Hungry for a particular kind of food? Here are some tips specific to particular types of restaurants.
Family Restaurants
Avoid dishes heavy with cheese, sour cream and salad dressings. Instead of fried foods, choose boiled, baked, or grilled. Choose bread or pita pockets over croissants. Salads make great meals but be careful of the dressing. If you must have a high-fat entrée, split it with someone or take a portion of it home.
Fast Food
In the past, "fast food" meant "fat food." Today, with the public increasingly aware of the risks of high-fat foods, more franchises offer low-fat alternatives.
Beware of topping foods with cheese, creamy sauces, and bacon. Avoid fried wherever possible.
French
French food once meant foods high in fat, with butter as a staple item. With the introduction of "nouvelle cuisine," diners have a new, lighter way of cooking.
Bypass rich entrées, desserts, and sauces. Aim for simple dishes with sauces on the side. Nouvelle cuisine or Provencal tomato-and-herb-based entrées are good choices. Substitute margarine for butter in both cooking and dining. Better still, leave it out altogether.
Greek/Middle Eastern
Some Greek and Middle Eastern dishes are high in fat, especially from monounsaturated fat in olive oil. Others are not. The more you know about this type of food, the more you can enjoy.
Ask that dishes be prepared with less oil and served with high-sodium foods like feta cheese and olives on the side. Ask for salad dressing and sauces on the side, too. Phyllo pastry dishes are usually high in butter, so skip them. Most Greek desserts are high in fat and sugar. If you must splurge, split one with a friend or request a half-serving.
Health Food and Vegetarian
Health food and vegetarian food are usually fresh and wholesome. Protein usually comes from chicken or fish, or it may be from combined vegetable proteins (such as rice and beans). However, watch out for fats and oils. Sometimes vegetarian recipes compensate for meatless entrées by adding fat to fill you up.
When eating vegetarian sandwiches, avoid those with lots of cheese and avocado.
Indian
Recipes that originate from India have both good and bad points. In their favor, Indian food tends to accent carbohydrates and spices and de-emphasize protein. Legumes and vegetables are commonly used, another plus. The problem is that much of the food is prepared with ghee (clarified butter) or is fried or sautéed. Sesame and coconut oils are the most-often-used oils.
Start with salads or yogurt with chopped or shredded vegetables. Choose chicken or seafood rather than beef or lamb. Choose dishes prepared without ghee. If sodium is a concern, skip the soups.
Italian
To most people, Italian food means "pasta." This is good, because pasta itself is low in fat. It is the pesto and cream sauces that add all the fat and calories.
Enjoy pasta as a main entrée rather than an appetizer. Share foods among your dinner companions. Ask your waiter to hold the Parmesan (grated) cheese, the bacon, olives, and pine nuts. If you order pizza, choose healthy ingredients like spinach, mushrooms, broccoli, and roasted peppers.
Japanese
Japanese cuisine can be considered a perfect low-fat cuisine. Japanese foods highlight rice and vegetables. Food portions are typically smaller and rely on food preparation methods that require little or no fat or oil. Most of the fat comes directly from the foods themselves.
To make the meal even healthier, ask the cook to prepare the food without high-sodium marinades, sauces, and salt. Ask that all sauces be served on the side and avoid those foods that are deep-fried, buttered, breaded, or fried. Substitute chicken, shellfish, and seafood for beef or pork.
Mexican
A lot of Mexican food is fried with lard and topped with cheese.
Ask your server not to bring fried tortilla chips to the table and to hold the sour cream and guacamole from entrées. Use salsa to add flavor. Veracruz or other tomato-based sauces are better than creamy or cheesy sauces. If you order a taco sauce, don't eat the fried shell. Substitute corn tortillas (made with almost no fat) for flour tortillas (contain lard).
Steakhouses
Steak can be part of a low-fat diet, so long as it is lean beef and the portion size is reasonable.
Steakhouses generally prepare your food to order, so ask that all visible fat be trimmed before cooking. Don't order king-sized cuts. About 3 ounces of thinly sliced meat is perfect, or choose a 6-ounce steak and enjoy non-meat entrées the rest of the day.
Thai
Thai food is a wonderful blend of fresh and spicy. It tends to be light on fats, meats, and sauces. It relies more on vegetables, noodles, and rice.
Order lighter, stir-fried dishes and fresh spring rolls. Avoid heavy sauces and deep-fried entrées. Ask that the food be cooked with vegetable oil rather than coconut oil or lard. Choose chicken over duck, but limit meat, poultry, and seafood portions. Avoid soups and soy and other sauces if you are watching your salt intake, and ask the MSG be left out.
Vietnamese
Vietnamese food is one of the world's oldest and most exquisite cuisines, with subtle flavors and textures that blend the Far East with French cooking. Many of the dishes are low in fat.
Increasingly more restaurants offer delicious low-fat, low-cholesterol, "heart-healthy" meals. Eating less fat (especially saturated fat) and cholesterol is important for improved health.
Fried, basted, braised, au gratin, crispy, escalloped, pan-fried, sautéed, stewed, or stuffed foods are high in fat. Instead, look for steamed, broiled, baked, grilled, poached, or roasted foods. If you're not sure about a certain dish, ask your server how it is prepared.
Even if no low-fat dishes are listed on the menu, you may still be able to get a low-fat meal. Many restaurants will prepare foods to order. If you're not certain about a particular restaurant, phone before you go.
For more information on this subject or to acquire other AHA brochures, contact The American Heart Association at 1-800-AHA-USA1 (1-800-242-8721) or visit the AHA website at www.americanheart.org.
