Thanks to Michelle Obama’s initiative to fight childhood obesity Darden Restaurants has pledged to improve the nutrition in the menus of their restaurants. Darden is the owner of Olive Garden, Red Lobster, LongHorn Steakhouse, The Capital Grille, Bahama Breeze and Season 52. Darden promises to cut the calories and sodium from dishes in their national restaurants, and to totally overhaul their kids’ menus.
From now on, all kids’ meals will come with a side of vegetables or fruit and low-fat milk unless a substitute is requested by an adult. “We think it’s the most comprehensive health and wellness commitment in the industry,” said Drew Madsen, president and chief operating officer of Darden. However, his company’s promise is part of a nation-wide trend in the restaurant industry towards serving healthier options. Burger King, IHOP and McDonald’s have all said they will be replacing fries with fruit in meals for children and removing photos on menus of less healthy offerings.
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Have you heard? There’s a new fast-food chain in town: 100 Montaditos. OK, so as of now there’s only one location in the United States (Miami), but the Spanish sandwich chain has the ambitious goal of opening 4,000 restaurants in the next five years. This means that there will be almost as many 100 Montaditos out there as there are Sonic Drive-Ins.
To make sure you’re armed with nutrition knowledge and prepared to eat healthy when you try this new chain, we’ve rounded up the top five tips to eat healthy at 100 Montaditos. Unfortunately, 100 Montaditos doesn’t have its nutritional facts posted online and a quick call in to its Miami location confirmed that nutritional facts are not yet available. In the meantime, here are some guidelines to follow!
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Another chain restaurant hopes to be coming to your nearest intersection very soon. 100 Montaditos, a Spanish sandwich chain, has the ambitious goal of opening 4,000 restaurants in the next five years.
100 Montaditos currently has one Miami location and a plan to add eight additional Florida locations by March 2012. With a plan for 4,000 locations in five years, the expansion pace will have to increase. If they meet their goal, the chain will be very common. As a reference, they will have a few less locations than Sonic Drive-In and just slightly more than Dairy Queen.
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Several years ago, The New York Restaurant Association voiced their opposition to the pending food legislation that would require restaurants to post calorie counts on their menu items. Since then, the law has shown little-to-no conclusive evidence that it has had any positive results. That may now change.
According to recent research, one in six people notice the nutritional information and buy foods with fewer calories. The report from New York City surveyed lunch crowds at 11 fast food restaurants. They examined the receipts of over 7,300 people 12 months before the law took effect and for nearly 8,500 customers nine months after it took effect.
Customers at McDonald’s, Au Bon Pain and KFC got 44 fewer calories from their foods after the law was implemented.
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By Melissa Breyer for Care2.com
What the fudge is wrong with us? As obesity, diabetes and heart disease are plaguing the country in lethal proportions, restaurants are chirpily churning out caloric combinations of sodium and saturated fat that would make Henry VIII blush. Things are getting so raucous around here that a new study found that gout, yes gout, has increased by 44 percent in the last two decades, courtesy of the obesity epidemic and related health problems (diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol).
Restaurants create and tempt the masses with flashy dishes caloric enough to feed a small family, while the USDA, earnest as a shy sister, issues dietary guidelines which pretty much fall on deaf ears. Although recommended calorie intake varies by person, the range is from 1,600 to 2,400 calories per day for adult women and 2,000 to 3,000 calories per day for adult men, depending on age and physical activity level.
As for sodium intake, another daunting piece of the puzzle, the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommend limiting sodium to less than 2,300 mg a day—or 1,500 mg if you’re age 51 or older, or if you are black, or if you have high blood pressure, diabetes or chronic kidney disease.
So with those nuggets in mind, how do these ten contenders for worst foods in America stack up against what is recommended for maintaining nutritional health? Let’s see….
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