When Eating Out

Eating out every day will take a toll on your wallet.  It’s cheaper and healthier to buy ingredients and make meals at home but this doesn’t mean you should avoid eating out all together.  College is a time of optimal socialization, when you’re becoming acquainted with the world and your fellow classmates.  Food is a way to bring people together and engage in conversation.  Going out to eat is a typical activity when on a date, also a way to celebrate an event or just a way to relax.

The American Heart Association provides many tips for eating out on their website, including tips for specific foods such as Cajun, Chinese, French, Greek, Vegetarian, Indian, Japanese, Thai and Vietnamese foods.

Instead of avoiding your favorite restaurants, try substituting certain menu items with healthier choices.  Not only are these suggestions good to use when eating out, incorporate them in your meals at home.

Try:

• Corn tortillas instead of flour tortillas
• Grilled shrimp instead of nachos
• Grilled fish or chicken breast instead of beef, pork or sausage
• Salsa, cilantro, jalapeno peppers instead of sour cream
• Taco salad or fajita salad instead of chalupas and tacos
• Small bagel instead of a Danish
• Grilled chicken, sliced meats or even a regular 2 oz. hamburger on a bun with lettuce, tomato and onion instead of jumbo cheeseburgers
• Grilled chicken instead of fried chicken or tacos
• Chicken fajita pitas instead of fried chicken pieces
• Baked potato with vegetables or low-fat or fat-free sour cream topping instead of French fries
• Pretzels or baked potato chips instead of regular  potato chips
• Juice or low-fat or fat-free milk instead of a milkshake
• Leaner cuts of meat, such as London broil, filet mignon, round or flank steak, sirloin tip, tenderloin instead of fatty cuts of meat, such as rib eye, porterhouse or T-bone
• Rice instead of au gratin or scalloped potatoes
• Green salad with dressing on the side instead of a Caesar or marinated salad
• Steamed vegetables instead of fried vegetables
• Angel food cake or sherbet instead of pie and ice cream
• Broth-based soups with lots of vegetables instead of cream soups
• Peel-and-eat shrimp instead of buffalo chicken wings
• Non-fat yogurt, sherbet or fruit ice instead of a hot fudge sundae or ice cream

Not only are the amounts of foods high in fat increasing, portion sizes are increasing as well.  Some tips to help you avoid over eating include:

• Split the meal  with a friend.  You’ll same on money and on calories
• Eat until you are no longer hungry.  Don’t wait until you can no longer sit up straight.
• Don’t feel pressured to eat it all.  You are no longer that little kid who won’t be excused from the dinner table until you’ve finished eating everything on your plate.
• Avoid all-you-can-eat restaurants.
• Ask the waiter to place half of the meal in a take-home container before serving you.  Out of sight, out of mind.