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15 Eating-Out Habits Of Healthy Foodies

Maintaining a healthy diet and enjoying your favourite restaurants is possible.

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healthy menu options - featurephoto credit: shutterstock

How To Select Healthy Menu Options

No matter how well you maintain a healthy diet at home, dining at restaurants is always a different ballgame. For this reason, we’ve rounded up the best tips and tricks for ordering healthy menu options so that you can stick with your clean-eating habits.

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They Avoid Fried Foods

No matter how tempting those golden french fries may look, deep-fried food is submerged in hot oil to make it crispy. Unfortunately, it also makes it higher in fat and calories.

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Heathy Foodie Choice: Baked Foods

If a food is baked, it still gets crispy, minus all the added oil and fat. Luckily, it’s just as delicious as fried food and won’t sabotage your diet.

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They Say No To Au Gratin

Au gratin may sound fancy, but it just means the dish has a crispy breading on top that includes breadcrumbs, cheese, eggs and butter-not exactly the making of a healthy dish.

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Healthy Foodie Choice: Broiled Foods

When something is broiled, it means the heat source comes from above, so the top of the dish can become crispy on its own-without all the added fat and calories from breadcrumbs or cheese.

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They Avoid Foods That Are Braised

If something is braised, it usually means it’s cooked and simmered in fat for several hours. It goes without saying that cooking something in fat isn’t the healthiest option.

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Healthy Foodie Choice: Grilled Foods

Grilling uses dry heat, which means the food isn’t sitting in fat for hours. Additionally, grilled options saves a lot of calories and fat.

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They Avoid Anything Buttered

If something is buttered, it means-you guessed it-there’s added butter.  Of course, it’s best to avoid anything buttered, since it just adds extra fat.

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Healthy Foodie Choice:Poached Foods

If something is poached it usually means it’s cooked by being gently simmered in liquid like stock, water or wine.  Ordering poached foods is a lower-fat option than butter, and can be even more delicious.

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They Avoid Anything Creamed

Heavy cream is the fatty part of milk-which doesn’t make it great for your waistline.  This means that when something is creamed, it adds a lot of unwanted calories.

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Healthy Foodie Choice: Roasted Foods

Roasting uses dry heat, and brings out the natural flavours of a dish without added fats.

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They Opt Out Of A La Mode

This can mean one of two things. Either that it’s prepared in a certain style (the chef’s choice) or, more likely in Canada, that it’s topped with ice cream. In that case, it’s best to choose something else. Either you won’t know what you’re getting-or you’ll get it with ice cream, neither of which is good for dieters.

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Healthy Foodie Choice: Steamed Foods

Steaming is one of the healthiest cooking techniques because it simply uses steam (water) to cook. Also, steaming essentially eliminates any extra fat and calories, making it a healthier choice.

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They Pass on The Gravy

Gravy is often made of the fat that drips off meat when it’s cooking, which definitely doesn’t make this a diet-friendly option.

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healthy menu options - garden freshphoto credit: shutterstock

Healthy Foodie Choice: Garden-Fresh Foods

Choosing something garden-fresh will guarantee that your plate is loaded with super-fresh veggies.

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They Pass on Pan fried or Pan-Roasted Foods

Pan-frying uses oil or fat to keep food moist while cooking. Although this is not as bad as deep-frying, it’s still not the healthiest option.

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Healthy Foodie Choice: Raw Veggies

Raw vegetables are incredibly nutritious, and the best part is that there is absolutely no added fat or calories from cooking. Also, some foods also contain more nutrients when they’re raw-which means you’ll get the most from your meal.