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Eating Out - Tips for a Heart Healthy Diet
Eating out - whether it's fine dining, a business lunch, meals on the road, or perhaps you simply just don't feel like cooking, you can make choices to ensure your restaurant meals are heart healthy.
Good news!
Restaurants across North America are going trans fat free.
Ordering from the menu
Restaurant eating can be very hard on your smart heart lifestyle. Here are some tips to help you stay on track. Look for light, low fat, or heart healthy selections on the menu.
Choose baked, barbecued, broiled, grilled, poached, roasted, and steamed selections.
Avoid anything battered and deep-fried.
If you can't tell from the menu how a dish is cooked...ask! You have a right to know what you're paying for and what you are putting in your body.
Ask for substitutions. I usually ask for extra vegetables or salad in place of French fries or other high fat, starchy options.
If you want potatoes, ask for baked instead of French fries or scalloped.
Start with a salad. Scientists at Pennsylvania State University found that volunteers who ate a big veggie salad before the main course ate fewer calories overall.
Order your salad dressing on the side. Then you control how much dressing you use.
Choose oil and vinegar dressings instead of creamy dressings.
Choose broth soups instead of creamy soups.
Avoid thick and creamy (high fat) sauces like hollandaise, alfredo, and cheese sauce.
Other descriptions to beware of include: buttery, sautéed, pan-fried, au gratin, thermidor, newburg, parmesan, cheese sauce, scalloped, and au fromage (with cheese).
Choose fish (not battered!) instead of steak.
Sandwiches - choose vegetarian or lean sliced meats such as beef, chicken, or turkey. Have lettuce, spinach, tomatoes, cucumbers, mustard as garnishes. Avoid sandwiches made with mayonnaise (chicken salad, tuna salad, salmon salad). Choose whole grain bread (no butter), avoid croissants.
Pizza - choose lower-fat toppings, such as vegetables, ham, fish, and prawns. Don't order extra cheese.
Pasta - choose a tomato sauce instead of a creamy sauce.
Burgers - choose veggie burgers or grilled burgers made from lean meat or fish. Ask for your burger without cheese or mayonnaise.
Salad bars - load up on the raw vegetables. Choose chicken (without the skin), lean ham, prawns, sardines, cottage cheese, mozzarella, roasted or raw peppers, avocado, onions, tomatoes, olives, radishes, carrots, raisins, or green beans to add to your salad. Avoid salads that contain a lot of mayonnaise or other dressings high in fat such as in caesar, coleslaw, potato, and pasta salads. Skip the bacon bits, croutons, and fried noodles.
Enjoying your meal
When eating out, here are some additional strategies to use.- Start with a glass of water to make you feel full.
- Choose a whole grain bun or bread (wihout butter) or bruschetta, which is bread topped with fresh tomatoes and herbs instead of fat-laden garlic bread or croissants.
- Eat your baked potato without the butter, sour cream, or cheese sauce.
- Slow down and enjoy your food. When you eat too quickly, you eat too much.
- Don't add salt (anytime - not just when you're eating out!).
- Don't add soy sauce - it's very high in sodium.
- Many restaurants serve huge portions. When appropriate consider sharing your selections with your companion, so neither of you overeat.
- Don't feel you have to "clean your plate" (even if your mother always told you to!). Stop eating before you feel full.
- Skip dessert - or order fruit.
- On a special occasion, share dessert with a friend (or two or three). This way everyone gets a taste, but nobody consumes too much.
Alcohol - If you have a drink when you are eating out, opt for a glass of dry wine, a light beer, a vodka and tonic, or a plain martini. Avoid mixed drinks and fancy cocktails.Fast food is saturated with
salt.
Salt raises the risk of high blood pressure, heart disease, and stroke. Most processed and fast foods have very high quantities of salt - and thus should be avoided.
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