Sep
24
The Trouble With Mexican Food
Filed Under Eating Healthy
I’m working from home today, which gave me a chance to try out a Mexican restaurant down the street that I’ve really been looking forward to. Since my wife and I rarely go out to eat anymore, meals like these are a bit of a treat. Mexican food especially is something I really enjoy. It is generally healthy, inexpensive and I really like the flavors. Unfortunately, the meal wasn’t quite as good as I had hoped.
Food Good, Other Stuff Bad
Don’t get me wrong, the food was great. It’s just that I became aware of just how unhealthy some restaurant habits are. As soon as we sat down, the waitress brought out a pile of chips and salsa. Even though I know I shouldn’t, I found myself munching on them while I looked at the menu. This kind of mindless junk food eating is something I would never do at home. Yet here I was, consuming empty calories while trying to decide what to order. Why do restaurants do this? Because junk like chips is cheap and they fill you up so you feel more satisfied.
Second, the meal itself (I ordered the veggie burrito) was filled with mostly rice and very few veggies. Again, why do restaurants do this? Because rice is cheap and fills you up just like the chips. So the majority of my “healthy” burrito was actually empty calories from rice. Add in some sour cream and you just took what could have been a healthy meal and turned it into crap.
Lesson Learned
I guess my lesson is to not go to generic Mexican restaurants like these. There are plenty of other Mexican places around that don’t do this. Plus I could have just refused the chips and ordered my burrito with no sour cream (although I wonder what they would have done had I asked for no rice).
A more important lesson is that when I turn over control of what I eat to someone else, I’ll end up eating things that are less than ideal. The people at the restaurant are not concerned with my health, they are concerned with their profits and that means making me feel full so I come back. They have no incentives to put out a lot of expensive fresh vegetables and a lot of incentive to serve me cheap filling food like rice and chips.
###
Next time my wife and I go out, I’m going to be a bit more careful about where we go and what I order.
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
Comments
2 Responses to “The Trouble With Mexican Food”
Leave a Reply
Most types of restaurant seem to bring out some kind of carb-tastic appetiser at the start of the meal: indian: popadoms, chinese: prawn crackers; italian, english, french etc: bread; mexican: nachos/chips. Tests my resolve every time!
I eat Mexican every day; carne asada and steamed vegetables from my local Mex place. Fortunately, they do care about the health of the locals and offer veggies instead of beans and rice as sides.
I had to ask in the beginning, but now it’s automatic — and, each afternoon when I sit down, the waitress brings me a bowl of ice-berg lettuce and salsa. It’s like chips & salsa light. Since the calories are in the chips, and all the flavor is in the salsa (most fresh salsa is high in antioxidants and low in calories), I get the taste, the social habit, and a significantly fewer bad calories. You should ask your favorite mex place to do this for your and for thier ocmmnity!