How to Make Balanced, Healthy Food Choices When Eating Out
Dining out can be enjoyable, but it also can create nutritional challenges in conflict with balanced eating goals. Most restaurant meals are high in added sugars, refined fats, excess calories, and sodium. And yet, it is still possible to dine out and make healthy food choices.
Instead of striving for perfection, the goal is to develop awareness, balance, and habits that make healthy food choices second nature, even when options are limited or portion sizes are large.
1. Start with hydrating
Drinking water—preferably with lemon or lime—before eating has the power to create satiation and facilitate digestion. This trick has the power to balance appetite before a meal is even cooked. Whereas chip bowls and bread baskets end up as complimentary appetizers at most eateries. Beginning with hydration reduces the likelihood of calorie excess consumption, especially of refined carbs and added fat. Forgoing or delaying these additions and beginning instead with a vegetable starter or broth soup closely aligns appetite signals with the actual nutritional needs of the body.
2. Lean proteins and non-starchy vegetables
A meal particularly yielding sustained energy and satiation includes fiber-rich vegetables and high-protein foods. Giving importance to options such as grilled fish, roasted poultry, tofu, legumes, or cuts such as beef aids in muscle repair, hormone function, and metabolism. Mixing protein with vegetables such as steamed broccoli, roasted brussels sprouts, green leafy greens, or seasonal vegetables provides nutrients.
Including vegetables as a substitute for foods with high calories, like fries, mashed potatoes, or buttered rice, can significantly add nutrition to a meal.
3. Portion control
Maybe the most frustrating barrier to healthy eating is portion size. When eating out, nearly all entrées contain double or triple the calories for a single meal. As daunting as this may seem, the solution isn’t restriction—it’s awareness.
Some of the portion control strategies involve splitting an entree, having a half-portion if possible, or pairing a side dish with soup or salad for a more reasonably sized meal. Asking for a to-go box when the meal is brought out and putting half the portion aside immediately is also a good way of practicing self-control.
Slow down to eat, make mid-meal checks, and take breaks between bites are all simple means of aligning consumption with satisfaction.
4. Prepare
Reading the menu ahead of time can reduce decision fatigue and create a clear meal structure plan. This strategy reduces the likelihood of last-minute hunger- or social-based decisions and increases the likelihood of the meal selected being in support of health-conscious intentions.
If eating at a local restaurant is planned in the evening, skipping meals earlier during the day is not recommended. Skipping meals has a boomerang effect. It increases cravings and decreases the ability to make well-thought-out, nutrient-based choices. Balance meals eaten consistently throughout the day, balance energy levels, and decrease the likelihood of overeating.
5. Condiments, sauces, and cooking methods
Even though protein and vegetable dishes may look healthy, the manner in which they are cooked and the sauces that go with them can change the nutritional value of a meal completely. Glaze sauces made with heavy cream, butter, or sugar can add as many as several hundred calories and ruin otherwise healthy dishes.
Choosing grilled, steamed, or roasted options over fried or battered items is a manageable adjustment. Asking for sauces and dressings on the side offers more control and encourages tasting the food itself.
6. Slow down and be present
Swallowing food quickly can cut into the digestion process and depersonalize the body from the feeling of fullness. Eating slowly, putting the utensils down between bites, and conversing, however, decelerates the process.
Mindful eating is less about rules and more about presence. Being present during eating makes it more likely to hear cues more clearly, which in turn leads to portion control and satisfaction without sacrifice.
7. Consistency, not perfectionism
One meal doesn’t constitute healthy eating. The direction of choices over the week or the month is what matters most. Guilt in the form of one meal can lead to unpredictable behavior, such as under-eating the next day or restriction and overindulgence patterns during the upcoming days–a vicious cycle.
Aim for long-term consistency. Thoughtful, flexible decision-making when dining out works both for health goals and for a healthy relationship with food. Making healthy options at restaurants takes intention and a knowledge of nutrition, but doesn’t need to be limiting and confusing. Keep up proper hydration, focus on lean protein and vegetables, be mindful of portion sizes, and stay aware of the way things are cooked.