With almost every occasion of today’s social events revolved around food, we are indulging ourselves more than ever before.   Buffets, large portions, and sugar-loaded choices have become a tasty problem.  Our attitude has become “Eat More, Pay Less”.  Fortunately, most of America’s restaurant chains offer more of a variety of healthy options than your typical fast food chain.

A few problems with our choices include eating large portions, consuming high fat or sugar items, and allowing our stomachs to push us away rather than walking away.  The portion solution is very easy, simply eat less.  Get a to-go bag to take home for a snack for yourself or your kids.  Remember that your metabolism works best when you feed it periodically.  Consuming the left over portions of the meal 2 hours later would allow the metabolism to stay “busy” consecutively.  Sugar and fat is what tastes good.  Choosing options that are low-to-moderate in these ingredients not only takes effort at the table but requires you to have at least a basic knowledge of foods that contain these ingredients.  Not all foods that taste good are unhealthy, but introducing the healthy options is sometimes difficult.  Try to keep your total fats down, especially your trans and saturated fatty acids.  Your sugars are good to consume in moderation.  Try to keep all sugar coming from unnatural sources to a minimum.  It is very easy to feed the entire family at your local pizza buffet on a small budget.  Keeping in mind the health of your family and yourself should be most important.  Since eating large portions at once actually has shown to slow the metabolism, you should try to avoid these types of all you can eat restaurants when ever possible.

Just as a reminder that when people are in social settings there seems to be more of tendency to have alcohol with their food.  Although little consumption of alcohol is great for the body, taking in large portions is adding many unnecessary carbohydrates and calories with zero nutritional value.  The calories consumed from any kind of drinks, alcoholic or not, can add up very quickly.  Even though these items are liquids they can still be stored as fat when not used for energy.

Eating perfect is not realistic, but making a conscious effort to make healthier choices should be the goal.  Use these tips when you are eating out and remember if you have to ask if it’s unhealthy then it probably is.