Tag Archives: restaurants

Lyfe Kitchen to Offer Healthy Alternative to Fast Food

If you’ve ever wished that you could swing through a drive-thru to pick up your favorite fast food without the side of “dieter’s remorse” that accompanies a double cheeseburger, then you’ll be on board with the latest trend: fast food without grease, salt or guilt.

This week, Chicago-based Lyfe Kitchens, owned by two former McDonald’s executives, opens its first store in Palo Alto, Calif. with further plans for as many as 250 outposts nationally over the next five years, joining other health-focused quick service restaurants including Chicago’s Ful 2 Live and the California based Native Foods Cafe.

“It’s going to be great tasting, satiating, familiar foods,” the company’s chief communications officer, Mike Donahue told the LA Times, “with no [genetically modified foods], no additives, nothing processed and everything under 600 calories.”

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Posted on October 14, 2023 by Maris

Chipotle Opens Spin-off ShopHouse Southeast Asian Kitchen Restaurants

If you’re a fan of the customizable burritos, tacos and salad bowls from  Chipotle Mexican Grill, then you’ll be especially thrilled with ShopHouse Southeast Asian Kitchen, Chipotle’s much-hyped Asian spin-off.

Chipotle Chief Executive Officer Steve Ells says that the ShopHouse  concept was born during a two-week eating spree in Thailand and Singapore last year.

“I was very inspired by Southeast Asian food and the fact that it would lend itself to the Chipotle format,” Ells, 46, told Bloomberg News in an interview this week.

At ShopHouse, you won’t be offered burritos or tacos, but instead customers choose between rice and noodles topped with ingredients such as grilled chicken satay, organic tofu, pork meatballs, Chinese broccoli and eggplant. According to Bloomberg News, the bowls go for $6.50 to $7.50, compared with $7 to $8 for a Chipotle burrito.

While we haven’t sampled any of the menu items for ourselves, a preview to Fortune reporters included grilled steak with chili-jam marmalade, roast corn with scallions, Chinese broccoli, pickled vegetables — all served over brown rice, plus green papaya salad on the side.

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Posted on September 26, 2023 by Maris

Your Game Plan for Eating Healthy at Any Sushi Restaurant

By Jennipher Walters for FitBottomedGirls.com

Sushi can be a fabulously healthy meal — if you stick to the right fare and have a game plan. (Key word there being “if.”) As a general rule, the authentic stuff is the best. So if it sounds like a frat boy named it (think: Santa Maria’s Suicide Roll, The Blur Roll or Acid Drops — all real names from real restaurants, mind you), you should probably stay away from it as they usually include more American ingredients such as mayo, cream cheese or something fried. Here are more tips for eating healthy at a sushi restaurant!

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Posted on September 22, 2023 by GuestBlogger

Olive Garden Cuts Calories with Encouragement from Michelle Obama

Michelle Obama SpeakingThanks 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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Posted on September 15, 2023 by Health Buzz

5 Tips to Eat Healthy at 100 Montaditos

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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Posted on August 24, 2023 by Jennipher

100 Montaditos Aims to Dominate the Fresh Food Fast Market

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 2024. 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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Posted on August 19, 2023 by Lacy

People Eat Less When Restaurants Reveal Calories

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. (more…)

Posted on August 10, 2023 by Jason

10 of the Worst Restaurant Foods in the U.S.

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 2024 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…. (more…)

Posted on August 8, 2023 by GuestBlogger

Restaurant Customers Want Smaller Portions

small piece of fruit tart on a big plateEarlier this week, McDonald’s announced they will be cutting the portion of fries that come with a Happy Meal and including a serving of fruit or vegetables with every meal. But McDonald’s isn’t the only company that might see success with a strategy of portion-reduction, as a new report reveals that consumers want smaller portions at restaurants.

In the United States, many restaurants have offered huge servings to convey a sense of value to customers. But a market research company, The NPD Group, found that 57 percent of the people they surveyed want to eat smaller portions when dinning out. The firm surveyed over 5,000 adults. Smaller portions were seen to be the most important to consumers between the ages of 35 and 45, an age when many people find it easy to gain weight.

“We were trying to understand what constitutes healthy eating or a healthy lifestyle in consumers’ minds,” Dori Hickey, NPD’s director of product management, told Nation’s Restaurant News. “What we saw was a difference in where they’ve been and where they aspire to be.”

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Posted on July 28, 2023 by Health Buzz

Restaurant Menus Inaccurately Count Calories

In an effort to meet consumer expectations and comply with new state regulations, most restaurants and fast food joints have begun listing calorie counts on their menus. This information is used by consumers to make educated and well thought-out decisions about their meals. It’s supposed to help fight obesity by allowing the health-conscious population to enjoy eating out without entirely giving up on their nutritional goals.

A study was recently published in the Journal of American Medical Association that exposes the truth about restaurant menus. According to CBS News, nearly one in every five restaurant menus contains inaccurate calorie counts. In most instances, the laboratory results revealed a measly 10 calorie difference. However, some menu items (close to 20 percent) contained more than 100 calories over what the menu claimed, with one dish setting the record for inaccuracy at being 1,000 calories off.

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Posted on July 21, 2023 by Theresa

Worst Menu Items at Chick-Fil-A

Guest article provided by FoodFacts.com

At FoodFacts.com, we like to keep our followers up-to-date with current trends, research, and events. During the month of July, one of the holidays is National Fried Chicken Day. Although we aren’t so sure how it was originated, we do know that many people choose to celebrate this day, especially with the immense patriotism still lurking from Independence Day.

We too would like to celebrate this holiday, but in a more health-conscious manner. You see, fried chicken can be very high in trans-fat, cholesterol, and sodium. Therefore, we would like to take the time to reveal some products you may want to learn more about, prior to indulging. We have decided to feature the very popular chicken-based franchise, Chick-Fil-A. (more…)

Posted on July 13, 2023 by GuestBlogger