Healthy Choices When Dining Out

There are many reasons to eat more home-cooked meals and reduce the number of meals you eat in restaurants. You’re most likely aware that, among other things, restaurant food is saltier, the sauces are heavier, and the portions are probably much larger than what you’d eat at home. It’s possible though, to enjoy restaurant meals with a little thought and planning.
Here are some tips for enjoying restaurant meals without sacrificing your health:
• Think of eating out as a treat or “splurge.” If work or travel requires you to eat out more than a couple of times a week, think as if you were eating at home and choose a menu option closest to something you’d eat there.
• Become familiar with restaurants in your area that have a good selection of healthier options and choose those when you’re deciding where to eat. Sites like Healthy Dining Finder.com provide recommendations for healthier menu options at popular chain restaurants. However, you may find that local restaurants offer a better variety of healthy menu choices.
• Ask your server questions about your meal, and don’t be afraid to ask for substitutions. For example, if a particular chicken dish sounds good to you but it comes with a heavy cream sauce, and there’s a fish dish that comes with a light lemon sauce, ask your server if they’ll replace the cream sauce with the lighter one. Once again, local restaurants may be more willing to meet your special requests as long as they have those items available. And if they come to know you as a loyal customer, they’ll be even more accommodating.
• Skip right over the menu page that lists appetizers; you don’t need that much food anyway. Many articles will suggest that you make a meal of one or two appetizers and a salad because the portions will be smaller, but appetizers tend to be some of the fattiest, saltiest foods on the menu. And don’t even glance at the dessert menu, either.
• Choose meals that are prepared by grilling, steaming or sautéing, rather than frying, and those that have lighter sauces rather than heavier cream sauces.
• Plan to eat only half your entrée and order a salad or an extra side of vegetables. Either share the other half of your entrée with your dining partner or take the rest home with you to have another day. If you know you’ll eat whatever’s put in front of you, ask your server to wrap up half your meal before your plate is even brought to your table.

For many, the reason for eating out or stopping at a fast food place more often than they’d like is that they don’t know what to cook when they get home in the evening. If this sounds familiar, keep a few quick meals in mind—say, a pasta puttanesca, shrimp with rice and frozen stir-fry vegetables, and chicken tenders with frozen spinach and sweet potatoes, for example—and keep your pantry and freezer stocked with the items for making those. That way, you’ll find it much easier to eat at home.