How to eat healthy when eating out

As featured in Body+Soul, 31st Jan, 2016

We love eating out! Australian’s spend around 1/3 of our weekly food budget going out for a meal or treat. While many cafes and restaurants have upped their game when it comes to overall health and nutritional consciousness, many menus that appear healthy, are still only playing dress-ups! Consider these tips before you venture out next.

Make friends with your waiter

Ask them to explain the menu and cooking processes to you. If you hear the words deep fried, battered, buttery, sautéed, glazed, creamy or crispy, it is highly likely these dishes have lots of unnecessary hidden kilojoules. Listen out for baked, poached, steamed, stir-fried, grilled or seared. Don’t be afraid to ask if it is possible to make small modifications. Good manners and an expression of gratitude normally go a long way here!

Be prepared

Most places have their menu online. If you’re heading to a new spot, do a quick Google to see what’s on offer. If you don’t get a chance to do this, take the time to read the entire menu before deciding what you will order. Too often we just scan until something jumps out at us, instead of considering all possibilities and then making our choice.

Sharing is caring (and better for your waistline)

A large study published in the journal Public Health Nutrition found we consumed around 857 additional kilojoules when eating out as compared to eating at home. For those of you playing along, that’s about 9 squares of Dairy Milk chocolate or 2 ¼ slices of white bread on top of what you would normally eat. Just because you’re at a restaurant doesn’t mean you need to order more than one course. If you do, consider sharing an entrée or dessert to make sure you don’t over do it.

Use your common sense

We’ve all heard the standard tricks – skip the breadbasket, choose the salad over chips, ask for the sauce or dressing on the side, go for meat and veg options… There is a reason why these things keep getting mentioned.

Choose your moment

Eating out has become part of our cultural norm so it’s no longer ok to use the ‘I don’t have this very often’ line. That being said there is nothing wrong with the occasional indulgence; just choose the occasion in which you do. (E.g. the fancy restaurant you have been waiting to get into for 3 months as opposed to the local Thai place).

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