These laws that force restaurants to publish the nutritional data of their meals have forced many of the chain restaurants in those places where such laws exist to add healthier and low calorie meals to their menus.
Some other restaurants publish most of these important nutritional data about their meals on their website and not on their menu.
But, you have to realise that even though these laws offer some level of guidance (if you are living in places where such laws exist) over what you should order for when you go to eat at these restaurants, you still have to be on your guard to make sure that you do not order for foods that can derail you off your low fat and healthy diet.
Therefore, we are going to be looking at the following tips that you can make use of anytime you are eating outside to make sure that you stay on course with your healthy diet:
Tip 1-Take the nutritional data on the menu with a grain of salt
You have to realise that most of the nutritional data on the menus of these restaurants was based on standard dishes that were prepared by making use of ingredients that were measured precisely however, most of the dishes that are going to be served on a daily basis are not going to be prepared with ingredients that were measured precisely; most of the ingredients that are going to be used to make everyday meals are going to be significantly higher than those that were used to make the standard meal displayed on the menu.
So, if you want to make the best food choices from the information that you are provided with on the menu, it is better that you read in between the lines of the information provided to you and decipher the real meaning of certain word codes in the menu.
If you come across words like creamy, or crispy, or smothered know that what the menu is actually saying is that that meal or food slathered in fat; if you come across words like rich, or thick it means that that meal contains heavy amount of that ingredient. You should go for meals that are described with words like steamed, or seared, or poached, or grilled which denote a simpler, lighter and healthier cooking style.
Tip 2- When you want to order for salads and other dishes, you must request for slight or minimal dressing and saucing. Most of the ingredients used for dressing and most of the ingredients in most sauces contain lots of calories and most restaurants tend to apply them very generously to spice up their meals. So, you should specifically ask for a lightly sauced or lightly dressed dish when you eat out.
Tip 3- You should specifically ask for half portion servings since the average serving of most restaurants is typically twice or thrice the size of the amount of food that an average person should be eating at a time; once you are not over served, you will not be tempted to over eat. The fact that most restaurants do not usually list these half servings in their menu does not mean that they will not serve it if it is specially requested for.
However, the only exception to this tip is when you go to eat at a frou-frou nouvelle cuisine restaurant where every meal that is served is not more than the size of an ice cube.
Tip 4- Request for the vegetable of the day; even though most restaurants do not list vegetables on their menu, most of them actually have one or two vegetables that they will be serving on any day and you can ask for these vegetables instead of asking for potato or French fries.
Tip 5- Pick your choice of restaurant carefully; you will be able to find more healthy food options if you go to the right restaurants.Even though Indian restaurants serve delicious meals, most of their meals are usually high in fat and calorie content; sushi Japanese restaurants on the other hand tend to serve more healthy foods. You should avoid pubs as most of the foods that they serve are fried foods but you can go to grills which tend to serve more nutritious foods. Diners should be down your pecking order as they serve more of foods that are slathered with dressings, cheese, syrups and gravy; a bistro restaurant on the hand will serve more of salads and other light foods.
You can also go to Spanish or Middle Eastern restaurants where you can conveniently order for a "tapas" which is a small plate or a tasting portion of main meal.
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