Cracking the Secret Language of Restaurant Menus

Eating at a restaurant can be a great way to enjoy some good food and even spend quality time with friends or family. Unfortunately, eating out can also pose a significant threat to your regular healthy eating habits. You don’t have to stop eating out or avoid certain restaurants to stick to your healthy eating habits! This is the third and final article in a series discussing the pitfalls of eating out. The first two articles discussed how to eat out without eating too much while still getting enough variety in your meals.

Eating out, by itself, is not necessarily what poses a health risk. More often, the threat is posed by eating behaviors and food choices made while eating out. Restaurant dishes may contain way too many Calories, too many carbohydrates, too much fat, too much salt, too much sugar, highly-processed ingredients, or not enough variety/nutrients. Additionally, some dishes that are presented as healthy or “lighter” options are not as nutrient-dense as you may think. One example of this is a salad that is primarily comprised of iceberg lettuce or has very few other healthier food items (other vegetables, fruits, lean protein) on it.

Looking For an Apple in the Barbeque Joint

Eating at a restaurant can be a great way to enjoy some good food and even spend quality time with friends or family. Unfortunately, eating out can also pose a significant threat to your regular healthy eating habits. You don’t have to stop eating out or avoid certain restaurants to stick to your healthy eating habits!  This is the second in a series of articles discussing the pitfalls of eating out. The first article discussed ways to avoid eating too much.

Even if you’re disciplined about making healthy food choices on a regular basis, it can still be challenging to maintain this habit when you go out to eat. One healthy strategy that can be particularly difficult to stick to when you’re at a restaurant is eating a balanced variety of food groups and nutrients.

How to Eat Out without Eating Too Much

Eating at a restaurant can be a great way to enjoy some good food and even spend quality time with friends or family. Unfortunately, eating out can also pose a significant threat to your regular healthy eating habits. This is the first in a series of articles discussing the pitfalls of eating out. You don’t have to stop eating out or avoid certain restaurants to stick to your healthy eating habits!

Many restaurants in the US serve exceedingly large portion sizes. This, in combination with a number of other psychosocial factors, leads most of us to overeat when we eat out. Last Thanksgiving, I published a guide to help you enjoy the holiday meal without over-doing it. While you may not be able to follow all of the tips provided in that guide, there is still some advice in that article that applies to eating out: you can’t always control the size of your dishes, portions served, or eating utensils, but you can control how much you consume by adapting several of the tips given here last November.

Fuel for Healing

Giving your body what it needs can keep you healthy, help you achieve or maintain your target weight, improve your physical and mental performance, and improve your mood. “Giving your body what it needs” can include resting from physical activity, staying hydrated, and eating nutritiously. Unfortunately, performing artists can have a difficult time integrating these healthy behaviors into their daily routine.

Rest and hydration guidelines have been presented previously, so this article focuses on the importance of nutrition on injury prevention and recovery.

Ten Tips to Snack Smarter (and Healthier)

Snacking is a great way to keep your energy levels up between meals, stabilize your blood sugar, and make sure you’re getting all the nutrients and variety of foods your body needs. However, snacking on the wrong foods can derail dietary plans, lead to over-consumption of fats, sugars, or Calories, and interfere with adequately fueling your body. The following tips will help you make smarter snacking decisions so you can get the most fuel and nutrition out of your snacks.

Ten Keys to Making it through Thanksgiving without Feeling More Stuffed than the Turkey

Thanksgiving is a great holiday to get together with family and friends and remember all of the great things and people we have in our lives. Unfortunately, it also has a reputation of offering way more food than anyone could possibly eat without exploding. Survive the multitude of heavy sides, savory entrees, and mouth-watering desserts by following the following tips.

What to Look for on a Nutrition Label

Eating nutritious, well-balanced meals is important because the food you eat is your body’s fuel. Giving your body what it needs can keep you healthy, help you achieve or maintain your target weight, improve your physical and mental performance, and improve your mood. But eating well can be very challenging. There are many factors that can get in the way – cost, time available for meal preparation, food allergies and preferences, daily schedule – but one factor that prevents many people from eating as well as they’d like is a lack of awareness of how to use a food item’s nutrition label and ingredients list to help make informed decisions.

Interpreting nutrition labels and ingredients lists can be intimidating, but it is incredibly helpful when comparing similar foods or identifying the nutritional value of your current diet.

Hydrate Throughout the Day

So, you already know what dehydration can do to your body and your performance. You also know that you need to hydrate throughout the day in order to replenish what you lost the previous day and to prepare yourself for the coming day’s activities. However, you may not know what proper hydration is or how to hydrate before, during, and after rehearsals, workouts, and performances.

What Dehydration does to Your Body

Practically everyone knows that it is important to stay hydrated while exercising in heat. But, did you know that dehydration is just as likely during physical activity in normal temperatures, cold weather, and even indoors?

The Best Foods for When You're Sick

One of the worst things about being sick to the point of throwing up or having diarrhea (or, heaven forbid: both) – aside from vomiting and having diarrhea, of course – is that the cycle can be very difficult to break. If you can’t keep food inside your body long enough to benefit from the nourishment it can provide, your body won’t have the fuel it needs to help fight off what’s ailing you. Saltines and Sprite may help you feel like you’re “settling your stomach,” but they won’t give your body the nutrition it needs to restore your health.

It sounds really gross, but a general rule to follow when you’re having bowel problems like diarrhea and a good way to help your body get back to normal is to eat food that has about the same consistency as what’s coming out of you. This allows your gastrointestinal (GI) system to take baby steps toward getting healthy instead of being overtaxed by trying to breakdown the regular food you eat. One of the best ways to follow this advice and get some nutrients in the process is to follow the BRAT diet. And, no, we’re not talking about going to Octoberfest to have as many wursts as you can.