Many of you have already seen my post about proper gym
etiquette, now it’s time for me to get another pet peeve off my chest,
restaurants that take healthy items and turn them into unhealthy disasters. I
HATE this, you are out at a restaurant, trying to make wise choices, and the
restaurant has converted what should normally be a very healthy choice into a
trans-fat, sodium explosion, additive insanity, sugar laden alternative. Here
are a few examples below of traps you need to be on the look out for when scanning
the menu
1.
Salad- You’re at a fast food joint and you pick
the salad because you think it’s healthier than the burger, WRONG!! Crumbled
bacon bits, sugar coated candied nuts, excessive cheese, tortilla strips, fried
chicken, fatty croutons and creamy dressings full of trans-fat and questionable
preservatives can mean the salad ends up being a worse option than a plain
single serving hamburger. Prime example, Wendy’s Baja Salad with Jalapeño dressing= 720 calories, 17g saturated
fat, Wendy’s ¼lb. single with cheese and condiments= 590 calories, 14g. saturated
fat.
-
Look for salad that have spinach, arugula or
mixed greens as a base instead of iceberg or romaine, these greens offer a lot
more nutrients
-
If the salad has bacon, croutons or tortilla
strips, ask for extra veggies on top instead
-
Chose grilled chicken, lean steak strips, egg or
grilled shrimp over fried chicken as a protein
-
Instead of candied nuts, ask for plain toasted
nuts instead
-
Ask the server for dressing on the side (so you
can control the amount you put on) and vinaigrettes are generally better
options than creamy dressings
2.
Sushi- when the sushi craze began, simple
offering such as California rolls, salmon rolls and vegetable rolls were all
great options for a healthy and light meal. And then, we decided to
“westernize” and in my opinion, mass destruct this Japanese delicacy. Tempura
this, Tempura bits that, huge globs of spicy sauce (aka mayo and chili paste),
and other ingredients has made this item a calorie laden bombshell. Here are
some betters options to stick with
-Avoid anything tempura, sorry I probably
just pissed off a lot of people but I mean it, this is nothing but added ,empty
carbohydrates and ruins the fresh taste of sushi fish
-If you simply can’t give up that spicy
sauce, ask for it on the side so that you can control how much you are putting
on your rolls
- Don’t order rolls with cream cheese, I’m
pretty sure this ingredient is never used in Japan
- The best choices include: California
rolls, rainbow rolls, plain fish rolls (salmon, tuna hamachi etc) and sashimi,
futomaki, vegetable rolls (not the tempura kind), and bbq eel rolls
-Ask for brown rice rolls if possible
3.
Fruit Smoothies- It seems like every fast-food
joint these days is offering up their version of a fruit smoothie. In reality, most are them are no better
than a corner store slushy, full of processed empty sugar calories and very
little nutrients. Because they use pureed juice/ fruit juice and not real fruit like they claim, these
restaurants have stripped away anything good that was in the fruit. Whenever I
see that McDonald’s commercial where the guy reaches down for the smoothie on
the bench I wanna scream “NO….STOP!! You were better off eating that whole
mango, what are you doing!?!?!”
-A medium fruit smoothie at Tim Horton’s has 43g of
sugar, 0g of fibre and 0% daily intake vitamin C. (For comparison, a double
chocolate donut has only 16g of sugar)
-Instead, try packing an actual piece
of fruit (who’d ever though of that?!!?) in the car and buy an unsweetened iced
coffee or tea as a refreshing cool treat on those hot summer days
-If you must have your smoothie
fix, I recommend the Vivanno smoothies at Starbucks; each contains a whole
banana and lots of protein (~17g) and fiber (~6g) to keep you feeling full. Ask
for non-fat milk is watching calories or soymilk if dairy free ***if you use a
registered card, they won’t charge you extra for soy!
No comments:
Post a Comment