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Restaurant Food is Even Worse Than You Think
If you’re under the impression that only fast-food chains are guilty of super-sizing their meals and piling on the hidden calories, think again: The average meal from independent restaurants and small-scale chains contains a whopping 1,327 calories—more than twice the recommended amount—according to a new study published in JAMA Internal Medicine.
Researchers at Tufts University analyzed 157 of the most popular meals (including side dishes) at 33 restaurants in the Boston area. While the average meal clocked in at 1,327 calories, some types of food were worse than others. Italian (1,755 calories per meal on average) and American (1,494 calories) were the worst. Even Vietnamese, which was the best, averaged 922 calories per meal. To put this in perspective, though, the average woman only needs about 600 calories per meal, says senior study author Susan B. Roberts, PhD, co-author of The “I” Diet. And 1,327 calories is more than double that—not to mention about 66 percent of the total calories the average adult needs in one day.
You can thank huge portion sizes and unhealthy ingredients for the excessive calorie counts, says Roberts. Even something as benign as tandoori chicken, which is typically grilled and should be relatively healthy, can come soaked in oil that cranks up the calorie count, she says.
What’s worse is that you have no way of knowing what the calorie counts are at these types of restaurants. Unlike major chains, small restaurants aren’t required to list nutrition info on their menus or websites. And Roberts says humans tend to be pretty bad at guessing how many calories are lurking in a large dish. “When restaurants are serving these gross, obscene portion sizes, we don’t know what we’re eating,” she says.
This doesn’t mean that you have to give up on dining out altogether, though. Roberts suggests immediately setting aside half of your order and asking your server to put it in a to-go box, as well as asking for condiments on the side. Both of these steps can help keep your meal under control.
photo: iStockphoto/Thinkstock
More From Women’s Health:
How to Kick Your Fast-Food Habit—For Good
Eat Healthy Foods Even When You’re at a Restaurant
How to Find Healthy Fast Food
How to Stay Healthy Even on Crazy-Busy Days
Raise your hand if you wish there were more hours in a day. Hand up? You’re not alone. According to research presented last week at the Population Association of America’s annual meeting in New Orleans, people who work out and prepare their own food on the same day may be dedicating more time to one of those healthy habits—at the expense of the other habit.
Researchers used data from the nationally representative American Time Use Survey to come to that conclusion; they looked at information from more than 112,000 American adults who had been surveyed about their activities during a 24-hour period between 2003 and 2010.
The findings: Women spent an average of nine minutes on their workouts, compared to the average of 19 minutes that men spent on theirs. In addition, women spent an average of 44 minutes on food prep, while men spent less than 17 minutes making meals. That means that the average respondent spent less than an hour of their day on exercise and cooking combined.
By applying a statistical model, researchers found that, in general, the more time people spent preparing food on a given day, the less likely they were to spend as much time exercising. This association, while not causal, “suggests there could be a tradeoff between time spent preparing food and time spent exercising,” says lead study author Rachel Tumin, a doctoral student in epidemiology in The Ohio State University’s College of Public Health. Tumin points out that researchers only looked at one 24-hour period, so it’s possible that the respondents devoted more time to the activity they skimped on during the rest of the week.
Oftentimes, you have to cut back on certain activities to create time for others. But when it comes to your health, you shouldn’t have to make concessions. With a little strategizing, you can fit both fitness and healthy, home-cooked meals into your day.
Quick workouts you’ll love:
15-Minute Workout: Total-Body Toning
15-Minute Workout: Core Exercises
15-Minute Workout: Get Fit with Cables
15-Minute Arm Workout: Armed for Summer
15-Minute Workout: Challenge Your Muscles
Healthy meals in 20 minutes or less:
Coconut-Lime Tilapia
Total time: 20 minutes
Photo: Zach DeSart
Feta-Orzo Stuffed Tomatoes
Total time: 12 minutes
Photo: Craig Cutler
Seared Scallops with White Beans and Spinach
Total time: 18 minutes
Photo: Mitch Mandel
Tofu and Cabbage Salad
Total time: 10 minutes
Photo: Levi Brown
Baked Chicken with Mushrooms and Sweet Potato
Total time: 20 minutes
Photo: Levi Brown
photo: iStockphoto/Thinkstock
More from Women’s Health:
The Benefits of 15-Minute Workouts
4 Ways to Squeeze in That Workout
How to Find 15 Extra Minutes
How to Stay Healthy Even on Crazy-Busy Days
Raise your hand if you wish there were more hours in a day. Hand up? You’re not alone. According to research presented last week at the Population Association of America’s annual meeting in New Orleans, people who work out and prepare their own food on the same day may be dedicating more time to one of those healthy habits—at the expense of the other habit.
Researchers used data from the nationally representative American Time Use Survey to come to that conclusion; they looked at information from more than 112,000 American adults who had been surveyed about their activities during a 24-hour period between 2003 and 2010.
The findings: Women spent an average of nine minutes on their workouts, compared to the average of 19 minutes that men spent on theirs. In addition, women spent an average of 44 minutes on food prep, while men spent less than 17 minutes making meals. That means that the average respondent spent less than an hour of their day on exercise and cooking combined.
By applying a statistical model, researchers found that, in general, the more time people spent preparing food on a given day, the less likely they were to spend as much time exercising. This association, while not causal, “suggests there could be a tradeoff between time spent preparing food and time spent exercising,” says lead study author Rachel Tumin, a doctoral student in epidemiology in The Ohio State University’s College of Public Health. Tumin points out that researchers only looked at one 24-hour period, so it’s possible that the respondents devoted more time to the activity they skimped on during the rest of the week.
Oftentimes, you have to cut back on certain activities to create time for others. But when it comes to your health, you shouldn’t have to make concessions. With a little strategizing, you can fit both fitness and healthy, home-cooked meals into your day.
Quick workouts you’ll love:
15-Minute Workout: Total-Body Toning
15-Minute Workout: Core Exercises
15-Minute Workout: Get Fit with Cables
15-Minute Arm Workout: Armed for Summer
15-Minute Workout: Challenge Your Muscles
Healthy meals in 20 minutes or less:
Coconut-Lime Tilapia
Total time: 20 minutes
Photo: Zach DeSart
Feta-Orzo Stuffed Tomatoes
Total time: 12 minutes
Photo: Craig Cutler
Seared Scallops with White Beans and Spinach
Total time: 18 minutes
Photo: Mitch Mandel
Tofu and Cabbage Salad
Total time: 10 minutes
Photo: Levi Brown
Baked Chicken with Mushrooms and Sweet Potato
Total time: 20 minutes
Photo: Levi Brown
photo: iStockphoto/Thinkstock
More from Women’s Health:
The Benefits of 15-Minute Workouts
4 Ways to Squeeze in That Workout
How to Find 15 Extra Minutes
Even Your Fat Cells Need Sleep
Not getting enough sleep can make you groggy, but can it also make you fat? Researchers at the University of Chicago think it’s a strong possibility.
In a new study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, researchers determined that four nights of sleep deprivation reduced insulin sensitivity in fat cells by a whopping 30 percent. And the less sensitive your cells are to insulin, the less your body produces the hunger-regulating hormone leptin.
“This is one of the first studies to show that a cell outside of the brain—the fat cell—also needs sleep,” says study author Matthew Brady, Ph.D., vice-chair of the Committee on Molecular Metabolism and Nutrition at the University of Chicago.
Brady and a team of researchers put seven young, healthy subjects through two study conditions: First, they spent 8.5 hours in bed for four nights in a row (participants slept for roughly 8 hours each night, the ideal length). One month later, they spent 4.5 hours in bed for four nights. Previous research has shown that getting only 4 hours of sleep negatively affects metabolism. After the fourth night, the subjects took a glucose tolerance test and had fat cells biopsied. And, yes, food intake was controlled and identical.
How Sleep Affects Fat
The authors found that sleep deprivation made fat cells less sensitive to insulin, a hormone that cells use to take in glucose for energy. Brady explains that insulin-stimulated glucose uptake is proportional to the secretion of leptin, a hormone made in the fat cell that regulates hunger. The less sensitive cells are to insulin, the less leptin they produce, and the hungrier you are. And the magnitude of the decrease in this case was very surprising.
“A 30 percent reduction in insulin sensitivity is equivalent to metabolically aging the subjects 10-20 years just from four nights of four and a half hours of sleep,” Brady says.
“It’s not that we took someone who was on the tipping point of developing metabolic disease and just pushed them over the edge. These were very young, healthy subjects.”
Brady says the findings are important because they suggest that sleep could be a treatment for obesity. To that end, his next study will consist of trying to improve the sleep of overweight or obese subjects who have obstructive sleep apnea to see if sleep quality has any effect on insulin sensitivity and metabolism. He’s excited about the possible impact such a study might have: “It’s hard to get people to diet and exercise but if you could show that improving your sleep quality and duration has a positive benefit, that may be an easier therapeutic intervention for people to undertake.”
Ways to Get Better Sleep
While this study still leaves some questions unanswered—namely, if sleeping, say, 6 hours is bad or if “catching up” on sleep over the weekend can reverse the effects—it’s clear that getting enough sleep is important for both your mind AND your body. Here are five ways you can improve your sleep now.
1. Make a Bedtime Routine
Pick an hour for shutting down every night and stick to it—on weekends, too. A regular bedtime and waking time will help you fall asleep.
2. Power Down
Checking your cell before bed amps up brain activity, making it harder to doze off. Plus, the blue light emitted from gadgets can suppress the sleep hormone melatonin. At least an hour before bedtime, turn off your TV and computer and don’t use your phone.
3. Chill Out
A cooler body makes it easier to fall asleep. Exaggerate that feeling with a toasty, pre-bed bath or shower. Lower your thermostat a bit, then pile on the blankets—you’ll save money on your heat while you’re at it.
4. Sip Wisely
No caffeine after sundown and no booze before bed. While drinking alcohol may help you fall asleep faster, you could wake up in the middle of the night. Enjoy a cup of decaf or herbal tea instead.
5. Drown Out Noise
Sleep with a fan on or invest in a sound machine that can produce white noise to block the racket of the outside world.
Additional reporting by Katie Connor and Loren Chidoni
photo: Stockbyte/Thinkstock
More from WH:
Yoga Poses That Put You to Sleep
10 Sleep Myths Busted
Your Brain On Sleep
Look Better Naked: Buy the book to learn how to look (and feel!) your very best.