Eating healthy and dining out may be two unrelated concepts in your world. But with the help of Debra L. Gordon and David L Katz, M.D., authors of “Stealth Health,” these two concepts can work together in harmony. Readers Digest has assembled 20 tips to eating smart when dining out which are excerpts from the aforementioned book. See some of our favorite tips, inside…
The Reader’s Digest article says,
1. Above all else, be assertive. Dining out is no time to be a meek consumer, notes Michael F. Jacobson, Ph.D., executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) and coauthor of the book Restaurant Confidential. “You need to be an assertive consumer by asking for changes on the menu,” he says. For instance, if an item is fried, ask for it grilled. If it comes with french fries, ask for a side of veggies instead. Ask for a smaller portion of the meat and a larger portion of the salad; for salad instead of coleslaw; baked potato instead of fried. “Just assume you can have the food prepared the way you want it,” says Dr. Jacobson. “Very often, the restaurant will cooperate.” Below, you’ll find more specific requests.
2. Ask your waiter to “triple the vegetables, please.” Often a side of vegetables in a restaurant is really like garnish — a carrot and a forkful of squash. When ordering, ask for three or four times the normal serving of veggies, and offer to pay extra. “I’ve never been charged,” says dietitian Jeff Novick, R.D., director of nutrition at the Pritikin Longevity Center & Spa in Aventura, Florida. “And I’ve never been disappointed. I get full, not fat.”
11. Do the fork dip. The best way to combine salad dressing with salad? Get your dressing on the side, in a small bowl. Dip your empty fork into the dressing, then skewer a forkful of salad. You’ll be surprised at how this tastes just right, and how little dressing you’ll use. Plus, your lettuce won’t wilt and drown in a sea of oil.
13. Read between the lines. Any menu description that uses the words creamy, breaded, crisp, sauced, or stuffed is likely loaded with hidden fats — much of it saturated or even trans fats. Other “beware of” words include: buttery, sautéed, pan-fried, au gratin, Thermidor, Newburg, Parmesan, cheese sauce, scalloped, and au lait, à la mode, or au fromage (with milk, ice cream, or cheese).
16. Top a baked potato with veggies from the salad bar. Or ask if they have salsa — the ultimate potato topper, both in terms of flavor and health. Just avoid the butter and sour cream.
Check out the Reader’s Digest article for the full list.
If the eating healthy thing is just not enough fun for you, just pretend this list called “20 Ways To Annoy Your Waiter,” the list will work just as well for both.
Eat Smart When Dining Out: 20 Tips. [Reader's Digest] (Thanks to Mike!)
(Photo: Getty)
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Hat tip on #9 and #10 to Real Men of Genius’ Mr. Giant Taco Salad Inventor, “A culinary invention that baffles the human mind, a twelve thousand calorie salad.”
My advice on this topic is to not even try to eat healthy if — if — you don’t eat out all the time. If you generally eat healthy throughout the week and you get regular exercise, eating an indulgent meal out once a week isn’t going to hurt you (insert caveats about preexisting health conditions, special diet needs, allergies, etc.).
If your schedule means you have to eat out regularly, then definitely try to make healthier choices where you can. However, you shouldn’t beat yourself up over an occasional meal out or deny yourself a corn dog and funnel cake at the state fair, as long as you get right back to your regular healthy routine the next day.
@AMetamorphosis: You’re right! It’s so arrogant. I mean these restaurants are doing us a favor, feeding us for free, and…
…wait, we pay restaurants to make us food, don’t we? So maybe it’s in their interests to make sure that customers get what they want. I would not call asking for changes “arrogant” — I would call it knowing what you want. If the restaurant is unwilling or unable to comply, a savvy customer will just take their business elsewhere. In fact, I am sure that the restaurants would prefer that customers ask for special requests rather than spend their money elsewhere, so it’s really in the best interests of both parties.
@edicius: Most places have no problem with the baked potato option. When I get a baked potato, they usually ask if you want it loaded or not. I order all of the fixins on the side and then use the fork method. That way I get to enjoy the taste of the butter and sour cream without being utterly bombed by it.
Hmm… if only OEM computers had that option. “I’d like all of the extra software on the side.”
17. Eat at better restaurants. They serve healthier, fresher food with portion sizes that are meant for normal human beings.
I used to wait tables, and I didn’t mind all this customization if you are nice. But most folks are assholes when they are asking for special treatment.
We live in America. If a restuarant can’t customize an order, take YOUR money to one that will.
@timmus: I blame half of my weight on the “Clean Plate Club” my parents forced upon me, with a heap of guilt in the “There are starving kids in China/Africa/South America” crap.
The other half of the weight, of course, is my own damn fault because I’m an adult now. But damn if I don’t feel guilt even leaving a bite on my plate even 10 years after I started cooking for myself.
i order a hamburger, but ask if they can put grilled chicken on it instead of a hamburger pattie. usually they just ask if im ok with paying the same price and i say yes.
servers dont usually realize chicken costs more than beef, and i dont usualy divulge that little tidbit, but i dont care to pay extra if i have to since i cant eat red meat. and eating just the chicken sandwiches most places offer sucks, its just lettuce tomato and mayo. bleh.
These are the clowns who want to quiz the waiter down about every morsel, ruining the dining experience for everyone else at the table. Do us all a favor, you sniffy, self-important clowns: stay the fuck home.
Former waitress here.
I never minded substitutions and was happy to make them – as long as the person was nice about it.
If you are demanding, rude, nasty, then don’t expect me to bust my ass for you. I will do exactly what you ask and no more.
And, for the love of Pete, don’t expect your server to know every bit of nutritional info. They just don’t give us that, and I can’t quote the exact amount of calories in something to you.
I also, before getting out of that job, had decided that the next blonde teenage girl who asked me for something “low fat, low calorie, and low carb” in a MEXICAN RESTAURANT was getting a glass of water plopped in front of her.
“sautéed, pan-fried, au gratin, Thermidor, Newburg, Parmesan, cheese sauce, scalloped, and au lait, à la mode, or au fromage”
Drool. Those are my favorite words to read on a menu
Almost every substitution I want in a restaurant involves leaving out the meat. I still expect to pay the quoted price, although it’s a nice surprise when I get a bill with a lower price on it. Once, in Mexico, the two girls I was with were dying to go to Chilis. I had never been to Chilis in Canada, and the thought of going to one in Mexico seemed rather ridiculous. However, I was in the minority so we went. And they didn’t have a single vegetarian thing on the menu. Nada. I asked the waitress if I could have some sort of vegetarian fajita thing- all of the parts of the fajitas (rice, beans, sauteed vegetables, salsa, guacamole, tortillas) except the meat. She was very confused but checked with the kitchen, who okayed it. When I got the bill, I found I’d been charged less than half the posted price! Needless to say, the money I saved went straight to her tip.
PS – Sometimes I dip my fork in the salad dressing not to cut calories, but rather to ensure that there is enough dressing for my entire salad. I find a lot of places give you the same amount of dressing for a side salad as a dinner-sized salad. Hmmpfh.
Wow, there are a lot of food service people here who hate working in food service. Maybe should have thought about that before you took the job, eh?
I just wish the mid-range restaurants would do more to make the healthy stuff taste good. Who wants the steamed veggies when they are sad and wilted? And what if you don’t like broccoli? Why is that the only choice for a non-starch side at every mid-range restaurant? Not everyone can be lucky enough to live in an area with a wide variety of cuisines for every budget. If you’re in many rural and suburban areas, all that’s around you is fast food and Crapplebees.
@AdvocatesDevil: Yeah, I’m sure it was between “food service” and “Fortune 500 CEO” and they just chose poorly.
Most of these are not going to work at chain restaurants that primarily use ingredients from Sysco and the like. Having worked at a couple of these places, I can tell you that you can’t order your “coconut shrimp” grilled instead of fried because the restaurant orders them in ginormous bags of frozen, pre-prepared portions that don’t even get thawed, simply dunked in a fryer. Asking for your teriyaki-glazed chicken without the sugary (more likely, corn syrupy) glaze won’t work, either: [sysco.com] I’ve gotten to the point now where I can recognize Sysco products before they even hit my table. It’s disappointing, but it’s the most cost-effective way to run a restaurant.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, there are places like this ([beastpdx.com]) that are too small to accommodate every dietary whim and stay in business. If you’ve got your panties in a wad about salad dressing, you probably should be avoiding restos with foie gras on the menu anyway.
Eat half of the food and take the other half home.
Share meals.
Avoid appetizers and desserts, other than non-cream soups.
Just have soup and salad.
Drink water, avoid blender drinks and soft drinks.
Fill up on bread.
Avoid anything cheese or bacon based.
@lamorevincera: AMEN to that.
@AdvocatesDevil: Take heed to what nick_r says. Think about it this way: would YOU wait on these customers unless you ABSOLUTELY needed the money? I took the waitressing job for 2-3 months on weekends to get some extra money. I soon realized that the extra money I was making wasn’t enough to convince me to put up with people’s crap. But I’m a better customer – and tipper – for the experience.
I waited tables at Tumbleweed for years and trust me, if you order extra sides you will be charged for them. Customized orders take longer to prepare and may not turn out too great. It’s very annoying when you and the kitchen (especially the kitchen) bend over backwards to make an order super customized only to have a customer shrug their shoulders and tell you it’s “meh.”
Being assertive just feels like he’s telling to be jerks. The restaurant sells what it sells and if you don’t like that then don’t eat there. We would work with people but we weren’t miracle workers. We would make all these customizations and that would increase the time of the item to be prepared, then the customer would be angry because the food is taking longer. Then there’s like I said earlier that the version the customer created may not be the best tasting.
I was worried about pissing off waiters at restaurants when I embarked on my diet. People are not sympathetic to those trying to lose weight, for a myriad of reasons. That’s why my diet counselor told me to tell waiters I was diabetic.
When I protested that I would be lying, she looked me square in the eye and said, “Not really. If you keep eating the way you are, you will be in five years.”
You’d be surprised at how accomodating people will be when they think you’re making special requests because of a disease, as opposed to a diet. Plus, a lot has to do with how you ask. If you’re polite and request instead of insist, most waiters will be happy to do what they can.
Plus, many of the commenters have said that indulging once and awhile won’t hurt anyone. This just isn’t true. Anyone who’s gone hardcore on a low-calorie diet knows that just one meal out can snowball into a week or more of bad eating. That’s what happens when food is an addiction. You can’t stop. You can try to avoid restaurants all you want, but when it comes down to it there are going to be birthday parties and friends who insist on dining out, so it’s something you’ve got to be prepared to face head on.
@kaptainkk: Well yeah, if you’re going to be just plain retarded like that. But somehow, my usual Carl’s Jr. order, “Jalapeno Chicken sandwich combo, please, oh, and can I get a side salad instead of fries?” comes spit-free. It’s usually the same at casual dining restaurants (I usually don’t go any fancier than that).
If you can make one or two requests and get what you want, there’s nothing wrong with that. If you’re asking for the whole dish to be made differently, you should really think about ordering something else.
It’s an interesting debate … since you’re paying for your meal you have a right to get what you want, true. But at the same time, you’re going to a restaurant because you want to find out what the chef can do, so messing around with the menu he/she has built makes going to that restaurant sort of pointless. I wouldn’t say special ordering is arrogant, you should eat what makes you happy, but when I go to a restaurant I want to eat the dishes as the chef has envisioned them.
(Of course I’m not talking about chains like TGI-Crapplemax here. As pointed out, they’re just nuking stuff from the freezer, and if I wanted pepper jack cheese on everything I’d just use my own microwave.)
3. If fat/calorie content are what worry you, should not be eating out. I an only think of a single restaurant within 30 miles that does not have a menu full of calorie dense foods…it’s the vegetarian Indian fast food place, and they have such foods, just not only those.
4. How much does the nutritional info have to do with the food being good? Fat is not bad, but typical chain crap is, even with less fat. Smaller portions are good, though.
5. Again, why would you think they are going to be low-calorie? It’s generally not a restaurant thing.
6. Never thought of that. I’ll have to try it. There are many restaurants where I can never eat a full portion, but all the good dishes are big portions only.
7. Yeah, but that goes against cheapness per mass of food, since you get so much less food with the appetizers. I’m sure it is better for you, though.
8. IIRC, the same is true for soup. Too bad most restaurants don’t believe in real lettuce (with color) or dressing (soy and cottonseed oils need not apply—olive and canola are the only ones that taste good)
.
9. Why shouldn’t salads be fatty? Seriously, what is wrong with fat?
10. I love me some cheese in salad (especially fetta), but yeah…the big loud room chains (Cheddar’s, TGIF’s, Applebees, etc.) love that stuff. More calories, man (more accurately, more foods that feel like traditional comfort foods, but are in non-comfort food suits).
11. (I need an evil eye emoticon) sacrilege. Every bit of every bite should be lightly coated. MMMmmmmmm…anyway, is eating one or two teaspoons less dressing going to change anything? I would think parking three spots farther away than otherwise would be enough to make up for that.
12. How about check the menu, and avoid such big chains, too? Especially if you want to follow the lower items in the list involving customizing dishes, a good local place will suit you better. For all the things I may often be found complaining about where I live, local restaurants that have started since the area got real broadband have been embracing the web quite well.
Also, if you like a restaurant, and they have plain paper menus, take one. Then, you can have a stash to look through.
13. Hidden?! If you slice into it, it won’t look too hidden, unless you are in denial.
15. I’m too cheap to order drinks when I can, but yeah, sounds good. If they’ll make simpler traditional cocktails (old fashions, FI), all the better.
16. It’s probably better for you, but I have a lot of Irish in me. It’s just wrong
. Also watch out for the nasty stuff that they give you when you ask for butter.
17. I’ve been doing this one for a long time, but not for health (what about toxins all in the fish meat, hmm?)…at just about any chain, grilled, broiled, or baked fish will generally taste better than most other dead animal stuff on the menu (assuming you’re not into tasting more of a sauce/breading/filling than the meat).
19. Maybe, but it’s kind of N/A. If I feel up to cooking, I won’t eat out. I don’t get dressed up to eat out, because I don’t get anymore dressed up than my work clothes.
This very much reads like an article saying, “you don’t think about what you eat, do you?” Sadly, that’s probably true.
@chucklebuck: hey, I was gonna bring that up! I’m just averse to lots of salt, since I have working taste buds. Much as I have vitriol for overly strong scents (see that other post a bit newer than this one), many restaurants use too much salt. The chains have a good excuse, that they need to make up for ingredients that are average or worse. Most local ones aren’t that bad, except steakhouse type places.
What’s with all the added sugar, too? More calories, less flavor.
IMO, if you want to eat smart and healthy eating out, eat somewhere that will have healtheir menu items to begin with (Indian, Mexican, Greek, etc.). One side effect is that they will tend to be good at making them tasty, as well.
The “fork dip” idea is awesome — I do it anyway, because I hate goopy salads, but I bet it makes a significant difference calorie-wise.
Also love the “triple the veggies” idea. Definitely going to try that.
Asking for customizations isn’t bad and won’t get your food spit on, *as long as you’re polite*. Also, the article makes it sound like you’ll ask for seven customizations at once, when in real life you’ll probably only need between one and three. Anyway, even crappy restaurants are usually okay custom making your food — they have to cook it for you anyway, so what does it matter if they grill it instead? — as long as, like I said, you’re polite about it.
@ratnerstar: ummmmmmmmmmmmm butter
From a portion control point of view, try getting two appetizers instead of an entree. Or cut your entree in half and ask for a doggie bag. Reasonable portion size PLUS an extra meal = bonus!
When eating at a family restaurant chain, make sure you hold the bacon if you order a salad. Some places like Applebees love to put bacon in every salad they offer. And order a 1/2-sized salad at Applebees unless you plan on taking about 1/2 of it home for later, because their definition of “regular” is oversized to say the least.