How to avoid excess calories in a cafe or restaurant

Almost everyone who has ever been to a cafe, restaurant, canteen at work or gastronomy was tempted by the appetizing look of steaming barbecue, lasagna, ice cream, and had to barely make a choice in favor of a particular dish. Hence, if you are a cafe or restaurant - going frequenter, then you are most likely to ask yourself “What can I eat after 6 p.m. so not to get fat”. Here are TOP 7 Tips from DiningSmart of how to choose a meal in the menu considering energy value:

• Plan your trip to a restaunrant in beforehand and read the menu. Unfortunately, any of the cafes and restaurants have the energy value of a meal in their menu. Nevertheless, the food ingredients can provide you with a general picture of a food calories, the presence of transfats or allergens. Usually the ingrediants are listed in the menu of a particular instituion’s website. There you can approximately calculate the calorific value of a meal, or, if it comes to a pinch, you can always ask the waiter rightaway about the food energy value. Do not forget that dinner, for example, must not exceed 20% of your daily diet, e.g. it should not be greater than about 300-350 kcal. 

• As a matter of fact, cheese contains many proteins, vitamins A, B, D, calcium. phosphorus and zinc. However, if you do not want to gain extra weight, then you had better avoid foods that contain cheese. The average pizza slice may contain about 300-450 kilocalories (especially if cooked with puff pastry).  This can be substituted by a full meal of lean meat, broccoli and apple juice, except for cheese which contains 350 kcal per 100 grams. The "useful" sushi rolls lovers are to be reminded that the sushi contain mayonnaise, white rice and cheese with high amounts of fat in it Thus, an ordinary, at first glance, portion of sushi may contain up to 500 calories. As an alternative you can always ask to reduce the amount of cheese and not to add the shredded cheese in salads. Unfortunately, the more cheese, the more fat is in the dish.
• If you cannot limit the consumption of sauces at all, then you should the most useful ones. Ketchup or mayonnaise should not be considered due to the fact that a single tablespoon of them may contain much sugar and more than 100 kcal. I recommend you to replace butter and cheese sauce for tomato sauce or just olive oil. Notwithstanding be careful with how much olive oil you use. Despite the fact that this oil is considered as the most useful one, still it can add hundreds of calories to your meal, if it is combined with bread which will instantly absorb the oil. The Italian sauce pesto, which is getting popular,  can also be considered as a high-calorie product due to the presence of fat and nuts.
• Pay attention to the portion of your meal. If the portion is large, then eat half and take the rest home or you can order one portion for two or more people. In case if you are dining my yourself, then you can just leave it on the plate - this will be considered as a sign of a good manner.
• Low-calorie side dish is a great way to reduce the number of calories in your meal. Forget about potato (about 80 kcal per 100 grams), white rice (about 135 kcal per 100 grams), pasta (380 kcal per 100 grams) and anything fried. The items that you should look for and choose in the menu start with “baked”, “boiled”, “stewed”. Choose asparagus, broccoli, squash, cabbage, celery, zucchini as a side dish. Ask the chef to include more green dish. 

• The sweet tooth are recommended to replace delicious cream cake or ice cream marshmallow for dark chocolate or fruit sorbet, and choose fresh fruits instead of muffins or jam. If you still can’t make it without classic desserts, then you can choose from the menu curd dessert or panna cotta, which contain a bit less calories rather than a fat butter cream cake or yeast pastries.
• And if you have decided not to eat, but  just to drink delicious cocktail, keep in mind, that drinks do also contain high amounts of calories. For comparison, a glass of tomato juice contains 19kcal, pineapple - 70 kcal, cappuccino without sugar - 95kcal and the majority’s favorite vanilla frapuchchino contains 450 kcal. Ice cream drinks (1000 kcal) may even substitute you daily consumption rate in terms of calories, however they will not saturate your body with essential nutrients. You had better just order a mineral water or green tea, a single cup of which contains only 3 kcal. 

 Enjoy your meal!