Did You Save Room For Dessert?
Americans are asked this question every time they dine at a casual or formal restaurant. It doesn’t matter if the diner has eaten over a days worth of calories. Americans love concluding a meal with calorie ladden sweet dessert’s, and each dessert sale is revenue for the restaurant and additional gratuity for the server.
Desserts Are Calorie Dense Foods
The problem with restaurant desserts is the astronomical number of calories they provide even if you split it. It’s not uncommon, considering the portions sizes for a dessert for it to have 1,000 calories or more. That’s half a days worth of calories for many people or should be. Since desserts are mostly refined flour, sugar and fat their nutritional value is low while calories, saturated fat, and even sodium are extremely high.
I tried eating healthy while on a recent trip to California. It wasn’t easy. While on the road, I easily ate a days worth of calories between 2 meals which usually consisted of a Continental breakfast and late afternoon dinner. I obtain my daily calories between these two meals. I could control what and how much I ate for breakfast. But when dining at a restaurant you are at the mercy of their portion sizes. Sure, I skipped appetizers, alcoholic beverages, and usually dessert and even then I was stuffed.
It was also sad seeing how much food was wasted. Half eaten large baskets of fried tortilla chips, or baskets of bread, partially eaten entrees. Some people eat part of their entree to save room for dessert. But what isn’t taken home is thrown out.
Mini Desserts
At one restaurant, their dessert with the fewest calories was a hot fudge sundae. Having a weakness for chocolate and craving for something sweet, I ordered it.
Hot Fudge Sundae
You can tell by the size of the cherry it wasn’t huge, but it still had 550 calories according to their menu. For me, that’s about 25% of my daily calories in one dessert.
When I returned home, I made a similar fudge sundae adding healthy toasted slivered almonds. Total calories; about 260. A savings of 290 calories.
Homemade Fudge Sundae
Topping with whipped cream adds about 40 calories increasing total calories to about 300. That’s still about 45% less than the restaurant version or 14% of total calories versus 25%.
I seldom eat dessert at home or when dining out. Italians enjoy sweet desserts on special occasions. To treat their sweet tooth, fresh fruit is eaten instead of sugar, flour, and fat filled desserts.