It’s hard to get healthy and stay healthy when you eat out all the time.
There, I said it.
Why?
Because when we eat out, we rarely get complete nutrition facts or ingredients like we do with the foods we prepare at home. Instead, we just trust the menu, or the restaurant staff, or our palates.
But I only eat vegan meals. Isn’t vegan always healthy?
In a word, no, or at least not necessarily.
A vegan diet is an ethical one, with no animals being harmed. Often healthier, but with much room for improvement, especially when it comes to added fat, salt and sugar. For example, Oreos and deep fried French fries are vegan, and clearly not health foods. If we want to take back control of our health, it is best to eat more foods as grown as found in a whole food plant-based diet.
In my Eat to Heal Over 50 program, we walk through an eating-out exercise to find ingredients likely hiding in plain sight.
Here are 5 of my favorites, ones that I found out about the hard way. Now you don’t have to.
Unexpected hidden ingredients.
Here is what you may order, with the best of intentions to eat a healthy whole food plant-based meal, and what you may get….
- Oil-free beans. After returning to one Mexican restaurant a few time, each time asking to make sure there was no oil in the black beans, the chef finally came out and told us we were asking the wrong question. They used lard!
- Oil-free veggie fajitas. While on the topic of Mexican food, even when ordering oil-free veggie fajitas (hold the sour cream), remember to tell the waitstaff no sizzle oil. Otherwise, the chef may steam your veggies, but the staff may still add oil on the plate to get it to sizzle on the way to your table. No thanks!
- Miso soup and Onion Soup. Most restaurants use fish broth as the base for Miso soup and beef broth for the base of onion soup. Ask for hot water to be used, or skip it.
- Ghee. I know what you are thinking. Ghee is clarified butter used often in Indian cooking. But even when I ask for dairy free and vegan, there have been several times that something with ghee arrived at our table. It is worth letting your server know that you also want your food Ghee-free.
- Egg-free Pasta. At home, most of us enjoy pasta from a box made with flour and water, no eggs. At an Italian restaurant, they may prepare pasta in house, with eggs. If they make their own, then it is best to ask for the pasta that they don’t make on site, like spaghetti, fettuccini or gluten free.
Here is one more bonus ingredient to watch for, when eating out and especially when buying food for home….
Natural Flavors.
I remember years ago when eating out at Chinese restaurants, I always asked for food without MSG because it gave me a headache. Well, fast forward to today and MSG is found in over 40 ingredients, also known as excitotoxins, which are meant to make food irresistible. These types of chemicals and animal products are often part of what the label refers to as Natural Flavors.
Here is the definition of natural flavors from the FDA website – “the essential oil, oleoresin, essence or extractive, protein hydrolysate, distillate, or any product of roasting, heating, or enzymolysis, which contains the flavoring constituents derived from a spice, fruit, or fruit juice, vegetable or vegetable juice, edible yeast, herb, bark, bud, root, leaf or similar plant material, meat, seafood, poultry, eggs, dairy products, or fermentation products thereof, whose significant function in food is flavoring rather than nutritional.” In fact, there may be 100 chemicals in a single flavor.
Nothing natural at all.
How to avoid unwanted hidden ingredients
At home, you are in charge. Learn to read labels carefully. Buy brands that omit offending ingredients. Make more food at home.
When eating out and when in doubt, ask the chef. It may be best to reach out when the restaurant isn’t that busy. If there is a packaged sauce, if possible, ask to see the label.
To take back control of our health, we have to pay attention to what we eat and not delegate our health to others, even and especially the chef at your favorite restaurant.
