The Truth Behind “Healthy” Restaurant Menus

Recently restaurants notorious for their high-fat, nutritionally void offerings have made an effort to add good-for-you items to their menus. In the past few months, at least seven major chains have revamped their menus, including ubiquitous favorites like McDonald's and Subway. Here's a roundup of the latest changes:

• The Cheesecake Factory rolled out SkinnyLicious menu items on August 9. The new offerings include nearly 50 low-calorie meals, including entrées with less than 590 calories, small plates under 490 calories, and cocktails with 150 calories or fewer.

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• McDonalds revealed a new, healthier Happy Meal in July. The updated kids' meal comes with a side of apples and a reduced-size side of fries, which saves young diners 130 calories with each meal.
• Subway recently introduced bread fortified with vitamin D and calcium to its menus nationwide. Now every 6-inch sub contains as much calcium and vitamin D as a glass of milk.
• Olive Garden has swapped out french fries for grapes on its children's menu and replaced the milk shakes with 170-calorie smoothies made from frozen fruit puree and nonfat yogurt. The company did not disclose how much sugar the smoothies contain.
• Qdoba is testing whole wheat tortillas in its greater Seattle and Portland restaurants, which allow customers to build burritos and quesadillas with 2 g less fat, 30 fewer calories, and 2 g more dietary fiber. "Right now we're monitoring the feedback and sales in Seattle and Portland and will evaluate the success there before we decide to expand the whole wheat tortilla into further restaurants or nationally," says Tricia Bennett, Qdoba spokesperson.
• Starbucks added four bistro boxes to its menu. The meal and snack packs are anchored around a lean protein and contain less than 500 calories. "We continue to hear from customers that they want more variety in nutritious grab-and-go food," says Annie Young-Scrivner, global chief marketing officer.
• Chick-fil-A added multigrain oatmeal to its breakfast menu, which is a direct result of customer feedback, according to Woody Faulk, Chick-fil-A's vice president of brand strategy and design. An 8-ounce cup of plain oatmeal contains only 120 calories and 5 g of sugar, but add toppings—which include brown sugar, cinnamon, nuts, and dried fruit—and those numbers increase to 280 calories and 21 g of sugar.
• The National Restaurant Association teamed up with HealthyDiningFinder.com to launch the Kids Live Well program. The initiative invites eateries, ranging from quick-service diners to more upscale outlets, to adopt children's menu items that meet strict nutritional guidelines. The criteria emphasize lean protein, fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and low-fat or fat-free dairy. The program debuted with 19 participating chains, including Burger King, Chili's, Denny's, and Joe's Crab Shack, in about 15,000 locations. However, though all of the participating franchises meet stringent requirements on qualifying meals, other menu items may not live up to those standards.

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Anita Jones-Mueller, founder of  HealthyDiningFinder.com and Kids Live Well, speculates that restaurants are beginning to change because Americans have been gravitating to more nutritious choices. "The healthy options are selling more and more, so to get more people in the door, restaurants are finding creative ways to make healthy food taste great," she says.

However, while many restaurants report that their changes reflect consumer feedback, diners' behavior show otherwise. Despite the fact that 27% of restaurant-goers say they want a healthy meal when they go out to eat, 56% of people typically order what they want to eat instead of what is healthy, according to a 2011 Mintel report.

Public interest groups and the government have also put pressure on restaurants to improve their nutritional standards. In June 2010, the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) filed a class action suit against McDonald's for using toys to lure children into the restaurant, where the offerings for kids are high in fat, sodium, and calories and low on nutrients. While a ruling on the case has not yet been made, similar quick-service spots might be bracing themselves for the worst.

For other eateries, the pressure might come from an anticipated FDA mandate that requires chain restaurants to display nutritional information on menus nationwide, says Michael Jacobson, executive director of the CSPI. "[The recent emphasis on calorie counts has] spurred major restaurants to look at ways to cut down calories and replace high-calorie dishes with low-calorie ones," he says.

According to Stephen King , an FDA spokesperson, the revamping of restaurant menus could be a proactive response to the pending rule, but at this point no enforceable requirements have been finalized, so the connection could be coincidence.

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Though these changes seem encouraging, Jacobson also warns that looks may be deceiving. "The trend isn't totally in the direction of lower calories," he says. "Companies don't send press releases when they come out with higher calorie meals," which, he noted, does continue to happen.

Additionally, items that appear to be healthy might not be as nutritious as you think. Low-fat and reduced-calorie offerings may still contain a lot of sugar, like a cup of oatmeal topped with brown sugar.

Also, while restaurants provide healthier fare, these options are still offered alongside bad-for-you foods. Despite the Cheesecake Factory's new calorie-conscious offerings, the restaurant continues to sell plenty of fat-loaded items. In fact, two of its dishes made the CSPI's 2011 Xtreme Eating List: The Farmhouse Cheeseburger, which is packed with 1,530 calories, 36 g of saturated fat, and 3,210 mg of sodium (not counting the 460 calories and 1,460 calories that come with the side of fries), and a slice of the Ultimate Red Velvet Cake Cheese Cake, which contains 1,540 calories and 59 g of saturated fat. Other Xtreme Eating offenders include Denny's, Applebee's, and Cold Stone Creamery.