10 Simple Tips for Making Healthy Choices When Eating Out

Eating in a restaurant tends to make healthy eating much more challenging. Restaurant menus are usually filled with sauces, big portions, fried food, sugary drinks, and desserts. When you're hungry and dining with your friends, it becomes easy to order whatever you like at the moment.

At the same time, eating at a restaurant doesn't imply having to ignore your healthy nutrition principles. Following healthy eating principles in restaurants is not about strict rules but rather a smart choice of meals that will help you have a balanced meal. It is possible to have your dinner in a restaurant without losing care about nutrition, portion sizes, cooking methods, and your feelings during eating.

Here are ten tips that will help you eat healthier without losing fun during eating out.

1. Pre-order Your Meal

One of the simplest ways to choose healthier food in a restaurant is pre-ordering your meal. When you are already hungry and have many tempting meals, it can be difficult to make a reasonable choice.

Pre-ordering gives you the chance to make comparisons between different meals, their ingredients, cooking methods, side dishes, and beverages. It helps you find meals that have vegetables and proteins and are familiar to you in terms of nutrition. This does not mean that you should order everything in advance. This means only that you get a chance to visit a restaurant with a better plan.

2. Order Grilled, Baked and Steamed Food

Cooking method plays a very important role in the composition of your dinner. Wherever possible, order meals cooked with grilling, baking, roasting, steaming, or broiling. Avoid ordering fried food.

Grilled chicken with vegetables is much lighter than fried chicken with sauce. Similarly, steamed vegetables have a different nutrient composition compared with those that are prepared with a lot of butter and sauce. It is not necessary to avoid all fried food. The main thing is to understand that the cooking method influences the nutrients in your meal.

3. Add Vegetables to Your Meal

Vegetables can improve the nutritional quality of a restaurant meal while enhancing flavors and textures. If there are not many vegetables in your main dish, you can order some vegetarian sides or a salad.

Choose options like salads, roasted vegetables, steamed vegetables, grilled vegetables, and vegetable soups. When ordering a salad, keep in mind that dressings, cheese, and other additions can affect the nutrition significantly. Focus not only on what to remove from your plate but also on what to add to make it more balanced and nutritious.

4. Consider Portion Sizes

Portions in restaurants can be too big compared to portions of food we usually have at home. There is no need to eat everything that was brought to your table just because you paid for it.

If the portion is particularly big, you can share your main dish, order something smaller, or save part of it for another time if this option is available to you and safe to eat. Eating slower can help you become more aware of your hunger level. Portion size awareness lets you enjoy your meal without having to eat all of its components.

5. Be Strategic With Sauces and Dressings

Sauces, dressings, gravies, and creamy toppings can contribute to a high content of added fat, sugars, salt, and calories depending on the ingredients and portion. If possible, ask to bring them separately. In this case, you will have more control over the quantity of added components. It will also be good to find out if the lighter dressings are available.

There is nothing wrong with adding some sauces to your dish. On the contrary, this information makes it easier for you to know what components of your meal bring additional calories and nutrients.

6. Order Water or Lower Sugar Drinks

We often forget about beverages when considering healthy options for our meals. A meal may seem healthy, but a large sugary drink can increase the amount of added sugar significantly without giving you the same feeling of fullness.

It will be easier to choose water while eating outside. You can also opt for sparkling water or unsweetened tea. If you like sweet drinks, there is nothing wrong with them. All you need is to pay attention to their portion and how they fit into the whole meal.

7. Include Protein and Fiber

Balanced restaurant meals can incorporate both proteins and fiber-containing ingredients. Fish, poultry, eggs, beans, lentils, tofu, and other similar foods can serve as your source of protein, based on your menu and preference.

Sources of fiber can include any vegetables, fruits, legumes, and whole grain products, among others. A combination of such foods can improve satiety levels and provide you with more variety. Instead of labeling each food as either good or bad, consider their interactions that can contribute to the creation of a balanced meal.

8. Do Not Arrive Extremely Hungry

Eating a healthy meal becomes harder if you arrive extremely hungry. Being too hungry can make you eat faster, order more food than you originally plan, or choose foods that seem most attractive.

Instead of skipping your usual meals in order to "save calories" for the restaurant meal, you should keep your eating pattern consistent. Depending on your needs and schedule, you can eat some snacks prior to the restaurant visit in order to arrive hungry, but not extremely. It will allow you to decide on your foods gradually.

9. Eat Slowly and Pay Attention to Your Food

Eating mindfully can make your restaurant meals more enjoyable, and also can help you become more aware of your hunger and satiety levels. Put your utensils aside periodically in order to appreciate the taste, smell, temperature, and texture of your meal. Chew slowly and pay attention to your level of satisfaction with each bite.

If you eat with others, conversation can give you breaks naturally. Instead of rushing through your meal, you can give yourself an opportunity to experience it fully.

10. Enjoy Your Meal Without All-or-Nothing Thinking

Eating healthily does not presuppose that you have to eat nutritiously all the time. One meal from the restaurant cannot affect the quality of your eating pattern.

If you want to eat dessert, feel free to do so. Just because you chose a fried entrée and enjoyed it does not mean that you have failed in your attempts to eat healthily. It is important to avoid thinking of one moment of indulgence as an excuse for abandoning your healthy eating patterns. A balanced approach will help you to enjoy restaurant meals while keeping healthy nutrition as your default option.

How to Design a Well-Balanced Restaurant Meal

As mentioned above, the advice is much easier to follow when considering your meal as a whole. First, choose an appealing protein source according to your taste. Choose vegetables or any other side dish and try to include at least some fiber-containing carbohydrate, such as whole-grain products, beans, etc., if there is any.

Next, think about the way your meal will be cooked, the quantity of any additional sauces or dressings, and drinks you prefer. Finally, if the portion size is quite big, decide if you need to share your meal or take some part of it home.

It is not necessary to make difficult calculations for designing a well-balanced meal in advance, but it is useful to consider your overall meal rather than its parts.

Conclusion

Choosing healthy foods while eating out does not mean that each trip to a restaurant should turn into a nutrition test. It means being aware of the options you have and selecting what suits you and your needs the most.

It is useful to check the menu in advance, to choose healthier ways of cooking, to add some vegetables to your order, to think about the portion size, to pay attention to any extra sauces and drinks you order, and to eat slowly. It is also important to allow yourself to enjoy your favorite foods occasionally. The next time you are in a restaurant, think about balance, not perfection. Choose foods you like and be aware of portion size.

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