When Lazy To Cook, Follow 8 Smart Tips For Choosing Healthy Food In Restaurants

Illustration of tips for choosing healthy food (Unsplash/Louis Hansel)

JAKARTA – The healthiest foods are made at home. But when you are lazy to mix it yourself or don't have much time to process food from ingredients to ready to eat, then you can follow these tips so you don't choose an unhealthy menu.

Get to know the menu

Before arriving at the restaurant, you can search for reviews or identify the menu of the restaurant you want to go to. Reported by Healthline, Saturday, June 12, plating and aroma of food make it more difficult for someone to choose which food is healthy because it is already attacked by hunger.

Without identifying and choosing carefully, you can fall into unhealthy food choices. So, before making a decision what to order, first identify which ones are healthy and need to be avoided.

Temporarily delay hunger

Healthy snacks can help you temporarily delay your hunger. Of course, it is necessary to choose healthy snacks such as those that are low in calories and high in protein such as nuts and yogurt.

Check how the food is cooked and prepared

The way food is cooked has a significant impact on the number of calories it contains. So, choose foods that are steamed, grilled, or boiled because they have less fat and calories.

In the description of the menu book, if the food is crispy fried or sauteed, it certainly contains more substances that need to be avoided.

Eat mindfully

Eating mindfully means making conscious choices about what you consume. Especially if you give your full attention to every spoonful of the dish that goes into your mouth.

Try to savor every bite, as this can help improve self-control and prevent overeating.

Avoid the 'all you can eat' menu

Moreover, eating at night, the 'eat as much as you can' menu needs to be avoided to control portions. According to studies, people are often bad at estimating portion sizes. So when you are faced with buffet food, then counting portions becomes the toughest challenge.

Ask for the sauce to be placed separately

Sauce is served to complete the flavours. But two tablespoons of dressing can add an extra 140 calories and 16 grams of fat, for example, to salad dressing. So, ask for sauces and dressings to be separated from the menu you order.

Illustration of salad dressing being separated (Unsplash/Travis Yewell)

Choose soup or salad as an appetizer

Studies track the effects of eating soup before a meal and show that total calorie intake can be decreased by up to 20 percent. Choose soups that you think are healthy and salads that have a healthy combination of vegetables.

Share with others

A study was conducted on people who managed to lose and maintain weight. The key, often share food or order half portions when eating at restaurants. This method is simple and smart, in addition to saving you can also support health.

If there's no one to share with, then ask the waiter to half wrap the meal and take it home.

The last tip, the healthiest drink when eating out is unsweetened. You can drink mineral water or unsweetened or unsweetened tea.