| TOTAL HEALTH RECIPES |
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Healthy Heart
EATING
OUT SENSIBLY
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Eating a low fat diet and sticking to it is easy at home. The biggest challenge
is to overcome the odds and stick to low fat eating, while dining at restaurants.
To begin with, this may look like a mammoth task, but once you have learnt the
knack of picking healthy and hearty foods, you will enjoy your food without taking
off to bad fat budgets, which hike up your cholesterol levels and add to your
weight. Try to observe the following suggestions while partying out to have a
balanced and healthy diet.
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Snack sensibly before partying / eating out. Always have a small fibre-rich
snack before leaving for a party. Never go to a restaurant or party with an empty
stomach as most party dinners start off late. If, by then, your hunger pangs are
in an advanced stage, you may tend to 'pig out' and end up eating food in excess
of what you otherwise eat.
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Plan in advance. A little planning goes a long way. If you have a party
to attend, plan well in advance. Do not feel shy or hesitate to request the host
or chef to tailor make a dish for you. Remember to enjoy small portions of food
at the party, but do compensate for this in the next meal and also by exercising.
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Avoid second helpings. At the restaurant, serve yourself leisurely and
only once, as this will help you to know what you are selecting with respect to
calories, fibre, fat etc. Your brain takes 10 minutes to register the feeling
of fullness, hence take your time to finish the meal. Serve yourself in a medium
sized plate so the food does not look less. This will also ensure that you will
not pile up loads of food on the plate.
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Salad bars are helpful.
Begin your meal with a bowl of salad. Beware of salad dressings though! Dressings
made with mayonnaise, cream, peanuts etc. are highly calorie dense and an absolute
'no-no'. Instead, choose a lemon or low fat curd dressings.
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Choose sensibly.
a.
Choose foods made with low-fat cooking methods like stir-frying, steaming etc.
Refer to the section of Cooking Healthy at Home.
b. Avoid the use of butter,
margarine, cheese and ghee, as these tend to increase blood cholesterol levels.
Apart from visible fat, saturated fats are also hidden in some foods. Coconut
is a very common example of this. Try and choose gravy made without the use of
coconut, while dining out.
c. What is food without a desert, especially when
you are eating out! Satisfy your sweet tooth. Select a fruit and low fat milk
based dessert and enjoy a small portion.
The
gist is to enjoy what you eat. Health doesn't need sacrifice, but you do need
to remember that good nutrition is just a matter of selecting the "right"
foods - whether at home or at a restaurant.
All
the recipes mentioned in the above text can be found through the search
option.
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