With many new restaurants popping up around campus, students may be tempted to eat out more, but that does not mean students have to gain a lot of weight if they fall to temptation. Using the nutritional advice of doctors and research, students can actually eat healthy meals outside their home.
New apartments under construction and the numerous existing apartments along Burbank and Nicholson have made the campus area a popular developing site for restauranteurs. Students living along the outer borders of campus or passing through after school can choose to eat at Pluckers, Walk-Ons, Mellow Mushroom, Moe’s, Izzo’s, Church’s Chicken and the list goes on.
Most students do not know they can enjoy all of these eateries while maintaining a healthy lifestyle.
“You can eat out at restaurants healthier than at home,” said human ecology associate professor Michael Keenan. “The biggest key when eating out is to not get too much energy.”
With super-sized portions at restaurants, patrons may not realize how many servings they are eating. But Keenan said people can eat more food when they stick to choices high in protein, water and fiber.
Protein has been the center of recent fad diets such as the Atkins Diet and the Zone. But fiber is a lesser talked about nutritional category.
Fiber refers to “carbohydrates that cannot be digested and is present in all plants that are eaten for food, including fruits, vegetables, grains, and legumes,” according to the Harvard School of Public Health.
Fiber helps people control their weight in many ways. Dr. Jan McBarron wrote an article for the Hughston Sports Medicine Foundation Web site, www.hughston.com, explaining the role of fiber in weight maintenance.
She said fiber alone does not have any calories, but the extra substance in a person’s diet gives them the “satisfaction of chewing, plus the feeling of a full stomach.”
Also, fiber passes through the digestive system slowly because it is difficult to digest, which causes a person to feel full longer, McBarron said.
A surefire high fiber meal at restaurants is the salad. Most restaurants offer salad or at least a vegetable item on the menu. At Izzo’s and Moe’s patrons can put a wide range of vegetables in their salad from lettuce to corn to beans.
Walk-Ons, Mellow Mushroom and Pluckers also all have salad on the menu. Celery and carrots can be ordered at Wing Zone to add fiber to the chicken-filled meal.
Because fiber rich foods include whole grains, salads are not the only healthy options at restaurants.
“When choosing a whole grain you are getting a lot of nutrition,” Keenan said. “White flour gives certain nutrients, but not the whole host of other nutrients found in whole grains.”
Whole grains can be found in wheat bread and tortillas, and choosing wheat over white increases the fiber content by three times according to “Bowes and Church’s Food Values of Portions Commonly Used” by Dr. Jean Pennington.
Izzo’s and Moe’s offer wheat tortillas for their burritos and quesadillas. Mellow Mushroom can accommodate fiber-conscious customers with its sandwich option of wheat bread.
Increasing the fiber content of meals at restaurants will not cure the over-sized portions, but increased fiber intake can help make eating out part of a healthy lifestyle.