15
On the Go: Restaurants,
Fast Food, and Snacks
When we put our culinary fate in the hands of a waiter or chef it is sometimes a challenge to stick to a healthful menu. At fast-food restaurants the challenges are far greater. But our goal is not just to cope, but to make restaurant eating one of the pleasures of our newfound healthful lifestyle. And it can be.
In this chapter we’ll look at how to choose restaurants and what to order when we get there. And, if we’re on the road, we’ll look at how to dine healthfully in the world of fast food and airline meals. And we’ll finish off with a look at how to pack healthy snacks for work or travel.
On the Town
When it comes to restaurants the key is choice. For starters, it helps to think international. Ethnic restaurants often have a full range of healthful menu items:
• Italian restaurants feature minestrone, pasta and bean soup, pasta marinara or primavera, pesto dishes, and vegetables sautéed with garlic.
• Chinese restaurants have entire menu sections devoted to what will be listed as “vegetables,” but are actually main dishes made from tofu, broccoli, spinach, green beans, and other ingredients, and are usually available steamed or fried. They also include plenty of soups, along with various noodle and rice dishes.
• Mexican restaurants serve bean burritos, which, if prepared without lard and not topped with cheese, are usually low in fat and free of cholesterol. Top them with salsa and have rice on the side.
You’ll find Italian, Chinese, and Mexican restaurants in just about every community, no matter how small. Midsized and larger cities have many more choices:
• Japanese restaurants serve miso soup, salads, appetizers, and vegetable sushi, all of which are usually very low in fat and delicately prepared.
• Vietnamese and Thai restaurants serve dishes of soft noodles with vegetables and delicate sauces, along with tofu and endless soups and salads.
• Indian restaurants always have a great many vegetarian choices, all of which are delicious, as are their soups and appetizers, such as samosas. But make sure the waiter asks the chef to be careful about the overzealous use of oil and to skip the dairy ingredients.
• Cuban restaurants keep it simple with black beans, salsa, salad, and plantains.
• Ethiopian restaurants capitalize on the fact that some religious groups in Ethiopia follow vegan diets during certain days of the year. They have found ways of turning simple chickpeas, split peas, lentils, green beans, and peppers into delightfully spiced meals eaten with thin, soft bread, rather than cutlery.
• American restaurants—and even steak houses—now feature salad bars and vegetarian selections for those who want them.
Fast Foods
William Castelli, M.D., the former director of the famed Framingham Heart Study, used to joke that, “When you see the Golden Arches, you’re probably on the road to the Pearly Gates.” Indeed, fast-food restaurants have earned their reputation for fatty fare and super-sized sodas. Nonetheless, it is still possible to survive—and even flourish—in the world of fast food.
Taco Bell offers a bean burrito that if you hold the cheese is low in fat and entirely vegan. Add jalapeños to your heart’s content.
In Europe, veggie burgers are nearly universal, although they’ve been slower to arrive in North America. Burger King has offered a meatless sandwich for years, which consisted simply of all the Whopper’s vegetable toppings, minus the meat. In 2002, it introduced the BK Veggie, which is dramatically lower in fat than its other sandwiches (less than 10 grams of fat, compared to around 40 for the Whopper or Burger King’s fish sandwich). Other good choices are the Veggie Delite at Subway and Wendy’s Garden Pita (hold the dressing), that you can get along with a baked potato, if you’d like.
Most family-style restaurants, like Denny’s or Bob Evans, offer plenty of side vegetables that combine to make a hearty meal, and Denny’s offers a veggie burger.
Healthy Snacks for Air Travelers
Many airlines have eliminated in-flight meals—and even snacks—and with the long delays at airports, many travelers will find their stomachs growling long before they reach their destinations. Families traveling with children are especially prone to hunger pangs. Here are some tips for healthy travel snacks:
• Before You Fly: Do yourself a favor and drop by the health food store. You’ll find faux-meat deli slices that resist spoiling, even when your sandwich has had a long wait in your carry-on luggage. Individual soy and rice milk cartons need no refrigeration and are better tolerated than cow’s milk by people with sensitive stomachs. And pick up a pack of hummus and pita bread (it can’t squash—it’s already flat) for an easy in-flight snack.
• Easy-Packin’ Snacks: A banana is healthy, but it won’t do well at the bottom of your luggage. Instead, carry these easy snacks:
• Dried fruit, such as apricots or banana chips. Packaged dried assortments are in stock in every airport newsstand, as is trail mix, another good choice.
• Mandarin oranges are small, tasty, and easy to carry.
• Individual applesauce servings are convenient.
• Baby carrots are healthy and pack well.
• Rice cakes are light as a feather.
• Instant soup cups just need hot water—try lentil, split pea, and black bean soups, or veggie chili. Or pack a small poptop can of chickpeas.
If You’re Traveling with Kids
Bottled water is your best in-flight beverage. Go easy on caffeinated colas and sugary drinks that can make kids cranky.
Avoid milk. It can cause sniffles and ear troubles. Breast-feeding moms should avoid cow’s milk and caffeinated beverages, too, as they can cause colic in your baby.
There’s always PB & J. It’s got plenty of protein, and whole-grain bread makes it a fiber-rich sandwich.
More Healthy Snacks
Even if you’re not stuck at an airport you’ll want to have healthy snacks on hand. My friend Eilene likes crunchy foods, so her hot-air popcorn popper is always at the ready. She tops it with various seasonings, and it is a totally healthy snack (a cup has only 30 calories and 0.3 grams of fat). Or your tastes might call for pretzels or chocolate sorbet.
You’ll probably find that your preferences will drift over time. Years ago, when I first tasted rice cakes I promptly fed them to a group of ducks, who I thought might appreciate them more than I. But somehow I have come to love them, even without salt or sugar coatings. Look down this list of foods to see which ones appeal to you as quick snacks:
• Fresh fruit: bananas, apples, pears, oranges, grapes, etc.
• Precut fruit. Cantaloupe or melons can be purchased already cut into bite-sized squares, or you can prepare your own. Keep them in the refrigerator for times when cravings come on.
• Dried fruit: apricots, papaya, apples, raisins, prunes.
• Chocolate sorbet, available at all health-food stores and many regular groceries.
• Pretzels.
• Rice cakes. Go for the simple, plain varieties. You’ll soon see that you don’t need the sugary toppings.
• Air-popped popcorn topped with garlic salt, mixed seasonings (e.g. Spike), or nutritional yeast.
• Nonfat crackers with jam.
• Baby carrots.
• Baked sweet potatoes.
• Hot soup: minestrone, split pea, lentil.
The pace of life has changed dramatically in recent decades. We’re on the go more than ever, and home cooking has been all but replaced by restaurant and fast-food dining. But, as we’ve seen, that does not mean we have to settle for less than a healthy meal. The choices are there, once you know where to look.