nutritional information for these one-off dishes (with the prospect of fines for incorrect information), that these specials would disappear from menus across the country and we would be left with the plastic food that the chains dish up.

I can't think why you'd come to that conclusion. It sounds like the sort of random extrapolation that you'd find in the pages of the Daily Mail or something.

I can't see why it would mean special would disappear, the nutritional information would be made available to customers in the same way that menu items would. It'd be a bit more work for the restauranteer but not enough to make them abandon them.

Secondly I'm not sure why a lack of specials would lead to plastic food! In traditional restaurants the menu is just the same as the specials, same ingredients, same cooking methods except it doesn't change. If there were no specials you'd just have to pick from the menu, it wouldn't change the quality of the food.

Phyre_Faerie wrote: »

Do people not worry that it will just standardise everything so we end up with the same manufactured dross wherever we go?

I'm not sure why this would standardise anything. Can you explain?

deptfreemoneytart

Hi Martin and Mrs Martin
The salad you had was in itself probably too big for one and would have been better shared with everyone in the restaurant, except for the fact that a huge % of food grown in the USA is GM.
This is the bit that was not advertised on the menu.
Hopefully you're body will recover from your holiday when you start eating British food again as long as it's fresh food, I say this because GM food is creeping in from around the world without the autorities knowing it's here.
The best way myself and my wife have found of loosing weight is to not mix starch with proteen, we don't just lose weight we help our bodies recover from illnessess as well.
Read "The Hay Way" and adapt the menus to your own tastes and cut out the alcohol, if indeed you drink it.

Be good, because you are what you eat!!!!!!!!

The_Thrilla

This is supposed to be the money SAVING expert. People should know better than to demand something that will put up the price of a meal. Sure the restaurant will put the energy content of the meal on the menu; but they will charge you for doing it.

I agree that some of the salads have a high energy content. Eggs are certainly nutritious. In a canteen or cafeteria salad you may find a couple of hard-boiled eggs, a Russian and/or potato salad, both swimming in mayonaise, maybe a quiche lorraine. Then you add a sachet of salad cream. You would be better slimming with the pie and chips.

Hannah_10

That is scary, when the calorific intake for a woman with a desk job or low activity level only needs to be 1800 and we're of the belief that salad is a healthy low-calorie option then it's easy to see how we're all getting fatter.

dzug1

I regard salads in the way a not very strict vegetarian might regard meat - something to eat occasionally and under sufferance. They are totally unappetising and the wrong sort can be almost vomit inducing.

So no I wouldn't eat that salad - a quarter of it may be. And the calorie content is irrelevant - it's vile to begin with.