Photo: Taylor Umlauf for The Wall Street Journal

Your New Year’s resolutions are still hanging on by a thread and you settle in to a restaurant dinner, looking to the calorie counts on the menu for guidance. As you recover from the initial horror of the calories in most dishes, you are buoyed to see a “Healthy Choices” section. Phew. You dive into a 300-calorie entree, feeling virtuous and like you have found the best-kept secret ever. “It’s so easy,” you crow to yourself, smug and certain there just might be a swimsuit in your future… Suddenly someone takes a giant pin and pops that balloon.

In this case, researchers of a report in next month’s Journal of the American Dietetic Association are holding that pin. Apparently, published calorie counts for the “reduced calorie” meals at many chain restaurants, like P.F. Chang’s or Ruby Tuesday’s, are generally incorrect. As reported by the blog Nutrition Data, the report states that an order of Szechuan-style asparagus from P.F. Chang’s, which was listed at 260 calories, actually contained 558. And the Taco Bell Chicken Taco Salad, listed as 326 calories, was actually 607 calories. On average, calorie count figures are 20 percent under the actual calories!  The report also notes that some frozen meals have incorrect calorie counts, though the range of error is less.
Portion size is often the variable and also free side dishes that come with the menu item but are not part of the calorie figure.  A side order of grits from Denny’s is listed at 86 calories on the menu, for example. However, the 262-gram serving delivered to the table was twice as large as the 113-gram serving listed on the menu. Total calories: 258. A side of broccoli and a baked potato, which added another 667 calories to the meal was not posted in the calorie count for a low-cal meal.

All of this is particularly maddening as researchers at Yale University, tell us that consumers actually make different menu selections based on the calorie count. I know that I certainly slowed my consumption of rainbow cookies at Starbucks once I learned that they have 420 calories. But what if I go to a different Starbucks and they show them as having 240 calories? Is it a typo or a blessed miracle? Sadly, if it seems too good to be true, it probably is.

Related Posts:

1. Changing kids eating habits (April 18th, 2010)
2. Blueberries and your family (January 27th, 2010)
3. Quick Meals For Families (November 11th, 2009)
4. kiwi (October 31st, 2008)