Picture this. You are walking home after a hard day’s work. And just as you pass that little restaurant next to your apartment, the intoxicating aroma of Tandoori Chicken hijacks your directional instincts. Next thing you know, you are biting down on a juicy, spicy piece of chicken leg. You are so lost in ecstasy that you can barely hear your healthy diet scream in some corner of your mind.
This is, by no means, an effort to incriminate the venerated bird; the intention is to underline a familiar and serious issue…How to maintain a healthy diet when the food you eat is cooked by some sweaty fellow who makes his monies by putting a buttery glaze on everything? Well the obvious answer is to eat at home. But if temptation is your enemy, or just your average hectic work schedule; or (as is most likely) our dating tips are working overtime for you, chances are your car is intimate with a lot of valets at a lot of restaurants…
Whatever the reasons for your indulgence in eating out, your health need not suffer for it. With a little bit of thought, you can make it a guilt free trip. Also the staggering amount of variety that we have nowadays makes sure that the taste buds are always kept happily busy.
Choosing the Right Cuisine
Once you have abandoned all thoughts of cooking at home, the biggest decision you have to make is what kind of food you want to eat. The fact that someone else is slaving in the kitchen for you throws a lot of options open. The choices include concoctions from around the world. You could go for a tried and tested Indian fare or be a little more adventurous and knock on the local Thai place; eat that favorite pizza of yours or make a gastronomic visit to Mexico.
The choices seem innumerable, but taste has the tendency to not agree with your finely balanced health diet. But every cuisine does include a few low-calorie options you can try. Take Italian – no, it is not all about pasta, pastrami and cheese. There are wonderful salads you can try, along with their Minestrone soup which is one of the healthiest soups available in the market.
Going down south
If you’re a true-blue desi and prefer Indian food to any other world cuisine, then chances are that your favorite restaurants are those which serve ghee-laden tandoori tikkas and dal makhani. And if you’re in the habit of eating out regularly, I will bet my chopsticks that you’re slowly developing those love handles. But fret not. Indian cuisine is not all bad.
The best possible option to go for in such situations is South Indian. You may think that sun has set on the Udipi style of dining with its limited range of idlis and dosas but a lot of new restaurants now offer a little more than just the run-o-the-mill stuff. There is a lot more to those thin rice delights than just the ‘masala’ and ‘sada’.
South-Indian food is a rare blend of taste and health. The method of preparation involves ingredients that are easy on the stomach and bother the digestive system the least. Although the food from North comes loaded with references of cardiologists, it’s okay to give in to the obvious attraction to it as long as you don’t do it too often. Remember that the gravies that you so lustily dip your stuffed naans into are full of just two things: ghee and cashew paste. So do your cholesterol levels a favor and don’t make friends with the waiter at the Punjabi place; be the good tipper who comes once every 2 months.
Choosing the Right Item
A typical restaurant will offer a whole gamut of things on the menu. There was a time when you could spend an incredible amount of time conversing with the waiter in an effort to find what a dish was made out of. But these days, things have become a little easier. The menus have now become consolidated dossiers of information. A quick study will guide you to the right item. Try to steer clear of the obvious artery busters and you can fight off any other effects of what you eat.
Salads are the best route to take if you do not want to adversely affect the size of your clothing. The presence of raw vegetables means that no nutrients were destroyed. Salads provide a sense of fullness without eating a truckload and are an excellent source of vitamins, minerals and fiber. Oh, and if you accompany that salad with a whole basket full of bread slathered with butter, you’re back to square one.
If you must make use of the one-on-one combo offer at the local pizza chain, then try to not go crazy with extra toppings (yes, I do mean cheese). Choose a whole-grain bread if available and hope that the joggers’ park isn’t overcrowded the next day.
Indian foods have always been at the helm of the butter express; so go easy on the butter with tandoori rotis. They are just as delectable without the pools of butter that form on the uneven surface. Ask the waiter not to top your dal makhani and butter chicken with any extra cream and please, please avoid the pakodas.
It is always better to choose dishes that are grilled, baked or poached. Try avoiding the deep-fried food which will directly hit your heart.
Choosing the Right Serving Size
People generally tend to forget how hungry they actually are when ordering. When you look at the food that you actually enjoy eating (as opposed to home-cooked food), it is hard to register the signals of satiety that the stomach sends to the brain. You just want to keep on eating. One way of averting this situation is to go with your gang; there is always someone there to take care of the extra portion. Just make sure that you are not that someone…
It has been scientifically proven that people eat more if the size of their serving is increased; what it means is that they ignore the fact that they are full and continue eating until the dish is empty. Moral of the story is that you need to choose smaller servings to prevent the 2nd of the seven deadly sins (the old ones): Gluttony.
Choosing the Right Beverage
Boy this is a tough one. If you have followed the measures listed above, then you have done admirably well to keep the damages of your little deviation from a careful fitness plan to a minimum. But the last stumbling block is what you drink with that carefully selected food. When you go fine dining, there is a good chance that you will get a magnificent wine to complement your palate. But more often than not you will have to contend with the regular soft-drink. If that is the case then go for a diet drink, and don’t think it’s a sissy’s choice. If you think it’s a sissy choice, then drink water or salted lemonade. But, too much of a diet drink that contains aspartame or other sugar substitutes is not a good thing. Alternate your choices. Pick a fresh fruit juice!
The above guideline remains more or less unchanged in case of street-food. Always insist the fellow to go easy on the butter and you should be okay. And if you relate hygiene to health, then you may want to tread carefully. After all you don’t want to upset your stomach after subjecting it to so much care.
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