What's at steak? - nutritional analyses of dishes at steak houses - includes a related article on how dishes were analyzed

Nutrition Action Healthletter, Jan-Feb, 1997 by Jayne Hurley, Bonnie Liebman

Steak as entertainment.

People don't just go out for steak because they love the flavor of a juicy porterhouse or prime rib.

They go to sit in a Western saloon where the floor is strewn with peanuts and the servers occasionally burst into dance (Lone Star). They go to soak in the country and western atmosphere and admire the hunting trophies on the walls (Longhorn). They go to a wilderness trading post to watch the moose, buffalo, and trees talk (Bugaboo Creek).

People are stampeding to mid-priced, casual steak houses. At Outback the industry leader with an Australian ranch decor, sales grew by more than 50 percent in 1995.

How much damage does a visit to the ranch do to your arteries and waistline? We analyzed 15 dishes from popular casual steak houses.

Our results: Steak can be a decent meal or a disaster. But the worst food you can buy at a steak house isn't steak. It's the appetizers.

Appetizers are big at mid-priced steak houses (we didn't look at budget chains like Sizzler or Ponderosa or at pricier places like Morton's or Ruth's Chris Steak House). They're big sellers...and big, period.

Even if you split it with a friend, an order of cheese fries with ranch dressing has more fat than an untrimmed 16-ounce prime rib. And just half a battered, deep-fried whole ("Bloomin'") onion with dipping sauce is as bad as an untrimmed 20-ounce porterhouse. The bottom line: Choose carefully.

Ditto for the side dishes. Order your steak with a Caesar salad and a baked potato with butter and you'll get four to six times more fat than you'd get in a house (mixed or green) salad with "lite" or fat-free dressing and a baked potato with a tablespoon of sour cream.

Of course, you've got to watch what steak you order, too. Don't mosey into a steak house unless you know which steaks are the leanest. Sirloin and filet mignon put all the others to shame. Everything else we tested explains how steak got its reputation as a heartbreaker.

Choose a New York strip or T-bone, for example, and there goes your artery-clogging fat allowance for the day, if you trim all the fat off the outside. A trimmed porterhouse or prime rib swallows almost two days' worth of "bad" fat. Eat them as they come and each will cost you even more...and that's before out dig in to your side dishes.

The healthiest entree you can buy at a steak house is still the barbecue chicken breast or the grilled fish. And eating red meat frequently -- even lean red meat -- may raise your risk of colon and prostate cancers.

But if you love steak, an occasional visit to the trading post, ranch, or saloon doesn't have to do in your diet. If you're willing to pick and choose among the steaks and side dishes, you can walk out of the restaurant with only half a day's artery-clogging fat and 800-or-so calories.

Here's the lowdown on the 15 dishes that we analyzed.

Within each category, we've ranked the trimmed meats and other foods from best to worst -- that is, from least to most artery-clogging (saturated plus trans) fat.

APPETIZERS

* Fried Whole Onion (116 grams of fat, 44 of them artery-clogging). Outback calls it a Bloomin' Onion, but several other steak houses also offer a battered, deep-fried onion cut to open like a flower and served with a dipping sauce.

Eat just half -- and no dipping sauce -- and you'll use up nearly a day's worth of fat and artery-clogging fat, more than half a day's sodium, plus more than 800 calories. It's like whetting your fat appetite with two Pizza Hut Personal Pan Pepperoni Pizzas.

Half a serving of dipping sauce means almost another pizza.

To Make It Better: You can't.

* Cheese Fries (151 grams of fat, 79 of them artery-clogging). Picture this: more than a pound of french fries smothered in a third of a pound of cheese, sprinkled with an ounce of crumbled bacon, and served with ranch dressing.

Eat the whole thing and you'll hit 3,000 calories, three days' worth of fat, and more than four days' worth of artery-clogging fat. Share it with a friend -- or even two or three -- and the numbers are still outrageous.

Cheese fries are worse than any of the steak platters we analyzed. Heck, cheese fries are worse than anything we've ever analyzed. That includes a plate of fettuccine Alfredo, or even a large bucket of movie-theater popcorn popped in highly-saturated coconut oil and topped with "butter."

To Make It Better: You must be joking.

ENTREES & PLATTERS

* Barbecue Chicken Breast (5 grams of fat, 2 of them artery-clogging). As usual, chicken breast tops the list of lower-fat entrees (its only competitor is grilled fish). To walk away with a 700-calorie dinner and a mere 11 grams of fat, order it with a "smart" side like a house salad with two tablespoons of fat-free dressing and a baked potato with just one tablespoon of sour cream (see "The Great Steakout").

The calories drop to 550 if you skip the potato and try the vegetable of the day - usually seasoned broccoli, cauliflower, and carrots. But watch out. "Not-so-smart" sides -- like a Caesar salad plus a baked potato with butter -- will triple the fat and double the calories.