What's in What You Eat?It is said you are what you eat, from your head to your feet. So why not know… What's in what you eat?

At nearly every Indian restaurant I have seen, there is a common trend of offering a $7 all you can eat buffet during the lunch hour (usually 11:30am-2:30pm). Curious to try new foods I went into one looking to see if anything primal emerged. This is what I found:

Buffet line stocked full of meat, typically chicken, lamb, and goat with numerous raw or cooked vegetables for side dishes. Sure it may have some sugar or soy in the sauces, or it may not, but it is primarily high animal protein, high vegetables, and as long as you can resist the Naan bread is also grain free. Also no word on if the animals are free-ranged.

Bengal Tiger (Roosevelt)

Butter chicken, tandoori chicken, cucumber salad, regular salad, eggplant puree

Masala (Northgate)

Chicken curry on the bone, Tandoori chicken, salad, greek-like salad, raw broccoli, spinach puree

Taste: 10
Nutrition: 8
Filling: 10 (All you can eat!)
Price: $ (Typically $6.95)
Overall Value: 10

Ingredients not confirmed to be 100% free of soy, grains, artificial ingredients, and added sugar

I am still amazed at having this as an option for lunch, and there are so many Indian restaurants with this in Seattle that anywhere you go you aren’t far from your local Indian Lunch Buffet. If you have never tried them, the time is now!

Chipotle Mexican Grill

Chipotle Mexican Grill is by far the highest quality fast food chain in the country. They are all about free-ranged and grass-fed meats and other than the 0.5 grams of trans fat found in their tortilla, taco shell, and corn chips (don’t eat these) they don’t use any artificial ingredients in their food. It is all customizable so it is quite easy to get a primal meal here:

Bed of lettuce, grilled vegetables, pico de gallo, choice of meat, cheese, sour cream, guacamole

I usually do double meat and double vegetables.

Taste: 10
Nutrition: 10
Filling: 8
Price: $
Overall Value: 9

Ingredients not confirmed to be 100% free of soy, grains, artificial ingredients, and added sugar

Restaurants all over the country and the millions of people who dine at them often share a strong misconception about a particular class of food.

My diet mainly consists of meat, fruit, vegetables, seeds, and nuts, so it would be safe to assume that any menu that says served with “seasonal or fresh vegetables” would be good to go for myself and everyone else trying to up their vegetable intake. So what causes my extreme sadness when I get my entree? What do I see when I look for my vegetables? I see this:

Corn

Corn is not a vegetable. Corn on the cob is still not a vegetable. Regardless of how you prepare corn, it is not a vegetable. Corn is a grain. Corn grows like a grain, is used like a grain (corn flour) and has the same high glycemic starchy inflammatory properties as all other grains do. Please, stop serving us corn as a vegetable.

Beans

So many forms of beans are served as the “vegetable” side everywhere. Whether it be green beans, snap peas, pea pods, loose peas, or anything else with the word “pea” or “bean” in it, it is not a vegetable. It is a legume and contains all the negative health attributes that legumes have.

Soy

It is much less common to get a side of soybeans as the vegetable, but it is still possible. Also, a lot of times meats will say they are fed a “vegetable diet” consisting of soybeans as a main staple (along with corn of course). Soy”beans” are not vegetables, and as they sound, they are legumes.

Potatoes

Ok yes technically potatoes are vegetables but honestly who thinks of them as such? If you order a side of vegetables are you really wanting potatoes? Most people wouldn’t think getting mashed potatoes or french fries counts as eating vegetables. I know when I order, I definitely don’t want potatoes as my vegetable. Do you?

Hopefully this cleared up some confusions about what is a vegetable and what isn’t. I can only hope that someday I don’t have to question the restaurant staff of what vegetables come with it to see if they actually are vegetables as stated.

Have any of you had this happen to you as many times as I have?

Let me know.

Sonrisa Modern Mexican

Sonrisa is a Mexican restaurant located in the University Village. Mexican restaurants often have a Paleo potential and this is no exception. For Paleo, there aren’t too many things available but this one particular meal I had could be repeated many times.

“FAJITAS
Sauteed red and yellow bell peppers and white onions. Guacamole, pico
de gallo, flour tortillas. Ancho Grilled Chicken $17 ~ Adobo Skirt Steak $18 ~ Adobo Shrimp $17 ~ 2-Combo $18″

Leave off the tortillas (which really are unneeded) and you have yourself a meal. Start it with a Heart of Palm salad if you are really hungry. The meal also comes with some lettuce piled with cheese.

Taste: 10
Nutrition: 8 (Meat used was likely not 100% grass-fed, sauce tastes sweetened)
Filling: 9
Price: $$$
Overall Value: 10

Ingredients not confirmed to be 100% free of soy, grains, artificial ingredients, and added sugar

While it is quite expensive, this restaurant is very good. It is also opened until midnight or 1am depending on the night so it is always nice to have a late-night Paleo option.

Sorry for the delay in posting these.  It seems everytime I go to a restaurant that is Paleo friendly I forget my camera. Luckily this time one of my friends I was with had an iPhone on hand.

Southlake Grill

Located about one block west of REI is the Southlake Grill. This is one of four locations, each with a different name but the same menu (Greenlake, Eastlake, and Lake Forest).

Besides the typical salads, this restaurant has a number of Paleo choices.

Here’s what I had:

“Grilled Boneless Half Chicken: Natural Washington Grown Chicken with an orange-basil sauce, garlic mashed potatoes & seasonal veggies.”

The mashed potatoes, were easily substituted for sweet potato fries, or if you want to stay even more strict, you can just ask for double the veggies (carrots and broccoli). And yes, I gave the ketchup and ranch away.

So how was it?

Taste: 10
Nutrition: 8 (10 with double vegetables)
Filling: 10
Price: $ (usually $$)
Overal Value: 9-10

Ingredients not confirmed to be 100% free of soy, grains, artificial ingredients, and added sugar

Every Sunday this location only has a screaming deal. Every single food item on the menu is 50% off. This entire entree as pictured was $8.75 after tax.

I know I am a little late in posting this but in case you haven’t heard, Starbucks recently eliminated all artificial ingredients from all of their products.

“Our new recipes contain:

No artificial flavors

No artificial trans fats

No artificial dyes

No high-fructose corn syrup”

It is great to see more and more places doing this on their own – with no need for government regulations demanding it.

Also just as a reminder, even with this improvement, a piece of coffee cake still isn’t going to be healthful, but at least it is real.

Source: http://www.starbucks.com/retail/nutrition_freshfood.asp

Now that it is 2009, chain restaurants with 15 or more locations have to post calories, saturated fat, carbohydrates, and sodium on their menus.

In this post (rant) I will tell you why this is a bad idea and not what should be happening!

Let’s start with calories. As some know a calorie is the amount of energy required to heat 1 kilogram of water 1 degree Celsius. Calories are energy and we need them.

Saturated fat is another thing we need.

In addition to being two things we need, there is another characteristic they both share. THEY AREN’T MAKING EVERYONE FAT!!!

Obesity is caused by:

-Trans Fat
-High fructose corn syrup
-Monosodium Glutamate
-Sugar
-Complex carbohydrates
-Fatty and processed meats
-Lack of adequate exercise

Our bodies are designed to handle calories and saturated fat. They are NOT designed to handle the other things on the list.

All the time people try to lose weight by following these low calorie and low fat diets. They typically don’t work, and are very miserable.

A processed frozen pot pie loaded with artificial ingredients but that only has a few grams of fat and is low in calories is not healthy!

An avocado has about 325 calories in it, and is also quite high in fat. Does this mean it is less healthful than a 100 calorie snack pack? Absolutely not!

This new labeling law leaves out the most important piece of nutritional information available. The ingredients list. If everything in there is real, then the amount of calories doesn’t matter because you are eating real food.

McDonald’s is not an unhealthy dangerous “food” establishment because their food is high in calories. It is a horrible and dangerous place because all their food has tons of trans fat and other artificial ingredients in it. If McDonald’s kept the amount of calories but changed all their food to 100% organic, people would stop dying from it!

Who goes to McDonald’s and doesn’t order something because it is too high in calories anyways? When people start to count calories, it greatly increases the risk of an eating disorder. Knowing that the salad you are about to eat still has quite a few calories might very well scare people off from eating it. They may even go order some french fries instead after seeing it is near the same amount of calories. Calories also sets an automatic signal of disapproval and makes eating less enjoyable.

When you are eating the world’s healthiest foods (lean grass-fed meats, all natural free ranged chicken, fish,  fruits, vegetables, seeds, and nuts) the amount of calories is completely not important.

King County, if you are going to do something, please let it be telling us what is in what we are eating, not how much energy is packed in it! Unfortunately that is not what they are doing, so this site will hopefully help people.

Today browsing the isles of Metropolitan Market I found some Microwave Kettle Corn made by Pop Secret.

Curious as always, I checked to see if and how much trans fat was in it.

One serving of this particular item contained 6 grams of trans fat. As ridiculous as that seems, it only gets worse.

In each bag, there are 3 servings, making a total of 18 grams of trans fat in a single bag.

Each box had 12 bags which means by the time the whole box is empty, whoever ate this has consumed 216 grams of trans fat.

0.5 grams is already too much, I was and still am shocked to think that a product that bad is on the shelf.

According to Amazon.com however, it is not bad at all:

“Excellent source whole grain. Good source fiber. 0 grams sugar.”

It may be whole grain, it may have fiber, and no sugar, but it at this point holds the record for the highest amount of trans fat that I have ever seen. If you find something with more, please leave a comment.

http://shop.safeway.com/dnet/RichProductInformation.aspx?promo_window=1&bpn=109300619

While Panera Bread is mostly trans fat free, it turns out they are not completely. Because of this, I have moved them on the restaurant list. Also, they are far from organic. It also turns out many of their products contain artificial colors, flavoring, and yes, high fructose corn syrup.

Even their home-made lemonade has HFCS.

Also a warning for those of you trying to lose weight, the saturated fat content of Panera Bread products is shockingly high.

This is a bummer to me as I ate there thinking everything served was healthful. The email I received from them is as follows:

Dear Gil,
Thank you for taking the time to find out how Panera deals with trans
fat and other ingredients.

Our customers’ well being is important to us at Panera. That’s why,
several years ago, we started looking into ways we could reduce or
eliminate trans fat from your favorite bakery and cafe items.

We proudly offer a menu essentially free of added trans fat. What does
this really mean?

Animal products, like dairy and meat, have small amounts of naturally
occurring trans fat. Naturally occurring trans fat cannot be entirely
eliminated.

Added trans fat – like partially hydrogenated vegetable oil – is found
in very small amounts in some food ingredients to help extend a food’s
shelf life and to stabilize food’s flavor.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has determined that foods that
have under 0.5 grams per serving of trans fat can be identified on the
Nutrition Facts Panel as having 0 grams trans fat.

You may see a few menu items listed on our nutritional information that
have 0.5 grams, 1 gram or even 1.5 grams of trans fat. These items
contain naturally occurring trans fat from butter, cheese and meats, and
a few may have very small amounts (less than 0.5 grams) of added trans
fat.

Panera is committed to exceeding its customers’ expectations for
delivering great tasting, quality food that people can trust. To this
end, Panera continues to look at ways to try to reduce or eliminate
added trans fat from its menu items.

The only item containing monosodium glutamate on the Panera menu is the
Greek Salad Dressing.

High fructose corn syrup is a widely-used and FDA-approved sweetener. We
are following the most recent scientific studies regarding its usage. To
date, there is no strong evidence to support the claims that it is
responsible for obesity or is any more or less healthy than sugar or
other sweeteners.

Any artificial coloring that we may use is also FDA approved. There are
many items on our bakery menu, however, that do not include
preservatives or artificial colors or flavors.

We have no information to share regarding interesterified fat, but if
you’d like, I can request that our nutrition group research it for you.
Let me know.

You can find nutrition and ingredients information for our products in
the Menu & Nutrition section of our website and at our bakery-cafes when
you request the information from a Manager.

Thank you again for contacting us. We appreciate your business and value
your comments.
Sincerely,
Stella
Customer Comment Coordinator

More information on their nutrition can be found here: http://www.panerabread.com/menu/

I never posted about this before but a few weeks ago, King County completed stage 1 of the trans fat ban.

Right now, oil used in fryers must contain no more than 0.5grams of trans fat per serving.

We must wait until next April before the 0.5gram restriction is broadened to all items, not just oil.

While restaurants may claim they are trans fat free by being under the 0.5 limit, on this blog, the restaurants that we say are trans fat free, are actually completely free.