Nutrition on Menus

No promises, but I am almost positive that all food establishments
must have some sort of nutritional guide on hand. It may not be at
your table or on your menu, but it does exist.

Did you ask the manager at your favored Olive Garden if there's a
nutrition guide?

I try to eat healthful foods, too. I know what's "good" for me, or
what's allowed on my eating plan. When I go out to eat, I look for
foods that are within my "allowed" range.

I checked out OG's website to look at the menu, to see what would fit
on my eating plan. I wasn't very impressed. (I'd look for something
prepared without a lot of oil or cream. If I were sticking to my plan,
of course. If not, I could find a lot to eat!) However, I did find
the following link, which might be helpful in deciding what to
choose:

http://www.olivegarden.com/menus/garden_fare/

At a non-chain restaurant, I would find it easy to ask for the chicken
to be prepared without breading or a small amount of oil. I'm not
sure that OG can accommodate all such requests. I would ask, but I'd
also realize that my request might not be do-able.

One suggestion for you: Ask for a box immediately, and put half of
your meal aside right away. If it's not staring at you from the
plate, you might not eat it all at once. OG's servings are quite
large; you could save some for another meal or a family member.

One other idea: I'm guessing you're going out to eat for the company.
Eat something on your food plan beforehand and order an appetizer(the
mussels look to me to be a good choice, if you don't use all the herb
butter) and the minestrone.

If you dine out often, you might want to check websites before you go.

When I eat out, I don't want to know that information. I'll monitor
what I eat at home.

http://health.yahoo.com/experts/eatthis/11230/americas-bestand-worstre
staurants

Here's their list of 'Best and Worst Restaurants':
A Chick-fil-a
A- Subway
B+ Boston Market
B McDonald's
C+ Domino's
C Burger King
D Chipotle
F Applebee's Outback IHOP TGIF's Red Lobster Olive Garden

Maybe your post today is a coincidence. I would point out that most
everyone who made a comment on Yahoo! found it very odd they consider
the "F" restaurants as being the "worst" of this group. About the
only thing I agree with here is McD's is better than BK. Rating the
best and worst restaurants solely on their menus is something I would
expect of Yahoo!

The healthiest food I consume is made at home. I assume that when I
eat out that I am cramming my body with crap. I stick with salads at
Applebee's. I'm sure they have unhealthy stuff on the menu. I
haven't been to OG in awhile, but some of their food in my mind is
pretty unhealthy. Those breadsticks saturated with whatever are
usually pretty nasty. The salad dressing can't be good for you. The
pasta dishes I have had are laden with heavy sauces.

I pretty much rely on common sense to gauge whether an item is a
healthy choice, based on the description of how it is served. Rather
unscientific. I agree that in the future, it would be nice for all
restaurants to supply this information. Someone in the Yahoo!
responses said that in NYC all restuarants have to provide this
information. That sounds familiar. You would think that if the
mentioned chains do it there, they could provide everyone with menus
that call out that information.

You're going to an Italian-themed restaurant where most dishes are
pasta (essentially nothing but carbs) and made with olive oil (a good
fat, but a fat nonetheless). I'd think the guesswork is pretty easy
for anyone who's done any calorie/nutrition counting. And if
calories/nutrition are an issue with you, pasta-rich dishes probably
aren't on the menu for you.

I suggest you check out this website:

http://www.thedailyplate.com/nutrition-calories/food/olive-garden