Menu shows healthy options

8:10am Saturday 6th September 2008

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A RESTAURANT has created a menu so that diners know exactly how many calories are in their meals.

Gusto said it was responding to demand from customers who also wanted to know how much salt, fat and carbohydrates were hidden in the dish.

“The vast majority of people think it’s a great idea. It’s the way society’s going now,” said operations manager Charles Hewitt.

The menus are placed on tables next to the traditional menu so that those diners who don’t want to count their calories can eat in blissful ignorance.

On Friday Tatton MP George Osborne was invited to dine at the King Street restaurant to discuss the project and sample food from the healthy eating menu. He believes the idea could be rolled out nationally.

Yesterday the Shadow Chancellor was planning to write to Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon to suggest other restaurants should follow Gusto’s example.

“You don’t necessarily want to be bombarded with things saying how fattening things are on a night out,” he said.

“But having a separate menu for those who want to look at it is a good idea.”

Gusto’s owners, Knutsford-based Living Ventures, developed the menu with chef John Branagan, biochemist Jeanette Jackson and health experts from Adidas.

Under each dish’s name there is information about the amount of calories, fat, carbohydrates and salt.

Those weights are compared as percentages to an adult’s recommended daily allowances.

There are also codes to show whether the food helps with heart conditions, the immune system, slimming, calcium deficiencies, detoxifying diets, energy levels or carbohydrate counting.

One of the best starters is quorn and vegetable broth, which costs £4.50 and contains 93.7 calories, 4.86g of fat, 1.39g of carbohydrates and 1.49g of salt.

Meanwhile, the healthiest dessert is the apple, orange and mint fruit salad, which has 78 calories, 1g of fat, 15.3g of carbohydrates and 0.05g of salt.

Mr Osborne had the seafood risotto main course - at £9.50 - which has 400 calories, 11g of fat, 58.3g of carbohydrates and 1.3g of salt.

He said the menu was good for people like him who were not experts on healthy food.

“There were certain things that I thought would be really fattening that weren’t,” he said.

The menu could also help diabetics who have to watch what they eat.