For some busy people, eating outside your home on most days of the week can be unavoidable. While that means you can’t control the types of foods cooked in the restaurants you visit, you can still make healthier food choices to reduce the calories (energy) in your meals. Even better, this can help you save money! Here’s how:
“Upon Request” Plate Portions: Most restaurants serve big portions of carbohydrates & a rather small portion of vegetables. Ask them to substituremore vegetables for carbohydrates for a healthier plate.
Drink Healthy: Sodas, processed juice, and alcohol are sneaky calories that really add up. Choose water or tea with little or no sugar, instead. 1 glass of water has 0 calories compared to 100 calories or more in a glass of soda. That’s a big difference!
Help Your BMI and Your Wallet By Sharing Big Meals: You don’t have to finish what the restaurant serves you. If your plate of food is huge, save costs by sharing with others. Or divide the meal in half and save the rest for later.
Order Smart: Cooking method count! Steamed, grilled, or boiled foods have fewer calories than fried foods. Avoid chips, bhajia, samosa or sausages.
Healthy Snacks. Got the munchies? Foods like nuts, fruits, yoghurt or maziwa mala are healthier options to eat in between or in place of your main meals. Small portions of these foods will reduce your hunger & prevent you from overeating later.
Use the following list of foods to help order better when you eat out:
Eat more of these foods: | Eat less of these foods: |
Fruits and vegetables. | - |
Low-fat and fat-free milk products. | Full-fat milk products, ice cream, cheese or foods with cheese. |
Lean or low-fat meat, lean minced meat, chicken without skin and grilled or roasted fish.
Legumes (beans, ndengu, kamande and peas) | Fatty cuts of meat, regular minced meat, fried chicken, chicken meat with skin, fried fish, bacon, sausages, smokie, ham, brawn and other cold cuts. |
Rice (brown rice is best), brown chapati, ugali (wholemeal maize flour/ unga wa kusaga), whole wheat bread, spaghetti. | White chapati, ugali (grade 1 maize flour), chips, mandazi, mahamri, kaimati, samosa, donuts, cakes, chocolate, sweets, or other baked foods. |
Honey | Margarine (e.g. BlueBand), butter, jam, sugar. |
Roasted nuts or popcorn with little or no salt. | Dry snack foods like crisps, biscuits, chevda or fried salted nuts. |
Water, tea with little or no sugar, freshly blended fruit juice with no added sugar. | Processed fruit juices, sodas or alcohol. |