Best Dining Out Practices

Everyone loves to dine out, at food trucks, in restaurants and at catered affairs. If food is one of the best things in life, one of the best things about food is enjoying exceptional dishes prepared by terrific chefs.

But today, we are also much more health conscious than we used to be. So, we do not want to dine out just anywhere and consume just anything. We know that we should eat fewer carbs and fried items, while consuming more salads and grains.

Even so, we want to enjoy ourselves when we go out. After all, if we are careful with our eating at home, why not indulge when we step out?

Here are some ideas to help guide your pleasure

1. Do Not Resist Cravings
While you may not want to go whole hog (and eat, let’s say, a whole hog), you may want to give into your cravings now and again. If your eating habits are healthy most of the time, likely requiring some degree of denial, then you may want to let your full appetite out occasionally. If you are going to take your appetite out, you may as well let it out and really enjoy yourself.

2. Be Thoughtful about Restaurant Selection
Indulging does not mean throwing all food caution into the wind. There are cuisines that tend to be healthier, such as Middle Eastern and Mediterranean, Vietnamese and Japanese, Greek and Indian, which have lots of vegetables and grains, and tend to feature lean protein. There are also a growing number of restaurants which feature local products, from vegetables to beef, which are likely to be healthier.

3. More Appetizers, plus Group Entrees
An important way to eat healthy is to reduce the amount you eat. Rather than focus on entrees, perhaps begin by focusing on appetizers or sides, which tend to be served in smaller portions. If you are out with friends, consider ordering a smaller collection of entrees for the group, rather than one per person. Even if there are just two of you, you might consider ordering three appetizers, but just one entree.

Also, try to avoid eating out in large groups, which tend to drive up the quantity of food consumed.

4. Eat All Day (or Don’t Save Your Appetite)
Starving yourself all day to save your appetite for a meal out is likely to lead to unhealthy indulgences, since they will be harder to resist if you are starving. The best strategy for food consumption is to eat a little bit several times a day, rather than focus your appetite on a few big meals. This strategy will help you avoid arriving at a restaurant with such hunger that tempts you to overconsume.

Jerry’s Kitchen, offering catering services across the Philadelphia region for corporate and personal events, specializes in creative and healthy reinventions of traditional favorites. If you want your event to be delicious and healthy, give us a call to discuss possible menus.

Source
Greatist
WebMD