Most meals in the restaurant are unhealthy.

In the last study published in the journal Scientists have examined the restaurant menu around the world to check whether plant offers in both Osnivore (Omni) and vegan or vegetarian (VEG) are “healthy” in terms of avoiding saturated fats, refined cereals and deeply fried food.

They discovered that many restaurants (with omni plants are more limited than VEG) did not offer patrons of sufficient elections of the main dishes of plants, and 14-27% of the restaurants did not have any health of plants at all. The research team hopes that these discoveries, in combination with established connections between weak diets, chronic diseases and increased mortality rate, will encourage restaurants to the more available details of nutrition of their dishes.

Background

The growing number of people in the USA and around the world decides to increase the consumption of plant food, and the forecasts suggest that the American vegan market is growing 12% annually by 2030. The alternatives of dairy and meat are more accessible than ever, with more food and restaurants OMNI offer plant options; There are also more dedicated vegetable restaurants.

People who decide to limit or eliminate food -based food consumption are often motivated by environmental causes, animal welfare, religious beliefs or health problems, although it seems that 63% growth of plant consumption is powered by OMNI consumers. It is estimated that less than 2% of national research respondents stated that they had adopted a completely vegan or vegetarian diet for their health.

However, some plant foods, including sweets, sweetened drinks, fried food and refined grains, can have a negative effect on health, such as increasing the risk of coronary diseases, diabetes or hypertension. In fact, scientists warn that some unhealthy plant food can be an even greater health risk than a standard American diet due to their high sodium content, sophisticated grains and excessive saturated fats. With American College of Cardiology and American Heart Association, it recommends reducing or avoiding these food and animal products rich in saturated and cholesterol.

People who want to make healthier diet decisions when food outside the home should be offered the right number of options that are free from fried foods, saturated fats and sophisticated grains, and at the same time access to information about nutritional value to help identify the items of the high risk menu menu items .

About the study

Within three years, the research team visited a convenient test of 561 restaurants offering vegan options in 196 cities in 37 countries and six continents. Most of them were in the USA (373), followed by Australia and several European countries.

The restaurants contained in the study had internet letters regarding ownership and search engines available in trade. Their menu was also available online and their vegan offers were clearly replaced. Some, including American franchises from 20 or more locations, provided information about nutrition about their dishes, after the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) mandate.

Restaurants were classified as a full menu if they offered at least 10 dishes of main plants. They were then assessed based on the number of healthy dishes in this group, receiving one point for a healthy appetizer, a maximum of 10 healthy dishes that did not contain deep fried ingredients (such as overgrown or crunchy objects that can be carcinogenic), saturated fats (including Coconut milk, coconut oil, palm oil and coconut butter) or refined grains (such as white Rice, white flour and sophisticated pasta, which has a high glycemic indicator, but low fiber).

Arrangements

561 restaurants contained in the analysis consisted of 283 OMNI and 278 vegetable restaurants. Scientists have noticed that two restaurants incorrectly marked dishes containing products of animal origin as vegan; They were excluded.

On average, American restaurants offered 6.6 lead plants, while those from outside the US offered 6.2, which is a statistically irrelevant difference. However, American restaurants offered slightly more healthy dishes than in other countries (3.4 compared to 2.9, although it was not statistically important).

Only 33 restaurants (28 omni and 5 vegetables, respectively, i.e. 10% and 2%) provided full online nutrition facts, including the content of calories, sodium, sugar and saturated fat.

Omni restaurants had an average of 4.5 vegan main course in their menu, compared to 8.4 for vegetarian restaurants. About 59% of vegetable restaurants and only 16% of Omni restaurants had a full vegan menu. On average, restaurants have won 3.2 out of 10, and vegetarian restaurants have much healthier options (4.0/10) than Omni restaurants (2.4/10).

Only 2% of restaurants included in the analysis received a score of 10, which indicates that the analyzed main dishes did not have deep fried ingredients, saturated fats or refined grains. And vice versa, 26% OMNI and 14% of the VEG restaurant received a result 0. Reductions of results were most often due to the presence of refined grains (40% in OMNI and 38% in Veg cases). Omni restaurants were more often punished for saturated fat content (12%), while vegetable restaurants contained fried items more often (28%).

Conclusions

Scientists have found that many options marked as “vegan” contain unhealthy ingredients, and dedicated vegetable restaurants offer a larger percentage of healthy options than OMNI restaurants. However, sophisticated beans, which are associated with increased mortality and chronic disease, were the most common reason why dishes are classified as unhealthy. In particular, restaurants based in the US were slightly more willing to offer healthy options.

The study also emphasizes that nutritional transparency remains a challenge. Only a small part of the restaurant provided a detailed nutritional content, with information that disclosure occurs more often in OMNI restaurants – by land due to American regulations requiring franchise from 20 or more locations to provide this information.

Restaurants react to the preferences of the target consumers to make them financially profitable; Often, things that make the taste of food “good” make it unhealthy. In addition, several challenges stop the individuals from creating healthy eating habits, including traditional and cultural norms, knowledge, reluctance to change, price accessibility, availability, fears of nutritional adequacy, emotional attachment, peers pressure, social norms, poor education, time limit and comfort and convenience.

Although the study provides valuable observations, it has restrictions. The sample was a sample of convenience, derived primarily from the US and Western countries, which means that the findings may not be generalized to all global regions. In addition, the assessments were based on the online menu descriptions, which may not fully capture all nutritional details.

Cardiovascular diseases are still a leading motorcycle engine in the US, and a poor diet leads to other chronic diseases that increase the costs and life of healthcare, while reducing personal and economic efficiency. Although the results of this study are based on a convenient restaurant sample and a selected number of menu offers, its results emphasize clear political implications.

More restaurants should be encouraged to provide information on nutritional value about food that they serve so that patrons can make conscious decisions. Although restaurants are companies and are not responsible for the health of their clients, they have the opportunity to reduce health hazards by limiting the use of refined grains, excessive sodium, saturated fats, added sugar and fried food in their dishes.

Considering the well -established connections between unhealthy diets, chronic illness and mortality, scientists suggest that regulatory organs such as FDA extend the requirements for nutrition disclosure outside large franchises with a wider range of restaurants.