From: John Hernried, M.D.
I will confess that I ate dinner at IHOP yesterday. I picked up my kids at 6:30 after their tortuous day of school and activities and we were all starved. The thought of preparing dinner was daunting. My seven year old wanted to choose and insisted on IHOP.
I have mixed feelings about International House of Pancakes. I have fond memories as a child stuffing myself beyond full with pancakes topped with strawberries, whipped cream and syrup. Some things don’t change in that the menu is about the same and most of the food “feels” greasy and unhealthy to me. Yet, when a hungry seven year old looks you in the eye and says “please”—resistance is futile.
We were promptly seated and handed a new menu. The redesigned menu had new, greasy choices but it also had nutritional recommendations and substitute suggestions. In addition, there was a reference to a healthier menu, which was not offered to me when we sat down. I asked for the new “IHOP for Me” menu and was pleasantly surprised to find some good choices with calories listed. I enjoyed a vegetable scramble which was loaded with fresh vegetables. It came with a two fair sized pancakes and was not topped with butter. I enjoyed a nice dinner for about 600 calories. Other options on this menu include fish, chicken and various low carb options. Interestingly, there were no salads on this menu and the focus was still on meat, eggs and pancakes.
The children’s menu was also redesigned and they had several healthier options on the right side of the placemat menu. But let’s be realistic. When children are given the choice of a large pancake with a whipped cream smiling face versus “junior cod”—do you really think I can get them to make a good choice? It was a great opportunity for a teaching moment for my boys—but afterwards they chose the smiling pancake.
Why is IHOP making these changes? Perhaps public tastes are changing. However, it is more likely due to political action and media attention. They only had four of the special menus for the entire restaurant and skewed the children’s menu towards high fat, sugar and calorie choices. This shows that the restaurant industry still has not bought into the public health concerns about our food intake. Still, it is a start and I hope other restaurants will offer better choices with nutritional labels on the menu.
They have low-carb options? Maybe I will have to check them out sometime!
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