Most people believe that if you want to eat healthy at a restaurant, all you have to do is know the “right” way to order. However, we’ve learned secrets from several restaurant insiders that will shock even the savviest restaurant aficionados who think they’re ordering healthy.

[  DietDetective.com Podcast: Listen to the podcast here and subscribe here free if you have iTunes ]

[ To Download This Podcast as an MP3 file Right Click Here. Select "Save Target As" and Save on Your Desktop. ]

You’ve Been Grilled
According to food-safety expert Jeff Nelken, when we order foods “grilled,” most of us assume they’ll be cooked on an open flame, but many times it’s a flat-top grill, where some type of grease or oil is necessary to create an even cooking surface, increase the cooking speed and prevent the food from sticking. 

Health Pro: Ask if it’s a flat-top grill or a flame grill. If it’s flat-top, request your food be grilled in a pan with cooking spray instead of oil. 

Oil Slick
There is oil on almost everything, and while some oils (e.g., canola, olive) are healthier than others, they all have approximately 120 calories per tablespoon. So you may go to the trouble of ordering an egg-white omelet, believing you’re making a “low-calorie” choice, but it could be doused in oil. Or you might order grilled or steamed vegetables, but they may have been marinating in oil all day.

Since fat and oil help preserve cooked food, busy restaurants usually partially cook poultry/fish and then coat it in butter/oil until it’s ready to be finished, says Billy Strynkowski, executive chef of Cooking Light magazine. “Even if you order your chicken ‘dry’ with the sauce on the side, poultry is always pan-fried in oil or clarified butter.” Pasta, potatoes and rice, again, are often partially cooked and filmed with some type of fat so that they stay fresh and don’t clump together, adds Juventino Avila, chef instructor at the Institute of Culinary Education in New York City.

Even if something is not doused in oil, you still may not be calorie-safe -- it can have added butter or cream. Toasted buns are often covered in butter; even steaks have butter drizzled on them before they’re sent out. “And restaurants always finish sauces with butter or cream -- even if the words ‘butter’ or ‘cream’ are not in the sauce’s name,” says Strynkowski

Health Pro: Almost all the chefs agree: If you want it cooked a certain way, tell your server you have an allergy (to butter, or whatever you want eliminated)--I realized that food allergies are very very serious (read here), so tred lightly using this tactic.

Purée Fantasy
Most puréed soups, potatoes and vegetables are full of cream and/or butter to make them smooth and tasty, says John Greely, chef at the famed 21 Club in New York. Some restaurants do make thick “creamy” soups without butter or cream. But if that’s the case, your server will almost always make a point of telling you. 

Health Pro: Ask about the ingredients and the preparation method, specifically if the dish has any cream, and, if not, what was used instead. Healthy, low-calorie thickening agents include puréed potatoes, roasted garlic and arrowroot. If there is no thickening agent, well, they probably used butter or cream. 

Sodium Surprise
Many restaurants go heavy on the seasoning, including sodium, warns Nelken. Most places put salt on almost everything, especially marinades. Some chicken producers even inject chickens with a sodium solution to add flavor. 

Health Pro: Ask for no added salt or sodium, and ask if your dish has been marinated, and if so, in what. 

Allergies
Almost 11 million Americans have allergies to foods such as peanuts, fish, milk and wheat, and even if your food is not made with the offending ingredient, it still may not be allergen-free. Cooks, food handlers, utensils, almost anything can infect an allergic individual, warns Nelken. 

Health Pro: Call ahead. If you believe something contains or has been contaminated with the allergen, avoid it. 

Salad Surprise
According to Chef Greely, any pre-tossed salad (particularly those made in large batches) could have up to a quarter-cup of dressing when a tablespoon usually suffices. 

Health Pro: Order a simple "vinaigrette" dressing made with olive oil and an acid such as lemon juice or grapefruit juice, and get it on the side.

Whole-Grain Mystery
When we see wheat-crust pizza, whole-wheat pasta or wheat buns on a menu, most of us automatically think “healthy.” But according to Marjorie K. Livingston, M.S., R.D., a professor at the Culinary Institute of America in New York, there’s no real way to be sure that you’re getting a whole-grain product. In fact, most of the time you’re getting products that just have brown coloring, maybe with some whole-grain flour. “There really is no definition of whole grain for restaurants. Even a bran muffin often has very little bran -- you’re mostly getting a muffin with coloring, says Livingston. 

Health Pro: Ask if it’s a 100 percent whole-grain product, and if he or she is not 100 percent sure, it’s probably not. 

It Must Be True
There is no law requiring restaurants to provide nutrition information for the foods they serve and many of the claims they make--except, in some cases, in New York City. 

Health Pro: Restaurants are required to provide information if they make a nutrition (e.g., low-sodium, low-fat, low-cholesterol, healthy, light, etc.) or health claim about the relationship between a nutrient or food and a disease or health condition (e.g., “heart healthy”). 

CHARLES STUART PLATKIN is a nutrition and public health advocate, author of the best seller Breaking the Pattern (Plume, 2005), Breaking the FAT Pattern (Plume, 2006) and Lighten Up (Penguin USA/Razorbill, 2006) and founder of Integrated Wellness Solutions. Copyright 2006 by Charles Stuart Platkin. Sign up for the free The Diet Detective newsletter at www.dietdetective.com.

Bookmark:

TrackBack URI for this entry

Comments (4)

Subscribe to this comment's feed

...
written by just stay home!, November 12, 2007

if you plan on being THIS anal about your food choices when dining out i suggest you STAY HOME and cook for yourself! all this nit-picking is sure to aggravate an already busy/stressed chef and kitchen staff, and u may get more than you bargained for for insisting that they jump through these extra hoops (if u get my meaning...). believe me, it ain't worth it.

...
written by Diane, August 22, 2007

I always ask to have only 1 to 2 tbls of salad dressing on my "large" salad with the instructions to toss the heck out of it untill every leaf is coated.

...
written by Ashley, August 21, 2007

One can eat less dressing if they do not pour it on their salad and instead dip their fork in the dressing and then stabing their salad. I almost always have a ton of dressing left over when I do this plus the dressing isn't overpouring then.

...
written by David Wolfe, June 13, 2007

Salad Suprise clarification. Having worked in several 3-5 star resturants, if a salad is made up when it is ordered, ordering the dressing on the side usually results in an increased usage. We always put about 1/8 cup or less dressing on even the biggest salad. If the dressing was ordered on the side, if only twice that much was put in a ramakin, more was always requested.