Health One Meal vs. McDonalds Value Meal

Every now and then we get a person who thinks that the meal replacements we use in our medically supervised weight loss program are expensive and "not worth the cost".  According to the USDA the cost of a day's worth of food eaten by the average American is at or above the cost of Health One Meal Replacements (HOMR) for one day. In addition, a CBS news poll showed that nearly 25% of people eat out at a fast food establishment at least once per week and are spending a lot per meal for junk.

Enter...a healthy option in the HOMR, designed to reduce calorie intake while providing all the nutrition that you need (100-125% of your daily needs).  The HOMR is proven for weight loss and reducing/stabilizing blood sugars.  A perfect meal-considering 78 million Americans are obese and over 10% of adults 20+ years old have diabetes.

 

Lets compare the HOMR to two very popular McDonald's Fast Food value meals: the double cheeseburger meal and the Big Mac meal.

 

Big Mac Value Meal (cost with Large diet drink $5.33)
Big Mac:

550 calories

29 gm total fat

970 mg sodium

25 gm protein

 

Medium French Fry:

380 calories

19 gm total fat

270 mg sodium

 

Totals for the Big Mac Value Meal:

880 calories

48 gm total fat

1240 mg sodium

25 gm protein

 

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Cheeseburger Value Meal (cost with Large diet drink $3.19)

Cheeseburger:

300 calories

12 gm total fat

680 mg sodium

15 gm protein 

 

Medium French Fry:

380 calories

19 gm total fat

270 mg sodium

 

Totals for the Cheeseburger Value Meal:

680 calories

31 gm total fat

950 mg sodium

15 gm protein

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Vs.

 

Health One Meal Replacement Shake (cost is < $3.19)

Blueberry Lemon shake

190 calories

1 gm total fat

310 mg sodium

15 gm protein

25% of RDI's for vitamins and minerals

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 When the comparison is made, the value in the Health One Meal Replacement stands out as it is cheaper, but provides 25% of RDI's for all vitamins and minerals, 15 grams of protein, and less total fat and less sodium than the popular McDonald's value meals shown here. We are very proud of our weight loss/weight maintenance meal replacement that we can provide in our programs. 

5 Helpful Tips When Dining Outside the Home

1. Plan ahead. Many restaurants now post their menus online, as well as their nutritional information. Even if they don’t have nutritional information, you can take note of the dishes you’re interested in and plan your caloric intake around them. The key is to watch out for portion size, because you won’t likely know until you arrive at the restaurant how big their portions are.

2. ONLY eat half of your meal. One way to address the portion issue is to ask if the waiter can bag half of your meal before they even bring your meal out to you. 

3. Know high fat lingo. There are a few words and phrases you should watch out for on any menu that indicate the fat content is going to be significant. They include “breaded,” “battered,” “with gravy,” “au gratin,” “cream sauce,” “buttered” and more.

4. Know how to have your meat cooked. One of the keys of weight loss is sticking with the right preparation types. Poultry, for example, should be skinless if possible, and it should be steamed, broiled, grilled, baked, boiled, poached or even roasted. It should definitely not be fried. Red meat is fine a couple of times a week, as well, just watch out for portion control and try to order more lean cuts as opposed to fattier cuts.

5. Go easy on the sauce. The most important tip when eating out is to order sauces, dressings and condiments on the side. This can save hundreds of calories. Be careful not to dump the entire side of sauce onto your meal and use only one to two small spoonfuls for your meal. 



         *Written by: Karen Willy, Dietetic Intern, Purdue University

Eating Right at Restaurants-Tips

1. Pack up 1/2 your meal to take home: portion sizes are HUGE these days & with larger portion sizes there are more calories

2. Appetizer: don't order. the traditional breaded (insert a breaded appetizer here-there are 3 million to choose from), instead order a side salad to start the meal off.

3. Skip the "freebies": chips, bread and bread sticks are common 'freebies' at restaurants, but don't be fooled...there's nothing about them that is 'free of calories'.

4. Limit or skip the bread and other carbs: opt for naked tacos or burrito, choose thin crust instead of thick crust, choose veggies instead of noodles, salad not sandwich.

5. Choose wisely or limit toppings: next cheese and the extra cheese on salads, soups, entrees, appetizers.  Select sour cream instead of butter for a baked potato.  Limit the number of non-veggie (croutons, cheese, meat, dressing, etc) when ordering a salad.

       

Use the Grill: Shed Pounds

This article shows 4 ways to cut nearly 5,000 calories from your diet and help to maintain or lose weight by doing simple swaps.  The push is for people to forgo the restaurants and begin cooking at home to save calories.  The reason: restaurants grill, but they grill by adding fats (and thus calories) when cooking meats and other foods.  The difference? Our grills at home have grates and some of the fat is melted away in the cooking process, while restaurants use a 'flat grill' which doesn't allow for fat to melt away AND they ADD MORE FAT during the cooking process.  

One of the examples provided is switching On the Border Dos XX Tacos for Grilled Fish Tacos at home.  In this switch you will save money, but most importantly save calories going from the 2,150 in the restaurant tacos to 380 in the home grilled version! Visit this link to get the recipe and for other swaps to help you save calories!  

Restaurants Lowering Calories

Back on June 24th we posted about the FDA Restaurant Labeling Regulations and now restaurants are overhauling menus to provide better choices. A coincidence?! Probably not, this article says that "Panera Bread Company has reduced the amount of sauce on its sandwiches, reformulated its soups to reduce fat and sodium and developed a 300-calorie salad" all in response to the FDA Regulations. IHOP and Starbucks have also tried making their menus more 'health friendly'. Interesting how this is all coming about and HNT is excited to see what impact it will have on consumer choices. 

Read the full article from the Los Angeles Times HERE.

          

FDA Restaurant Labeling Regulations

   June 6, 2011 was the last day for public comments on Section 4205 of H.R. 3590 which mandated that restaurants and food vendors with 20 or more locations must disclose calorie information and make other nutrient composition data available to consumers.  This will become a great tool for restaurant go-ers to be able to calculate calorie intake before ordering from the menus at restaurants in hopes of steering them away from a typical 1500 calorie meal and towards a meal that is less than 500 calories.  According to the current FDA Commissioner, nearly 1/3 of Americans daily calories are consumed away from home. This is why this tool will be so useful for Americans.

The end of 2011 will bring the final rules to this regulation.  Look for many restaurants to begin disclosing calorie information so they can be ahead of the game.  Do you think this information will be helpful to you on your journey with health and weight management?

Click here to view the entire proposed rule!

        

Seasons 52

Seasons 52 is a restaurant that is new to the Indianapolis area. It's located at Keystone at the Crossing (8650 Keystone Crossing, Indianapolis, IN 46240) and is highly recommended as a great place to eat considering all factors: cost, nutrition, taste.

The restaurant is "seasonally-inspired" with a fresh appeal of the farmer's market. They use natural cooking techniques such as wood-fire grilling, brick-oven cooking, and caramelizing vegetables to let the natural flavors shine through. The menu features all items being less than 475 calories-great for weight loss or weight management.

Check out Seasons 52 Menu HERE and decide whether this will be your next place for dining!

Must Knows About Salad Bars

Most people think "all salads" are healthy, but the truth is you can build a salad that has many calories more than what you had ever expected! The great thing is that if you know what items to choose on your salad it can be a great, nutritious and filling option for any meal or side dish.

Must knows include:

• Start out with a smaller plate-silly I know, but it won't hold as much as a larger plate. Less food equals less calories


• Start with a good nutrient rich dark green leafy vegetable like spinach, romaine, or endive.


• Including vegetables (like cucumbers, peppers, tomatoes, and broccoli) on your salad will load it with a variety of nutrients including beta-carotene, vitamins A and C, potassium, folic acid and fiber.


• Use legumes, beans, lean meats like chicken, turkey, or fish for a good protein source


• Watch out for the following options that provide little nutrition and/or lots of calories: croutons, fried meats, candied nuts, chow mein noodles, seeds, bacon, cheese, pastas/potato/macaroni salads (found at most salad bar) and creamy salad dressings.

Restaurants are often playing up the word 'salad' hoping consumers will opt for the 'healthy' choice even if it has a lot of calories. Sure the salads sound good, but not worth the calories! Take some of the Applebee's salad options for instance: the Regular Crispy Shrimp Caesar Salad, Regular Oriental Chicken Salad, Regular Apple Walnut Chicken Salad, Regular Sante Fe Chicken Salad all have over 1,000 calories! Instead opt for the 1/2 portion size w/o dressing to cut the calories in half, choose one of the Weight Watcher salads (for less than 500 calories), or build your own salad based upon the must knows above.

Whether you are at home, a salad bar, or a restaurant be wise in the selections you make for your salads. They could end up being more than you bargained for in calories!