A couple of weeks ago, I figured my 2-day weight gain must have been related to the Chicken Parmigiana I ate for lunch one day. I’m a curious person by nature, and becoming much more interested in knowing the nutrition information for the foods I eat, so I decided to investigate the caloric value for my meal.
I started my search on Olive Garden’s website. Sadly, after drilling through the site map and searching for nutrition information, it appears Olive Garden’s site lists only menu items and descriptions, but no nutrition information. I recalled Consumerist had posted a huge table of restaurants’ nutrition information and checked it to make sure I wasn’t missing it – turns out they came up empty-handed too.
Recalling that Starbucks prints a pamphlet available at stores, I decided to visit my local Olive Garden. I received this one-page, front-and-back pamphlet titled “Garden Fare” that listed only “low fat” menu items:
Surely, a restaurant chain as large as Olive Garden would have more nutrition information available than this paltry disclosure! I called the Guest Relations number listed on the pamphlet (1-800-331-2729) and asked the person who answered the phone if they have more nutrition information available than what’s listed on this pamphlet – no, the Guest Relations person replied. I asked if she had nutrition information available for the Chicken Parmigiana I previously ate – no, she replied, the pamphlet listed all the nutrition information she had available. I wonder what kinds of questions these people are supposed to be able to answer?
Olive Garden breadsticks
So, this pamphlet is all I’ve got to work with. There are some interesting things to glean from it – for instance, the breadsticks that are automatically left at every table is not listed. A glance at calorie-count.com lists the breadsticks with 140 calories per breadstick. Holy crap! Remember that Subway’s 6″ Italian bread loaf has 200 calories, and there’s gotta be at least 3x, if not 4x, the amount of bread in a 6″ loaf. Breadsticks are one of those uncounted calories – they appear, you munch while talking and waiting for the real food. At 140 calories per breadstick, you can’t afford not to count these. Wonder what ingredients are lurking in Olive Garden breadsticks…
Here’s something else that’s interesting – they list Italian dressing, but not the nutrition information. Serving size is listed as 2 fluid ounces, which equals 4 tablespoons. Again turning to calorie-count, I see Olive Garden’s regular dressing is 90 calories per 2 tblsp, or 180 calories per serving. CalorieKing lists Olive Garden’s light dressing at 37 calories per “serving” (I’m assuming this is 2 tblsp), or 74 per serving. Compare this to something like Kraft’s Zesty Italian at 109 calories per 2 tblsp, and Olive Garden’s isn’t that bad. They do define their serving size as twice a normal serving size, but the salads are big enough to share anyway. That is, assuming their serving size of salad is one bowl…
And that Chicken Parmigiana? No nutrition information. The closest I can find is CalorieKing’s listing for Eggplant Parmigiana, which lists a serving at 793 calories. 1 oz of eggplant is 10 calories; 1 oz of chicken is 47 calories. The chicken pieces were definitely larger than my palm, so I’d guess they were roughly 8 oz each – 80 calories of eggplant versus 376 calories of chicken. Substitute chicken for eggplant in CalorieKing’s listing for Eggplant Parmigiana, and you’ve got a meal with 1089 calories – and that may not even include the pasta! Even eating half of my meal, I consumed 220 calories plus the pasta – no wonder I gained weight two days in a row. And to think I used to eat at least two breadsticks, half of a salad, an appetizer and an entire meal – easily 1800 calories in one sitting.
Definitely not conducive to my new healthy lifestyle.
Update – it appears Olive Garden lists the Garden Fare pamphlet on their site at
http://www.olivegarden.com/menus/garden_fare/. How about giving us all your nutritional information, Olive Garden? What do you have to hide?
I completely agree with you! I actually work at an Olive Garden and it bothers me that they don’t supply the public with any nutrition facts other than the Garden Fare.
I know this is a little extreme but I’m refusing to eat at any restaurant that does not provide the public with nutrition information. We’re not asking them to post it on the menu but just have the courtesy to allow us to find the info if we’re that desperate to care about what we put into our bodies. Frankly, I think they must have something to hide and therefore are a dishonest corporation.
I totaly agree with Ashley. That’s why I don’t eat at Quizno’s. I mean, what are they hiding? My guess is 2000 calorie sandwiches. No thanks!
I am finally motivated to do this weight loss work….am very disciplined about what I am eating every day. But then comes a business meal that I absolutely MUST attend, and have to eat something or look incredibly obvious (I’d rather keep my weight loss efforts private)….so I get just 2 small bowls of salad from the salad bowl, not even eating the croutons…..and now I can’t find out even a rough idea about the calorie counts…that’s ridiculous! So guess what, I won’t go to OG again…But Chili’s has a menu with a surprising number of options….as well as a full menu count of many of it’s foods….HMMMM – I’ll go back to Chili’s!
I completely agree – since awareness of daily caloric intake is essential to not just weight loss but healthy living, I try to stay away from restaurants without posted or available caloric information. In those few instances where I’m forced to eat somewhere without caloric information, I typically stay away from breads, ask for salad dressing on the side, and stay away from anything with cheese or sauces on it – in my opinion, sauces and dressings are the hardest things to accurately account for.
I think it would be interesting to somehow test restaurants’ stated caloric values as well – maybe with a burn test or something. It would be easy for non-malicious inaccuracies in stated caloric amounts – corporate hands out literature, which either leaves out sauces and condiments or ages past ingredient changes.
From Olive Garden’s FAQ page:
What is the nutritional content of your salad dressing?
Each two (2) tablespoon serving contains the following: 80 calories; 70 calories from fat; fat 8 grams; saturated fat 1 gram; cholesterol 5 mg; sodium 510 mg; carbohydrates 2 grams; protein 0 gram.
Its worth noting that it’s not their responsibility to make our dieting easy. Certainly we wouldn’t expect a nutrition breakdown from our dinner party hostess, future mother-in-law, our favorite local non-chain restaurant, or a 5 start non-chain restaurant. We do our best and move on.
I think their providing a decent service by giving us healthy options and nutritional value thereon. We can reasonably assume that the rest of the menu is full of salt & fat – - which is pretty OBVIOUS by reading description & tasting it.
Once you start tracking nutrition on that stuff for which it IS available (even if limited to packaged foods and that which you prepare yourself), you can start extrapolating to food eaten in restaurants. Olive Garden bread tastes A LOT better than Subway bread – largely bc of the oil/butter on its topping.
That said, they are a huge chain and we consumers should continuing actively encouraging them to provide the more info.
and boycott is a great idea if your really displeased with their policy. I personally skip Quiznos for that reason. But I order from the ‘garden’ menu at Olive Garden, and skip the items where they believe that information is better left unsaid, in order to allow their other blissfully ignorant clientel to continue enjoying their meals unharrassed by the dieters amongst us.
I just came back from the OG and bet my fiance that OG has nutritional information on the website. The waiter didn’t have it but said it was available on the web. It isn’t. The cost of the bet= a real dinner at a real restaurant that doesn’t serve food filled with fat & sodium.
FYI those 140 calorie breadsticks are “PLAIN” breadsticks, those served without butter or garlic salt at the request of the customer. So, you can only imagine how many calories there are in an actual breadstick, the way they are normally served.
2-day weight gain? Sure.
First of all: even if you exceeded your daily calorie limit by 1800 calories, you could not possibly have gained much more than a half pound of fat, since one pound of fat contains 3500 calories. Second, what are you doing weighing yourself every day? I don’t know of any home scale that is accurate and reliable to within one pound. Especially if you are a woman, you are prone to variations in the amount of water you retain and this can cause a few pounds difference that does not reflect fat. Which leads me to my next point: food from most big chains contains huge amounts of sodium. Most of those chains do a lot of their prep work at some central location, freeze or can the food and ship it to the restaurant. This processing means they need to use large amounts of sodium or other preservatives.
My recommendation is to go to an independent, “mom-and-pop” style restaurant next time. You will get better quality food and they will probably work with you on your dietary concerns. If you go to an Italian restaurant you can order pasta e fagioli soup to start for protein and fiber and follow it with pasta in marinara sauce and not blow your diet at all. Other good choices are Chinese restaurants (steamed vegetables and rice) Middle Eastern or Mediterranean (usually have beans, fresh vegetables, salads etc.)
Just remember that the corporations are not interested in your welfare, only your pocketbook.
Headed to OG for a friends birthday party today. Been doing quite well on Weight Watchers for the past 6 months and plan to maintain this progress for the rest of my life. Was very disappointed about the lack of information on the OG site. I travel extensively and eat out frequently, and make many dinning decisions based on knowing this information. OG has made an attempt to help some with their Garden Fare list, but it is insufficient in my opinion (not when almost every other chain openly posts this information). I am a firm believer in voting with my pocket book and, although I do not go to OG often (at least not in the past 6 months
, I will purposely not seek them out again, until they decide to come clean. It’s not that I plan to eat any of the high fatty stuff, but there are times when I will splurge a little (life is too short) and lack of this information is like playing with a loaded gun.
Umm, so the thing I see here are ppl obsessed with counting calories beyond reason. I count cal. to maintain my weight, but you have to indulge every once in a while. If you never let your self have that “chicken parmesan” of calories once a month, your going to drive your self crazy. Living a healthy life is not about a number, it is about making good day to day choices, exercising, and treating your self every now and again. I think you people should get a life and stop obsessing over gaining 2-5 pounds. Go back to eating like you were before and it will be back off. And who in the world weighs them-selves every day anyway? You haven’t made a life style change, you’ve gone mad. And we wonder why little girls are purging before they are even 15 y/o, freaking awesome example to set ppls, you guys rock… only not.
Patricia,
You have to understand that some people can let theirselves indulge every once in a while! Not everyone has the self control it takes to do this. I know of several people who need to have this knowledge and control in order to stay on their plan. What works for you doesn’t always work for someone else so why don’t you lay off?!?
I recently went online and did some searches on the nutritional information of several of my favorite restaurants, Olive Garden included.
At first I was angered at the fact that I could not find out not only calorie content, but also trans and saturated fats and most importantly ingredients. Being a vegetarian, I like to know what I’m eating! I also figured that restaurants should want to provide their customers with nutritional info in order to help them better plan out their meals when eating there.
However, after some more consideration, I started thinking that it really is kind of far-fetched for consumers to expect that all chain restaurants should provide their nutirional information to the public.
I mean, for non-chain restaurants, there is no expectation for them to provide this – so why should the chains have to? I, for one, am more interested in obtaining ingredients than calorie content – but I can easily ask the server if the meal I’m ordering is vegetarian.
All you can really do is think logically when you go to places like Olive Garden – or any other restaurant for that matter, whether it’s a chain or a mom and pop, cheap or expensive, simple or gourmet.
Order the chicken parm with grilled chicken instead of fried and you’re saving a couple hundred calories right there. Same goes for eggplant.
Get marinara sauce instead of fatty alfredo sauce.
Limit yourself to only one breadstick.
Have one plate of salad instead of 2 or more – and go for the low-fat dressing if you want.
It is the responsibility of us individuals to use common sense when ordering meals at restaurants and to eat what we know should based on our own personal dieting needs. It should not be the restaurant’s responsibility to break it all down for us.
I find this website to be helpful, it has alot of the dishes the OG has. I also work there as well
http://www.thedailyplate.com/nutrition-calories/food/olive-garden
I have a newly diagnosed type 1 diabetic son and while I would say that sometimes you have to splurge, he no longer has that luxury. OG if one of our favorite restaurants, but with the lack of information available, he is truly risking his health if this information is not available. No more OG for us – untli this is easily available.
People, It is an Italian Restaurant. Seriously, CARBS CARBS CARBS! Enough whining about them not giving you nutritional info on your Tour of Italy plate. You should know that its TERRIBLE for you, and thats why you don’t eat it everyday. You go out to eat to splurge and to not care for a day, so please, if you want healthy, go to subway, or sweet tomatoes. Stop whining about a ITALIAN RESTAURANT not posting their nutritional facts! Cheesecake factory has a slice of cheesecake with OVER 2000 calories. Its good to eat, but do you really want to know that? Just eat it and shut up. Then go home and jog.
hayy chica, i actually WORK at Olive Garden, and its sad for me to say that since I started working there 2 years ago, I’ve gained 30lbs. i go to work and im surrounded by food and all I want to do is eat, so most of the time i grab a breadstick, at the end of the day, ive eaten AT LEAST 3 breadsticks… maybe some alfredo sauce as well. It’s so rediculus.
For me, it isn’t so much calorie counting as it is carb counting which I have to do for diabetes reasons. I went to OG today and was frustrated that I didn’t really know how much of what was in anything. Keeping healthy blood sugars is very important and I won’t go back there if I can’t know what I am eating before it shows up in my blood as a too high sugar.
I think that all restaurants should have to post their nutritional value either on line or in the restaurant. The Chili’s in Spokane has a laminated card of all the nutritional content in their food. I don’t believe that it was that hard for them to do that. It is not like they have to count every calorie with every meal they make. It is simply a guide for those who care what they are putting into their bodied to use. American’s have the highest obesity rate in the world, I think it’s time that ‘we’ help each other out for a change. Everyone is different and different approaches to weight loss affect people differently.
Thanks for the pointer, Jacob, I appreciate it. I’ll update this article with a new post.
I work at the olive garden and we do supply the garden fare meun just as the hostess for it or your sever and they will be more than happy to get you one. I am going specialist at the olive garden I supply all my guest with the garden fare meun in the to go bags so they know how many calories are in the dish they ordered.
I totally agree with Patricia. Oh by the way Valerie, “theirselves” isn’t correct grammar. I believe that you were trying to say “themselves.”
I came across some unsettling information during my own research into the Olive Garden food ingredients. The breadsticks are coated with a butter substitute a.k.a. “liquid margarine” which contains; hydrogenated soy bean oil, vegetable mono & diglycerides, sodium benzoate, and calcium disodium EDTA. This is not the complete ingredient list, just the scary stuff, The dressing is a high fructose corn syrup product and contains extractives of annatto. I’m not even sure what ANNATTO is. The meat sauce base contains; hydrolyzed soy and corn, maltodextrin, and yeast extract. These are just a few of the reasons I can not bring myself to eat there anymore.
First, we do have to understand that everyone has different dietary needs. Some are emotional eaters and have a difficult time controlling “themselves” after even one slip. Second, I work at Olive Garden, as well, and have lost 55 lbs since starting there. Yes, the breadsticks have 362 calories each (with butter added), and that’s why I’ve forbidden myself to even have one while I’m working. If I’m hungry I snack on the fruit at the bar
. But, what most people don’t realize is that you can have your favorite dish, but modify it to be less calories or fewer carbs. For instance, I love the chianti braised short ribs, but can’t have the carbs that come along with it. So, I substitute the risotto for asparagus and add extra mushrooms. You can do with any dish on the menu. People just never think to ask for modifications. You should go into Olive Garden, though, with the assumption that most of the food is loaded with fat prepared as is. However, they do offer low-fat dressing and wheat pasta, which a nice bonus. Good luck everyone!
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blahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh i hate fat
I love the Olive Garden, the fact that it taste so bloody good tells me it is totally unhealthy. But what can a girl do when the food taste like a piece of heaven. I practice portion control so as not to pack on the pounds. I love the OG and nothing will make me stop eating there. I have a cheat day a week and OG is my cheat food of choice. Healthy food never taste that good, once again OG rocks!!!
In response to the post two above mine. Annatto is a natural food coloring that comes from the Annatto seed. I was shocked to find out it was in OG salad dressing, but I was informed of this after my daughter who is allergic to it had an allergic reaction. It’s not “unhealthy” but is an allergen. One you would not think to be in a clear salad dressing. While they were reading off all the ingredients I realized I how horribly bad it was. EEK.