The Integra Blog

Calories Counts in Restaurants

Restaurants Often Miss The Mark On Calorie Counts

Nearly 1 in 5 of the foods contained 100 or more calories than stated. In some cases, the discrepancies were “huge,” Tufts researcher Lorien Urban tells Shots. For example, a blue cheese wedge side salad at Outback Steakhouse was 659 calories richer than the menu noted. And a side order of chips and salsa at On The Border Mexican Grill and Cantina was too low by a whopping 1,081 calories.

The researchers ordered food from 42 restaurants, including Pizza Hut, Boston Market, Olive Garden and Outback Steakhouse. They chose 269 different food items from appetizers to desserts.

They then packed up the food and sent it off to a laboratory for analysis. The measured nutrition content covered carbohydrate, protein, fat and calories. Their study results appear in the current issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

via NPR