Travel Health: Knowing What You Put in Your Mouth

It's a good idea to know what you're eating, to think about it, on the road, especially, but even when you're at home. One of the best sources of food information I have found is the Nutrition Action newsletter, published by that champion of us all, the Center for Science in the Public Interest. The Nutrition Action newsletter tells you what is contained in the food you eat, counting the calories, yes, but most important, keeping food manufacturers honest.

They do this by checking what is really in the food against what the producer puts on the label, and they often find that providers of food are lying. They've discovered, for instance, that 39 of the 46 Ben & Jerry's "all natural" flavors have at least one non-natural ingredient. They also just list the calories and ingredients of restaurant foods. They discovered that an order of Spaghetti & Meatballs from Olive Garden has the calories and saturated fat of two McDonald's Big Macs. And the Garden's "Tour of Italy" entree is even worse. Also, a Chipotle Chicken Burrito has as many calories and as much sat fat as three 6-inch Subway BLT Classic Subs.

As for desserts on the road, avoid the Cheesecake Factory's Chocolate Tower Truffle Cake, with 1,670 calories and 2.5 days' worth of saturated fat (48 grams). Even coffee can be bad for you, with a Starbucks Venti (20 oz.) White Chocolate Mocha, with 2% milk and whipped cream, being worse than a McDonald's Quarter Pounder with Cheese (the coffee having 580 calories and 15 grams of saturated fat). When trying to decide which of those tiny colored envelopes in the restaurant table holder to use in your coffee, they advise using Splenda for an artificial sweetener instead of NutraSweet and saccharin, the latter two perhaps promoting cancer, Spenda being "probably safe."

You pay only $8 a year for a subscription to Nutrition Action, and that price also gets you a Healthy Foods guide. This publication has received awards from the CDC (Centers for Disease Control & Prevention), the FDA (Food & Drug Administration), the American Medical Writers Association and Vegetarian Times, among other groups. Details at www.orders.cspinet.org.

Note: I blog here exclusively on travel health and safety, backed by my work as pro bono vice president of the not-for-profit charity, the International Association for Medical Assistance to Travellers, www.iamat.org.

Source: http://www.frommers.com/community/blogs/behind-the-guides.cfm?plckController=Blog&plckScript=blogScript&plckElementId=blogDest&plckBlogPage=BlogViewPost&plckPostId=Blog%3a7de34cd3-aed1-4a4a-83e2-9fb0419bd278Post%3ac511d4f1-a491-48d1-91ee-b9d6d601ca56

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