i've never eaten at a lot of those restaurants, but i do think macaroni grill is not bad. i haven't read the nutrition info (and those things often shock me), but i feel they have lighter options at least--and that those lighter options are better than those at olive garden. (i don't think the red sauce at olive garden is very good. i guess they know most people want white.)

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Well, sure, places like Denny's aren't known for their healthy food, but they're doing exactly what people like Mathi need: providing healthy alternatives along with the regular junk and the info that diners need to make the right choices. So if you are on a restrictive diet, you can go with friends or family to these restaurants and there's something for everybody. When I go out with my parents, they order the healthy stuff and I get the not-so-healthy (I cook healthy all the time at home and hardly ever eat out, so I usually order something in restaurants that I can't or won't make at home).

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I disagree with some of the things listed as "healthy". For one, the veggie burger at Ruby Tuesday's has almost 1000 calories, and it's gross.

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You have it kind of wrong. If you are on a seriously restrictive diet (in my case no more than 12g sat fat per day) restaurants become pretty near impossible to eat at. Information like this tells me where I have a chance at possibly finding something I can eat while my friends enjoy their food as well.

For most restaurants all I can eat is a grilled chicken or salmon salad with their lowest fat dressing on the side. It gets really really old.

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I thought it was bizarre that they rated Ruby Tuesday as one of the healthiest restaurants, because they had options like TURKEY BURGERS after another article revealed that the same TURKEY BURGERS had well over 1000 calories.

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This type of magazine article always has some kind of bias behind the choices. Usually the bias is toward restaurants in New York City and totally ignore the fact that 99.5% of Americans live outside The City.

That said, I couldn't find a bias in this article. It seems to lean toward the more common restaurant chains, which is rather unusual in itself. It is well-written and informative as well.

Kudos to Health for getting it right. Thanks to Ellen and Slashfood for providing the info.

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I find the choices a bit weird, especially since some of the choices don't even have nutritionals on the website. So how did they determine that any of the supposedly healthy options at Bob Evan's are actually healthy? I'm always on the lookout for lower carb options for my husband, who is diabetic. We regularly hit up Ruby Tuesday's because we can lookup the info for anything on the menu and they work with special requests.

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My recent copy of men's health said stay away from Macaroni grill, i think they had 2 of the top 10 worst dishes when it comes to sodium. They made number 1 with a dish that offered up something like 350% of the daily recommended intake. I'm recalling this from memory, someone please correct me if I am mistaken. on a side note however I love their chicken parmesean but I always feel ridculously stuffed after eating it.

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Let us all remember, healthiest is all relative. If you order a meal like a fat slob, you will remain a fat slob. Restaurants that provide healthy alternatives are only healthy if their visitors take advantage of those options.

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