I count calories. It’s the only thing that’s ever helped me with weight loss. I’ve been trying to lose weight for what seems like a lifetime. I started thinking I was fat (I was not!) when I was probably 11, and with that came all the insecurities and attempts to change myself. Unfortunately I like chocolate. I like it A LOT… and guess what? A lot of chocolate isn’t good for weight loss. But anyways, that’s nothing new. What saddens me is when seemingly harmless food is calorie laden, and many of us are doing tramendous damage to our bodies without even realizing it.

I bring you The Cheesecake Factory and their nutritional info. Annabel shared this link with us in her Monday post and I just can’t get it off my mind. I was blown away. Disguisted. Angry. Let’s face it – The Cheesecake Factory is not a healthy restaurant. We all know that (right?). When your meal arrives and it looks like it’s big enough to feed a small village (or at least a family of 4), you better believe it has enough calories to feed this many people. Unfortunately, too many of us eat the whole thing, and that’s after sampling their delicious bread basket with butter. I think it’s because we really don’t know how bad it truly is. Yes, it seems like a large portion, and yes it tastes buttery so it probably has butter, but it’s not like I eat like this every day… The question is, would you eat the same thing, or eat the same portion, if you knew you it would set you back 3,000 calories in 1 sitting?

A small caesar salad with chicken at the Cheesecake Factory is 976 calories (that’s a small!); a regular caesar salad with chicken is 1510 calories and 16 grams of fat! And you thought you were kind of being healthy by ordering a salad! Oh and by the way, it is unclear whether these numbers include dressings or not. One tablespoon of caesar dressing is 82 calories. How many do you think they mix in there? A whole cup (=16 tablespoon)? Most likely. We don’t want any “naked” lettuce on our plates, now do we? Pretty much everything on the menu is over 1,000 calories and many things are over 2,000. But you had a salad, now you can have some dessert, right? Did you know that a slice of cheesecake at the Cheesecake Factory is about 1,000 calories? That must be for the whole cake, right? Nope, just a slice! My beloved Godiva chocolate cheesecake slice is a whopping 1,109 calories. How many calories is just a bite? Can you stop at just one bite? I can’t! Last example (then I’m cutting myself off!) is their brunch menu. I’ve been wanting to go there for brunch for a while. I think I saw a picture of their french toast napoleon once and it just looked like the best thing in the world… French toast with lots of toppings. Oh my! Best way to start your Sunday, or what? Well, apparently the “best start to a Sunday” is 1696 calories and 51 grams of fat!! Um, I didn’t realize I would have to run a marathon after this brunch to be able to fit into my jeans on Monday! Yeah, don’t think I’m going to the Cheesecake Factory for Sunday brunch.

Looking through these nutritional stats made me question what other restaurants are serving and now I’m a little scared to eat out. Obviously cooking at home is the best way to ensure that you are feeding yourself exactly what you want, but that’s not always fun. And eating out is one of the greatest pleasures in life (at least in my opinion…).  Am I eating 2 days worth of food in just one meal every time I go out… even when I get a salad?  The answer to that is – I don’t know!  And this is where I get to the point I wanted to make all along. If we know what we’re eating, good or bad, we can make informed decisions. I am glad the Cheesecake Factory nutritional information is finally publicly available. Now I know what to avoid, what to eat with caution, and what to dig right into and never look back (limited options on that front but you get the point…). Knowledge is power, and don’t we all want to be powerful?

If every restaurant published nutritional information, every single one of us would benefit. You don’t have to be an avid calorie counter to know that a bowl of soup is not worth 1,000 calories, a salad should not be 1,500 calories and if pasta carbonara at 2,291 calories/plate is eaten with some kind of frequency, you may actually die a little younger. Just a little. Or maybe you’re ok with it, but you adjust your lifestyle accordingly a few days (yes, days) before and after and undo the damage. That also works. Maybe you make sure to share your plate with your dining companions. Who can say no to some cheesecake, right? And maybe, just maybe, restaurants realize that many of us want more healthy options! The restaurants are fighting with authorities to provide this information because they know it will impact their business. Just like I will never consider ordering the french toast napoleon EVER after knowing exactly how many calories it has, other people may do the same. It’s just not worth it for many of us. For the record, when I go to the Cheesecake Factory I always get the Weight Management Asian chicken salad (571 calories, dressing included?). It’s still caloric but I find it to be the safer option. Now I know I can get some grilled tuna and steamed broccoli and be ok there too. But that’s not exciting! I will never suggest the Cheesecake Factory as the dining destination, not because it’s not delicious, but because their “healthier” options are so limited and boring. I can make my own piece of fish and steamed broccoli, thank you very much, can you do better than that and not completely clog my arteries?

New York City requires all chain restaurants to post nutritional information for all of their offerings in plain sight. Boston will follow suit next fall 2010. This is great progress, but it’s not enough. Most restaurant follow recipes, so this information can be available. I’ll volunteer for them to do the counting if that’s what it takes! The Cheesecake Factory has done the math and is still hiding it. We as consumers should demand to know what/how much we’re really eating! Ask your server next time you’re at a restaurant if they have nutritional information for their food. The answer most likely will be “no,” but if enough of us ask for it every.single.day, this may just change.

Lastly, I want to say that I know I may get beaten up by many for talking about this. Sometimes you should just enjoy what you eat, and not care about calories. I agree! But you should be given the right to choose to access this information or not. Sometimes I want to know, and other times I don’t. Yes, knowing it’s thousands of calories (not just kind of guessing) may kill the joy of certain meals (because it’s not worth it) but this may work the other way around. Enjoying a delicious meal that you know is good for you (you’re not just hoping they didn’t sneak something in there to make it taste good) is well… priceless!

Here are a few restaurants that are not afraid to share their nutritional info with the world (good or bad):

Au Bon Pain

UFood Grill

P.F. Chang’s

Uno’s

b.good

Ready Health Go

And this is another source for many chain restaurants – nutritional info is not always available for every meal – often just for the healthier options, but that’s still great!

How many calories do you think you’re consuming at your favorite restaurant? Do you care? Will you stand up for our right to know nutritional information for the food we’re served? If enough of us do it, we may just change the world!