Fit City initiative takes a look at healthier restaurant options

Published 8:37 pm Saturday, February 20, 2016

Americans get about one-third of their calories from eating out, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. It’s one reason the federal government passed legislation in 2011 to require chain restaurants with more than 20 locations to post calorie content on its menus.

In Tyler, public health officials and the Fit City Tyler Coalition are interested in giving health-conscious restaurant patrons options that will shave off some of those calories.

The Northeast Texas Public Health District is participating in the ongoing Texas Nutrition Environmental Assessment of Restaurants. NET Health secured a block grant from the Texas Department of State Health Services to assist restaurants with advertisement, production and purchase of healthier restaurant menu choi-ces. The project is unrelated to the health district’s environmental health department and its food permit inspections.

NET Health is piloting the use of a survey tool and of a companion data entry smartphone app, along with the San

Antonio Metropolitan Health District. It’s in the third year of the five-year project.

“It’s important that people cook and eat at home, but with our day-to-day schedules sometimes it’s more convenient to eat at restaurants,” said Terrence Ates, assistant director of community outreach for NET Health. “We want to have an education element to offer anyone in the general area who goes to a restaurant to make an informed decision on what to eat.”

Data collected from restaurants will help with the creation of a dining guide for Smith County restaurants, which would educate customers about healthy options. Volunteers, collecting data, identify menu listings prepared using a healthier cooking method, including items that are grilled, broiled, baked, steamed, poached, roasted, saut￩ed, stewed or cooked in vegetable based sauce.

The dining guide would include tips for ordering food, such as alternatives for cream-based sauces and adding more vegetables to meals. It would be available online, and then in a printed format.

The Fit City Tyler Coalition will also use the assessment for healthy living messaging.

Ates said volunteers, including students from UT Tyler and Tyler Junior College, have been examining menus at hundreds of Smith County restaurants, including fast-food eateries.

Karley Geiger is part of a UT Tyler nursing students’ group of about 20 who volunteered to collect data on local restaurant menus.

“We go in and ask to see a menu and we count how many healthy options they have, and we look for how the food is prepared as well,” she said.

She said there have been some surprises at places typically thought to prepare healthy food.

“It’s healthy, but you don’t think about the way the food is cooked,” she said. “We found that more things are fried than grilled.”

Nonetheless, she said customers might not realize they have healthier choices. They just have to ask.

“I didn’t think there would be so many options, especially where you could make substitutions,” she said.

Carlo Barron, manager of the downtown Don Juan On The Square, echoed Geiger’s observation. Don Juan is one of the restaurants volunteers have visited.

Over the years, they’ve made some changes, such as getting rid of the lard for tortillas, but there aren’t any “light” or healthy choice sections on the menu.

Barron said it’s still possible to be health conscious while eating there. He said there are more opportunities to tailor entrees such as vegetarian dishes and those with fresh vegetables, since foods are cooked fresh. He said many customers are asking about healthier options.

“We have to please the customer and not do what we want to do,” he said. “We have to adapt. We can help if you let us know.”

The restaurant assessment will also identify a retail food environment index, which compares the presence of healthy food outlets versus the number of unhealthy food outlets in the county.

“You can see there is a divide,” Ms. Geiger said. “In south Tyler there is healthier food, where the northern side has mostly fast food, or less healthy, quick options.”

Ates said areas inside the loop on the western part of Tyler and rural communities such as Troup and Winona have few restaurants or healthy food retailers.

“We’re wanting to focus on these areas so we can directly work with those restaurants about making some changes to the menu that will make it easier for people to chose healthier food,” Ates said.