My friend asked me to look over his business plan this weekend for a health food restaurant. I like the idea, but I can’t help but wonder why more restaurants are not pushing healthy food. It’s great that McDonalds is offering salads, but they look like crap, and the dressing is loaded with fat. It seems like restaurants really don’t care about people who want to eat healthy.
It’s frustrating because it wouldn’t be that hard for them. For example, on my last trip to Vegas I had a layover in Portland. It was early and I had 2 hours, so I thought I would grab some breakfast. I passed the fast food places and went to the best restaurant I could find. Of course they offer “health food†…fruit. But I wanted an actual breakfast, so I ordered a breakfast sandwich. This consisted of an egg omelet with cheese, bacon, served on an English muffin. I requested whole wheat toast to replace the muffin. The sandwich also came with hash browns. As I ate my diet defeating meal, it occurred to me that it’s not much different than the meals I eat at home for breakfast. Except that I use Egg Beaters, turkey bacon and whole wheat toast. I don’t usually include potatoes, but when I do they are baked. My breakfast is under 300 calories less than 4 grams of fat.
How much extra effort would this really be for the restaurant? Switching out to Egg Beaters and turkey bacon would cut the calories nearly in half, and fat by 75%!
And while were on the subject, has anyone else tried baking potatoes instead of frying them. I just cut a potato up, coat them in Egg Beaters, add spices and bake. They come up just like french fries, except zero fat. They are still white carbs, so it’s not perfect for a diet, but much better than fried food.
I’m a big believer that restaurants should have to list the calories, fat and other nutritional info on their food. It would help us all make better choices, and it would motivate restaurants to start making things much healthier. I’m hoping to see more help from the government, like this site that helps to you exactly what you should be eating, based on age, height, weight, etc…
[tags]diet, food, health[/tags]
