by erin thursby scopes1925@msn.com
Healthy isn’t always fun, but you can be a little more health conscious when you go to you favorite kind of restaurant. Here they are, from the worst to the best and what you can choose to make it a more healthy experience.
First of all, start splitting your entrée when you order Chinese takeout. Most of the time these suckers are over a pound in weight and fat filled. My beloved General Tso’s has about 70 grams of fat. For many people, that’s actually over their entire recommended daily intake.
Basically unless it’s steamed, soup or a fortune cookie—many pounds are in your future if you eat Chinese takeout without restraint on a regular basis. I love Chinese but I figure I’m ok, since I stretched my last order of General Tso’s over three meals.
I love fajitas, tortillas and enchiladas and so does the rest of America. To improve your health and your waistline, the next time you order a sizzling skillet of do-it-yourself chicken fajitas at Chili’s, limit the number of flour tortillas you use. Instead, try to stuff one or two full and skip or limit the sour cream and cheese.
The first rule—skip the chips! Yes, they come free with your meal, but you will pay. Not at the table but later, when you’re looking down at the scale in horror.
Tortillas are a better choice than enchiladas, which are typically doused in cheese, dipped in hot fat and topped with sour cream.
Even though guacamole is high in fat, it’s a better choice than sour cream. The fat in guac is monounsaturated, so it’s great for your heart. It also contains vitamin E.
Pizza isn’t high on the list of healthy choices, but you can trim some of those choices down by being conscious of what you order. To keep yourself from overindulging, eat a dressing free salad to fill up.
For a slim pie, don’t do a white pizza, go for pizza marinara. And when you’re shaking on toppings at your table, avoid parmesan. A high fat, salt and fat content makes this a bad choice. As a rule, covering your pie with veggies rather than high fat meats is a grand idea. Be careful though, veggies might be healthy, but the more you add the more calories per slice. More is more, even if it’s healthy.
When choosing a pasta or pizza sauce, avoid alfredo and white clam sauce. Better choices are tomato and pesto, with tomato sauce as the better of the two.
How ‘bout a burger? Leave off the mayo, cheese, ketchup and produce to save yourself fat and calories. BLTs are bad, yes, but if you leave off a slice or two of bacon and sub mustard for mayo, you can cut the fat content in half and substantially cut the calories. Burgers generally come with fries, but there are other options. Explore those or just have the fries put in a doggie bag before they hit the table. These days you can even find steamed veggies on a sports bar menu, so look to that as an alternative
But beware the chicken salad! It sounds like a deceptively healthy choice, but if they fry the chicken and pile on the cheese and dressing, you might be better off with a burger. The rule of thumb on chicken and fish is if they’ve fried it, that’s pretty much cancelled out any healthy qualities it may have once had.
Start your meal by asking for unsweetened iced tea. Here in the South we like to put a ridiculous amount of sugar in our pre-made tea. If you’re the one putting it in at the table, you’re less likely to over sweeten.
Sides can get you in trouble here too. Think of the evils of a deep-fried hush puppy. Think of mayo-laden coleslaw. Opt for veggie sides instead, of which there should be plenty. Of course, I love hush puppies and slaw, so I compromise—one evil side and one good side.
The healthiest and leanest barbecue ribs are the Memphis-Style, dry rubbed. These ribs are cut from the leanest section of the loin. Whatever you order, have them hold the barbecue sauce, dry is best for health, or you can order the sauce on the side to limit yourself.
Eat a max of 10 shrimp and look for peel and eat shrimp that isn’t doused in butter. Having to peel the tasty little morsels actually slows down your eating.
Avoid the tartar sauce and reach for cocktail sauce instead. Avoid anything fried; go for blackened or broiled instead. Big game fish are high in mercury, so avoid selections such as swordfish.
Most of the appetizers at an Indian restaurant are deep fried, so try some savory dal or lentil soup instead.
Lamb might be a traditional menu item, but it can be at least 150 or more calories than its chicken counterparts Tandori is one of the best choices. Avoid sauce-based dishes.
If you can order grass-fed beef, please do! It’s naturally leaner. Unfortunately that’s not always an option since corn fed is the norm. Don’t order dry aged beef. It may be delicious, but it’s got the highest fat content, so it’ll cost your pocket book as well as your physique. The same is true of rib-eye and prime. The best cut to order is the filet mignon. Next best is top sirloin. Avoid béarnaise sauce and butter for your lobster.
So maybe there are a lot of high-fat options on a Thai menu, but it’s the “good” kind of fat. Saturated fat doesn’t make much of an appearance in most of my favorites—chicken satay, pad Thai and the Thai curry dishes. There are things to avoid, of course. The crispy whole snapper is fried and oil saturated, coming in at from about 850 to 1,000 calories. Avoid also the fried rice, as it is sometimes as oil saturated as Chinese fried rice.
Go for the sushi, mostly. Most of the stuff at the grill table is high in carbs, calories, fat and sometimes even sugar. But the California roll is just 300 calories. If you go overboard and consume more than three rolls, your caloric intake is going to be pretty high. Skip the spicy tuna roll, or anything else that features mayo.
For a pre-sushi appetizer, skip the house “salad” they serve at sushi bars. It tends to be overloaded with high-fat dressing on iceberg. Instead try the seaweed salad or stick to the soup.
Do make sure you limit the number of rolls that are covered in tobiko (flying fish roe) as a tablespoon has about a quarter of your daily allowance of salt.
Keep in mind that no matter where you go out to eat, it’s possible to make a very healthy decision. Here are five general rules of thumb that you can follow while eating out, in order to stick to more healthy choices.
1) Red is better. Tomato based sauces are generally lower in fat with better nutritional value than cream-based sauces.
2) Portions these days are staggeringly huge. Ask for a To Go box at the start of your meal. Stick at least half of your entrée in the box. You might not even miss it, and you’ll have lunch for the next day.
3) Order nothing fried. Fried=Bad, yes? Whatever health value a food has, veggie, fish or chicken, sticking it in a deep fryer tends to cancel that out and deliver a load of fat.
5) All the little extras add up. Hold the mayo! Hold the sour cream! Hold the cheese!
If you have a burning desire to eat something fried, covered in cheese on a huge plate with a creamy sauce, at least you know what you’re getting into.
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