Eat Smart When Eating Out

In my review of Eat This, Not That!, I noted that ordering food in a restaurant can be a dietary disaster. Restaurants, needing to satisfy customers while making a profit, frequently use sugar, various breadings, and fats to make their food taste good. The result is oversized portions of calorie-laden food, served at prices that encourage customers to make eating out a habit, not a treat. No wonder we have an obesity epidemic in this country!

The best way to ensure that food meets your dietary needs is to make it yourself. Can't cook? You can learn! Many grocery stores and gourmet markets host free cooking classes, and some professional cooking schools teach classes (for about the cost of a nice restaurant meal) to home cooks. But sometimes we need, (or just plain want) to let someone else do the cooking for a change and it is then that we have to plan wisely for our evening out.

Whether you are looking to enjoy a special meal, or just want to enjoy a quick lunch, you need to be consider the following things:

1. Is the restaurant flexible about special requests and substitutions?

Are they willing to not use any fat/oil upon request? Will they substitute a side salad or steamed vegetables for french fries?

2. Does the restaurant menu include a number of selections that will meet your dietary needs?

Part of the fun of eating out is being able to pick and choose from a number of tasty dishes. If you are on a low carb diet, don't go to a restaurant that specializes in battered and deep fried foods. Yes, you could have a salad, but why not go to a restaurant that offers you plenty of choices?

3. What are the portion sizes like?

If you are still learning to control your portion sizes, you might want to pick out a restaurant that offers smaller portions (tapas bars can be a good option), a buffet restaurant (which will let you select as much or as little as you want of a dish), or a place that has a number of good sides and starters which you can eat instead of an entree.

4. Question assumptions about the relative healthiness of certain cuisines

Many people assume that Asian food is inherently "healthier" than western food. But as the authors of Eat This, Not That!, point out, the average entree at a Chinese restaurant (in America) contains over 1000 calories. Noodle and rice dishes are cooked with a significant amount of oil, white rice is surprisingly high in calories and low in nutritional value, and battered/deep fried foods, sticky sweet sauces and heavy gravies are commonplace. Sure there are low-calorie, nutritious items available in Asian restaurants, but the same is also true of your local corner diner.

5. Do Your Research

If a restaurant doesn't provide nutritional information, a free calorie counter such as Fitday.com can be used to estimate the calories in your favorite dishes.

Incidentally, chain restaurants are more likely than independently owned eateries to provide nutritional information on their websites. Look this information up before chosing a restaurant, then take a printed copy to the restaurant to guide you through the menu. If you are very concerned with calorie/fat/carb counts, you might want to only patronize restaurants that can provide this information.

Menus are written to sell food, not to educate consumers on its nutritional content. If you want to avoid ingesting more calories than you've bargained for, you need to be on your guard against clever ad copy.

When reading a menu, keep these principles in mind:

1. If a restaurant touts itself as specializing in "healthy" or "natural" food, you need to be especially wary. For one thing, there is evidence to suggest that consumers might eat more calories at "healthy" restaurants. Secondly, while a restaurant may well serve food made from organic ingredients, this doesn't mean that the food isn't high in calories or carbs.

2. Be careful of choosing a food based on cooking method. Just because an item is described as "broiled", "baked", "grilled" or "steamed" does not mean that fat is not being added to the dish. A "fat free" or "low fat" sauce or salad dressing may be packed with sugar. In both cases, you will be consuming more calories than you realize.

3. Don't assume that "vegetarian" options are less fattening. Meat substitutes, such as veggie burgers, can be just as high in calories as "the real thing".

4. Vegetable oils, even the "heart healthy" varieties such as olive oil, are actually higher in calories, tablespoon for tablespoon, than butter and lard. Just because a restaurant boasts of using vegetable oil in cooking does not mean that its food is lower in calories.

5. A side dish of plain steamed rice sounds healthy, until you consider that a cup of cooked white rice has 242 calories, while a medium baked potato has only 132 (plus a lot more vitamins and minerals). Don't let a food's image con you into thinking that it is healthier or less fattening than a stodgier alternative.

6. Fat adds flavor to food and makes it tastier. Think about what you are ordering: If a food requires a lot of fat in cooking and/or extra sauces to make it interesting, why not choose a slightly more caloric, but decidedly tastier, item that is more simply prepared? For example, 4 ounces of skinless, boneless, chicken thigh meat has only 49 more calories (about a 10 minute walk to burn off) than 4 ounces of skinless, boneless, chicken breast. Yet the chicken thigh is far more moist and flavorful. It is also more easily prepared in ways that make it tasty, but don't add additional calories.

7. Salads are not necessarily health food. The ubiquitous iceberg lettuce, for example, has little nutritional value. Top it with "crispy" (i.e. battered and deep fried) chicken breast, slather it with caesar dressing, and you have a 700+ calorie lunch.

1. Beware pre-meal eating and drinking.

A drink in the lounge before your meal can be pleasant, but cocktails and bar snacks can really add to your calorie count.

2. If you are very hungry, consider a low-calorie starter before making your entrée selection.

A cup of broth-based soup, a side salad with a light vinaigrette, a shrimp cocktail, or another small, low-calorie dish can ease your hunger so that you select both a sensible entrée and don’t end up raiding the bread basket.

3. Be careful of ordering several “healthy” courses and sides.

While, salads, veggies, fruits, fish, and other “healthy” foods are great choices, a meal made up of several items can push your calorie count into the stratosphere. Instead of eating a lot of “healthy” dishes, why not pick one truly delicious entrée and enjoy it fully?

4. Portions, portions, portions.

If a restaurant’s portions are huge, you have a couple of options. You can ask your server to box half your meal before they bring it to your table or you can portion out your meal after it is served to you. (If you make a meal (or two) out of your leftovers, you have also saved money.)

The other option is to split your main entrée with someone else, and either each have a starter, or order an extra side dish.

A third option is to order a starter or a side dish as your entrée.

5. Be careful about drinking your calories.

Juices, soft drinks, wine, beer, and hard liquor all have calories, and it is very easy to overdo. Also, drinking alcohol during your meal can inhibit your judgement about what, and how much, you eat.

6. Do you really need dessert?

If a restaurant has excellent desserts, there is no reason why you shouldn't indulge (providing that you have made plans to be conservative with sweets for the rest of the week). But if the only offerings are ordinary ice cream and substandard chocolate cake, why bother?