Eating out with an eye toward health

1 servings

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CHOOSING THE RIGHT PLACE - Depending on where you go, you can determine the health qualities of your meals. Generally you exercise more control over your dietary destiny in full-service restaurants, cafeterias, steak-houses and pizza parlors. You become more subject to the whims of others in fast food restaurants, convenience stores, and other people's homes.

TRY ETHNIC CUISINES - Italian and Asian restaurants often feature low fat dishes, but you have to be selective and aware of portion sizes.

Chines (stay away from the fried foods), Japanese, and Thai (beware the coconut milk) restaurants offer many vegetable based meals, steamed rice, steamed noodles, and vegetarian meals. A small serving of pasta and a salad at an Italian restaurant is a good healthy choice. Some Latin American restaurants offer a variety of fish and chicken dishes that are low in fat.

HEALTHY APPETIZERS - Enjoy steamed seafood, raw vegetables, or fruit.

Go easy on rich sauces, dips, and batter fried foods such as cheese sticks, vegetables, and chicken pieces. If you want a soup, order a cup and not a bowl. Most soups are heavy on the sodium.

WATCH THOSE CONDIMENTS - Butter and other spreads can make the plainest bread high in fat and calories. Limit your use of soy sauce, steak sauce, ketchup, mustard, pickles and other condiments that are high in sodium. Ask for pepper or an herb blend instead of salt.

BREAD IS BETTER THAN CRACKERS - Whole grain types of bread such as wheat, bran, oat, and rye are particularly good, but so are other types of simple breads. They are much preferable to croissants, biscuits, hush puppies, and sweet rolls, which tend to have much higher fat and sugar levels.

VEGETABLES - Look for vegetables seasoned with lemon, herbs, or spices rather than butter and salt. Ask for a tossed salad or baked potato instead of French fries or chips.

DELI DELICACIES - Choose lean deli meats such as turkey or ham over high fat cold cuts such as salami and bologna. Go heavy on lettuc and tomato for sandwich fillers and ligh on the mayonnaise, pickles, and oil.

DESSERT - Fruits are the best desserts. If there are none listed under the dessert section, check out the appetizer section. or order a light dessert such as sherbet, sorget, or fruit ice, all of which are much lower in calories and fat than ice cream. If you want a rich dessert, split it with a companion.

TELLTALE TERMS -Certian terms on the menu just reek of sodium and fat, offering valuable clues to what you may be getting yourself into dietwise. Some terms that signal higher fat are: buttered or butter; fried; breaded; creamed, creamy, or in a cream sauce; in it's own gravy, with gravy, or pan gravy; hollandaise; au gratin or in cheese sauce; scalloped or escalloped; rich; or pastry. Menu descriptions that tip off high sodium content include: smoked, pickled, barbecued, in broth, in cocktail sauce, in a tomato base, with soy sauce, teriyaki, creole sauce, mustard sauce, marinated, and Parmesan.

DON'T BE AFRAID TO ASK - Restaurants can't always meet every one of your needs, but they often can accommodate you. Besides, it never hurts to ask. After studying the meu - or even better, calling ahead to ask about a restaurants' culinary flexibility - feel free to discuss sizes, how the meal are prepared, the availability of food items not on the menu, and whether they can alter their cooking methods for your special request.

NAVIGATE FAST FOOD - Although fast food restaurants have increasingly steered away from serving junk food by offereing healthful options, much of the food you can find there is high in sodium, which you want to avoid. Nevertheless, you can eat a relatively healthy meal in a fast food restaurant by loading up on salads (go easy on the dressing), skipping dessert, choosing milk, juice, or water instead of soda or a milk shake, and skipping french fries if you order a sandwich that is deep fat fried, or served with sauce or cheese. For the main meal, you may want to order roast beef over a hamburger.

And, one last little known fact: Breaded and deep fat fried fish and chicken sandwiches have more fat and calories than plain burgers.

Origin: Household Hints + Formulas, by Erik Bruun. Shared by: Sharon Stevens, Aug/95.

Submitted By SHARON STEVENS On 09-20-95

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