Healthy Eating at Restaurants (2024)

Americans love eating out -- and there's no reason why it can't be healthy eating. But you can't always find out the amount of calories, fat, or salt in a restaurant's menu items. So follow these ordering tips to make sure you stay within your healthy diet.

Monounsaturated fats: Substituted for saturated fats in your diet, they help lower bad LDL cholesterol and don't reduce good HDL cholesterol. Found in canola oil, olive oil, olives, avocados, nuts, and nut butters.

Polyunsaturated fats: Help lower cholesterol. Found in fatty fish, vegetable oils, and nuts and sunflower seeds.

Eating out often means getting too much saturated fat, cholesterol, sodium, and calories.

How can you spot the dangers? Saturated fats come mostly from meat and whole-fat dairy foods. Tropical oils like palm oil and coconut oil, and butter are also saturated fats. Cholesterol is found in animal fats. Primarily the saturated fat and the cholesterol in the foods you eat increase your cholesterol levels.

Restaurant foods can be very high in sodium, or salt. If you are watching your sodium as many Americans need to, watch for:

• Foods that are pickled, smoked, in broth or au jus
• co*cktail sauce, soy, or teriyaki sauce
• MSG

Look for low-sodium soy sauce. And ask that your food be prepared without added salt or MSG.

Some restaurants have tuned into heart-healthy eating. They offer low-fat, low-salt, low-cholesterol menu items, designated with a heart icon.

Don't confuse this with the favorites icon. That can be a flag for popular, fatty choices. One delicious heart-healthy option: A grilled fish filet, a natural source of omega-3 fatty acids.

In restaurants where food is cooked to order, you can make special requests for lighter fare.

If you're counting calories -- or keeping an eye on saturated fat, cholesterol, or sodium -- tell your server.

Ask what's in a dish. Find out how it's cooked. A chef can often prepare food using less oil, no butter, or no added salt. If there is sauce, salad dressing, or gravy, get it on the side. Then you can dip -- or skip -- and use less.

Concerned about high cholesterol, diabetes, or losing weight? Read menus carefully.

Thumbs Down:

• Fried, au gratin, braised, buttered, creamed, escalloped
• Hollandaise, cheese, or cream sauce
• In gravy, pan-fried or -roasted, rich, in butter sauce.

Grilled chicken vs. fried chicken. Broiled fish vs. fried fish. When dining out, look for possible code words to healthier food with less saturated fat.

Thumbs Up:

• Baked, broiled, grilled
• Poached, roasted, steamed
• In its own juice, garden fresh

Ask your server about healthy substitutions:

• A vegetable or fruit instead of French fries
• Skinless chicken that's broiled instead of fried
• Low-fat milk for your coffee, instead of cream

What if your server says, "Absolutely no substitutions"? Try these 4 tips:

• Ask that fries be left off your plate.
• Peel the skin off fried chicken.
• Skip the butter.
• Drink tea instead of coffee with cream.

Restaurants serve huge portions. If you're counting calories -- or monitoring blood glucose – don't eat it all yourself. Try this instead:

• Restrain yourself, and take a box home.
• Share with others at your table.
• Ask your server to box up half before bringing the meal out.

If you're counting calories and saturated fat, hamburgers, rib eye, porterhouse, or T-bone steaks don't score well.

Thumbs Up:

• Barbeque or grilled chicken, lean pot roast, lean meat loaf
• London broil, filet mignon, flank steak, sirloin tip, tenderloin
• Seafood, boiled shrimp, oysters on the half shell

Crave Cajun food? It can be packed with saturated fat and salt. Here's how to order healthy:

Thumbs Down: Hush puppies, fried seafood, gumbos, etouffee sauces, blackened fish, and dirty rice.

Thumbs Up: Heart-healthy creoles and jambalayas, boiled crawfish or shrimp, and white rice.

Thumbs Down: Egg rolls, egg drop soup, fried wontons, Lo Mein, Moo Shu, General Tso's Chicken, Sweet and Sour Pork, and fried rice. They are prepared with lots of oil, sodium, and MSG.

Thumbs Up: Steamed or stir-fried seafood, chicken, bean curd, or vegetable dishes -- plus steamed rice -- for heart health. If possible, ask the cook to use less oil, soy sauce, and MSG.

Thumbs Down: Moussaka, gyros, and baklava. If you're counting calories and saturated fat, get real about high-fat meats (like lamb and beef), cheese, and butter in these dishes.

Thumbs Up: Appetizers with chickpeas, eggplant, tomatoes, grains -- like hummus, baba ganouj, tabouli, dolmas. Also, shish kabob, chicken with pita, fish cooked in tomatoes.

Thumbs Down: Samosas and creamy curries. Many Indian dishes are full of high-fat ghee (clarified butter), coconut oil and milk. When you're eating out on a diet, read the menu closely.

Thumbs Up: Tandoori meats, vegetable or dal curries, and shish kabobs. South Indian food offers spicy vegetarian dishes -- with cauliflower, peas, tomatoes, eggplant, lentils, rice, and chutney.

At Mexican eateries, dining out is a party. But beware the lard and cheese.

Thumbs Down: Chips, fried tacos, refried beans, quesadillas, and chimichangas. They're loaded with saturated fat and sodium.

Thumbs Up: Start with black bean soup or grilled shrimp. Share chicken or shrimp fajitas. Try grilled shrimp or fish, with fresh salsa; chili verde (pork); or arroz con pollo (chicken).

Pasta is the essence of Italian dining. But it can be a saturated fat-and-calorie disaster!

Thumbs Down: Creamy, cheesy sauces (like Alfredo). Fried calamari, pastas stuffed with cheese.

Thumbs Up: Light sauces, like primavera (vegetables); marsala (wine, mushrooms, beef stock); marinara (tomatoes, onions, garlic); or clam sauce. Have minestrone for starters, plus a heart-healthy glass of red wine.

Follow these healthy eating tips:

• Order a thin crust.
• Pile on vegetable toppings, and skip the meat.
• Ask for extra sauce -- and half the cheese.
• Start with a salad.
• Stop after one or two slices, and take the rest home.

Thai food offers heart-healthy sauces and fresh vegetables. But saturated fat hides in foods fried in lard and coconut oil.

Thumbs Down: Fried spring rolls, coconut chicken soup (tom ka gai), duck.

Thumbs Up: Steamed spring rolls, hot-and-sour soup, pad thai (stir-fried noodles), vegetable stir fries, sticky rice.

Thumbs Up: Grilled chicken, chicken fajita pitas, turkey sandwiches, baked chips, or frozen yogurt.

Thumbs Down: Jumbo burgers, fried fish sandwiches, fried chicken, tacos, French fries, potato chips, milk shakes, cheese, mayonnaise, bacon.