How to Eat Right When You Eat Out

Smart Strategies for Healthful Restaurant Dining

Dining out at restaurants has become an integral part of our modern lifestyle. A recent survey from the National Restaurant Association found that 78 percent of adults agree that going out to a restaurant with family or friends gives them an opportunity to socialize, and is a better way to make use of their leisure time, than cooking and cleaning up. But, on the down side, it can also be harder to make healthy food choices when we're not in the kitchen preparing food ourselves.

Increasingly, restaurant diners are looking for ways to make eating out healthier. Whether you're eating out or at home, one important tool that can help people lose weight and decrease their risk, or manage their symptoms, of diabetes and cardiovascular disease is the glycemic index (GI).

The GI is a scale that measures how quickly carbohydrates are broken down into sugar by the body. Simple carbohydrates like sugar and refined starches like white bread are broken down quickly by the body into sugar, thus they have a high GI. Other carbohydrates, such as most vegetables, brown rice, and certain fruits, have a low GI because they are more slowly broken down into sugar. For a list of where certain favorite foods rank on the GI, and strategies to incorporate the GI for healthy eating, check out the book The Glycemic Index Made Simple: Strategies to Lose Weight and Optimize Health, written by well-known pharmacist and fitness instructor Sherry Torkos.

According to Torkos, here are some points to consider when visiting your favorite restaurant or attending a business dinner:

• Have a low-GI snack before eating a meal at a restaurant. This will reduce the temptation to indulge in bread or other high-GI appetizers at the restaurant.
• Consider trying a restaurant that offers international cuisine, like Indian or Japanese, which may be naturally lower in GI.
• Don't be afraid to ask questions of your food server. Find out how the dish is prepared and what ingredients are used. Avoid preparations that use a lot of butter or oil.
• Limit alcohol consumption to two drinks or less, and drink lots of water instead.
• Beware of portion sizes. Ask about ordering a half-portion of a meal that has a higher GI, or share the meal with your dining companion. If these options aren't available, there's always the take-home container!
• To lower the GI of your favorite carb-rich foods, try a nutritional supplement such as Natrol's Carb Intercept with Phase 2 Carb Controller. Phase 2 is an all-natural nutritional ingredient made from the white kidney bean. In clinical research it has been shown to reduce starch absorption, thus helping to lower the glycemic impact of the meal and promote weight loss. The recommended dosage is 1000 to 1500 mg taken before starchy meals.

If you need help finding a restaurant that offers healthier menu options, go to HealthyDiningFinder.com. Sponsored by The Healthy Dining Program, a nutrition initiative of the restaurant industry, the site provides consumers with hundreds of healthy dining menu options, along with corresponding nutrition information, served at thousands of participating restaurants.

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