NutritionDoc

Most of Ruby Tuesday's Smart Eating dishes trounce the rest of the menue. Soups = Ruby drops the cheese and croutons from its 550-calorie Baked French Onion Soup to come up with a 200 calorie Smart Eating version. And the White Chicken Chili has a third fewer calories and half the fat of a typical order of beef chili. Both beat the Low Carb Broccoli & Cheese Soup, which probably delivers at least half a day's sat fat. Appetizers = The Spicy Buffalo Wings may be low carb, but they are not low cal. How do 1090 calories, or even half that much, fit into your diet plan? The Low Carb Chicken Quesadilla is served on a whole wheat tortilla, but that won't keep its 670 calories from sticking to your ribs. And it has triple the fat of Applebee's Tortilla Chicken Melt. Wraps = Ruby's Low Carb Wraps are a steal. The Roasted Turkey beats the Grilled Chicken and Chicken Ceasar because the turkey has no cheese. But all three are nestled in whole wheat tortillas and have 300 to 400 calories. What is more, each wrap comes with a Spring Mix Salad with light balsamic vinaigrette instead of fries. Salads = Ruby has 4 Low Carb salads - Spring Chicken, Chicken Caesar, Peppercorn Salmon Caesar, and Chicken Cobb. Steer clear of the Cobb unless you want 920 calories worth of cheese, bacon, eggs, and dressing coating your lettuce (and your waist). You can lose some of the 500 to 660 calories in either of the Caesars if you get the dressing on the side (and use less). Entrees - You can cut the calories and sat fat in any entree by replacing the mashed cauliflower (made with butter, cream, and cheese) with the delicious sauteed zucchini or sugar snap peas. The baked beans, broccoli, brown rice and black beans, and cole slaw won't cut many calories, but they trim the sat fat at no cost to your taste buds. Desserts = Ruby's Low Carb Cheesecake and Low Carb Chocolate Lava Cake have fewer calories (400 to 630) than the usual 1000 calorie dessert extravaganzaa. But with somewhere between half a day's and a whole day's sat fat they are nowhere near healthy. In contrast, most people can afford the 210 calories in Ruby's Blueberry D'Lite. It is a dessert, not a meal breaker.  For more info visit my blog at http://nutritiondoc.blogspot.com