Greek Food - souvlaka is healthiest choice - Statistical Data Included

Nutrition Action Healthletter, Nov, 2000 by Jayne Hurley, Bonnie Liebman

Any time you're talking ground beef or lamb, you're talking saturated fat. You can't see it ... and you can't trim it away. With the sauce, a typical serving of four grape leaves harbors 540 calories and 32 grams of fat, 15 of them saturated plus trans ... without the rice, potatoes, or vegetables that often comes on the side.

While the filling and sauce supply the fat, the leaves probably account for most of the salt. "Unless the restaurant has a grapevine in its backyard, its grape leaves are probably from a can or a jar," notes The Restaurant Lover's Companion (Addison-Wesley, 1995). And that may mean that they've been soaking in (salty) brine. Even if the restaurants rinse the leaves before using them, the brine could explain why the dish's sodium hits 1,470 mg.

To make it better: You'll get less sat fat if you get your leaves stuffed only with rice.

Gyro

In 1995, Nutrition Action made headlines when we reported that a tuna salad sandwich with mayonnaise on the bread has more saturated fat than a Big Mac... and more total fat than two. News flash: A gyro makes that tuna salad sandwich look good.

A gyro ("YEAR-oh") is a pita bread sandwich stuffed with meat, a quarter cup of tzatziki (a yogurt, cucumber, oil, and garlic sauce), about two-thirds of a cup of vegetables (typically lettuce, tomato, and onion), and (sometimes) a sprinkling of feta cheese. Judging by what we found when we picked each sandwich apart, the meat is ground zero for blame.

To make a gyro, restaurants put a molded mixture of compressed seasoned beef, lamb, bread crumbs, and onions on a vertical spit and roast it. Then they carve off thin slices for the sandwich. Thin perhaps, but far from lean or skimpy.

We found a typical five ounces of meat per sandwich, but one restaurant served as little as two ounces, while two of the three Chicago eateries piled on at least ten ounces.

All told, this relatively recent addition to Greek cuisine supplies a third of a day's calories (760), two-thirds of a day's total fat (44 grams), and an entire day's saturated plus trans fat (20 grams) and sodium (2,390 milligrams). It's something akin to a 16-ounce trimmed T-bone steak.

To make it better: Don't bother. See if you can get a souvlaki sandwich, which is made with grilled or broiled chunks of leaner meat.

Moussaka

Anyone who knows moussaka--a casserole that layers fatty ground beef or lamb with fatty (usually) fried eggplant and douses them both with fatty bechamel sauce (butter, milk, egg yolks)--knows that it's anything but spa food. But they might not guess 830 calories and 48 grams of fat either. And that's without typical side dishes like rice, potatoes, or vegetables.

A plate of moussaka leaves your arteries choking on 25 grams of heart-threatening fat. That's more than a day's worth. And don't forget about your blood pressure. Each serving has 2,010 milligrams of sodium, just short of your 2,400-mg daily limit.

To make it better: Split a portion with a friend ... or two. Ask for extra vegetables and rice.