Eating Out
February 4th, 2012While cooking at home is important to good diet, we all enjoy a night out at a restaurant. I have friends who cook in restaurants and they say it is unfathomable how much butter and salt go into food. When you cook at home, you know what is in and what is not in your food.
Ordering from restaurant menus can be like walking on a minefield. You never know which item is going to be a healthy choice. Sometimes vegetables are fried in oil, sauces are thickened with copious starch, and MSG abounds. Let the waiter know about restricting the salt in the food. It’s easier to add salt than to take it out of the food.
Try to minimize condiments. Almost any condiment you can think of is unhealthy. Ketchup has loads of corn syrup and salt. Soy sauce, even the “Light” version is loaded with sodium. A trick you may want to try at your local sushi restaurant is to dilute the “Light” soy sauce with a little water from your drinking glass. Trust me, you will still be satisfied. In Japanese food culture, sushi is never “dunked” into soy sauce, just dabbed onto one area of the sushi. They know that soaking each piece till the rice starts to fall apart covers all the intricate flavors of the fish and rice.
