Seven Tips for Eating Out
The most challenging part of healthy eating is when you are not in complete control of the food. Eating healthy daily is almost impossible if all your meals are in restaurants. It is difficult to make healthy choices when faced with tempting menus with poor food quality, few healthy choices, and social pressure from friends and family.
Here are some tips and menu items to improve your dining experience.
Plan your meal before you go. You can find most restaurant menus online. Take a hard look at your options. Ideally, all ingredients are on The Quality Pantry list.
Choose the gluten-free options. However, these are not always good enough. Ensure they don’t have added sugar, lectins or are cooked in poor oils.
Ask about the cooking methods and if they use healthy oils like olive oil, avocado oil, or coconut oil. Due to ignorance and cost efficiency, many restaurants default to using cheaper, less healthy options like corn oil, seed oils, vegetable oil, or canola oil. If they are using cheap, unhealthy oils, skip anything cooked with these oils.
Healthy proteins are difficult to find in restaurants. Wild-caught small fish and shellfish are the most accessible options in restaurants. If “sustainable” i.e. farmed seafood is the only option, choose rainbow trout or shellfish. Grass-fed beef can sometimes be found at a high-end restaurant. Aged beef is an alternative for occasional consumption. Pastured pork is rarely on the menu. If the pastured port is not available, skip the pork products. Pastured chicken and eggs are ideal; however, the occasional non-pasture chicken and eggs may be your best choice when no other healthy proteins are on the menu.
Avoid the high lectin foods. These can cause inflammation, especially when already eating foods that are not ideal. So no fresh tomatoes, cucumbers or peppers on the salad. Avoid all beans, squash, zuchinni, corn and potatoes. Good alternatives are broccoli, cabbage, cooked kale, asparagus, and sweet potato.
Choose your alcohol wisely in restaurants. Craft cocktails are very trendy. Unfortunately, many are loaded with added sugar, and many wines are loaded with pesticides. As a rule, avoid any cocktail with syrups or fruit juice. Easy choices are a Dry Martini or a Manhattan. Only order European wines. The EU has a much higher standard for wine processing, and their wines are generally safer than US wines. And remember, one drink for the ladies and two for the men.
A bowl of berries is the “safest” dessert. However, in a restaurant, they are rarely organic and are likely covered in pesticides. So, this should not be a regular option. Even better is to skip the dessert and have a decaffeinated black coffee or tea. If you need something “special,” try an Irish coffee without the cream. Avoid high-sugar dessert alcohols like ice wine and liquors.