New York Times restaurant critic Pete Wells quits position after his annual physical returned shock results - as he moans about the pitfalls of the job

New York Times critic Pete Wells has resigned from his round after discovering the toll that dining out was taking on his health.

Wells famously reviewed restaurants for 12 years with the Times, eviscerating some beloved institutions like Peter Luger steakhouse and Carbone.

But in a recent column, Wells revealed that he his obese and suffering significant health issues including poor cholesterol, blood sugar and hypertension.

This has led to Wells - and other food critics - to weigh in on the challenges of their food tasting jobs.

'When, in the line of duty, you have spent enough hours loading up your tray with mashed potatoes, rolls, biscuits and an extra slice of pie, you eventually have to ask yourself whether you are standing in the buffet line for the audience or for yourself,' Wells said.

New York Times restaurant critic Pete Wells (pictured) claimed the job made him obese and led to his poor health

Wells famously reviewed restaurants for 12 years with the Times, eviscerating some beloved institutions like Peter Luger steakhouse (food pictured)

'Virtually all of my 500 or so reviews were the result of eating three meals in the place I was writing about. Typically, I'd bring three people with me and ask each to order an appetizer, main course and dessert. That's 36 dishes I'd try before writing a word.

'Then there are the reference meals, the ones we eat to stay informed, to not be a fraud. Often, this is where I got into real trouble.'  

Other food critics shared in Wells challenges with the job saying visiting several restaurants a week and trying everything on their menu takes a toll on them. 

'You have to sample the full range of the menu,' said Ligaya Figueras, the senior food editor and lead dining critic for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. 'If I really felt like a salad today, I can't just have the salad.' 

MacKenzie Chung Fegan, a restaurant critic for the San Francisco Chronicle, sampled Peking duck all over the city for a story about a restaurant that specialized in the dish.

'There was a two-week period where I was eating more duck than anyone's doctor would advise,' Fegan said.

In a 2020 study published in the Journal of Nutrition, researchers at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University found that 50 percent of meals at full-service U.S. restaurants – and 70 percent of those at fast-food restaurants – were of poor nutritional quality, according to American Heart Association guidelines. Less than 1 percent were of ideal quality.

Wells slammed three-star Michelin restaurant Eleven Madison Park's 2021 all-vegan tasting menu (eggplant with tomato and coriander plate pictured)

Carbone - a Greenwich Village red sauce joint (rigatoni pictured) that has been favored by celebrities and high-status individuals - lost a Michelin star after Wells reviewed it in 2022

Dariush Mozaffarian, a cardiologist and Tufts professor who was one of the study's authors, said restaurant meals tend to be lower than ideal in whole grains and legumes, modestly lower in fruits and vegetables, and modestly higher in salt and saturated fat.

For the period the study examined, between 2003 and 2016, the nutritional quality of food in grocery stores improved, Mozaffarian said. But restaurants didn't make similar changes, he said.

'I can't tell you how many restaurants I go to and on every person's plate there are French fries,' Mozaffarian said. 'There are not an equal and diverse array of healthy and unhealthy menu choices.'

To be fair, Fegan said, diners are looking for something delicious when they go out to eat, 'and a lot of times that means something with fat and sodium.'

'If I'm looking at the menu thinking, "What is the most exciting thing on this menu?," it's probably not a side of broccoli rabe,' she said.

Figueras deals with the challenge in several ways. On the nights she's not dining out, she says she is 'hypervigilant' and eats mostly vegetables. She plays tennis and walks her dog to stay in shape. And when she's heading to a restaurant, she eats fruit or another healthy snack so she won't arrive hungry.

'Everything tastes good when you're starving,' she said.

Wells and other critics have said the challenges of their food tasting jobs including have to eat out multiple times a week

Restaurant critics said one of the downsides is having to try items the entire menu when it may not be what they are craving that day

Lyndsay Green, the dining and restaurants critic at the Detroit Free Press, also tries to eat healthy on her days off, getting most of her food from a local farmer's market. 

Green says she thinks menus are getting healthier. Many chefs are offering gluten-free or vegan options, she said, and are getting more creative with their non-alcoholic cocktail menus.

She thinks restaurant critics can help readers by being open about their own needs. A pregnant critic, for example, could write up a restaurant guide for other expectant parents.

'Nearly everyone has health concerns and dietary standards, so I think it can also be our job to talk about that in our work,' she said.

Wells will file a few more reviews before stepping down in early August but will remain with the Times. Times food writers Melissa Clark and Priya Krishna will step in as restaurant critics on an interim basis, the newspaper said.

Wells said he will continue to go to restaurants and maybe even enjoy them more now that he's not distracted by work. He said he will be sorry to lose touch with New York's seemingly infinite restaurant scene, but glad to find more balance in his own life.