Healthy Eating at Restaurants
How to Dine Out on a Diet by Eating Low-Fat and Low-Calorie Salads
Sep 24, 2008
But in restaurants, salads are often the most fattening or highest calorie options on the menu. Why? Because of portion sizes. But it’s not the size of the bowl that does the damage; after all, salads begin with fresh greens, containing no fat and virtually no calories. It’s the large portions of additives that make the calories add up. Fortunately, there are ways to make your salad as light and healthy as possible. So here are five red flags that dieters should be aware of when ordering salad at a restaurant:
Nuts
Glazed peanuts, roasted almonds, caramelized pecans may sound delicious. But although they’re a good source of protein, and can reduce the risk of heart disease, nuts are also high in fat. According to NutritionData, fifteen almonds contain nine grams of fat; that’s 14% of your recommended daily fat intake in just one of many toppings. To avoid eating too many nuts, either order your salad without nuts, or ask for the nuts on the side.
Cheese
While cheese is an excellent source of calcium, it is also a high source of fat—both the good fat and the bad. One cubic inch of cheddar cheese alone comprises 18% of your daily saturated fat, one of the two “bad fats” (the other being trans fat) that dieters should try to avoid. Unfortunately, restaurants often load their salads with cheese, not taking appropriate portion sizes into account. To avoid this problem, ask for no cheese, or order cheese on the side.
Grains
Be aware of salads containing noodles, bread, croutons and tortilla chips. These additives are high in both calories and carbohydrates. Fortunately, most grains contain complex carbohydrates which are essential to your diet. So instead of avoiding grain additives altogether, eat them in moderation. For example, when ordering a Thai salad, ask for fewer noodles and more fresh greens. Tortilla chips, however, are high in saturated fat and should be avoided altogether.
Meat
Try to avoid salads containing meats that are fried, deep fried or breaded (sometimes called “crispy”). By breading or deep frying meat, restaurants can double, or even triple, the amount of calories and fat found in the original meat. According to DietRiot, a chicken breast that is roasted and skinless has about 142 calories and 3 grams of fat, whereas its breaded and fried counterpart contains about 364 calories and 19 grams of fat.
Dressing
When it comes to dressing, there are two things to consider: how much and what kind. Many restaurants add far too much dressing to their salads, particularly with Caesar salads. An easy way to avoid this problem is to order dressing on the side. That way you can add as little or as much dressing as you’d like.
The type of dressing plays a big role in determining whether a salad is high or low fat. Honey mustard, cheese and cream-based dressings, such as ranch or Caesar, are very high in calories, fat and saturated fat. And despite popular belief, even most vinaigrettes are high in fat. So your safest bet is to order the restaurant’s light or fat-free dressing. To illustrate the difference between regular and fat-free dressing, consider Kraft’s ranch dressing: two tablespoons of regular ranch is about 15 grams of fat and 150 calories, whereas the same amount of fat-free ranch is about 0.4 grams of fat and 50 calories.
The moral of dining out on a diet is “eat in moderation.” Adjust the portion sizes of your additives to meet your dieting needs. If you’re still not comfortable with dining out, download the nutritional information on the restaurant’s website before dining.
