Your Guide to Eating Out.. or should you really?

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On July 23rd, 2009 , Nick DeBenedetto, a 48-year-old resident of Tinton Falls, N.J., and the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a nonprofit advocacy group, filed lawsuit against Denny's Corp. in New Jersey, Reuters reports. (Read more on this story from the Los Angeles Times)

The suit contains data about some of the chain's high-salt meals. The Meat Lover's Scramble, for example, which contains cheese, eggs, bacon, diced ham and sausage, and comes with more meat on the side as well as hash browns and pancakes has 5,690 milligrams of sodium — the equivalent of nearly three days' advised maximum salt intake. (you can calculate it from Denny's Nutrition facts table)

Is there something special about Denny's? Not at all. There are many more restaurants and chains that have worse items on their menu. Many of them do not even want to display their nutrition facts on websites or answer requests to provide this information. Americans don't really know what's on their plates.

Keep in mind that most people should limit themselves to about 2,000 calories, 20 grams of saturated fat, and 1,500-2,400 mg of sodium per day and look at these items:

• The Cheesecake Factory’s Chicken and Biscuits has 2,500 calories.
• Chili’s Big Mouth Bites with fries contains 3,940 milligrams of sodium, 2,350 calories, and 38 grams saturated fat.
• The Olive Garden Tour of Italy, with lasagna, chicken parmigiana, and fettuccine alfredo, has 1,450 calories, 33 grams saturated fat, and 3,830 milligrams sodium.
• The Cheesecake Factory Fried Macaroni and Cheese has 69 grams of saturated fat, 1,570 calories, and 1,860 milligrams sodium.
• The Cheesecake Factory Philly Style Flat Iron Steak with fries contains 5,340 milligrams of sodium, 2,320 calories, and 47 grams saturated fat.
• Applebee’s Quesadilla Burger with fries has 1,820 calories, 46 grams saturated fat, and 4,410 milligrams sodium.
• The Red Lobster Ultimate Fondue, a salty concoction of shrimp and crabmeat in a lobster cheese sauce served in a sourdough bread bowl, contains 3,580 milligrams of sodium, 1,490 calories, and 40 grams saturated fat.
• Chili’s Original Half Rack of Baby Back Ribs have 12 saturated fat grams along with 490 calories, and 2,050 milligrams sodium.
• Uno Chicago Grill’s Mega-Sized Deep Dish Sundae has 2,800 calories, 72 grams saturated fat.
• Movie theater popcorn offerings range from 400 to 1,200 calories, with one to three days' worth of saturated fat and up to 1,500 milligrams of sodium. Make it a combo and add 300 to 1,110 empty calories worth of candy and another 150 to 500 calories from a sugary soft drink to wash it all down.
• Starbucks venti dark berry mocha frappuccino has 561 calories like entire meal
  

Consider why you should avoid dining out: Researchers have found that restaurants are full of environmental cues—from plate size to bread condiments—that encourage us to eat more.

Fast food eateries and the finest diners have limited choices if your goal is not to overeat and limit intake of fat, salt, sugar and common triggers of food intolerance.

Even restaurant salads - adored by people trying to eat healthy - are coming with many unhealthy ingredients (watch this video, for example). This includes processed salad dressings including trans fat, artificial flavors, excess sugar, harmful preservatives such as MSG, sodium nitrites (for example, in bacon bits). Restaurant salads are often based on iceberg lettuce that has way less useful nutrients than romaine, red leaf, green leaf lettuce, or spinach.

Aurametrix is working on tools to help you make the right choices.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Activists sue U.S. restaurant chain over sodium levels (nationalpost.com)
• Health Buzz: Denny's Sued Over Salty Menu and Other News (health.usnews.com)
• Food brands sold in Canada much saltier: study (ctv.ca)
• Menu Labeling Controversy Reaches Congress [Your Health] (consumerist.com)
• How Bad Are the 9 Unhealthiest Restaurant Meals? (fitsugar.com)

Aurametrix is working on tools to help you evaluate your personal health risks and benefits and make the right health choices.

Changing Culture of Medicine

by Aurametrix

Healthcare is the largest service industry in the world. Its old ways don't work anymore.
One of the reasons is that medical profession is seen increasingly in financial terms. Can you separate the businessman from the doctor? Not in American Medicine, says Kevin Pho, MD, author of the web's leading physician blog.

We need to change the way health care is envisioned, organized and delivered. We need creative approaches to building novel business models, and "disruptive technologies" to shake up the current system.

The current model motivates doctors to think about diagnostic tests based on available technologies and profit, not the need. They will, indeed, order a heart-stress test when the nuclear camera is in the next room, diagnose and treat harmless cancers, and be under financial pressure to see as many patients as possible.

The reform should create a different culture among health care professionals. Solutions include retail clinics that let people pay cash for low-end services and care, new primary care models such as Qliance, MDVIP, QuickHealth, and 1Life, clinics staffed largely by non-physicians, divorcing of physician payments from volume of services, more electronic encounters between doctors and patients and more automation.

Aurametrix works on automatic solutions beyond electronic medical records, for a healthier world.

Looking Back at Health 2.0

A couple of months ago Aurametrix posted a blog about Health 4.0

As we are yet in the stage of web 2.0 changing medicine, there seem to be more questions "what is Health 2.0". Here is an opinion:
Health 2.0 as a new data source

View more presentations from Matthew Holt.

Aurametrix is a startup working on Health 4.0 technologies

Misdiagnosed as IBS: Ovarian Cancer

by Aurametrix

Disease is a group of symptoms caused by abnormal conditions of the body or mind.

The symptoms of most diseases are similar.

According to Healthline, abdominal pain could be a symptom for 148 different conditions with food-triggered conditions on top of the list. WebMD searched for persistent abdominal pain of a female user offers 20 conditions starting from IBS.
Neither of the lists is complete.

Lindy Waldron from East Sussex was diagnosed with IBS although had symptoms of ovarian cancer. Kathy West was referred to gastroenteroligists too, and got the right diagnosis only becouse of "taking charge of own health care." Ateyah's story sounds very similar. Gilda Radner died of ovarian cancer. Her symptoms were inconclusive, and she was treated for everything under the sun until it was too late. "You have to be the director of your own movie" says another patient that demanded ca125 blood test unsatisfied with her diagnosis.

Of 400 GPs surveyed by a research charity Target Ovarian Cancer, 80% wrongly thought women with early stage ovarian cancer had no symptoms.
The majority of GPs (69%) surveyed seemed unaware of the fact that patients with ovarian cancer are more likely to experience frequent, sudden and persistent symptoms than patients with IBS.
Less than 2% of the 400 GPs surveyed knew that difficulty eating and a feeling of fullness were important symptoms.

According to Target Ovarian Cancer, the key symptoms of ovarian cancer include:
• Persistent pelvic or abdominal pain (tummy and below)
• Increased abdominal size/persistent bloating – not bloating that comes and goes
• Difficulty eating or feeling full quickly
• Urinary symptoms (needing to pass water more urgently or more often than usual)
• Changes in bowel habit
• Extreme fatigue (feeling very tired)
• Back pain.