Lots of people think that national chain restaurants, with their absurdly high-calorie mega-meals, are a big reason why so many Americans are fat. If you’ve ever seen Domino’s ExtravaganZZa Feast pizza (with 590 calories for just one-sixth of a 16-inch pie—and who stops at one slice?) or Chevys Fresh Mex Tostada Salad with Chicken (with 1,228 calories), you’ll surely agree.
And you might assume that smaller, independent restaurants tend to provide saner, less fattening meals. But: A new study basically blasts that assumption out of the water. So if you’ve been eating at local independent restaurants partly to avoid the calorie madness of the big chains, you’ll want see these startling comparisons.
Researchers ordered the most popular dinners and their typical accompanying side dishes from various randomly selected independent sit-down restaurants, then analyzed each meal’s calorie count in a laboratory. For example, meals included cheeseburgers with fries…quesadillas with salsa…and Italian entrées with bread—because that’s how most people consume these meals. All together, 157 meals were analyzed. Number crunch: The average meal contained 1,327 calories—or two-thirds of the 2,000 calories typically considered appropriate for a full day’s worth of food for the average adult. Nearly 8% of the meals actually exceeded 2,000 calories. And that doesn’t even take into account appetizers, drinks or desserts!
Then the researchers compared those small-restaurant meals to the same meals served by large national chain restaurants that provide calorie information. Surprise: Most meals from the small restaurants contained more calories—19% more, on average—than the equivalent meals from the large chains.
Next, the researchers compared the small-restaurant entrées alone (no side dishes, bread, etc.) to the most popular entrée choices from the nine most popular chain restaurants in the US, including seven fast-food and two sit-down restaurants. Here the difference was huge. The average entrée calorie count from the small restaurants was 1,166…while the average entrée calorie count from the large chains was 559. Now, this one is a bit of an apples-to-oranges comparison because the researchers did not attempt to match the portion sizes—instead, their aim was to compare the most frequently ordered entrées from each type of establishment. But it’s still a revelation to see how many more calories you’re likely to consume when you order a favorite entrée from a Mom-and-Pop type of restaurant than when you order a favorite from a big chain.
Dine smart: Soon all restaurants with at least 20 locations will be required to provide nutritional information as part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, so be sure to check out the calorie counts before you order. That will remain impossible at most small-chain and independent establishments—which account for about half of the restaurants in the US—because they are exempt from this requirement. But you can…
Eye-opening chart: See the chart above for the highest-calorie dishes from the study’s nine restaurant categories—and the lowest-calorie options that you might want to order instead.
