Too often when we eat out at restaurants, we find ourselves ordering meals that could normally feed us for a week. Portions of burgers, fries, pizza and sundaes that are three times what they should be.
What do we continue to do anyway -- even though we know it's bad for us?
We order the biggie, the super-size, the extra-value meal. After all, we're getting more for our money's worth, right?
Right. But more Americans than ever refuse to acknowledge that along with the value of bigger portions comes an increased amount of fat, calories and artery-clogging cholesterol.
For those of us that consider ourselves invincible to heart disease and weight gain, listen up.
A study by the Center for Science in the Public Interest revealed that 27 percent of Americans are obese -- not just chubby -- but significantly oversized. And Michael Jacobson, director of the center, points to restaurants and fast food chains as a major reason why.
Let's consider the following:
You and a close friend go out for dinner together at a steakhouse. Before ordering your main entree, you both decide to order a Bloomin' Onion (you know, the fried onion that comes with out-of-this-world dipping sauce) and polish it off before you move on to your medium-rare porterhouses.
Newsflash: you just consumed 2,130 calories.
To put this into perspective, consider the fact that the average woman needs about 1,800 calories a day while the average man needs about 2,200.
That means you and your friend have just eaten an appetizer that alone packs as many calories as needed in day where you eat breakfast, lunch and dinner. And you haven't even gotten to your steak -- another 930 calories.
Bottomline: If you were to eat anything else that day you would inevitably gain weight.
Suppose the two of you weren't hungry for steaks, but Mexican food. While your friend orders fajitas, you opt for the loaded beef burrito with refried beans and all the fixings instead.
Newsflash: If you are famished enough to finish off your entree, you will consume as many calories as you would had you just eaten three McDonald's Big Mac hamburgers.
Restaurants increase the size of the portions they offer because that's what Americans have grown accustomed to eating and so now demand. In order to remain successful, restaurant chains continue to offer huge meals to Americans who -- in all their gluttony -- continue to eat them.
Bottomline: Scale back on the humongous portions of greasy, fatty food, and make restaurant doggy bags your new best friend.
What scares me the most is how often all of us in college (myself included) will indulge in fast food, processed snacks and restaurant meals without thinking twice about the consequences. We tend to think that, since we're young, the big portions and unhealthy food won't catch up with us. But if we continue to think that way, what we don't know may end up killing us.
According to the American Heart Association, heart disease is the No. 1 cause of death in Americans -- killing more people every year than all forms of cancer, respiratory illness, diabetes and AIDS combined.
So why do we continue to order the stuffed pizza from places like Sbarro's in the Atrium? (which, by the way, packs a whopping 880 calories and 44 grams of fat in just one slice) and the Double Whoppers with cheese (another 1,020 calories) from Burger King?
Because they are easy to order and often times cheap. Not to mention they taste good and we love to eat them.
But just because many of us are pressed for time and think we can't eat healthy on a fixed budget, think again.
We've all seen Jared and the Subway commercials -- the deli chain offers seven subs under six grams of fat. And that's just a start.
There are plenty of good, low-fat meals out there. It's just a matter of thinking twice when we pull into the drive-thru about ordering them.
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