On the topic of restaurant dining.

I like to eat out. But I've also gotten much more picky about the places that I eat at. And that's because my eating habits have changed. Dramatically.

When I was younger, I would frequent places like McDonald's and Hardee's. My breakfast would consist of one or two biscuits of some sort, perhaps bacon, egg and cheese or sausage, egg and cheese. My lunch might come courtesy of Wendy's and would consist of the Spicy Chicken Combo. My dinner would be a large one-from topping pizza Pizza Hut. Now, it's important to note that I would not eat at these places all on the same day. But I would hazard to guess that these venues would provide 2-3 meals a week for me. As you can see, I've linked to all that crap so you can see what exactly I was consuming nutrition-wise. I'm not proud.

I am older now and in theory, wiser. I am very careful about the restaurants that I eat at. I make a concentrated effort to educate myself on what restaurants are serving (both ingredients-wise and nutrion-wise). I will not voluntarily eat at Arby's, Chili's, Friendly's or the Macaroni Grill. For eating at these establishments means that I cannot eat anything else that day. And I don't roll that way. Even eating at a place like Chick-fil-A requires careful menu planning, due to extremely high levels of sodium in their products (there were 1270 mg of sodium in my chicken biscuit this morning, 52% of your RDA - by not eating the biscuit, I cut out 610 mg of sodium).

I've provided links above to establishments who make their nutritional information available on the website. Many others (I'm looking at you Cracker Barrel) do not provide information, so you're left to guess what exactly is in that Coca-Cola Cake (If you pick up a piece to go at the counter, the ingredients are on a white label on the bottom of the container. Hint: I skip a meal when having a slice of this cake.).

I decided to post this information because I want people to be informed. Chances are that if you're reading this blog, I know you and I care about you and your health. I think everyone should be aware of what exactly they are putting into their bodies.

And if you don't know, ask! Heck, I was curious about the nutritional information of the Maple Frosted Donut at Maple Donuts, so I called them and asked (Total Fat: 15g, Sat. Fat: 3g, Sodium: 240mg, Carbs: 46g). We have a right to know what we're eating.

We'll save High Fructose Corn Syrup and Partially Hydrogenated Oils for another day..