Eating Heart-Healthy In Restaurants

Peter Moore of Men's Health Magazine Tells How, On The Early Show

(CBS) 

Chinese

Start your meal at Chinese restaurants with soup, either egg drop or hot and sour. They each have only 70 calories per cup and will help curb the ravenous hunger that leads to overeating.

Opt for steamed! Seek out steamed entrees and make sure at least one item has that word in the name or menu description for a balanced meal.

Beware of rice! A single portion can cost you 300 calories. Order brown rice, but remember it won't save you calories, fat, or carbohydrates, though it will give you an extra boost of fiber and protein, which will work to boost your metabolism and keep you feeling full.

Fortune Cookies are the most innocuous desserts you'll find in ANY restaurant. Each little cookie has a mere 40 calories.

Use chop sticks! Having to work for your food gives your stomach more time to deliver the “I'm full” message to your brain.

Chinese items to avoid:

Sesame/Orange/General Tso's: Each one is fried, then covered, vegetable-less, with gloppy sugar-laden sauces almost indistinguishable from each other. The damage: about 1,300 calories and 70 grams of fat.

Lo mein: The noodles are wok-fried with an abundance of oil, then speckled with fatty pork or beef. Even ordering the vegetable version won't undo the wrong wrought by this dish.

Entrees: At over a pound (and usually 1,000+ calories) per order, these heaping plates and overstuffed cartons are really meant to serve two. If it's variety you seek, order one per person, but ask them to bring half out and box the other half for lunch tomorrow.

Mexican

Start with guacamole. Avocados are high in fat, but it's the monounsaturated kind, so it's good for your heart!

Bean Burrito. Ask about the type of beans that will be used in the burrito. If they're whole, this could be the healthiest think on the menu! The fiber in beans lowers cholesterol and helps make you feel full. If they're refried, steer clear and head for a chicken burrito.

Mexican items to avoid:

Enchiladas: Typically, these tortillas are dipped in hot fat, stuffed, rolled, covered with sauce and cheese and baked. When topped with sour cream, two of them carry 748 calories, 55 percent of which comes from fat.

Taco salad: It's a huge fried tortilla shell with ground beef, cheese, sour cream and a few token shreds of iceberg lettuce. The result: 900 calories, 55 grams of fat, and perhaps the most liberal use of the word “salad” ever.

Hard shell tortillas: Opt for soft flour tortillas when you can, as they are slightly lower in fat than the hard shell ones.

Desserts

Gelato: Unlike most American ice creams, which are made with heavy cream, gelato is made with milk, making a scoop a relatively low-impact indulgence.

Chocolate Fondue: By serving fruit with chocolate, you are in some ways counteracting the damage done by the sweets.

Desserts to avoid:

Crème brulee: egg yolks, heavy cream and sugar. Split or opt for a fruit-filled crepe.

Pecan pie: 678 calories, 51 g fat. Opt for pumpkin or blueberry.

[skinnyminny2]

Stick to garden salad (go easy on dressing) and minestrone soup in Italian places.

I never eat anything except salad or vegetarian soup when dragged out to eat. The rest of the stuff just isn''t worth it. Most of the time they take something good for you (salmon, tilapia) and ruin it with oil or cream sauce.

Most meals in restaurants are well over 800 calories each, some over 1,000! It just isn''t safe out there. When calories and fat are that high, there''s nothing to ''enjoy'' at all. I''d rather stay thin, thank you.

[omnibus66]

If you want to eat healthy, eat at home and cook from scratch. There is no way of knowing what is or isn''t in restaurant food.

On the other hand, it probably won''t kill you to eat out now and then. But don''t try to fool yourself into thinking that you can pick healthy foods off the menu by looking for key words. Just enjoy the experience.