Say it is not so! [Archive] - Simple Living Forums

Greg44

1-22-11, 4:44pm

THE #1 WORST "FREE" RESTAURANT FOOD: Olive Garden Bottomless Salad and Breadsticks Garden-Fresh Salad (1 serving with dressing)
350 calories
26 g fat (4.5 g saturated)
1,930 mg sodium
22 g carbohydrates

Breadstick (1 with garlic butter spread)
150 calories
2 g fat (0 g saturated)
400 mg sodium
28 g carbohydrates

as reported on Yahoo today!

And here I thought I was eating more healthy when I ordered soup and salad! Wow add fettucini alfredo to this and you might as well make an appointment with the cardiologist! And who eats just one serving of salad and bread sticks? And how about the freshly grated cheese on top?

So when you have that feeling at OG that I could make a meal out of just the salad and bread sticks -- ah you just did!

Jemima

1-22-11, 5:24pm

Olive Garden is just another fast food chain, IMO, or close to it. I spent a lot of my adult years in Philadelphia, which has a large Italian community, so I've been privileged to taste The Real Thing. There's no comparison.

The breadsticks at OG are nothing but gummy white bread in a different shape, and the iceberg lettuce salads are nutritionally worthless. Sorry to rain on your parade Greg44, but you're really not getting a decent, nutritious meal from soup, salad, and breadsticks at OG.

CathyA

1-22-11, 5:24pm

I don't see anything wrong with occasionally having a treat out at a restaurant, without worrying about the cardiovascular impact. I love their salad and breadsticks! (and then the entree!) The problem is when people eat like this every day.
Life would be sad without an occasional "worst" meal! :)
But I must say that what seems to get me the most is the salt there. You mentioned arthritis in another thread. With my arthritis, my joints always hurt more, the day after I have a meal with alot of salt. (But its usually worth it!) haha

Greg44

1-22-11, 6:13pm

Sorry to rain on your parade Greg44, but you're really not getting a decent, nutritious meal from soup, salad, and breadsticks at OG.

Pouring down rain Jemima! Hey, but normally I will order the ww spaghetti w/marinara sauce! ;)

JaneV2.0

1-22-11, 6:13pm

"Worrying about the cardiovascular impact" is what will give you a heart attack, IMO. :sick: (Or worrying about anything.)

I do agree that Olive Garden is sub par--kind of a theme version of Denny's.

Jemima

1-23-11, 9:31am

Pouring down rain Jemima! Hey, but normally I will order the ww spaghetti w/marinara sauce! ;)

Better get your umbrella, Big Guy, and check out the sodium content of that marinara sauce and whole wheat pasta if possible. I happened to read the label on a ketchup bottle a few weeks ago and was horrified to find that one tablespoon contains 8% of the daily sodium allowance, and that's based on the old standard of 2000 mg. of sodium permissible per day. The standard has recently been lowered to 1500 mg.

I'm currently recovering from a serious respiratory infection and part of that recovery has been gaining an acute sense of taste and smell. I find now that salty foods are nearly intolerable and I've had to throw out a lot of processed food because of that. It's a pain, but you gotta read the labels. (BTW, my blood pressure has dropped over ten points.)

I do agree with CathyA that an occasional indulgence should be fine for a basically healthy person. I confess to giving in to a craving for a Big Mac once in a while. (Pickles are a green vegetable, aren't they? :~) )

Kat

1-23-11, 10:26am

I love soup, salad, and breadsticks at OG, Greg. Yes, I know it's not "real" Italian food. But I live in a po dunk town in the Midwest. I am nowhere near Italy or an Italian community. I don't care if it's authentic. It's good. I'm going to keep eating it. LOL It's okay to have a treat once in awhile!

jennipurrr

1-23-11, 7:17pm

I haven't been to OG in ages...but I am trying to figure out what would make the calorie count so high on the salad? I guess it is the cheese and the dressing that really bumps the calories up. I just looked up the dressing and it is 90 calories alone...but there is a low fat version that has 37 calories. This kinda has me bummed because when I have been to Olive Garden I assumed the salad was at least decent health wise.

In case anyone cares to know, Chick Fil A (fast food chain) has a side salad with carrots, tomato and cheese that is very filling that only has 60 calories and their light Italian dressing only has 15 calories.

beckyliz

1-24-11, 11:43am

just fyi - you can order dressing on the side and just dip your fork into the dressing, then into salad - old Weight Watchers trick. Or, you can ask for their reduced calorie dressing - they have it; just don't advertise it.

Can't help on the breadsticks!

Alan

1-24-11, 12:11pm

You wait until I have a $50 Olive Garden gift card in my wallet to bring this up?
I'll just pretend I didn't read it till afterwards.

Greg44

1-24-11, 2:10pm

We have friends that EACH order a "boat" of the alfreado sauce to dip their bread sticks in! I like that fact that places will have to start providing this information. It will force them to make healthier meal choices. Glad to hear they have a low - calorie option on the dressing.

softweave

1-24-11, 4:19pm

Do OG salads include croutons? If so, that may account for some of the carbs and saturated fat. Most restaurant croutons are just fried stale bread, so I pick them out as I prefer higher quality sources of starch.

kib

1-24-11, 4:29pm

Actually 90 for dressing sounded low. When I went to the website the garden salad with dressing is 350 and without dressing it's 120. OUCH! Get the low fat and have them put it on the side.

http://caloriecount.about.com/cc/search2.php?searchpro=Salad+Dressing&manu=52

Wildflower

1-24-11, 4:58pm

I like OG. We go there about maybe twice a year. But it is fun to have a treat and splurge on calories once in awhile. I love Italian food and while OG doesn't rank up there with "real" Italian, it can be pretty yummy!! :D

CathyA

1-24-11, 5:29pm

I would be bummed if they started only selling "healthy" stuff! I cook healthy stuff at home. If I want to go out and have healthy stuff, I know what restaurants to go to. I do wish OG didn't salt their stuff so much though. That's my only complaint there.
Hey.........when you're there, you're family! haha

IshbelRobertson

1-24-11, 5:30pm

Luckily, OG is one of the USA's 'chains' that haven't managed to make it over to this side of the pond (wish that Starbucks, KFC and McDonalds hadn't!)

We're lucky - Edinburgh was a centre for Italian PoWs, during WWII - and many stayed, after the war, marrying local Scottish girls and starting amazing delis, restaurants and coffee shops. One of my absolute favourites (one of my school friends was a member of the family who owned the shop) is Valvona and Crolla.
Now that is REAL Italian food! http://www.valvonacrolla.co.uk/

Tenngal

1-24-11, 8:30pm

well.......I used my $30 Olive Garden gift card a couple of weeks ago.......had lots of that salad and breadsticks. Had some good chicken alfredo.......I'll have to tell husband about this and we will feel guilty together.
It is surprising what is actually in this stuff we take for granted.

cheesemite

2-2-11, 7:08pm

ApatheticNoMore

2-2-11, 8:49pm

How big is a serving of salad? I think it's pretty big (I mean it's hard to tell if they combine multiple servings in a bowl, but when you take home a serving it's quite decent sized). Breadsticks, yea but how many of them are you really going to eat?

I don't see the calorie count as that high. I've seen their entries. They can run you more than 1000 calories. But Olive Garden shouldn't be unfairly singled out, this is kind of what you should expect from restaurant food. So mostly I see the calories here as not that high and much to do about nothing. BUT for the bigger picture (no pun intended) I do think you will probably gain weight if you eat a lot of restaurant food (I've noticed it every time I get into the habit of going out to eat for lunch a lot etc.). Then I stop it and my weight drops again without doing anything else different (oh I say this after going out to eat for lunch today, yea but I hit the weights at the gym today too (weights also make my weight drop), and it's just one day, so I think I'm good :))

I kinda like the Olive Garden for a chain restaurant (yep that's faint praise ...). I mean quite honestly around 90% of the time I don't even *LIKE* any restaurant food period. It's like ugh, junky restaurant food, I'd rather make something myself or if I'm too lazy for that at least pick up something prepared from Trader Joe or something.

Gregg

2-3-11, 2:12pm

DW loves OG soup & salad for lunch with friends. I tend to not pick the national chains so she doesn't ask me to come along. Not that the local guys are necessarily healthier, mind you... He!! Greg, if you enjoy it, eat it. Remember, Julia Child said, "if you're afraid of butter, use cream."

CathyA

2-3-11, 3:01pm

LOL Gregg......that's funny (about the butter and cream). If I want a healthy meal and want to go out, I know where to go. But usually when I go out, I want to splurge.......be it healthy or not.

Greg44

2-9-11, 5:24pm

We went for lunch the "Italian Denny's" as someone described it. There is quite a large lunch crowd for lunch...a lot a white haired ladies! My FIL passed away this a.m. and MIL wanted to go to lunch --a sad day, even though he was in very ill health, and nearly 90 years old it is still hard - especially for the care givers. She is 10 yrs younger and took such good care of him.

She said that one day she was trying to get him to drink some water -- he would just take a little sip. She said, "I told him he needed to drink more than that!" "I am trying to keep you alive!" He responded, "And you are doing a pretty good job at it!"

Anyway we were at Olive Garden - where we are family!