Healthy Tips for Restaurant Eating

Posted on May 9, 2007 in Nutrition by byronb

Healthy eating tends to be much easier at home, when you have beforehand control over how your food is prepared, and portion control. When it comes to eating out, keeping your habits healthy does not always appear to be quite as easy. Are you serious about being healthy? There are steps that you can take when eating out at a restaurant in order to both eat a nice meal, and to do it healthily. Making healthy eating choices is a step by step process which will eventually become a routine, and a way of life. Here are some tips for eating healthily while eating out.

1. When asked for your drink order, choose water or tea over sugar-laden or alcoholic drinks. If you insist upon having soda, opt for diet over regular in order to save on calories and sugar.

2. Whenever possible, try to order a salad first. Salads are low in calories in fat, but are loaded with healthy nutrients and vitamins. Eating a salad first will allow you to fill up on healthy vegetables before you tackle your main course. Just remember to request your salad dressing on the side, that way you will be in charge over how much is added.

3. Opt for grilled vegetables or fish whenever possible. You can usually specify that the meal not be grilled in oil or butter, or at least that it is prepared with very little. Oil and butter is essentially just unnecessary fat, so avoid it whenever possible. There is a really good chance that you will not even realize that it is missing from the meal.

4. If you do not opt for salad at the beginning of your meal, consider a bowl of soup. Soup can be a healthy choice before your main course, but you should try to avoid soups which are cream based because they tend to be higher in fat. Soups make great appetizers because they tend to be healthy and low in calories, but can fill you up fairly quickly.

5. If you are in the mood for a baked potato, request salsa which is a healthy option instead of choosing the sour cream, bacon, butter or cheese that normally comes on a baked potato. Salsa is a low calorie option which packs a serious amount of flavor without all the calories and fat.

6. If instead you are in the mood for a pasta dish, you should pass up cream based sauces and opt for tomato based instead. Tomato based sauces tend to be significantly lower in fat, making them a great alternative for healthy eating.

7. When your main dish does arrive, eat slowly. A great way to ensure this is to take one bite at a time, setting your fork or spoon down between bites. Because the eating process is slowed down, you will know that you are full before you end up eating too much. It can take as many as twenty minutes for your brain to receive the signal that you are full. Take your time while eating out, and make a point to savor every single bite.

8. Never forget that you can easily ask for a doggie bag so that half of your meal can come home with you. You will not be wasting food simply by controlling how much you eat. Cutting your meal in half right off the bat will make sure that you make two meals out of one.