Strategies for Eating Out

Use these proven strategies to eat lean when dining out.

Studies indicate that people who eat out more often tend to eat more fat, more total calories, and less fiber than those who eat out less often. One study that tracked the dining out habits of more than 3,000 men and women for 15 years found those who ate at fast food restaurants more than twice a week gained 10 pounds more and experienced a two-fold greater increase in insulin resistance (a type 2 diabetes risk factor) than those who ate at fast food restaurants less than once a week.

Based on this data, many nutritionists advise their clients to eat out less often. It’s certainly not bad advice insofar as it is realistic. With just a little effort, for example, you can create a habit of preparing healthy lunches at home and taking them to work instead of eating at fried chicken, taco, and hamburger joints near your workplace every noon hour. But avoiding restaurants is not always possible. Some of us travel a lot and have no choice but to eat often at restaurants. Some of us are involved in frequent, restaurant-based working lunches, and to miss these would compromise our work. And some of us are so busy, overburdened, stressed out, and frazzled that we just need to cut ourselves some slack and have others prepare and serve our food more often than we prepare it for ourselves. That’s OK. I’ve been there.

No matter how frequently or infrequently you eat out, it’s good to know how to eat healthily at restaurants. The following are a few simple tips that will help you in this regard.

Choose restaurants with healthier options. All restaurants are not equal in terms of the availability of healthy menu items. If you’re serious about eating well when eating out, don’t paint yourself into a corner by going to restaurants that don’t offer healthy menu items you can enjoy.

The typical fast food hamburger restaurant has almost nothing wholesome to offer. Under pressure from various sources, some of the major chains have begun making half-hearted efforts to introduce menu items that are not as bad as the rest, but so far these efforts have not amounted to much. Real, fresh vegetables and fruits (French fries and ketchup don’t count) remain exceedingly rare at a majority of these establishments. For this reason, I advise you to simply avoid McDonald’s, KFC, and the like except on rare occasions. If and when you do find yourself at such a place, ask your server for written nutrition information before ordering. You can also research the nutrition content of any major chain’s menu items ahead of time by visiting the company’s official web site or by purchasing a copy of a book such as The Complete Book of Food Counts.

There are plenty of restaurants – even inexpensive restaurants with fast service – where it’s not at all difficult to get a wholesome meal. Delis and sandwich shops, Chinese, Japanese/sushi, and Mexican restaurants, salad bars, smoothie joints, and buffets are among the types of restaurants that can usually feed you quickly and cheaply without clogging your arteries with trans fats. A simple guideline to use when choosing where to eat out is the vegetable rule. If a given restaurant has one or more real, honest-to-goodness vegetable items (for example, salads not made with iceberg lettuce, which contains virtually no nutrition), it’s probably OK. Potatoes and vegetables compromised by their manner of preparation (for example, creamed spinach) don’t count as real and honest-to-goodness.

Order the healthier options. Choosing a restaurant with healthy menu options doesn’t do you any good unless you actually order them. In deciding what to order from a restaurant menu, follow the basic principles of healthy eating, including these two: eat natural foods, and eat a balance and a variety of foods.

The two simplest ways to eat more naturally at restaurants are to avoid fried foods (except stir fries) and to either avoid or strictly limit desserts. Fried foods, as we have seen, are quite “unnatural” in that frying greatly increases the caloric density of foods and damages some of the oils used. Restaurant menus tend to be full of fried foods. Instead, go for menu items that are baked, boiled, grilled, poached, roasted, steamed, or stir-fried. The processing that produces our favorite desserts also results in foods that are unnaturally dense calorically and unnaturally empty nutritionally. I won’t go as far as to tell you to never eat desserts at restaurants, but I do suggest that you eat them seldom, or eat just a few bites to satisfy your sweet tooth.

The two simplest ways to eat more balanced meals at restaurants are to avoid fat-heavy items and to always order vegetables. Restaurant offerings tend to be seriously unbalanced in the direction of fat. You can improve the nutritional balance of your restaurant meals by avoiding or going light on fatty sauces, salad dressings, and dairy foods. On some menus, low-fat menu items are identified as such (often with a heart icon). Another effective way to improve the nutritional balance of your restaurant meals is to make sure you order vegetables. It’s all too easy to walk out of a restaurant without having eaten real, honest-to-goodness vegetables. Prioritizing them when you order will not only increase the amount of quality nutrients in your meals but will also reduce the amount of bad stuff you eat by leaving less room for it in your stomach.

Don’t be afraid to make special requests. There are two distinct types of restaurant patrons. On the one hand there are the “Sally’s” – named after the Meg Ryan character in the film When Harry Met Sally – who are not afraid to completely disregard the menu and order exactly what they want, exactly the way they want it, no matter how much trouble it causes the cooking staff. On the other hand, there are diners who tend to view the restaurant staff as though they were their hosts in a private home and are therefore afraid to make any special requests. When it comes to eating healthily in restaurants, it’s much better to be a Sally.

First of all, if you have any questions – about how a particular menu item is prepared, about alternatives to listed menu items, or whatever else – ask and find out. Also, be bold in collaborating with your server and/or chef to come up with a healthier version of whatever you wish to order, whether that means replacing a meat sauce with a meatless one, holding the cheese, substituting brown rice for potatoes, or something else entirely. In my experience, most restaurants are happy to do what it takes to please you.

Mind the drinks. At restaurants we tend to drink larger quantities of beverages and/or indulge in beverages that we don’t drink at home (soft drinks, cocktails, and so forth). This tendency can unnecessarily inflate the number of calories we consume in restaurant meals. A pint of draft beer contains about 230 calories. A medium Coca-Cola at Burger King contains 260 calories. That’s about 10 percent of a typical runner’s daily energy needs in one cup.

Water is one good alternative to high-calorie restaurant beverages, but not the only one. Others include herbal tea with lemon, unsweetened homemade iced tea, and sparkling water. At many fast food restaurants there are no healthy drink options besides tap water. That’s another reason to shy away from fast food restaurants. When you do find yourself in such a place, avoid ordering the “meal combos” that come with a soft drink. Order a la carte instead and choose water as your beverage.

Don’t get your money’s worth. Because eating at a restaurant is usually more expensive than eating at home, we often adopt a get-my-money’s-worth attitude at restaurants that can result in our eating much more than we need to. This is especially tempting in buffet restaurants, but it’s also a problem at other restaurants that serve large portions. You must not feel obligated to “clean your plate”. Try to eat the same amount you eat when you control your own portions at home. Employ the 1-5 scale of fullness and stop eating when you hit level 3 or 4. Feel free to ask your server about portion sizes before you order and to request a smaller-than-normal serving when the standard portion size seems too large.