The “light” meal that you order in the restaurant may not be what you think it is. The salmon with miso glaze at the Cheesecake Factory, which sounds like a sensible low-calorie meal, turns out to have almost 1,700 calories — about 75% of average recommended daily calorie intake for an adult male.

The problem is that we don’t always know what we eat. I’ve been to Cheesecake Factory and the portion is really generous. I always feel that I get my money’s worth there and my stomach does not complain either. The article points out that food companies like the Cheesecake Factory spend millions of dollars into research to put together the ingredients to make and serve food exactly the way customers want it.

People go to the Cheesecake Factory because they like being there, not because they’re being deceived. The only catch is that they really don’t know how bad the food is for them. Study after study shows we wildly underestimate caloric load of our foods, and we underestimate by more as the meal becomes larger. It’s not clear that nutritional information on menus would actually change eating habits. But it would at least give people a place to start.