The Rules

I just reread my last two posts and it seems like there are some basic rules or guidelines one can make for choosing a healthy restaurant or healthy dishes at a restaurant.

Meat is ok, but too much meat is bad - I keep finding myself saying this but I think it’s important. I don’t have anything against meat. I think it has a place in a healthy diet. However, I think most people eat too much meat and specifically, too much processed meat with too much fat. If the restaurant you’re looking at has a menu built on dishes heavy in beef or pork, you’re probably not looking at a healthy restaurant. That covers most burger places, steak houses and bbq joints.

Fried is bad - If your restaurant or dish has “fried” in the name, you’re not eating healthy. That applies to fried foods, french fries, fried desserts and fried fish. Deep fried is even worse. And no, changing your name to KFC doesn’t make us forget that the F stands for Fried.

Portions are important - Most restaurants serve too much food. They do it because food is cheap and they know that people find big portions impressive. If you have the self control to take half your dinner and save it for later, then you’re fine. Most of us however, don’t. A good way of solving this issue is going to restaurants that serve food family style. Tapas restaurants for example, serve small portions of multiple dishes. Everything is brought to the table and everyone samples a little bit of everything. If you’re still hungry after the first few small plates, order one or two more, the delay in their arrival will allow your stomach to catch up with your brain. You end up with a great dining experience but you don’t feel constrained to polish off everything in sight.

Breads are bad - Actually, let me correct that. Any restaurant or dish that relies primarily on processed grains is bad. That includes most pastas, Italian places, noodle houses, pizza’s and many breakfast dishes. Sorry, processed grains are nothing but empty carbs. While I am not a carb hater nor do I advocate low carb diets, I do think we consume far too many processed carbs and most of them come from grain based dishes.

Processed is a warning - The further you take your ingredients from their natural form, the iffier things get. Take most fruit. In its natural form, fruit is great. However, the more your preserve, process and cook it, the worse it becomes. You don’t need to be a raw food fanatic. Just make sure your daily intake of fruits and vegetables isn’t coming in the form of deep fried onion rings and an apple pie.

Cheap is not the same as inexpensive - I should have made this a bit clearer in the previous two posts. Good food does not have to be expensive. In fact, there’s quite a bit of inexpensive good food. However, cheap food is usually bad. Cheap restuarants use cheap ingrediants. They then hide their cheapness with tricks like extra salt, extra ranch sauce or extra sugar. Make sure you understand the difference between cheap and inexpensive. A McDonald’s Big Mac is cheap, but it’s also unhealthy. A veggie wrap at Subway is inexpensive and relatively healthy. Price has nothing to do with health and you don’t need to compromise health to get affordable food.

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