Caloric Content in Restaurant Meals is in Excess of What We Actually Need

To follow up on my latest post, I read another paper was published simultaneously with the paper I discussed in JAMA Internal Medicine studied the food served in restaurants from a different angle. Investigators from the Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging (HNRCA) of Tufts University in Boston studied the energy content in the most commonly purchased foods in a random sample of independent and small-chain restaurants.

Inclusion criteria for a restaurant were: to be a “sit-down” restaurant, within 15 miles from downtown Boston, have a online menu with no nutrition labels. Restaurants were classified according to the number of employees (small <10 employees, large ≥10 employees), and the type of food served (Mexican, American, Chinese etc…), and then randomly selected according to these two categories. The research team led by Dr. Susan Roberts, The director of the Energy Metabolism Laboratory at the HNRCA, selected the 5 most popular entrée choices and their standard side dishes from each restaurant. They included 157 meals representing 42 meal categories from 9 restaurants in the present study.

Due to my inexperience in nutrition labeling and nutrition research methods, the next part is very interesting to me. The authors used the Bomb Calorimeter to estimate the energy content in each meal using the kilocalorie (kcal) as the measuring unit. The food must be grounded into fine powder. I found the following very interesting (and fun) interactive flash video explaining how the Bomb Calorimeter works. 

I embedded this video from its original source in McGraw-Hill.

Back to the paper! So the analysis of the energy content in the sample meals offers interesting results. To set the stage, the authors used the US federally-referenced daily energy requirement (as stated in the CFR Title 21, Volume 2§101.9(d)(9)(i)) to compare their results to it. This value is 2,000 kcal per day.

The mean energy content of all food categories of all the samples and all restaurants was 1327 kcal, which is already >66% of daily energy requirement reference value. The Italian meal categories had the highest mean energy content of 1755 kcal, and the Vietnamese meal categories had the lowest mean energy content of 922 kcal. Interestingly, some of the sample meals provided even more than 100% of the daily energy requirement. This includes; the Mexican Classic Nachos providing 2165 kcal, and the Italian Fettuccini Alfredo [yummy!!] providing 2270 kcal. The authors also found that 75% of individual sampled meals contained at least 50% of the daily energy requirement.

Overall, this study provides overwhelming evidence that “dining out” entails consuming food with energy content more than what our bodies need. One should pay more attention to how many calories are in the meals ordered in restaurants, regardless of its type (fast-food, small chain, or even independent), or cuisine. But this can’t be done without data. Restaurants should provide nutrition labels on their menus to help diners decide what to eat, and advocate for healthy choices.

The study authors concluded:

A national requirement for accurate calorie labeling in all restaurants may discourage menus offering unhealthy portions and would allow consumers to make informed choices about ordering meals that promote weight gain and obesity.

PS: If you are interested to know how many calories your need based on your BMI and Physical Activity Level (PAL), check this link from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.