Yesterday, we had a foot-long meatball sub from Subway with a little bit of the buffalo sauce, some green peppers, and some onions. The crunch of the onion blended well with the softness of the meatball to create a savory meal fresh from the True worktop refrigerator (we don’t know if they use these, but we’d like for them to – we know where you can get one). All told, this sandwich came to just under 1000 calories.
If we’d had a sugary drink associated with it, it would have gotten into the 1,300 calorie range, and if there were one of their sweet, sweet macadamia nut cookies added to the order, it would have brought the meal well up to 1,500. If the recommended daily allowance of calories is 2,000, then there’s not much room to play after a Subway sandwich, is there?
That’s something that the researchers at Tufts University found. The calories that were in fast food and mom and pop restaurants were sometimes more than the recommended calorie intake. It was found that many of these meals had nearly 1,500 calories per meal.
In order to get their data from the mom and pop restaurants which don’t have the calorie counts listed on their foods, they ordered meals from places, packed them in ice and then sent them off to the lab in Boston to be tested. Then, the food was turned into a powder and then tested for caloric content.
The regular overeating happens as a result of being neurologically hardwired to make it happen. We are programmed to eat everything on the plate, and we do, therefore bringing in the calories. But it can be overridden, just ask any successful dieter!
