EATING OUT TIP: Breakfast Tips

Breakfast is becoming a popular meal to enjoy at a cafe - especially on the weekends. Some breakfast options are great choices, while others can be loaded with fat and kilojoules. Next time you are eating out for breakfast, follow this brekky tips:

• Have a glass of water before you start your meal.
• Order wholegrain or wholemeal bread instead of white bread. 
• Look for high-fibre cereals, but keep an eye out for the high kilojoule, fat-laden granola clusters.
• Choose skim milk on your cereal and in your coffee.
• Ask for low-fat yoghurt with your fruit, cereal or pancakes.
• Enjoy your eggs poached instead of fried or scrambled. Order a vegetable side such as tomatoes or spinach, instead of bacon.
• Only order the big breakfast on special occasions. Other times, order poached eggs on toast with one or two vegetable sides.

EATING OUT: Fish 'n Chip

With summer comes fish 'n chips by the beach. They're quick, easy and a tasty summer tradition. But your average fish 'n chips can contain almost half your daily kilojoule intake. So, instead of buying fried fish, it's a good idea to ask for your fish grilled - you'll half the kilojoules. As for the chips, just have one helping and only take what can fit in one hand - that's about 12 or 15 chips in total. This amount of chips is a serve, so only order a minimum of chips and discard what you don't eat. If you want something else beside the fish and chips, order any of your season grilled. Grilled prawns, scallops and calamari rings are also better than the fired versions, as you'll save on kilojoules, total fat and saturated fat. Finally, order a salad with your fish 'n chips. Dish up on our fish 'n chips and serve them on a plate with your salad taking up half the plate. 

EATING OUT TIP: Healthy fast food options

Eating occastionally at a fast food restaurant can fit into a healthy diet plan. The key is to choose wisely. Here are a few tips you can follow when the only lunch or dinner option is a fast food choice.

• Small portion sizes - always choice the smallest size, never up size. If there are hamburgers available, always go for only a single patty and steer clear of the two or three patty high burgers. Choose the small drink and if you have to have fries, purchase the small.
• Choose grilled items - grilling is a far healthier option than fried or baked. Be careful as words such as 'crispy' or 'breaded' and just other words for fried and are also high in fat and kilojoules. Choose grilled or roasted varieties of fast foods such as roast beef, chicken breast or lean ham.
• Watch your beverages - don't forget that beverages are kilojoules too! Soft drinks are at least 10 per cent sugar and contain about 440kJ per 250ml - imagine how many kilojoules are in the mega soft drinks you can buy. Instead of drinking soft drinks, choose mineral water, water, diet soft drinks or unsweetened iced tea. Also give the shakes and other ice-cream drinks a miss, as they're high in kilojoules and saturated fat.
• Healthier sides - choose healthy side dishes. Instead of fries, choose mash potato, corn on a cob or a side salad. Or you could add a fruit salad, a low fat small muffin, piece of fruit or yoghurt.
• Make changes - make alterations such as having the dressing on the side, choosing water instead or soft drink, ask for no cheese or order a low-fat dressing. Making a few alterations to the menu can help reduce the kilojoules, saturated fat and the sodium content.

EATING OUT TIP: Cafe lunching

A quick cafe lunch is so trendy these days - stylish decor, trendy music and decedent foods. There's a different cafe on every corner throughout the city, all with so many delicious-sounding foods and drinks on the menu. Focaccias, BLT, quiches, iced-chocolate and mega muffins. We tend to love these cafe foods for all the wrong reasons - nutritionally speaking that is! So what are the best lunch choices to enjoy at your local cafe? Here's a bit of a guide to cafe menus.

Best Choices

• Frittata
• Salads - green, vegetable, legume or couscous-based
• Sandwiches or wraps - made fresh with lean grilled meats, tuna, low-fat cheese, chicken, egg, salmon or roasted vegetables
• Soup - vegetable, tomato-based or clear soups
• Antipasto or dips to share (NB - these are very kilojoule dense, so share them with a work colleague)
• Sushi
• Parcels made with filo pastry filled with vegetables and/or lean meat
• Pasta - tomato based sauce with vegetables and seafood/chicken/lean meat.
• Risotto
• Vegie burger made with roasted vegetables (hold the fries and enjoy a salad instead)
• Grilled chicken or lean beef burger - without heaps of salad and no bacon or cheese (again hold the fries)

Choices to limit

• Quiches and pastries
• Creamy salads such as Caesar salad
• Cream-based soup
• BLT and chicken schnitzel burger
• Quesadillas and nachos
• Creamy pasta sauces
• Garlic and herb bread
• Focaccia

Pastries are high in saturated fat, especially the ones made with puff pastry over filo pastry. And when they are filled with fatty cheese and meat the kilojoules sky rocket. A creamy quiche is rich in eggs and also has a nice kilojoule-laden pastry crust. Top it with regular cheddar cheese and you've got yourself a nice little fat trap. Mexican dishes can be extremely high in fat and kilojoules, especially after you have added the cheese, sour cream and guacamole. The vegetable frittata is a better option out of these foods as it is high in protein, is a source of fibre and contains less kilojoules.

With salads, ask for your dressing on the side so you can control how much goes on your salad and around your waistline. Chefs love to drown food in oil and creamy dressing, and there tends to be a stack more dressing than you really need on salads. Here's a tip, if there is an oily layer on the salad there's a tad too much dressing.

Yummy focaccias, BLTs, burgers and schnitzels are hard to pass by and appear on not only cafe menus, but also on the menus of pubs, bistros and even some restaurants. There is always a healthier way to order a burger or sandwich - ask for small amounts of cheese, get them to hold the bacon, give you a side of salad instead of fries and put the creamy mayo on the side instead of covering the burger. You could also share a burger with your work colleague and order a side of something else to share.

With pastas and risottos, choose a tomato-based sauce and select the entree size. also you don't have to eat it all in one go. If you can't finish it, you could ask for a dodgy bag and take it home for tomorrow's lunch or simply leave - it's better in the waste than around your waist! Happy lunching.

EATING OUT TIP: Thai terrific

Thai restaurants seem to be popping up everywhere these days and the price of a meal can range substantially. Irrespective of the money though, there are some food choices on the Thai menu that are better choices than others, so if you tend to eat out at the Thai restaurants a lot, it may be best to consider what you are eating as a few slight changes to your choices could do wonders for your waistline and health.

Traditional Thai cuisine combines spicy reds, vibrant greens and fragrant herbs and spices that are packed with flavour. Meals are normally fairly generous in size and splitting a main meal between two people can be the best way to control kilojoule intake if you are conscious of your waistline. Oils and fats are widely used in Thai cooking to enhance the flavour. It's important to look out for words such as "fried" or "crispy" on the menu as these foods will have been cooked in oil, while "creamy" dishes will contain coconut milk or cream which is high in saturated "bad" fat. Healthier Thai cooking methods are pan-fried, stir-fried, sauteed, char-grilled and marinated.



Here's some of the healthier main meal choices on the Thai menu:

• Stir-fries using lean meat, seafood, vegetables or tofu in light sauces such as oyster, sweet and sour, sweet chilli and basil, fish sauces, or sauces with nuts, chilli, ginger, lemon juice or herbs
• Jungle curry - curries without coconut milk or cream added
• Seafood dishes that have been BBQ, sauteed or steamed such as Goong Sam Ross
• Steamed noodle dishes
• Steamed rice - white, Jasmine or wild

The main meals to limit include:

• Stir-fries in heavy sauces, especially peanut satay sauce
• Creamy curries using coconut milk or cream including massaman, green and panang curry
• Duck dishes with the skin left on
• Fried noodle dishes such as Pad Thai
• Thai fried rice

EATING OUT TIP: Chinese

Chinese can be a tasty and healthy option when eating out or ordering take-away. However, when making the best food choices, it is important to know the menu, as some Chinese foods are high in fat, particularly saturated fat, and should be limited. When choosing entree options, steamed buns or dim sims with vegetables or meat are all good choices, while it is best to limit the fried entree items of spring rolls, deep-fried dumplings, wontons and chicken wings. Clear broth soups are better than laksa varieties which are high in saturated fat.

Any meat and veggie dishes served with steamed rice is a good choice off the Chinese menu - this includes sauces like oyster, sweet & chilli, sweet & sour, plum, black bean, ginger or dishes with almonds or cashews. Steamed fish or duck dishes without the skin are also good choices. Steamed rice is by far a healthier choice than fried rice as it contains half the kilojoules and a lot less saturated fat. Some of the main dishes that contain large amounts of saturated fat include:

• Kung pao - a deep fried meat dish with minimal veggies.
• Peking duck - crispy skinned duck, usually with a thick fat layer.
• Curries - with coconut milk or main dishes with peanut satay sauces.
• Pork spare ribs.

For dessert, choose the rice or mango puddings over the egg custard tarts.

EATING OUT TIP: Coffee

Next time you’re on your way to work, take a second to look around and see how many people have coffees in there hand. Today, takeaway coffees are almost like a fashion accessory and you can buy anything from a latte to a frappuccino blended crème with cream on top! There’s also a range of sizes to choose from – regular, large and extra large. And the number of people that head for the extra large coffee to help get them through the busy working day is amazing. That’s a lot of milk!

Most of us know what’s in the average coffee – a latte has a shot of coffee with milk, a long black is coffee and water, while a cappuccino is a shot of coffee with milk topped with froth and dusted with chocolate powder. But what about the fancy coffee bars such as Starbucks, Hudson's and Gloria Jean, that add caramel sauce or top your drinks with cream? What’s exactly in them?

Going through the Starbucks nutritional analysis found on their website, a lot things were revealed about the world’s most popular drug. With three sizes of cups to choose from, the Tall contained 360ml, the Grande held 480ml and the Venti varied from 600ml to 750ml depending on what drink you order. There are three types of milk to choose from – skim, reduced fat and full cream milk. It’s amazing how many extra kilojoules you consume if you choose the full cream milk over the other two.

Consuming a Starbucks Tall whole milk café latte will give you 756kJ compared to the same sized latte made with skim milk that contains 420kJ. That’s 336kJ extra for every full cream coffee you have, and if you have one every day of the year, you will consume an extra 122,640kJ per year which is equivalent to an extra 28kg (in theory, increasing or decreasing your energy requirements by 4286kJ per week equals a 1kg weight increase or decrease respectively). And that’s not including the sugar that you add.

Choosing the different sized coffees can also add the kilos on the waistline, pushing the belt buckle to bursting point. Choosing a tall skim latte provides you with 420kJ, but if you bump that up to a Venti, you consume a total of 714kJ. If you make that a tall full cream latte you get 756kJ and the Venti would contain 1218kJ. These numbers might not sound like much to you, but think about how many kilojoules a snack should contain. A snack should be less than 600kJ and if you normally have a coffee with your a dnack such as a muffin, you can easily see where those extra kilos you're gaining are coming from.

There is also the option of adding caramel syrup or other syrups to your coffee. Depending on the size of the coffee you choose, this adds an extra 84kJ to 210kJ per coffee. Top your drink with whipped cream and there's another 252kJ to 294kJ of extra kilojoules.

When you really analyse the fancy coffee you get from coffee shops and compare it to how many coffees people have a day and within a year, you can quite easily see how an obesity epidemic can start. Of course, you can have coffee, but choose the smallest size and preferably from a coffee shop, not the fancy coffee bars. Limit the amount of extras you add and enjoy the coffee's bitter taste instead of hiding it behind sugar. Oh, and if you can't drink skim milk, try reduced fat instead of full cream.

EATING OUT: Road Trip

Hitting the road for a weekend away is always a lot of fun and normally its also the time when you eat whatever, whenever. You want convenient foods that are quick and cheap and don't set you behind on your travel. When you think of quick, cheap and convenient foods, burgers, fried food, pastries and chocolate bars come to mind. But a little planning and an eye for the healthier choices can make sure you make the best food choices.

Services stations can be limited in healthy choices, so if you're tempted by unhealthy snacks you may be better off bringing food from home. Some good food choices from the service station include:

• High fibre muesli or fruit bars
• Single serve breakfast cereals
• Yoghurt
• Fruit
• Plain ice-cream or icy poles
• Plain water or diet soft drink
• Tea or coffee
• Dried fruit and nut mix
• Rice crackers or pretzels
• Ready made sandwiches with lean meats and salad
• Soups or risottos

Try to limit chocolate bars, lollies, biscuits, potato crisps, salted nuts, corn chips, regular soft drinks or energy drinks, indulgent ice-creams, hot dogs, pies, ready made chicken rolls burritos or nachos. All these foods are either high in total fat and saturated fat, or sugar, or both which means the kilojoule content is high. Remember you are sitting all day driving, you're not exercising so it is easy to eat more kilojoules than you need.

Finally, always pack plenty of water and stay well-hydrated on the road.

EATING OUT TIP: Debunking Sandwich Bars

Lunch is an important meal of the day that shouldn't be missed. A lot of you probably buy your lunch during the working week, and believe it or not the humble sandwich is Australia's most popular take-away food. What seems like a healthy option can sometimes be deceiving and can have more kilojoules than you may realise. The first rule you need to remember when purchasing from the sandwich bar, is to always choose a freshly made option and pick your own healthy fillings.

Some more helphul hints include:

Breads:

Choose wholegrain breads and wraps.

Limit oily focaccias, cheesy rolls, '2-inch' thick bread and Turkish bread.

Spreads:

Choose avocado, hummus, low fat mayonnaise, cranberry sauce, chutney, sweet chilli, mustard or cottage cheese.

Limit butter, full fat mayonnaise, creamy dressings and catering margarine.

Fillings:

Choose fresh salad ingredients, grilled vegetables lean meat, ham, skinless chicken breast, tuna, salmon, turkey, egg and reduced fat cheese.

Limit oily grilled vegetables, regular cheddar cheese, chicken schnitzel, bacon, chicken with its skin on, processed meats such as salami.

If you are still hungry after one sandwich, try having a piece of fruit or a tub of low fat yoghurt. Enjoy your lunch this week.

EATING OUT TIP: Juice Bars

Juice bars are popping up more and more these days. Their colourful cups are a familiar sight in the hands of many people. A refreshing drink from your local juice bar can be refreshing, and it claims to be healthy. But be warned! Your favourite juice may contain more kilojoules than you realise.

Take a look at the size of the cups. Juices and smoothies are fine in small amounts - remember a serve of juice is classified as 125ml (1/2 cup). But the large take-away cups from juice bars can hold 650ml which equates to 1300kJ for juices, 1400kJ for fruit-based smoothies, 2200kJ for dairy–based smoothies and up to 2700kJ for ‘breakfast replacement’ smoothies. By choosing the small sized cups (350ml), you are reducing your kilojoule intake by nearly half.

98% fat free. Some juice bars make claims that all their smoothies are 98% fat free. Not only do they have what they call ‘regular’ smoothies, they all also have low fat smoothies. Both types of smoothies actually contain the same amount of fat and kilojoules. Why? Well to make a low fat claim, a product must contain no more than 3% fat. All of these smoothies could be called low fat, but that’s marketing’s way of getting to think you have made a healthier choice by choosing the one titled ‘low fat’.

What about the sugar? When you take the fat out of a product, you need to replace the fat with something that gives the low fat version the same mouth feel and taste. Introducing sugar! Alarming, some of the large-sized smoothies contain between 50g and 95g of sugar. That equates to 850kJ-1615kJ from sugar alone! And that’s got to make you even more thirsty.

After reading this you don’t need to avoid juice bars completely, but you may want to make some changes to what you order. Here are some tips that can help you the healthier choice at the juice bar.

Size does matter: Always choose the smallest size to prevent unnecessary weight gain.
Dairy smoothies: Ask for skinny milk and low-fat or frozen yoghurt instead of full cream milk and ice cream. These smoothies can also be a good source of calcium if you don’t consume other dairy or soy products.
Freshly squeezed juices: Fruit and vegetable juices can provide with essential vitamins and minerals, but they are also concentrated form of kilojoules. Select a freshly squeezed vegetable juice over a fruit juice as vegetables contain less kilojoules than fruit. You could also eat a piece of fruit instead of ordering a fruit juice as the fruit will contain fibre, something that the juice is lacking.
Fruit-based smoothies: These types of smoothies are normally made with sorbet, yoghurt or ice cream which means the sugar content is higher than freshly squeezed juices. Choose a combination that is higher in berries as berries are lower in kilojoules compared to other fruits.

EATING OUT TIP: Tasty Pizza

We all love a nice tasty pizza, but sometimes a single slice can have more kilojoules (energy) than a whole meal itself. When choosing a pizza, try including some of these helpful kilojoule reducing hints:

• Choose a thin crust base instead of thick base. Definitely try to avoid the stuff crusted pizzas! Think about all the extra kilojoules, fat and salt.
• Ask for heaps of vegetables on top with small amounts of fat reduced cheese.
• Choose seafood toppings over the processed meats such as salami, ham, bacon, pepperoni.
• If you like a thick based pizza topped with processed meat, have 1 or 2 slices and then fill up on a side or greek salad.
• Make your own pizza at home! Use pita bread, English muffins or buy a pre-made pizza base from the supermarket. Then, add your own choose of toppings. See today’s recipe for a get pizza idea!

EATING OUT TIP: Lazy Weekend Brekky!

What better way to start your weekend than a nice stroll to your local café for brekky! Whether you chose to eat your breakfast whilst reading the weekend newspaper or in between chatting with friends, breakfast away from home can be delicious without being overindulgent.
The breakfast menu of local cafes can be quite extensive and the size of some meals may take your breath away, but choosing a satisfying and tasty breakfast doesn’t have to leave you popping at the seams.
For those of you that enjoy a light summer style breakfast, why not choose natural muesli with fresh fruit and yoghurt, bircher muesli, fruit loaf with jam or fruit salad. If choosing muesli, remember that toasted muesli contains a higher amount of calories than natural muesli.
For a more substantial breakfast, eggs on wholegrain toast with a side of spinach, mushrooms, tomato or baked beans will definitely do the trick. Ask for your eggs to be poached, as fried (in oil) and scrambled eggs (with added butter/cream/milk) can contain higher amounts of fat, taking away the nice abs you’ve been working so hard to achieve.
Now you may have realised that there hasn't been anything mentioned about the mouth-watering bacon and hashbrowns which glisten on the plate of so many hot breakfasts. Well if you really want something fatty and salty make a choice between the two, as after all you can only have one favourite!
If you or your partner are feeling extra hungry one morning and crave the “big” brekky, why not make up for it by limiting what you eat for the rest of the day or rounding up the troops for a afternoon game of touch, tennis or any other sport that may take your fancy.
What about the Eggs Benedict you ask? Well ask for the hollandaise sauce on the side so that you can add it yourself! This will help to reduce the about of calories you consume, and still allow you the creamy smooth mouth feel of this tasty topping.

EATING OUT TIP: Pub Grub

When heading to your local pub for a beverage and a feed, popular menu items are a burger and chips, a chicken parmie and chips, fish and chips, calamari and chips, burritos, wedges and nachos. If you look at all these dishes you will notice the lack of a very important ingredient – COLOR! As a rule of thumb, try to avoid excess amounts of beige foods. Beige foods include chips, wedges, fried fish, calamari, parmie, corn chips and burritos. A common factor with these foods is they tend to be deep-fried and are high in fat and salt.
So next time you are ordering some grub at your local pub, remember to add some colour. Here are some suggestions:

• Burger & fries: Ask them to hold the fries and get a side salad.
• Fish & chips: Order your fish grilled with salad and a few chips.
• Chicken Parmie: Ask for a side of steamed vegies and some mash.
• Nachos: Order your nachos with a small amount of cheese, sour cream and guacamole and ask for extra jalopeanos, salsa, chillies and capsicum.
• Wedges: Choose a baked potato instead and top with beans and salad toppings with a small amount of cheese,
• Burritos: Ask for extra salad toppings and only small amounts of cheese and sour cream.

EATING OUT TIP: Yum Cha

Yum cha (which involves a selection of dim sum dishes followed by tea) has quickly become the trendy thing to do on the weekend. The steamed or fried dishes of seafood, duck, chicken, meat or vegetables are chosen from passing trolleys and are served on small plates. Although the servings are small, in a short time it is very easy to over eat these tasty Chinese-dishes.

A healthy hint is to try and limit the amount of fried dishes that you eat (such as spring rolls, dim sims, wontons, sesame seed balls), instead opting for the steamed varieties. For sweet dishes, the coloured jelly, rice pudding and bean curd custard are better choices than the coconut jelly, egg custard tarts and sweet cream buns. Another helpful hint is to decide on the types and number of dishes that you will order prior to beginning. If you pace yourself, this will help you to enjoy the cuisine instead of feeling ready to burst at the seems. And for the best yum cha experience, grab your friends together and trial dishes which you wouldn’t normally choose!

EATING OUT TIP: Cafe Snacking

Foods sold in your favourite café can definitely be tasty – creamy pasta salads, banana bread, focaccias all tend to satsify the tastebuds. But nutritionally they could be affecting not only your body weight, but also your performance at work.The trendy banana bread sold by so many cafes can contain a whopping 1500kJ per slice, which is well above the 400-600kJ recommended for a snack. So if you are choosing banana bread as a snack you should really only be eating 1/3 of a slice.
This doesn't mean that you can never eat banana bread again, instead why you try sharing a slice with some work colleagues. Alternatively you could try some other tastey cafe sweets such as bite-sized sweets and tarts or biscotti. Your waist-line and your work will thank-you for it.