Usain Bolt. Michael Phelps. Jeff Gordon. What do these guys have in common? They know how to get off to a great start.
Think of them next time you settle into a booth at your favorite restaurant. Most sit-down chains offer a wide selection of egregious appetizers, “starters” that ought be called “stoppers” because they’ll stop your weight-loss plans dead. Unlike, say, a midafternoon candy bar or buttered popcorn at the movie theater, an appetizer isn't a stand-alone indulgence. It's a pre-game meal, the food you eat before you eat your food. And if you suck down 1,000 calories before dinner arrives, you'll blow past your entire day's calorie needs in one sitting. A thousand calories in just an appetizer? Oh, read on, innocent eater. . . .
Now, I’m not saying you should never indulge in an app. In fact, a study in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association found that by eating an appetizer before your meal, you could reduce your total calorie intake by 12 percent. But you have to be smart. The appetizer in the study weighed in at a mere 100 calories. The oversized appetizers now served at most chain restaurants are 10, sometimes 20 times that size. That's no exaggeration. If you want to avoid a calorie hangover (that'd be the one drooping over your belt), then you'd be wise to eliminate these 8 starters from your life, compliments of Eat This, Not That! 2011: The No-Diet Weight Loss Solution.
#8: Worst Seafood Starter
Red Lobster Crispy Calamari and Vegetables
1,520 calories
97 g fat (11 g saturated)
3,050 mg sodium
"Crispy" is nothing more than a polite way of saying "covered with oil-saturated breading." That puts the tariff for this meal at nearly 100 grams of fat, which is more than you'd find in eight McDonald's cheeseburgers. Fortunately, Red Lobster also carries one of the world's healthiest starters: shrimp cocktail. It's loaded with protein and health-promoting minerals, and it's naturally low in calories. You'd have to suck down 76 jumbo shrimp to equal the 1,520 calories in Red Lobster's Crispy Calamari and Vegetables.
Eat This Instead!Chilled Jumbo Shrimp Cocktail
120 calories
0.5 g fat (0 g saturated)
580 mg sodium
#7: Worst Asian Appetizer
P.F. Chang’s Spare Ribs with Asian Slaw
1,546 calories
113 g fat (31 g saturated)
1,624 mg sodium
Notice anything unusual about this appetizer? It's a full meal! It contains both an entree and a side dish. That would be forgivable if either of these were the least bit lean, but they're not. Far from it. The ribs deliver a deathblow of saturated fat and the Asian slaw bolsters the total fat count by 17 extra grams. The ribs’ antithesis is Chang’s Steamed Vegetable Dumplings. They're low in calories and high in micronutrients. Unfortunately, sodium's hard to avoid at Chang's, so go easy on the Potsticker Sauce to minimize the salty impact.
Eat This Instead!P.F. Chang’s Steamed Vegetable Dumplings with Potsticker Sauce
320 calories
0 g fat
1,090 mg sodium
To read more of this article, click below:
8 Worst Appetizers in America-Yahoo! Health
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