{"id":809,"date":"2008-07-28T11:00:18","date_gmt":"2008-07-28T16:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/07\/making-healthier-choices-when-dining-out\/"},"modified":"2009-10-16T13:57:07","modified_gmt":"2009-10-16T18:57:07","slug":"making-healthier-choices-when-dining-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/07\/making-healthier-choices-when-dining-out\/","title":{"rendered":"Making Healthier Choices When Dining Out"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"dining\"<\/a>It is very obvious that we are a society of convenience and many of us have developed the habit of eating out on a regular basis.\u00a0 Whether it is grabbing lunch at the nearest fast food joint or taking the family out to eat after a long day of work, we eat out a lot.\u00a0 It may not be realistic to think you can completely avoid dining out all together, but I do recommend minimizing the number of times you eat out during the week.\u00a0 Since it is unrealistic to think you will completely do a 180 with dining out, I would like to provide you with a few tips to doing it in a healthier manner.<\/p>\n

– Avoid fried food<\/strong>. Order baked, broiled, or grilled items, in doing so you will cut calories and help protect you from disease.<\/p>\n

– Choose fresh over fried.<\/strong> Pick a lettuce side salad or fruit over French fries.<\/p>\n

– Ask your server questions.<\/strong> Ordering veggies is highly recommended, but it can be tricky because restaurants like to cook in a lot of butter.\u00a0 Ask the server what the vegetables are cooked in and how they are prepared (see if you can get them grilled or steamed).<\/p>\n

– Pass on the sauces and gravies.<\/strong> These are easy ways to add some serious calories to your meal.<\/p>\n

– Choose oil-based salad dressing versus the creamy dressings. <\/strong>Oil-based salad dressings are typically lower in calories and fat, but make sure you order the dressing on the side.\u00a0 Restaurants typically like to drown their salads in dressing, which provides you with a ton of empty calories<\/a>.<\/p>\n

– Pass on dessert.<\/strong> The temporary satisfaction is not worth the calorie impact later.\u00a0 Know yourself, if you can order dessert and only eat one bite then ordering it every once in a while won\u2019t kill you.\u00a0 However, if you devour the entire thing without putting your utensil down, then pass on dessert.<\/p>\n

– Order water instead of soda. <\/strong> Water, as we all know, is calorie-free, unlike soda.\u00a0 Adding fresh fruit slices (lemons, limes, oranges) to your water provides you with a refreshing taste when plain water doesn\u2019t sound that appealing.<\/p>\n

– Practice moderation.<\/strong> If you\u2019re of age, order only one alcoholic beverage with your meal.\u00a0 Ideally you would choose water, but if you want a drink it\u2019s OK to have one\u2026 just try to keep it at one.<\/p>\n

– Keep portion size in mind. <\/strong> Rarely do restaurants give the correct portion size, more times then not the portion you are being served is double or triple the amount you should be taking in.\u00a0 Split your meal with your significant other, family member, or friend.\u00a0 This will help your waistline and wallet.\u00a0 Boxing half of your meal in advance is also a good way of to prevent over eating.<\/p>\n

Keep in mind, unless you are preparing your food you have no idea the exact amount of calories you are taking in.\u00a0 I suggest eating at home and preparing your own meals as often as you can.\u00a0 That way you can save money, know the exact amount of calories are in your meal, and if you are dining with others, will help you spend some quality time with your family or friends.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It is very obvious that we are a society of convenience and many of us have developed the habit of eating out on a regular basis.\u00a0 Whether it is grabbing lunch at the nearest fast food joint or taking the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3695],"tags":[723,29,724],"class_list":["post-809","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-diet-and-nutrition","tag-dining-out","tag-nutrition","tag-restaurants"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/809","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=809"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/809\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13188,"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/809\/revisions\/13188"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}