Texas Gov. Rick Perry is running for president, a spokesman confirmed Thursday, a move certain to shake up the race for the Republican nomination much to the delight of conservatives looking for a candidate to embrace.
Perry spokesman Mark Miner said the governor would make his intentions known on Saturday while visiting the crucial early primary states of South Carolina and New Hampshire just as most of his presidential rivals compete in a test vote in another key state, Iowa.
Quickie quiz: How healthy is your diet?
A. Extremely healthy. Even my Twinkies are grass-fed.
B. Somewhat healthy. I no longer buy Five Guys Burgers. Now I only buy Four Guys Burgers.
C. Not at all healthy. My dinner plate looks like Dick Cheney’s aorta.Consumer Reports recently asked more than 1,200 people the same question, and 90 percent ranked their diet somewhere between "somewhat" and "extremely" healthy. (Which sounds promising, until you realize that 90 percent of Americans also rank themselves as “above average” drivers!)
In truth, most of us believe we’re eating healthier than we are. Being truly aware of what we eat is one of the biggest challenges we face, especially in a culture that thinks a “value meal” is one in which we pay more hard-earned cash for more empty, fat-generating calories. In fact, additional empty calories are the curse of would-be healthy eating. A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that between 1977 and 1996, the average soft drink grew by 34 percent, the average cheeseburger increased by 39 percent, and the average salty snack expanded by a full 70 percent. Restaurants, to justify higher prices, have spent years adding increasingly more food to our plates. We stuff our bellies, and they stuff their wallets. They become fat cats, and try to turn us into fatsos.
And even healthy-sounding restaurant foods often harbor hundreds—if not thousands—of hidden calories from sugar, butter, cream, and oil. If there’s an opportunity to make something sweeter or richer, restaurants take it. That's how an innocuous-sounding item like a Chicken & Spinach Salad, which you'll find on IHOP's menu, packs in 1,600 calories and 118 grams of fat.
Fortunately, over the past few years, things have started to improve. Since 2008, Eat This, Not That! has been holding restaurants accountable by publishing their most egregious items and calling them out for nefarious practices. And a lot of them have responded by adding new, healthier options to their menus—foods that are just as filling, just as tasty, but a heck of a lot healthier. Here's how you can strip away 10, 20, 30 pounds or more just by sampling the best new foods from your favorite restaurants.
One more thing: Canadian researchers found that receiving daily nutrition and weight loss advice will keep your diet extremely healthy—and your belly slim. If you don't have a nutritionist on your personal payroll, do the next best thing: Get free instant belly-melting secrets every day by following me here on Twitter, or sign up for our free daily Eat This, Not That! newsletter.
#1: Best new food at T.G.I. Friday’s
Black Angus Sirloin Japanese Hibachi Skewers
660 calories
22 g fat (5 g saturated)
1,690 mg sodiumNot That!
Jack Daniels Ribs
1,640 calories
66 g fat (22 g saturated)
1,880 mg sodiumHit the JD sauce on T.G.I.'s Jack Daniels Ribs and you’re likely to develop a hangover—the kind that might eventually droop over your belt buckle. In addition to the egregious load of saturated fat, these ribs pack in 177 grams of carbohydrates. (That’s as many carbs as you’d find in 21 Oreos, my friend.) Fortunately, TGI Friday’s Right Portion, Right Price menu allows you to order modest portions of savory foods, and not one item has more than 750 calories. The Hibachi Skewers, if you were to order them off the regular menu, would stick you with more than 1,500 calories. Go with the downsized version and bank the savings.
#2: Best new food at Starbucks
Chicken & Hummus Bistro Box
270 calories
8 g fat (1 g saturated)
520 mg sodiumNot That!
Egg Salad Sandwich
490 calories
22 g fat (4.5 g saturated)
850 mg sodiumOnce you get past the pastries and syrup-spiked coffee drinks, the nutritional pitfalls on Starbucks’ menu are relatively few. That's why it's such a surprising delight to see the new line of bistro boxes, which further expand the chain's conscientious food menu. Bistro Boxes are nutrition-loaded packages stuffed with flavorful foods like chicken, salsa, hummus, cheeses, and dark chocolate. Think of them as lunch boxes for adults and the perfect excuse to never again order a muffin, scone, or coffee cake.
BEVERAGE BLUNDERS: Too bad Starbucks' drinks aren't as commendable as the food. To see where the coffee king falls in the heirarchy of liquid offenders, check out this eye-popping list of The 20 Worst Drinks in America.
#3: Best new food at Carl’s Jr.
Teriyaki Turkey Burger
470 calories
14 g fat (5 g saturated)
1,120 mg sodiumNot That!
Single Teriyaki Burger
630 calories
29 g fat (11 g saturated fat)
1,060 mg sodiumThe best part about Carl’s Jr.’s new line of turkey burgers is that they're loaded with big-flavor toppings that make them every bit as indulgent as the fatty beef burgers they replace. Even with ingredients like guacamole, mayonnaise, and teriyaki sauce, each burger manages to slide in with fewer than 500 calories. The teriyaki burger pictured here is topped with a thick slab of grilled pineapple, a rarity among restaurant burgers that delivers a kick of bromelain, a network of enzymes that might help ease joint pain and battle inflammation.
#4: Best new food at IHOP
Simple & Fit Spinach, Mushroom & Tomato Omelette with Fresh Fruit
330 calories
12 g fat (4.5 g saturated)
690 mg sodiumNot That!
Spinach & Mushroom Omelette with Fresh Fruit
990 calories
70 g fat (26 g saturated)
1,570 mg sodiumIHOP's Simple & Fit menu is a vast improvement on the butter- and oil-heavy foods that populate the regular menu. Not one item eclipses 600 calories, yet they still provide the classic diner fare you expect from the baron of pancakes. For the classic veggie omelette, IHOP managed to slash two-thirds of the calories and 21.5 grams of saturated fat primarily by omitting the hollandaise sauce. By making this Eat This, Not That!-style smart swap just once a week, you’ll shed nearly 10 pounds within a year--without dieting!
#5: Best new food at Cosi
Lighter Side Chicken Tandoori Sandwich
376 calories
3 g fat (1 g saturated)
889 mg sodiumNot That!
Chicken TBM Melt
693 calories
31 g fat (15 g saturated)
570 mg sodiumCosi’s menu can be tricky to gauge. For every decent option, there’s a healthful-sounding item bloated with excessive calories. The Lighter Side menu provides much-needed reprieve from the nutritional crapshoot. Use it to protect you from secretly dangerous grilled chicken sandwiches like this one, which has more saturated fat than four McDonald's Hamburgers.
TOP 20 NEW TERRIBLE FOODS! Some restaurant foods have an entire day's worth of calories and several days' worth of fat and salt. Avoid this shocking Eat This, Not That! report on dietary restaurant disasters: The Worst Foods in America!
#6: Best new food at Denny's
Fit Slam (egg whites scrambled with spinach and tomatoes, turkey bacon, English muffin, and fruit)
390 calories
12 g fat (4 g saturated)
850 mg sodiumNot That!
Grand Slamwich with hash browns
1,520 calories
101 g fat (44 g saturated)
3,550 mg sodiumDenny’s classic menu delivers all the blights of typical diner food—excessive fats, starches, and sodium. But to accommodate healthier eaters, the chain now offers a Fit Fare menu. It covers breakfast, sure, but it also features lunch and dinner entrées. Items like Tilapia Ranchero and the new Chicken Avocado Sandwich are far leaner than the calorie-dense foods on the restaurant’s regular menu. All Fit Fare items meet two of the following criteria: They have fewer than 550 calories, have more than 20 grams of protein, have more than 8 grams of fiber, and contain fewer than 15 grams of fat.
THE WORST PART OF WAKING UP: The only thing worse than skipping breakfast? Starting your day with one of these 20 Worst Breakfasts in America!
#7: Best new food at McDonald's
McDonald’s McNugget Happy Meal with mini-fries, apples, and low-fat milk
410 calories
19 g fat (4.5 g saturated)
560 mg sodiumNot That!
Double Cheeseburger Mighty Kids Meal with small fries and a 16-ounce soda
820 calories
34 g fat (12 g saturated, 1.5 g trans)
1,350 mg sodiumRight now the average Happy Meal has just over 500 calories. Starting in September, the average meal will be closer to 400. The reason is this: McDonald’s recently unveiled a plan to replace half the Happy Meal’s fries with fresh apples. To put that in perspective, if you could cut your child's intake by 100 calories every day between the ages of 8 and 13, he or she would enter the teen years more than 50 pounds lighter. That’s the difference between a normal-weight and obese teenager.
#8: Best new food at Cheesecake Factory
SkinnyLicious Petite Grilled Beef Tenderloin
585 calories
38 g fat (15 g saturated)
951 mg sodiumNot That!
Petite Filet
1,060 calories
63 g fat (21 g saturated)
2,169 mg sodiumCheesecake Factory has long been the biggest calorie offender in the restaurant industry, but the chain is now making strides to balance its menu with reasonable food. The new SkinnyLicious menu rolls out this month and features more than 40 items with fewer than 590 calories. The chain remains tight-lipped about the nutritional information for the rest of its menu, but at least we finally have a way to minimize the damage.
#9: Best new food at Applebee's
Asiago Peppercorn Steak with herb potatoes and seasonal vegetables
380 calories
14 g fat (6 g saturated)
1,520 mg sodiumNot That!
12-oz New York Strip with loaded baked potato and vegetables
1,125 calories
74 g fat (38 g saturated, 3.5 g trans)
1,310 mg sodiumThe USDA recommendation for daily meat consumption is 5.5 ounces, so a 12-ounce steak is a massive portion no matter how you slice it. The Asiago Peppercorn Steak weighs in at a reasonable 7 ounces, and for that, it shaves nearly 750 calories off Applebee's New York Strip. Credit goes to Applebee’s Under 550 Calories menu, which features five savory dishes like sirloin, teriyaki shrimp, and grilled chicken topped with portobello mushrooms.
#10: Best new food at Ruby Tuesday
Barbecue Grilled Chicken with white cheddar mashed potatoes and broccoli
591 calories
23 g fat
1,658 mg sodiumNot That!
Fresh Grilled Chicken Sandwich
856 calories
41 g fat
1,566 mg sodiumTraditional restaurant techniques make certain that not even grilled chicken sandwiches are safe. Fortunately Ruby Tuesday has a Fit & Trim line that features more than a dozen items with fewer than 700 calories. And we’re not talking bean sprouts and rice cakes. Ruby’s leaner menu features sirloin, shrimp scampi, and this barbecue chicken, which is as lean and healthy as anything you’d make on your own grill.
A WEIGHT-LOSS MUST READ: Turn these "get-fat" habits into your new "slim-down" habits, and watch the your belly disappear! Check out the Top 20 Habits That Make You Fat!
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Fears about the health of French banks intensified the scramble for U.S. dollars Thursday and drove up European banks' borrowing costs to levels not seen since the 2007-2009 global credit crisis.
Even bank-to-bank lending, which had been calm compared to other parts of the credit markets, is showing some strain due to the latest flare-up of the European debt crisis.
BANGKOK (AP) — Asian stock markets continued their slump Thursday but European shares clawed back ground as traders awaited data that they hoped would show a brighter employment picture in the U.S.
Oil prices hovered below $83 a barrel, while the dollar slipped against the yen and the euro.
Britain's FTSE 100 rose 1.9 percent to 5,104 in early trade while Germany's DAX was 2.3 percent higher at 5,745. The CAC-40 in Paris rose 2.4 percent to 3,077.
Wall Street, pummeled after Standard and Poor's ratings agency stripped the U.S. of its sterling AAA credit rating last week, appeared set to gain. Dow futures rose 1.1 percent to 10,842 while S&P 500 futures were up 1.2 percent up 1,137.20.
Asian markets wobbled throughout the day amid pessimism about the health of the world's major economies. But the falls in Asia were muted compared with the rout on Wall Street on Wednesday, which saw the Dow plummet 4.6 percent.
Japan's Nikkei 225 index slipped 0.6 percent to close at 8,981.94 as a strengthening yen, which reduces the value of export earnings, clobbered Japan's crucial export sector.
Honda Motor Corp. and Nissan Motor Corp. each lost 3.5 percent. Consumer electronics giants also slid — Sony Corp. by 2.2 percent and Panasonic Corp. by 1.7 percent.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng index stumbled 1.1 percent to 19,558.78. South Korea's Kospi, vacillating in and out of negative territory, was up 0.6 percent to 1,817.44. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 was up less than 0.1 percent at 4,203.50 after earlier dropping about 2 percent.
A few markets eked out gains including China's Shanghai Composite Index.
Lee Kok Joo, head of research at Phillip Securities in Singapore, said investors were still reeling from the effects of the U.S. credit downgrade, poor economic outlook and fears of possible credit downgrades of AAA rated countries in Europe.
"Investors are keeping a portion of their holdings in cash and are waiting for a more opportune time to get into the market," he said.
U.S. weekly jobless claims, due to be released Thursday in Washington, would be a key factor in determining market direction in the coming days, he said.
"That is a very important number for the week," he said. "If that is disappointing, then that would cement investor fears that the employment situation in the U.S. is getting worse."
On Wall Street on Wednesday, the Dow Jones industrial average closed down 519 points at 10,719.94. The S&P 500 finished the day down 4.4 percent and the Nasdaq composite index dived 4.1 percent.
On Tuesday, the Federal Reserve said it planned to keep interest rates ultra-low for two more years since it sees almost no chance that the U.S. economy will improve substantially by 2013.
The other major market concern is Europe's debt crisis. Investors have grown increasingly worried that Italy and Spain could become the next European countries to have trouble repaying their debts. Greece, Ireland and Portugal have already received bailout loans because of Europe's 21-month-old debt crisis.
The fears have pushed investors to shun Spanish and Italian bonds, which have led to higher borrowing costs for the two countries. The European Central Bank stepped in Monday and began buying billions of euros worth of their bonds.
Benchmark oil for September delivery was down 27 cents to $82.62 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Crude rose $3.59, or 4.5 percent, to settle at $82.89 on Wednesday.
In London, Brent crude was down 48 cents to $106.20 per barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.
In currencies, the dollar weakened to 76.62 yen from 76.83 yen late Wednesday in New York. The euro rose to $1.4214 from $1.4208.
(Reuters) - French banking shares fell sharply on Thursday, adding to a hefty sell-off the previous session on growing concerns about their outlook and briefly erasing early gains in European stocks.
Societe Generale (SOGN.PA) was down 4.4 percent after falling as much as 23 percent on Wednesday on rumors, which the bank denied, about its financial solidity. BNP Paribas (BNPP.PA) was down 4.9 percent while Credit Agricole (CAGR.PA) fell 0.5 percent.
"There aren't fresh rumors, but we're seeing mounting concerns of systemic risk out there. We haven't seen panic selling yet, but people don't want to be caught off guard," said Lionel Jardin, head of institutional sales at Assya Capital in Paris.
The European banking index .SX7P was down 0.7 percent, giving up earlier gains of nearly 4 percent. The FTSEurofirst 300 .FTEU3 index of top European shares was up 0.5 percent at 914.67 points, off a high for the day of 932.34.
