Most Restaurant Food High In Salt, Sugar and Fat

We happen to be living in a hotel for a couple of days while our home is being tented for termites. So basically, we are eating out for every meal, with the exception of snacks brought from home or purchased. And with all this eating out, we are discovering our tastes have changed quite a bit since we have been making our own food.

Once Tasty Food, Now Not-So Great.

It seems that restaurants that I once liked, are now disappointing to me — even unappetizing. These are mostly national chain family restaurants (think Chili’s, The Cheesecake Factory, P.F. Changs etc.) The food tastes over salted and sugared. Today we went to lunch at a local family restaurant chain. I guess it is along the same lines as The Olive Garden. Pizza, salad, and pasta dishes were their fare. The garlic bread tasted sweet. The caesar salad tasted like dressing on tasteless wet crunchy lettuce (thankfully, the dressing was OK and the lettuce was at least crunchy). The broccoli tasted salty, although it was cooked properly to a nice al dente texture with a bright green color. The mac n cheese tasted like macaroni in a bland cream sauce. Although it was orange, there was no taste of cheese. The angel hair pasta had a cream pesto sauce, which was decent, but it could have used half the sauce and no cream. The grilled chicken salad had decent veggies, decent clean white chicken, but again, the lettuce had no flavor. The chicken nuggets were nice pieces of breast, but the coating was thick and salty.

So this meal could have been really good if they used less “stuff” and better ingredients. Broccoli is actually sweet when naturally cooked. Lettuce has a nice flavor if nice green quality lettuce is used. Garlic bread should not have sugar added to it. Mac n cheese should taste like… mac n CHEESE. Pesto is good in it’s simple state of basil, garlic, parmesan and olive oil. The chicken nuggets could have had a lighter coating with less salt. Now I’m not one for mac n cheese or chicken nuggets (my disclaimer) in general (they were not what I ordered) but my husband ordered them.

Change Your Food, and Your Taste Buds Will Follow

I was really pleased to hear my husband complain to me about the meal. It was good to know that his tastes had changed for the better since he used to eat a lot of junk food. Granted, to most people, this meal would have tasted just fine. But since we eat at home and prepare most of our meals with mostly fresh quality ingredients, our taste buds have become sensitive. Unless it is a restaurant that uses high quality fresh ingredients and doesn’t drown the food in cream sauce, cheese, sugar, salt, or deep fry it, we don’t really care for typical restaurant food anymore.

Generally, it only takes two weeks of eating healthier food for a person’s tastes to change. People note they feel and taste a difference in food a couple of weeks after they switch their eating habits. They really notice a difference after eating junk following a change to a healthier diet. Junk food no longer tastes as good (or good at all), and they physically feel poor (fatigue, bloating, headaches, congestion, etc.).

Just Add or Change ONE Thing In Your Diet

I recommend to everyone who wants to change their eating habits to do it slowly: just add one healthy food to your daily intake to start, whether it is fresh fruit in the morning, or a side salad with lunch, or some veggies as a snack. Once that is habit, add something else, and so on. This is a great, no stress way of changing your diet gradually and it will most likely be a permanent change.