If you are like a large population you eat out quite often. We do – therefore I can safely presume that since the restaurants are generally pretty busy at meal time that we are not unusual in our meal habits. Truth being that the price of raw groceries is rising above the cost of eating out!

At our house meals schedules are pretty unpredictable. My husband still works four mornings a week, and prepares his own breakfast and I do the same. There’s a huge difference, however. He prepares a well balanced, nutritious meal and I tend to settle for toast and coffee. Yes, that’s my confession.

I thought it would be interesting to look into some of the marketing and food handling practices of some chain fast food and other food establishments. We have been successful in forcing the FDA to insist that the food content and nutritional ‘value’ of food be made available. I’ve noticed that some of the fast food chains no longer have their "value charts" available – guess it was killing their business! (And it should).

While researching various websites for part of this writing I found some very interesting practices in food preparation. Points with an * are re-printed from sources indicated.

Outback Steakhouse doesn't want you to know that the only nutritional information it provides is for its Tangy Tomato Dressing. When we contacted the company, a spokesperson claimed, "Ninety percent of our meals are prepared by hand...Any analysis would be difficult to measure consistently." Yet no fewer than 45 national chain restaurants do just that. (In case you were wondering, an order of Outback's Aussie Cheese Fries has 2,900 calories, and its Ayers Rock Strip has 60 grams of fat.) *

IHOP doesn’t want you to know that it’s Omelette Feast has 1,335 calories and 35 grams of saturated fat. This equates to 150% of your daily fat requirement and 300% of your suggested cholesterol intake. When contacted, IHOP’s director of communications commented, "We do not maintain nutritional data on our menu items, so I cam unable to assist you." Excuse me – what do you mean you? You can’t tell us what you are feeding us? *

Burger King doesn't want you to know that its French toast sticks (which deliver more than 4 grams of fat per stick) share a deep fryer with the pork sausage, pork fritters, Chicken Tenders, chicken fries, Big Fish patties, hash browns, onion rings, and Cheesy Tots--and that all of those items contain harmful trans fats. But there is hope: After the company was sued by the Center for Science in the Public Interest for moving too slowly to remove Trans fats from its menu, Burger King promised to phase them out by the end of 2008.

My mother was a wonderful, old fashioned home maker. She also has rigid standards for handling food. We were farmers, living off the land – and worked to see that our pantries were full for the winter. It was not unusual to can 1000 jars of food each year; canning being the chief method of preservation. I used to think she was creating a lot of extra work in the process just to keep us busy. She was meticulous to ensure the safety of our food. Salt, a preservative, was added sparingly, unlike today’s processed food. Compounding the excess salt in canned and boxed foods today, is the addition of very high sodium content. No wonder so much of today’s population struggles with high blood pressure and related conditions. The average adult requires a minimum of about 200 or 250 milligrams of sodium daily. That translates to 650 milligrams of salt, while the requirement for potassium is about 1,000 milligrams.

I remember so well Mom would remind us to be sure and remove the eyes on potatoes each time we helped in the kitchen. I could never really understand what a couple of eyes would matter in a bowl of mashed potatoes. I just discovered the scientific reasoning: the ‘eyes’ contain high concentrations of a chemical called solanine which is a neurotoxin that occurs naturally in many plants. It can cause anything from nausea to paralysis, in severe cases, it even can be fatal. (From Ask Marilyn in Parade Magazine).

In researched solanine, I found some interesting statistics: The chemicals contained within the deadly nightshade family, which includes potatoes, tomatoes and tobacco (atropa belladonna) have been used throughout history and still have valuable uses in today's society. The most pronounced chemical that is responsible for most of the nightshade's more unusual properties is solanine. However it also has a rather unsavory use in history.

During the middle ages it was used for many purposes including hallucinogenic effects and torture. Deadly nightshade was the poison used to poison the troops of Mark Anthony during the parathion wars and was in liquor which Macbeth gave to a party of Danes during a truce. Women would also put it into their eyes to dilate the pupils, thinking that made them more beautiful. Can you imagine? Now I know Mom didn’t know this bit of ancient history – so why did she insist "no eyes left on the potatoes before going into the stew pot".

Another cardinal rule in our home was that every fruit or vegetable which came from the garden or market would be washed in soap and water. I believe her reasoning for that was an attempt to remove as much of the chemicals as possible in an effort to alleviate her allergies. Even if a particular item was to be peeled, it first went through a soapy bath and serious rinse! In the intervening years this seemed quite silly – until I began a serious study into nutrition in an effort to achieve better health. I now follow the same principles. You might think this archaic; let me paint a word picture.

It's fairly common for restaurant staffers to place a lemon slice on the rim of a beverage glass as a flavor enhancer or decorative garnish. But who knows if these lemons have been handled using sanitary procedures? Anne LaGrange Loving, a professor of science at Passaic County Community College, decided to find out.

A total of 25 different types of germs were found on 53 out of the 76 lemons that were sampled. Some were fecal in origin (either from dirty fingertips of the restaurant employees, or from meat-contaminated cutting boards and knives), while others were types commonly found in saliva, on the skin and in the environment. Why not check out the msnbc link and decide if you want lemon or other garnishments on your beverages. *

Sometimes I get in a hurry and skip a step only to be rewarded with a pang of culinary guilt. Give those lemons a good washing too – they are coated with oils to make them shiny and attractive. However, the oil is most likely covering other sprays or contaminants. **