Eating healthy doesn’t have to stop when you’re at a restaurant! Discover practical tips for making smart choices while dining out – like scanning the menu for nutritious options, watching portion sizes, and customizing your order. With a little planning, you can enjoy your meal and stay aligned with your nutrition goals wherever you go.
Important Education Takeaways
Avoid portion control pitfalls. Restaurants are notorious for providing oversized portions. Take these steps to make sure you are not over-eating when dining out.
Utilize the healthy plate method to ensure proper meal balance. Aim to fill half of your plate veggies and fruits, while limiting protein foods and carbs/starches to only a quarter of your plate each.
Split a meal with a friend or request a to-go box so you can set a portion of your entree aside before you even start eating. Order a smaller portion by utilizing the lunch menu, senior menu, or kids menu when available.
Try to eat mindfully by eating slowly, savoring your food, and checking in with your fullness cues throughout the meal. Prevent overeating by stopping when you feel satisfied by not yet full.
Don’t arrive starving. Instead have a small snack beforehand or start your meal with a glass of water or unsweetened tea.
Focus on the healthy stuff. Keep nutrient-density in mind even when eating away from home by making healthy food options a priority.
Load up on vegetables. Start your meal with a salad instead of an appetizer, order a side of cooked veggies, select a vegetarian menu option, or ask for extra veggies to be added you your sandwich, soup, pizza, or pasta dish.
Choose lean animal proteins such as chicken, turkey, fish and seafood or try plant-based protein options such as beans, lentils, or tofu.
Opt for higher fiber options such as brown rice instead of white rice, whole grain bun or bread instead of white, corn tortillas instead of flour, or even fruit for dessert.
Plan ahead. Being prepared before dining out can help you to stay on track with your health and nutrition goals.
Try to review the restaurant’s menu or even their nutrition information before arriving at the restaurant so you are better prepared to make a healthy choice once you arrive.
Avoid temptation by having a plan for what you are going to eat and drink. Ask yourself, how do the complimentary chips and salsa, breadbasket, cocktails, or dessert fit into that plan.
Choose wisely and customize as needed. Before you order, identify healthier menu items to choose from, adjust options accordingly, and eliminate those that don’t fit within your eating goals.
Read the menu item descriptions, ask your server, or even look it up on your phone to better understand the ingredients and preparation methods of each dish.
Choose healthier cooking methods such as grilled, baked, broiled, poached, roasted, steamed or sauteed. Look for items described as fresh, light, bright in flavor.
Limit menu options that use higher fat cooking methods such as fried, braised, breaded, buttered, escalloped, and creamed and use caution with items described as rich, creamy, crispy, or smothered.
Eat from restaurants that can easily modify your meal selections to fit your needs. Requests for no added salt, sauces on the side, light on the mayonnaise, or hold the cheese are all simple and effective ways to improve the overall nutritional quality of your meals.
Or try some of these healthy food swaps:
Instead of soda, juice, beer, wine, cocktails
Order: Water, sparkling water, unsweetened tea, coffee
Instead of Cheese, cream cheese, sour cream
Order: Avocado or guacamole
Instead of Flour tortilla, white bread
Order: Corn tortilla, whole wheat bread
Instead of White rice, mashed potatoes
Order: Brown rice, quinoa, baked potato
Instead of Fried chicken, deli meat
Order: Grilled chicken, tuna salad
Instead of Ranch, Caesar, Thousand Island dressing
Order: Vinaigrette dressing, oil and vinegar, lemon
Instead of Butter, creamy artichoke dip, queso
Order: Olive oil, hummus, salsa
Instead of Fries, tots, chips, mac & cheese, creamy soup
Order: side salad, fruit cup, broth-based soup
Instead of Bacon, sausage, ham
Order: Eggs, egg whites, cottage cheese
For more healthy restaurant guidance by cuisine, check out this resource from Hopkins Medicine.
Reign in the sodium. Sodium is everywhere you look when eating at a restaurant as salt tastes good and keeps you eating (and drinking) more.
Skip the saltshaker and use pepper, a squeeze of lemon, herbs, spices, or vinegar for added flavor instead.
Use salty condiments such as soy sauce, BBQ sauce, ketchup, mayonnaise, and pickles sparingly.
Avoid processed meats such as bacon, deli meats, and other smoked or cured options.
Most breads, flour tortillas, cheeses, soups, sauces, and marinades also tend to run high in sodium so aim to use less or skip it all together when possible.
Order more fresh menu items such as salads, raw veggies, and fruits.
Eat out less often. Instead of regularly relying on restaurants meals, think of dining out as a special treat.
Creating a healthy eating foundation consisting of mostly quality homemade meals allows you to enjoy occasional restaurant meals that much more! Restaurants meals are often high in calories, sodium, and fat, and not to mention expensive. By doing your own cooking, you are better able to stick with a healthy eating plan, manage your weight, and save money
Putting in work up front for healthy, homemade meals will help you to be more successful in achieving your nutrition goals and lessen your reliance on eating out.
Start by taking a look at your eating habits each week and try to minimize the times you rely on restaurant meals and take out.
Make a realistic meal plan for you and your family that designates time for grocery shopping, ingredient prepping, and batch cooking.
Get into the habit of packing meals to-go for work, school, and travel.
Recipes
Recipe of the month: Sizzling Noodle Stir-Fry
As always, this recipe is the showcase of our live taught, virtual cooking class. Our chef and registered dietitian bring the recipe to life as they walk you through food prep, swaps to meet dietary or taste preferences, plus tips and tools to support you being your own healthy chef at home.
Bonus recipe: Orange Cashew Chicken and Tofu
From Jamie’s kitchen to yours, our monthly bonus recipes are published on our website and social media the 4th Wednesday of each month. We invite you to browse our recipe collection and come back often to find more flavorful and heart-healthy recipes.
We invite you to join us for the live taught, virtual nutrition classes each month to gather more information on our nutrition topics. This is also an opportunity to ask topic-related questions of our experts as well as connect socially with attendees for idea sharing. As a registered participant for our In the Kitchen program, you receive a few reminders ahead of each scheduled monthly classes, but here’s an easy to remember schedule: Nutrition Education (30-minutes, 2nd Wednesday, 12pm), Cooking Class (up to 60-minutes, 3rd Monday, 12pm).
Contributing authors: Jamie Libera, RD, LD, CCTD, registered dietitian, Providence.