Choose your food wisely when eating out and about in the recession

Eating out used to be a major treat, but has now become the norm. And now with the country now in recession, many restaurants are offering value deals, such as 3 course meal plus glass of wine for a relatively good price. While this initially seems great value, it really is encouraging us to eat more than we may have planned - a sort of middle class ‘super size me’ if you like.

Eating out of the home has been linked with the rising levels of overweight and obesity. Not surprising really, as we have no control over portions or cooking methods. Also, we tend to just eat what we are handed, as if the chef knows better than we do how much we actually need! Many of us still associate eating out as a treat, and will often order the most indulgent item on the menu, plus dessert! Unfortunately, this does little for our waistlines if we eat out regularly. Also, a key area to maintaining any new found weight loss is watching out for the triggers that put the weight back on; and often, socialising is one of these.  

In these slow economic times, it is so important to continue supporting local restaurants if we can.  So if you are going to be eating out regularly then you need to be aware of what you are eating to avoid those pounds creeping up. 

Here are our top 10 eating out tips to help you maintain some control over what and how much you eat:

1. Plan ahead. If you know you’ll be heading out later for a slap up meal, try to slightly cut back on portions during the day to compensate. Severely cutting back or skipping meals is a false economy, and not advised as it can lead to hunger and overeating later on. Also have a small healthy snack a couple of hours before heading out, e.g. yoghurt and a small handful of nuts or seeds to stave of the ‘I could eat a horse’ feeling when you get to the restaurant. Being starving can lead to choosing the wrong options.

2. Ditch the basket. Many restaurants will provide a complementary basket of bread, prawn crackers or poppadoms as soon as you sit down. This can load up to 300 calories or more extra onto your meal. Most of us end up eating them just because they’re sitting in front of us!

3. Choose healthy starters that feature fresh fruit / vegetables such as salad. Having a low calorie salad before a meal can take the edge of our appetite, and studies show we tend to eat less at main course if we’ve had a salad beforehand. However, try not to undo the benefit by choosing a salad with lashings of creamy dressing, cheese and croutons!

4. Make a conscious decision to avoid food that is fried, battered or breaded. Look for words on the menu like ‘steamed’, ‘roasted’, ‘broiled’, ‘baked’, ‘bar-b-qued’. If they don’t appear on the menu, don’t be afraid to ask. Go for plain chicken, lean meat or fish (with sauce on the side). Choose potatoes, rice or pasta rather than chips or wedges.

5. Let ‘on the side’ be your new mantra. Ask for dressings and sauces ‘on the side’ so you get to control how much of it you eat.

6. Don’t assume a salad is low calorie. Often salads arrive dripping in dressing and covered in croutons. If it’s a main course salad, the chicken or fish may be battered or fried. Choose wisely.

7. Watch your portion size. Whoever has assembled your meal does not know better than you about how much food you should have. Research shows we increase the amount of food we eat in line with the portion size provided. In a US study, restaurant goers who ordered a certain starter were given either a small or large portion size, without being told. Those given the larger portion size ate 43% more of the starter than those given the small portion. What was interesting is that both parties rated the portion size as appropriate. Eat slowly, savouring every bite and stop eating when you start to feel full. Don’t forget our body’s take 15 or 20 minutes to register how much we’ve eaten in order to tell us we’re full.

8. Stick to one course meals if you happen to have a very busy social week with many dinners out. If you are eating out once a week, keep it to 2 courses, either starter and main or main and dessert and don’t order dessert without at least another spoon for someone else to share!

9. Assemble the meal you want, not what is offered. Don’t be afraid to ask for vegetables instead of the chips, or to omit certain items e.g. the cheese. Most chefs are happy to comply, and there is no harm in asking.

10. Keep an eye on your alcohol intake. Alcohol not only plays havoc with the best of intentions, the next day hangover and resulting low blood sugars lead most of us to graze through the day with abandon. And often the snacking effect can last for several days. Also, alcohol provides calories of its own: a bottle of wine has about 550 calories, similar to a moderate sized dinner.

© NutritionWise