While it’s true that most of your meals should be prepared at home and most of your meals should come from whole foods, the truth is that world that we live in makes it so you will not always have the time or energy to cook—I know I don’t! On the occasions that you choose to dine out, there are some things you can do to make the experience less painful for everyone. In fact, with the proper mindset, there is no reason it should be painful at all.
You might expect me to tell you only to eat out at Mediterranean restaurants and then to order only salad or kebabs, right? I know you’re not going to eat Mediterranean cuisine all the time, and it is not realistic to expect that. Depending on where you live, you may not even have access to Mediterranean restaurants. There is only one worthwhile Mediterranean restaurant in the city where I live, and I’m not going to eat at that restaurant every time I want to eat out. That would be really boring.
I want you to succeed at making this lifestyle change, so I included this chapter to prepare you for all of the situations in which you might find yourself trying to maintain carbohydrate restriction while on the go. The Mediterranean portion of this diet is really more about the lifestyle aspects than it is the food, so although the food is amazing, not everything you eat needs to be Mediterranean inspired. Sticking to the ketogenic portion is much more important. You need to maintain carbohydrate restriction continuously in order to stay in ketosis and to reap the benefits of a ketogenic diet. So while you don’t always have to eat Mediterranean food, you must always eat ketosis-friendly food.
I hope you know by now that by carbohydrate restriction and ketosis-friendly food, I mean that you need to limit your total net carbohydrate intake to 20 to 50 grams per day. To do this, you should eat foods that are sufficiently low in net carbohydrates (remember: to find net carbs, subtract fiber from the total carbohydrate content). Now, here are some tips for how to manage this when eating out.
First off, don’t assume anything, and ask a lot of questions. Many restaurants will include hidden sources of carbohydrates in their dishes that will surprise you. For example, restaurants will often add milk or even sometimes pancake batter to their scrambled eggs or omelets in order to make them fluffier and make more expensive ingredients, like eggs, go farther.
I find that it is also obnoxiously common for restaurant menus to fail to mention when something is breaded. This can be a real bummer if you order what sounds to be a delicious and ketosis-friendly chicken and vegetable dish only to discover that the chicken breast is breaded and therefore unacceptable. This is why you just have to ask questions:
Does this have breading on it?
Do you know if the “spicy garlic sauce” has any sugar or thickener in it?
What vegetables come in the “mixed spring vegetables”?
Do your scrambled eggs contain any filler?
Do you have heavy whipping cream I could put in my coffee?
If the server does not know the answer to your questions, it is best to choose something else rather than risk it. If it turns out that the dish or drink you are interested in does contain hidden or unexpected sources of carbohydrate, ask for substitutions. Ask to leave the sauce off, substitute other vegetables, or have a different dressing. Many restaurants are more than happy to make substitutions to better accommodate their customers, though some are not. Again, if the restaurant is not willing to sufficiently alter a dish for you, choose something else. There is almost always something on a menu that is ketosis friendly.
When you are asking questions and possibly asking for special treatment, remember a few things:
YOU ARE THE CUSTOMER. You are literally paying to keep this establishment open. It is not unreasonable for you to know what is in your food or to ask for relatively easy modifications.
BE SPECIFIC. The server has not likely read this book or any ketogenic diet book and probably does not know what you are trying to achieve with your questions. If you ask, “Is this low carb?” you and the person you are asking could have very different ideas about what “low carb” means. I’ve seen items on menus that are labeled as low carb but have over 20 net grams of carbohydrate in them. It is always your responsibility to make your needs known and to be specific when communicating those needs. Do not assume that anyone knows what you mean.
BE COURTEOUS. I know that the first suggestion was to remember that you are the customer, but at the same time, remember that you are dealing with humans and that they likely get a lot of demanding, and sometimes less than pleasant, customers. If they can’t find the information that you are requesting, don’t take it personally. If they are not patient with you, be patient with them. You’ll have a better day, I promise.
Those are general tips for eating out. Don’t assume, especially about the information on menus; be a detective, but a very polite one; and remember that there is always something you can eat. Let’s delve a little deeper and talk about the types of restaurants where you are more likely to have an easy time finding something.
Good Bet Restaurants
Obviously, Mediterranean restaurants are likely to be accommodating. Hummus is not terrible, kebabs are often fine as is, and of course, there is the Mediterranean salad; just be careful of the dressing. Meat cooked on a spit is popular in these restaurants and can fit nicely, but ask if they can give it to you without the pita that it is usually served on. Tzatziki is fine in small quantities.
Mexican cuisine is also relatively easy to adapt. They often have fajitas that are intended to be assembled at the table. If you take away the tortillas, you are left with a meat, pepper, and onion hot salad. It is also very easy to get restaurants to make tacos into salads: instead of meat, cheese, jalapenos, and cilantro on a corn tortilla, you get meat, cheese, jalapenos, and cilantro on a bed of lettuce. Be wary of rice that is not listed as a part of a particular dish and the small strips of tortilla that are often added to salads. Ask questions.
Thai restaurants typically have a robust menu of salads and often have curries that are just fine with no modification, depending on the place and the curry. Make sure to ask what vegetables are included, though, because there are often potatoes in the mix. Asian cuisines of all kinds are likely to utilize tofu as a protein option and sometimes build dishes around it that are fine without modification. Sometimes, you can even convince a restaurant to replace the noodles in a dish with bean sprouts. This makes for a tasty, crunchy, and ketosis-friendly dish.
Indian-inspired places are also very easy. Many of their curry dishes are based on butter, oil, spices, and vegetables, so they do not require any modification. Saag paneer is one of my favorites. It is a delicious blend of spinach, spices, yogurt, and paneer, which is a soft cheese similar to feta. Again, be sure to let them know that you don’t need the rice that is likely to come with almost every dish.
American-style restaurants are great because they will usually have a selection of steaks with a choice of vegetables on the side. Easy peasy, as long as you don’t order peas, which have too many grams of carbohydrate. Go easy with broccoli, instead.
Seafood restaurants are also good choices. They will have many acceptable items on the menu that require no modification. However, avoid the fried items because they will be breaded.
Breakfast joints are good, too. They often do not have a great selection of vegetables but will usually have tomatoes and occasionally asparagus or avocado. They almost always have a very workable selection of eggs and meats.
Workable Restaurants
While sit-down Chinese restaurants can be good if they have menus that you can order from and dishes that can be modified if needed, buffets are difficult just because you can’t possibly know what all of the options contain, and it is going a little far to make the employees walk you through the buffet line and tell you about every item. However, Chinese-style buffet restaurants will often have hibachi grills that will offer cook-to-order items, and there you can get a protein and vegetable grilled up with soy sauce.
Nearly all fast-food-style restaurants will give you a pile of meat and cheese in some form or another. While this option is far less than ideal (you want more vegetables than they offer and frankly, they are gross) it can occasionally work in a pinch if, say, you’re on a road trip and don’t have any better options.
Sushi restaurants typically don’t have much to offer other than sushi. Of course, you can order sashimi, which is very thinly sliced pieces of meat or fish, but it is commonly served with rice and it would likely become prohibitively expensive to get the quantity required to be filling without the rice. Though you may never know; if you ask, they may make you a sashimi and seaweed salad.
Difficult or Untenable Restaurants
Café-style restaurants that are mainly coffee shops usually only have bakery options, which are typically bread based. They may occasionally have a quiche or frittata that you can eat the filling from but usually, you are just out of luck at places like this.
Donut shops and bakeries are self-explanatory: don’t even bother.
That is all the advice that I have for you on eating out, and functionally the end of The Ketogenic Mediterranean Diet book. The next and final section is dedicated to resources that you can pursue if you are interested in learning more. If you made it this far but are not interested in learning more, then you may put the book down. Thank you for taking this journey with me.