Game day food safety – National Consumers League

With the Super Bowl coming up this Sunday, many of us are planning for large parties and get-togethers. An essential part of party planning is food safety. Here are a few tips to make sure that you and your friends can enjoy the game without having to worry about picking up a nasty foodborne illness.

  • Whether it’s hamburgers or chicken wings, meat is a central part of many people’s Super Bowl plans. Make sure you follow USDA’s recommendations and cook meat to an appropriate internal temperature. That means 165 degrees for chicken, 160 degrees for ground beef and 140 degrees (with a hold time of three minutes) for steaks. Always verify your meat has reached the correct temperature by using a meat thermometer.
  • Remember that cleanliness is one of the strongest weapons against foodborne illness. This means washing your hands before handling food and keeping cooking surfaces clean. It’s important to wash your hands if you are the big night’s chef, but hands should be clean even if you are just eating. Always wash with soap and warm water for 20 seconds before handling any food.
  • If you are preparing both raw meat and other foods, keep these foods apart from each other as cross contamination is a common cause of foodborne illness.  This means washing your hands between preparing a steak and a vegetable platter.  In addition, use separate cutting boards and knives for each food item to avoid cross contamination.
  • As Super Bowl parties can last several hours, it is especially important to make sure your food is not left out for a long period of time.  Remember, foods should only stay at room temperature for two hours so unless you have a way to heat or chill them, discard them if they have been out for more than two hours.

If you follow these tips you and your guests can focus on all the football action rather than the fear of coming down with a foodborne illness the next day.

How safe is your OJ? – National Consumers League

Orange juice has spent a lot of time in the headlines recently due to the detection of low levels of a fungicide called carbendazim. Is America’s OJ safe to drink? What’s the government doing about it and what does this mean for consumers?

Carbendazim is not approved for use in either the United States or the European Union, but it is widely used in other parts of the world to combat fungus that grows on fruit. At high levels, the fungicide has been correlated with liver cancer in animal studies.

Here’s what’s gone down: Coca Cola alerted the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to the presence of carbendazim after finding it in samples of juice it tested. OJ from Brazil was implicated as the source of the residues. In response to the alert from Coca Cola, FDA began to test imported orange juice for the presence of the fungicide. The agency announced that it would ban any juices that contained more than 10 parts per billion (ppb) of carbendazim.

While the United States and European Union both ban it, only the EU has set a threshold for how much carbendazim is allowed in foods. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has determined that carbendazim at less than 80 ppb is not harmful. Furthermore, FDA stated in a letter from January 9 that the “EPA has concluded that consumption of orange juice with carbendazim at the low levels that have been reported does not raise safety concerns.”

While FDA has stated that the level of carbendazim recently found in the orange juice is not harmful, the issue still raises concerns for consumers. There are three major things that need to happen here if consumers are to be protected. First, FDA should issue limits on the amount of carbendazim that can be present in orange juice, a move that would get rid of the current ambiguity surrounding the issue.

Second, country of origin labels (COOL) on juice allow consumers to decide whether or not they want to buy a product which comes from a country with a history of using chemicals not approved in the US. Unfortunately, our entire COOL system is under attack by the World Trade Organization (WTO). In order to protect consumers, the Obama administration should appeal the WTO’s recent ruling and fight to protect COOL.

Finally, FDA, which is responsible for the safety of much of the food in this country, should be adequately funded so that it can carry out its expanded mandate as prescribed by the recent Food Safety Modernization Act. Only with increased funding can FDA continue to do the work that protects our food supply.

While FDA has so far not found excess amounts of carbendazim in any of the samples it has tested, consumers may still want to avoid orange juice that contains this chemical. There are two ways to do this. First, if you want to avoid many pesticide residues, drink orange juice that is certified 100 percent organic. Second, look at the label to see where the orange juice comes from and drink only U.S. orange juice. For now, FDA has stated that it will not recall any orange juice and that the juice available is safe to drink.

Your best resolution yet: Take the pledge to take your meds – National Consumers League

This time of year, many Americans ponder possible resolutions for self- improvement. Many of the most popular New Year’s resolutions continue to focus on health: losing weight, managing stress, giving up bad habits, eating right, and exercising more. One resolution that may be less common – but of crucial importance now and year-round – is a simple one: follow your doctor’s orders.

“Failure to follow prescribed health regimens, or poor medication adherence, is a growing public health concern, made all the more critical as the number of Americans affected by at least one chronic condition requiring medication therapy is expected to grow from 133 to 157 million by 2020,” said Sally Greenberg, Executive Director of the National Consumers League (NCL), the nation’s oldest consumer organization.

According to Greenberg, nearly three out of four Americans report that they do not always take their medication as directed, a problem that causes more than one-third of medicine-related hospitalizations, nearly 125,000 deaths in the United States each year, and adds $290 billion in avoidable costs to the health care system annually.

Poor medication adherence has become an issue of such concern that NCL has launched Script Your Future, a national campaign designed to help patients take back their futures by helping them understand the importance of taking your medicine as directed – and following through with it. Script Your Future offers free tools for consumers to manage their medicines and sample questions to help start a conversation with their doctor, pharmacist, or nurse about their medicines.

So, still looking for a new year’s resolution? Here are three easy steps you can take today to get started down the path towards better adherence and healthier living:

  1. Make the pledge to take medication as directed as a first step to a healthier life in 2012.
  2. Download a medication wallet card to help keep track of prescribed medication(s) and help guide conversations about medication with health care providers.
  3. Commit to further engaging in conversations about medication with health care providers during doctor visits and at the pharmacy.

“The consequences of nonadherence are too great to be ignored,” said NCL’s Vice President for Health Policy Rebecca Burkholder. “There are simple steps everyone can take to make adherence a part of their resolutions for a healthy 2012.”

 Additional Script Your Future tools include free text message reminders, sample questions for patients to ask health care practitioners, medication lists, condition management sheets, and fact sheets on common chronic conditions.  All of these materials can be found on the campaign Web site, www.ScriptYourFuture.org.

 Script Your Future is a campaign of the National Consumers League (NCL), a private, non-profit membership organization founded in 1899. For more information about the Script Your Future campaign, visit www.ScriptYourFuture.org.

Celebrate the season safely – National Consumers League

Whatever your family’s holiday traditions, they are sure to involve large quantities of food. With all that food come safety risks. Here are a few tips to make sure your family has a safe Thanksgiving and holiday season.

Turkey safety

While it may make the process move more quickly, it is not safe to leave your bird out of the refrigerator to defrost overnight. Plan to defrost in the refrigerator, allowing 24 hours for every 4-5 pounds of bird. Alternately, defrost your bird in a cold water bath. Change the water every 30 minutes and allow for 30 minutes for every pound. Turkeys, especially large ones, can take a long time to cook so make sure you allow plenty of time for your bird to be fully and completely cooked. To find out of the turkey is done, use a meat thermometer to check the thickest part of bird, at the thigh, wing and breast. The internal temperature should be 165۫. If you have stuffed your bird, check it to make sure the stuffing has reached 165۫ as well. If your turkey comes with a popup thermometer, double check it’s done by using a meat thermometer.

Stuffing

While it is traditional to cook stuffing inside the bird, this can create a dangerous situation.  Food safety experts recommend cooking the stuffing in a separate container to avoid cross contamination that may cause foodborne illnesses common in poultry, like salmonella and campylobacter.

Side Dishes

Because Thanksgiving Day celebrations can stretch throughout the day, it is important to make sure to store side dishes appropriately.  Dishes should not be left out for more than two hours.  Warm sides should be kept heated over the stove or in the oven.  Cool dishes can be kept in the refrigerator until service time.  When the meal is done, all leftover food should be put into the refrigerator within two hours and stored in Tupperware containers.

From everyone here at NCL, we hope you have a happy holiday season free from foodborne illness!

NCL Fact Sheet on Saw Safety – National Consumers League

Table saws cause tens of thousands of serious injuries every year, costing billions of dollars.

Approximately 40,000 Americans go to hospital emergency rooms every year with injuries sustained while operating table saws.  About 4,000 of those injuries – or more than 10 every day – are amputations.

Table saw injuries cost the United States approximately $2 billion every year. 

Current table saw safety standards have proven ineffective in protecting consumers.

The primary technology used by the majority of table saw manufacturers to prevent table saw injuries is a plastic blade guard.  This technology has remained essentially the same for over 50 years.  Yet, blade guards have proved to be ineffective in reducing the 40,000 serious table saw injuries that occur every year.

Guards must be removed in order to perform many tasks on a table saw, such as cutting a notch in a board.  Users find them cumbersome and many simply remove the guards from their saws.  According to the most recent CPSC injury report, in approximately two-thirds of table saw injuries, the guard had been removed. And even when guards are in place, blade contact injuries can occur.  The CPSC report found that almost one-third of table saw injuries occur with the blade guard in place.

Technologies exist that prevent serious injuries if a person comes in contact with the blade.

One of these technologies, called SawStop, stops the blade within milliseconds of contact to minimize injury.  It is on the market already and has demonstrated its effectiveness with over 1000 finger saves.  Another technology was developed by a consortium of table saw manufacturers.  It retracts the blade within milliseconds of contact to minimize injury.  It has not yet been brought to market.

The benefits of improving table saw safety clearly outweigh the costs. 

It would cost approximately $100 per saw to put automatic safety technology on every table saw sold in the United States. According to Dr. John D. Graham, head of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs for President George W. Bush, an average table saw equipped with an automatic safety system will deliver $753 in benefits due to reduced injuries. The $753 benefit per table saw is many times greater than the $100 cost per saw to equip table saws with automatic safety technology, which means this safety requirement would be very cost-effective.  And those monetary benefits don’t even take into account the benefits of eliminating pain, suffering and emotional trauma that serious injuries impose on victims and their families.

The table saw industry is using many of the same arguments that auto manufacturers used to delay airbag requirements for 20 years.  In that time, an estimated 162,000 people died unnecessarily.

In the eight years that the Power Tool Industry (PTI) has been opposing automatic safety technology for table saws, an estimated 320,000 serious table saw injuries have occurred, including 32,000 amputations.

The PTI argues:

  • The requirement would be too costly.

But statistics show that it is cost-beneficial to prevent 40,000 serious injuries every year with this proven technology.  Auto manufacturers also argued that airbags would be too expensive for many cars and that consumers would not want to spend more money for the additional safety.

  • Blade guards work if people will use them.

Blade guards must be removed for many kinds of cuts made on a table saw, so they cannot be used all the time.  Automatic safety devices on table saws, in contrast, can be used for virtually every cut of wood and other non-conductive material. Also, people don’t use blade guards because they are cumbersome and often interfere with the work. Automatic safety devices, in contrast, are invisible to the user and they don’t interfere with the work.

Automobile manufacturers argued that seat belts were sufficient to protect drivers and passengers. Airbags and seat belts are similar to automatic safety devices and blade guards.  Many people don’t use seat belts.  And unlike seat belts, airbags are automatic devices that are invisible to the user and they don’t interfere with the operation of the car.

And just like airbags and seat belts, the safest way to operate a table saw is to have both an automatic safety device AND a blade guard.

  • If consumers want to pay extra for safety, they can buy the safe table saw that is now on the market.

It is wrong to say that consumers will pay more if safer saws are required because society is already paying $2 billion per year due to preventable table saw injuries.  Society will save money if safer saws are required.  In addition, safety should not be available to only those who can afford it.  What if we sold cars with seat belts and airbags only to those who could afford them?  Or only made safe food and water available for those who could pay for it?  Safety shouldn’t only be for the affluent.  All members of society have a right to expect that the products they use will be safe.

It is time for the Consumer Product Safety Commission to act quickly to enact a performance standard that would require table saws to mitigate injuries when blade contact occurs or is about to occur.   Table saws that would meet such a performance standard are already operating successfully in the marketplace; the benefits far outweigh the costs; and injuries have not been reduced under the current voluntary safety standard.   Every day of delay means another 100 serious injuries – that is too high a price to pay.

Table saw accidents preventable with technology improvements – National Consumers League

Did you know that each year, tens of thousands of people are brutally injured by table saws – including 4,000 amputations – at a cost of more than $2 billion a year to treat victims? This just in: CPSC, in a unanimous 5-0 vote on October 5, 2011, decided to move forward with an ANPR regarding a national table saw safety standard. Click here to view NCL’s press release hailing the decision.

The National Consumers League has been calling on the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) to implement safety changes that would help keep this major public health threat at bay since November of last year. Recently, NCL brought table saw victims from across the country (whose stories are available below) to CPSC headquarters to share their debilitating injuries with CPSC Chairman Inez Tenenbaum.

With NCL’s strong support, CPSC has voted unanimously (5-0) in favor of moving forward with an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking regarding establishing a national table saw safety standard—a giant step forward in curbing the unnecessary loss of life and limb.

Click here for an NCL fact sheet on saw safety

Victims’ stories of table saw injuries are grisly. Meet Adam, a husband and father of two sons, who is sharing his experience this spring with policymakers in hopes that table saws will be made safer for others:

Adam

Adam, a very experienced woodworker who owns a woodworking business, was cutting panels on a contractor saw on May 12, 2010 and as the material started to fall off the backside of the saw, he instinctively went to grab the panel. As he was pulling the panel back, his elbow caught the top of the blade and the blade then pulled his elbow further into the blade, up to the center portion of his forearm.

The blade cut completely through the ulna bone and ulnar nerve in his right forearm, and also caused extensive damage to muscles, tendons, and ligaments. Since the accident, Adam has been going through extensive medical treatment and therapy. He has an upcoming visit to the Mayo Clinic to review the possibility of harvesting nerves from his ankles and feet and transplanting them to his forearm and hand. Doctors estimate it will take 3-5 years for him to recover.

Adam had recently started a woodworking business and was self-employed at the time of the accident, so this has been very tough financially on his young family. Though he is still able to do woodworking, he cannot continue his business because doing the work is too painful and slow to be able to turn a profit on what he builds. He is now in the process of applying for Social Security. He has had medical assistance step in to help with the medical bills, so the out-of-pocket cost of the injury to him and his family is not yet fully known. His wife now works as a part-time nurse to cover living expenses while Adam recovers. Adam has been interviewing for jobs but has not been able to get one because in every interview he has been asked what he can commit to do physically and he cannot yet answer that question. Every day is different in regards to the level of pain he feels in his hand and the degree he can move his fingers.

Read more stories like Adam’s (warning: PDFs contain graphic injury images)Chris | Curtis | Gerald | Adam’s full story

Consumer product safety advocates find stories like Adam’s especially heartbreaking because they are preventable. Eight years ago a company called SawStop, which has developed safety technology to stop the saw blade when it detects electrical impulses given off by a finger or other body part, filed a petition with the Commission asking that the Commission adopt safety technology throughout the industry. The CPSC has yet to act on that petition or set a safety standard for table saws.

A 2006 CPSC staff report to the Commission in response to the petition shows a positive cost-benefit analysis to setting a national performance standard for table saws, and recommends granting the petition and proceeding with a rulemaking process that could result in a mandatory safety standard for table saws to reduce the risk of blade contact injury . CPSC voted in 2006 to start the regulatory process, but no action was ever taken. In early 2011, manufacturers of safer saw technologies were invited to present their positions at a CPSC public meeting, but no additional action has been taken.

“Each day we wait for CPSC to act, 10 new amputations occur,” said Sally Greenberg, NCL Executive Director, who has been calling on the CPSC to act on table saw safety issues. “We’re throwing away 4,000 fingers each year when safer-saw technology exists. The time for action is now.”

Overcoming obstacles on the path to prescription medication adherence – National Consumers League

When it comes to managing a chronic health condition, taking your medication as directed seems like a simple no-brainer. With this idea in mind, many of us find the poor national adherence rate shocking—three out of four, or 75 percent, of Americans are non-adherent, resulting in an estimated 125,000 deaths and up to $300 billion dollars in healthcare costs each year.

Yet as patient and heart health advocate Ron Michaud explained at the recent Script Your Future launch event, managing his heart disease, blood pressure, and diabetes requires juggling 13 different medications and 24 pills taken four times a day, everyday.

Michaud made it clear that he wouldn’t be here today without a strong support system to help keep him on track.

“I’ve needed my doctor’s support, my wife’s support, and some tools to manage my medication adherence,” he told a packed auditorium at George Washington University Hospital. “If today’s medications were available when I began my journey with heart disease, and I used my adherence tools, I might have avoided some of the heart attacks and surgeries I have undergone.”

U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Regina Benjamin was on-hand to explain how the Script Your Future campaign was created to provide just the kind of support patients like Michaud need. ScriptYourFuture.org offers visitors free text-message medication reminders, sample questions to ask health care professionals, lists and charts to keep track of medicines, videos on how to properly use certain medical devices, and fact sheets on chronic conditions like asthma and high cholesterol.  There is also a feature that lets users create a personalized pledge to adhere to medications for themselves or a loved one.

Aside from the dynamic website, the campaign will include regional launches and educational events in target markets like Baltimore, Cincinnati, Birmingham, Providence, Sacramento, and Raleigh.

“I am proud to be a part of the Script Your Future campaign,” said the Surgeon General. “As America’s doctor, I want to keep this significant public issue at the forefront and am committed to working to raise awareness about how clinicians can help their patients.”

Dr. Benjamin stressed that health care professionals, as well as patients, have a critical role in improving the national adherence rate. Dr. Benjamin shared an emotional story about a former patient named Donna who was continuing to experience seizures despite taking all the medicines her doctor prescribed. Only after asking Donna to draw all her medications on paper, did Dr. Benjamin realize that Donna couldn’t read and was relying on her pills’ shapes and colors to identify them—she ran into trouble as soon as she received multiple prescriptions of pills of the same color from her pharmacist.

The critical need to educate health care practitioners about how to talk to their patients is why the campaign also includes a site dedicated to health professionals.  The site includes a variety of interactive tools such as tips on how to begin honest conversations with patients and journal articles on adherence and how it can be improved.

By encouraging health professionals and their patients to work together, the campaign hopes to help those living with chronic conditions live, longer healthier lives—the ultimate goal of patients and doctors alike.

 

Advocating for nursing moms – National Consumers League

NCL has been advocating for measures to improve the health of women and children since its founding in 1899 and was very concerned to read about the IRS’ decision to deny nursing mothers the ability to use their tax-sheltered health care accounts to pay for breast pumps and other supplies. Read NCL’s letter to the IRS.

October 29, 2010

Douglas H. Shulman, Commissioner

Internal Revenue Service

1111 Constitution Avenue, NW

Washington DC 20224

Re: The use of tax-sheltered health care accounts for breastfeeding costs Dear Commissioner Shulman:

The National Consumers League has been advocating for measures to improve the health of women and children since our founding in 1899. We were therefore very concerned to read about the IRS’ decision to deny nursing mothers the ability to use their tax-sheltered health care accounts to pay for breast pumps and other supplies.

According to IRS Publication 502, reimbursable items include those that aid in the “prevention of disease.” The IRS apparently has inexplicably determined that breast-feeding does not help in the “prevention of disease.” The National Consumers League could not disagree more with this determination. We ask that you review and reverse this misguided decision. Indeed, the medical evidence is overwhelming that far more widespread breastfeeding would not only “prevent disease” in the United States, but would save our health care system billions of dollars.

Consider the following evidence about the myriad health benefits to both mother and child of breastfeeding:

  • According to a Harvard study published in April of this year, if 90% of US families would comply with medical recommendations to breastfeed exclusively for 6 months, the United States would save $13 billion per year and prevent an excess 911 deaths, nearly all of which would be among infants ($10.5 billion and 741 deaths at 80% compliance)
  • The risk of infant death due to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) is lowered, and respiratory infections such as pneumonia, and necrotizing enterocolitis are nearly eliminated if mothers breastfeed their infants until at least six months after birth.
  • The US Department of Health and Human Services has found that breastfed infants have a lower risk of contracting ear infections, stomach viruses, atopic dermatitis, type 1 and 2 diabetes, childhood leukemia, and other health problems.
  • Mothers also benefit from breastfeeding because of lower risk of contracting type 2 diabetes, breast cancer, ovarian cancer, and postpartum depression (PPD).
  • Breastfed infants typically need fewer sick care visits. Congress recently acknowledged the importance of breastfeeding in the landmark health care reform legislation it enacted this year by requiring that workplaces provide women with a private place to nurse or use a breast pump.
  • As Dr. Robert W. Block, president-elect of the American Academy of Pediatrics noted in the New York Times this week, “The old adage that breast-feeding is a child’s first immunization really is true … So we need to do everything we can to remove the barriers that make it difficult.”

We agree with Dr. Block. We need to encourage, not discourage, barriers to widespread breastfeeding. Unfortunately, the IRS determination NOT to allow parents to use their tax- sheltered flex accounts to cover the cost of breast pumps has the impact of further discouraging women from breast feeding and directly undermines what is by every measure a critical practice for improved public health. We ask that you, as IRS Commissioner, review this decision and, in light of the overwhelming evidence, reverse it. We believe the cost of breast pumps should and must be a covered cost in these flex plans.

Thank you for your attention to our concerns.

Sincerely,

Sally Greenberg, Executive Director

National Consumers League

Cc: Senate HELP Committee Chairman Tom Harkin

House Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry Waxman

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner

Surgeon General Regina Benjamin

Ensuring safe treats this Halloween – National Consumers League

From costumes and candy apples to haunted houses and hayrides, Halloween offers activities to please the most demure and daring alike. For parents of children planning to trick-or-treat, however, concerns about the safety of the candy their youngsters collect can dampen the festive mood.

For many Americans both young and old, Halloween stands out as the highlight of the fall. To keep Halloween about treats and terrors, rather than tricks and tummy-aches, follow these safe sweets tips:

  • Don’t let your kids go trick-or-treating on an empty stomach! This will help minimize the temptation of snacking on candy that you haven’t had a chance to inspect yet.
  • Instruct children not to eat any candy or other treats until a parent has had a chance to inspect their goodies. In addition to preventing youngsters from eating suspect treats, it will also keep concerns about choking, candy overconsumption, and allergenic items at bay – at least while wandering the neighborhood.
  • Throw away baked goods, open items, and anything else not commercially packaged, even if your child thinks it came from a house you know. Following this rule with all items helps avoid dissent over desirable homemade treats.
  • Throw away any treats that look like they may have been tampered with or appear suspect in any way.
  • If you have a child with food allergies, check the ingredients on all items.
  • If you have a small child, look for choking hazards, such as hard candies and chewing gum, and remove them from the stash.
  • If you own a pet, keep candy well out of reach. Chocolate is particularly dangerous for dogs, and consumption of candy – and wrappers – is not good for any pets.

Have a happy, healthy Halloween!

Eating out traps – National Consumers League

Today, Americans spend nearly half their food dollars on meals and snacks eaten outside the home. And meals that restaurants serve up tend to contain more calories, fat, saturated fat, and sodium than the ones consumers prepare for themselves at home. Even for those who eat out less often than the average American, the extra calories can add up quickly.

To further complicate matters, a number of “eating out traps” can thwart even the most well-intentioned diner looking to order a healthful restaurant meal.  Knowing where to look for those hidden calories, however, is half the battle; read on to steer clear of some of the biggest calorie culprits:

Oversized portions and value meals

Over the past two decades, restaurants portion sizes have significantly increased. And studies show that when individuals are served larger portions, they tend to eat more in a given sitting than when they are served smaller meals. Unless you’re careful, when dining at a restaurant you can easily consume two or three times the amount of food you might serve yourself at home. The “value meal” only exacerbates this problem. Economically, spending only pennies more for a larger portion makes sense; given that “supersize” options tend to be available only for cheap, unhealthy foods (such as French fries and soda), however, they can be a diet landmine. To keep your portions in check, try the following tips:

  • Split an entrée with a family member or friend, and order a side salad or extra veggies to round out your meal
  • Save half of your meal for lunch or dinner the next day (ask for a box at the beginning of the meal and put away your “second portion” if you doubt your ability to leave half on the plate)
  • Just say “no” to supersizing – in fact…
  • Order a kid’s meal at a fast food restaurant, and pay less to eat less

To determine whether you’ve been served one meal or three, remember these estimates:

  • 3 ounces of meat = a deck of cards
  • 1 cup of potatoes, rice, or pasta = a tennis ball
  • 1 slice of bread = audiocassette tape
  • 1 ounce of cheese = pair of dice
  • 1 tsp butter, margarine = tip of a thumb
  • ½ cup of ice cream = half of a baseball

Sneaky salads

In theory, a salad should be a great choice when dining out. In practice, too many tasty toppers often send salad calorie counts soaring. Many chain restaurant salads pack in well over 1,000 calories, more than other menu options that seem less healthy. Luckily, you can easily transform these less-than-healthy offerings into a nutritious – and still delicious – meal with a few tweaks:

  • Keep fried items off of salads, bypass the tortilla bowl, and request that anything “crispy,” “crunchy,” or “crusted” not be served on your salad
  • Cheese, nuts, bacon, and avocado are fine on top of healthy greens, colorful vegetables, and lean protein – but not all together; pick one or two, and request that the kitchen keep the rest
  • Order dressing on the side, and use creamy dressings sparingly; if you like your salad more heavily dressed, order a low-cal dressing option and remember that an appropriate serving is still only two tablespoons, rather than a small bowl

Bottomless bread baskets

There’s nothing wrong with a little bread and butter to start or finish your meal. It can be far too easy, however, to pack away half a loaf – or more! – while waiting to order or for your meal to arrive, particularly with free and frequent refills. Try to limit yourself to a piece or two, and if you can’t stop there, kindly request that your server remove the bread basket.

Creamy sauces and hidden fats

At restaurants, it’s often the meal components that you can’t see that turn seemingly healthy dishes into diet disasters. Sautéed proteins and vegetables may contain far more oil than you would ever use at home, and everything from lean steak to broccoli is fair game, when it comes to an unexpected pat of butter. To avoid unhealthy cooking methods, ask your server how dishes are prepared and request a style of preparation that works for you.

  • Healthy preparation styles include the following: broiling, roasting, baking, steaming, poaching, blackening, grilling (grilled veggies may contain a lot of oil, so ask before ordering)
  • Less healthy preparation styles: fried, pan-fried, deep-fried, sautéed, battered, breaded, crispy

When it comes to sauces and sides, terminology can also help lead you towards healthier options and away from fat-traps:

  • Opt for: broth-based soups, tomato-based pasta sauces, plain baked potatoes, whole grains
  • Avoid (or consume with caution): au gratin, buttered, cheesy, béarnaise, creamy, hollandaise, alfredo

If you don’t want to pass up your favorite high-fat sauce, order it on the side and use it sparingly.

Salt, salt, salt!

While not a “calorie culprit,” salt nevertheless deserves its own section when it comes to eating out traps, due to its overabundance in American restaurant and packaged foods as well as the health risks that come with excessive consumption. To decrease your intake of sodium while dining out, follow these tips:

  • Choose made-to-order meals over buffet-style dining or fast food, and request that your meal is prepared without added sodium
  • Ask your server for low-sodium menu suggestions
  • Avoid (or sparingly consume) the following items
    • Soy sauce
    • Smoked, cured, and salted meat, fish, and poultry
    • Ham, bacon, hot dogs, and lunch meats
    • Pickles and olives
    • Ketchup
    • Processed tomato sauce
    • Canned vegetables
  • Eat low-sodium, non-processed foods the rest of the day when dining out, in order to keep your daily sodium intake within reason