Hi there! I am on vacation in the beautiful Pacific Northwest this week, but I wanted to leave you with some Food for Thought:

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As more bistros, brasseries, and cafes go out of business because of a down economy in France, new research finds one restaurant is doing quite well there. France is now the second most profitable market in the world for McDonald’s. The chain has more than 1,000 restaurants in the country, serving more than a million customers a day.

So, is it a coincidence that there are also now bigger waistlines in France? According to the report, 40 percent of all French were obese or overweight in 2005 – a figure that has doubled in less than a decade. And among children under 18 years old, the obesity rate is rising by more than 20 percent a year.

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Counting calories may soon become easier to do at restaurants. Chains have now agreed to support legislation that would require them to post calories on their menus. Restaurants with 20 or more locations would have to list the number of calories in each item. And if someone asks, they would also have to show them other nutritional information like the amount of sugar, salt or cholesterol in the food. Congress is expected to discuss the menu labeling law during the next few weeks.

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It’s back. A bill Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA) and Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) introduced that would require nutrition labeling on chain-restaurant menus across the country was reintroduced today. If the Menu Education and Labeling (MEAL) Act passes, fast-food and other chain restaurants would have to post calories on menu boards and list calories, saturated fat, trans fat, carbohydrates, and sodium on printed menus.

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We’ve talked about how there’s hidden sodium in foods you wouldn’t think to check. Now a new report from the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) finds mega amounts of salt in foods you might think of as salty… but probably not quite this bad. 

Dietary guidelines recommend healthy adults get no more than 2,300 mg of sodium a day. To control high blood pressure, you should aim for no more than 1,500 mg.

But when CSPI researchers looked at 17 restaurant chains, they found 85 out of 102 meals had more than a day’s worth of sodium. Some had more than four days’ worth, including these:

• Red Lobster Admirals’ Feast with Caesar Salad, Creamy Lobster Topped Mashed Potato, Cheddar Bay Biscuit, and a Lemonade: 7,106 mg

• Chili’s Buffalo Chicken Fajitas (with tortillas and condiments) and a Dr Pepper: 6,916 mg

• Chili’s Honey-Chipotle Ribs with Mashed Potatoes with Gravy, Seasonal Vegetables, and a Dr Pepper: 6,440 mg

• Olive Garden Tour of Italy (lasagna) with a Breadstick, Garden Fresh Salad with House Dressing, and a Coca-Cola: 6,176 mg

• Olive Garden Chicken Parmigiana with a Breadstick, Garden Fresh Salad with House Dressing, and Raspberry Lemonade: 5,735 mg

And what about children’s meals at chain restaurants?

They’re over the top, as well. The Institute of Medicine says children aged 4-8 should have no more than 1,200 mg of sodium per day. These meals have one or two days’ worth of sodium:

• Red Lobster Chicken Fingers, Biscuit, Fries, Raspberry Lemonade: 2,430 mg

• Chili’s Country Fried Chicken Crispers with Rice and 1% milk: 2,385 mg

• KFC Popcorn Chicken with Macaroni and Cheese, Teddy Grahams, and 2% milk: 2,005 mg

• Jack in the Box Chicken Strips Grilled, Buffalo Sauce, Fries, and 1 % milk: 1,980 mg

• Olive Garden Chicken Fingers, Fries, and Raspberry Lemonade: 1,835 mg

Remember, a high-sodium diet can increase your risk of high blood pressure and might also raise the risk of asthma, kidney stones, osteoporosis, and stomach cancer.

Anyone out there ever had any of these salt-laden meals?

[Photo Credit: CSPI)

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Last summer, New York City was the first city in the country to go trans-fat-free. Then it posted calories on menus. Now, NYC’s health department is taking on salt. City officials are meeting with food makers and restaurants to talk about cutting down the amount of salt in common foods like soup, pasta sauce, salad dressing and bread. About three-fourths of the salt Americans eat comes from prepared and processed food, not from the salt shaker, and New York officials want the food industry to help cut back.

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Are healthy choices back-firing at some restaurants? A new report shows having healthy options at fast-food chains can make some diners eat less healthily than they would have otherwise. Researchers found 10-percent of customers ordered fries from menus that did not offer a salad as an option. But 33 percent ordered fries from menus that did include the choice of a salad.

I hardly ever go to fast food restaurants, but when I do – I’m glad to have healthy choices. How about you?

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Do you check calories at fast food restaurants before you order? Most people don’t. New research shows out of 4,311 people buying food at McDonalds, Burger King, Au Bon Pain, or Starbucks, only six looked at the nutrition information the restaurants have – that’s one-tenth of one percent. Researchers say the best way to get the information out is to post it somewhere really visible, like on menu boards.

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Remember the study a couple of months ago about how fast-food restaurants near schools could lead to fatter kids? Now another study seems to echo those results, saying a fast-food restaurant within about 500 feet of a school may lead to at least a five percent increase in the obesity rate at that school. Researchers from Columbia University and the University of California, Berkeley, say a ban on fast foods near schools could greatly reduce obesity rates among students.

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Does living near a lot of fast food restaurants increase your chances of having a stroke? New research from the University of Michigan finds the risk of stroke in a neighborhood increased by one percent for every fast-food restaurant in the area. Researchers say they don’t know whether the food itself actually increased the risk or whether fast-food restaurants are just more common in unhealthy neighborhoods.

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