For anyone who read through Sunday evening's blog in detail you'll see that
minimizing or avoiding restaurant and processed meals is necessary to stay
in top health. Unfortunately dining out is a regular requirement for a lot
of city jobs, particularly sales people.
I think grouping restaurant and processed meals together is a bit harsh on
restaurants, although all restaurants are definitely not created equal when
it comes to health, with an organic vegetarian café being a far cry from a
harvester or pizza hut. But either way there's no escaping that eating out
is worse for you than having home-cooked fresh food, and here's why:
Higher fat content:
Fats enhance and hold flavour so foods higher in fats taste better which is
why fatty cuts of meat such as red sirloin steak, taste better than lean
cuts such as skinless chicken breast. Whilst you hope that a top quality
restaurant is sourcing good quality meat you can't be sure of the quality of
the food that you are eating, whereas cooking at home means you can choose
organic, free range, freedom ... or whatever food standard you like.
Higher sugar content:
Sugar makes everything taste better, but you can't avoid it purely by
passing on the dessert trolley. It's regularly added to soups, sauces and
salad dressings to enhance the flavour of a dish, so to be totally sugar
free choose dishes without sauces or dressings, or ask for the dressing on
the side.
Increased use of allergens:
Wheat and dairy both taste good and are found in pretty much all foody
treats. If you've ever tried to avoid both you'll realise how commonly used
they are and if you eat out regular it can be hard to avoid them.
Fortunately it's gotten a lot easier over the years. Thai and Japanese
cuisine still remain the most gluten and dairy free friendly, whilst
American and French are both pretty tricky.
Getting your moneys worth:
When you've handed over your hard earned cash for a plate of food it's very
hard not to finish it all to get your moneys worth. Interestingly this also
seems to apply even when you're not the one paying and the food is free!
Either way eating out makes you much more likely to over-eat past your
appetite with the extra calories leading to weight gain, excess insulin
production (increasing the likelihood of diabetes) and fatigue. It is
particularly bad for you to eat a large meal at the end of the day, which is
also when you are most likely to be eating out. Fortunately my local
Italian (La Figa in Limehouse) let's you take away what you can't finish ...
very fortunate in fact given the size of their portions! More and more
restaurants will offer you a doggy bag to take home, although it might not
impress your business associates or date!! Alternative tactics can be
having a starter for a main dish, skipping the starter and just having a
main, and of course getting into the very good habit of leaving food on the
plate.
Let's just have a bottle:
Eating out in the UK usually goes hand in hand with having a drink and
getting your moneys worth also means finishing the bottle of wine you've
ordered. Drinking more than an average of one glass of wine a day may have
a negative impact on health and also makes you more likely to over-eat both
at the meal itself and the next day by inducing a blood sugar low (why
hangovers and carbohydrate cravings go hand in hand).
There are lots of other perks of not eating out ... cooking at home gives
you a chance to polish your culinary skills, saves you money and is a lovely
way to catch-up with friends. If you do have to eat out regularly try and
vary the cuisines balancing out rich French and Italian food with the
lighter lower fat Asian cuisines and try and eat out more at lunchtime
rather than for dinner.
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