There’s no better feeling than going out to a restaurant to eat delicious food and dining out is a very pleasant and enjoyable experience. One of the biggest challenges with this is ordering healthy foods because menus often offer an overwhelming amount of options. Making educated and informed choices at restaurants is important because you will be able to maintain your healthy lifestyle while enjoying your meal and the following tips will help with this regard:

Be mindful of your beverage

Ordering a soda or an alcoholic beverage is common when you go to a restaurant but this can have a negative effect on your diet because these drinks are full of sugar and will affect your body negatively. In addition to the calories, these drinks will cause excess sugars to remain in your liver where they will become body fat and because the beverages generally arrive before the meal, drinking them on an empty stomach will speed up the release of sugar into your bloodstream. Alcohol, sodas, milkshakes and juices should be avoided, so try ordering water, tea or sparkling water with lemon or lime instead.

Be careful with the bread basket

After the drinks comes the arrival of the bread basket and while it is delicious, you need to pay attention to your portions so that you don’t fill up on bread. Avoiding the bread basket altogether is ideal, although this is often unrealistic, so try eating one or two pieces at most so that you are not bloated and can enjoy your meal. If you do want to remain completely healthy while at a restaurant, you can ask your server to skip the bread basket so that you are not tempted by it.

Choose the right appetizer

You can decide to skip an appetizer but if you want to enjoy your restaurant experience, you can go ahead and choose one as long as it is healthy. A small plate that contains some form of protein is ideal, so look for grilled calamari, vegetable skewers, salads or an antipasto. Deep fried items like onion rings or chicken wings should be avoided as they may upset your stomach and can ruin your meal.

Choose your main course carefully

If you want to eat healthy while at a restaurant, skip past the burgers, pastas and club sandwiches because refined white flour has no nutritional value and pastas, in particular, are very dense in carbs, which can be stored as fat. Baked or grilled seafood and chicken or a lean steak with vegetables are all great options that will allow you to maintain your healthy diet.

Laura’s Catering can provide you with a number of healthy food options for your next event. We offer a variety of different catering services, so if you are in the Winnipeg area and want delicious meals, give us a call today!