20 tricks to eating healthy while eating out

Going to a restaurant shouldn’t be your excuse to eat unhealthy foods. Follow these tips and not only will you enjoy your meal more, you’ll feel satisfied and happy when you’re done.

Restaurants offering “table side” service, where food is prepared at the diners’ table, continue to grow in numbers and popularity. But like fast-food outlets, these dining establishments can be ticking time bombs when it comes to nutritional health. Government surveys find that the food you typically eat when you’re not home is nutritionally worse in every way than the food you eat at home.

But healthier options do exist on their menus – if you know how to look for them. You can also rely on these tips to help making eating out a healthier treat.

Dining out is no time to be a meek consumer, notes Dr Michael F. Jacobson, executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) and co-author of the book Restaurant Confidential. “You need to be an assertive consumer by asking for changes on the menu,” he says. For instance, if an item is fried, ask for it grilled. If it comes with French fries, ask for a side of veggies instead. Ask for a smaller portion of the meat and a larger portion of the salad; for salad instead of coleslaw; baked potato instead of fried. “Just assume you can have the food prepared the way you want it,” says Dr Jacobson. “Very often, the restaurant will cooperate.”

Often a side of vegetables in a restaurant is really like garnish – a carrot and a forkful of squash. When ordering, ask for three or four times the normal serving of veggies, and offer to pay extra. “I’ve never been charged,” says dietitian Dr Jeff Novick. “And I’ve never been disappointed. I get full.”

Get an idea of the ingredients in your dish, such as salt, butter and oil, and how much is used.

Some restaurants list kilojoules and nutritional content of their meals. Check first before ordering.

Restaurant chains have jumped on the low-carb bandwagon, offering numerous low-carb options on their menu. But low-carb doesn’t mean low-kilojoule.

Or split a main with your dining partner. A CSPI survey found that restaurants often serve two to three times more than food labels list as a serving.

If there is a nice selection of seafood- and vegetable-based starters, consider skipping the main and having two entrées for your meal. Often, that is more than enough food to fill you up.

Scientists at Pennsylvania State University found that volunteers who ate a big veggie salad before the main course ate fewer kilojoules overall than those who didn’t have a first-course salad, notes Novick.

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This is a vegetable course – keep it tasty but healthy. That means avoiding anything in a creamy sauce (coleslaw, pasta salads and potato salads), and skipping the bacon bits and fried noodles. Instead, load up on the raw vegetables, treat yourself to a few well-drained marinated vegetables (artichoke hearts, red peppers, or mushrooms), and for a change, add in some fruit or nuts. Indeed, fruits such as mango, kiwi, rockmelon and pear are often the secret ingredient in four-star salads.

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