Healthy Eating When You Dine Out

If you and your family love to eat at restaurants, you may think that this lifestyle is not good for a healthy diet. In many cases, you would be correct. It is, however, quite possible to stick to a healthy diet while occasionally enjoying a restaurant meal. It's all about making good food choices, which starts with learning about the nutrition you need to stay happy, physically healthy, mentally stable, and active.

When you pick up the menu, start by skipping over the drinks section. Beer and other alcoholic beverages have many empty calories, which do your body no good. The exception to this rule when it comes to alcohol is wine, especially red wine, which can be fine if you have a single glass and can actually help prevent heart disease for some patients.

You should also skip the starters, unless you order a side salad. The appetizers at restaurants are usually high-fat foods that are not meant to fill you up and can in fact make you crave even more high fat foods. Some examples are potato skins, nachos, mozzarella sticks and chicken wings. Instead, simply focus on your main course or, if you must indulge, share a single serving with the entire table of people.

When choosing your main dish, it is of course important that you look at the ingredients of the dish. Avoid anything with fatty meats or cream-based sauces, and don't order the onion rings, fries or baked potato. Rather order a side dish of vegetables, or ask for the main course alone.

Remember too that portion control is everything. Order off the lunch menu whenever you can, and ask for a doggie bag right away. To avoid being tempted to eat the whole main course, split it in two and bag one half.

After the meal, skip dessert. If you're really tempted, share a dessert with the whole table, or split the portion in half. Bear in mind that the desserts served in restaurants may have more calories than the rest of the meal. On special occasions, you can cheat a little, but you should learn to resist temptation in order to stick to healthy eating.

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Mike Devoran's website, DietFitnessHealth.com, publishes in-depth articles on a number of health-related topics.

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