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Posts Tagged ‘Restaurants’

We all know that eating at fast food restaurants is terrible for our health. It makes us fat, lazy, bloated and sick. Just one cheeseburger will double your daily calorie requirement, and the salads, yogurts and diet sodas they sell are not really all that much healthier. They are the biggest reason for the obesity epidemic in America today, and there does not seem to be any way of making them disappear from our ever growing suburban landscapes.

If you are really serious about getting or staying in shape, fast food restaurants are not on your path to success. Sometimes, though, these restaurants may seem like the only option other than starvation. Long road trips, co-worker lunches, and other situations may force you into choosing between bad or worse. This can be devastating to anyone trying to lose weight or trying to change their bad eating habits to good.

Listed below are 7 tips that will help you make healthier choices if you are ever forced to eat fast food. It is inevitably going to happen in todays fast paced world. You might as well be prepared!

Fast Food Healthier Choice Tips #1: Get Less For Your Money
So-called value meals really only offer you extra calories, saturated fat, sugar, and other diet killers. The only way this could be beneficial is if you are saving up for bypass surgery. Getting twice as many fries for only 20 cents more is not a good deal. Fast food packs a lot of unhealthiness into a small package as it is, so super-sizing it is only adding fuel to the fire.

Think about it this way. Is 20 cents really worth eating an entire weeks worth of fat and calories in one sitting? Paying extra to ruin your health makes no sense. Ordering the small size may not be as cheap per pound of food, but it will save a fortune when working off pounds of fat later.

Fast Food Healthier Choice Tips #2: Discover Your Inner Child
Sadly, a reasonably sized portion for an adult is now only found on the children’s menu! Want to get healthy sides like fruit or carrots? Again, only on the childrens menu! It is great that kids are getting healthier options, but what about adults? We need good nutrition too! Don’t be ashamed to order the junior hamburger or even the kids’ meal. You are the only one who can control what you eat and how much of it.

Fast Food Healthier Choice Tips #3: No All Salads Are Created Equal
Just because it has lettuce does not mean it is healthy. A Big Mac has lettuce, and you know it would not be any healthier if it was called a Big Mac Salad. Don’t be fooled by clever naming tricks. Use common sense when selecting a salad, and make sure all the ingredients are vegetables, fruits, and lean proteins you recognize. Also, do not go through all that effort just to drown your healthy meal in a pool of fatty dressing! Ask for vinaigrette.

Fast Food Healthier Choice Tips #4: Have It Your Way
Most restaurants honor your requests if you ask them. Hold the mayo and high-corn-syrup ketchup, and ask for more pickles, tomatoes and lettuce. Substitute the breaded chicken breast for the grilled chicken breast. Ask for extra vegetables. Ask for wheat buns instead of white. And by all means, hold the cheese! Most of the time you can not savor the flavor when it is packed into a sandwich anyway.

Fast Food Healthier Choice Tips #5: You Are What You Drink
The most profitable menu items for restaurants are soft drinks. Costing almost nothing to make, they want you to get as big a size as possible and pay for it. What you’ll get is tons of sugar and chemicals. And maybe eventually, diabetes! Soda and diet soda will ruin your figure and your health. Order iced tea or water instead. If someone is holding a gun to your head and making you order a soda, get the small.

Of course the best advice I can give you is to make your own fast food at home in the form of a soy-based protein meal replacement. This is how I lost 70 pounds in 4 months and have kept it off for over 15 years. It usually takes me about 3 minutes to make, which is less time than it takes to wait in the drive-thru line at any McDonalds.

I rarely go to fast food restaurants anymore, but when I do I follow the tips listed above. Losing weight and keeping it off for good is about making healthy decisions about what you eat, no matter where you are eating.

One of life’s great pleasures is going out to eat and trying new restaurants and dishes. This holds true for raw food and vegan restaurants too! There are, believe it or not, more than 5000 natural foods restaurants in the U.S. alone. Predictably many of these restaurants are in major markets and in college towns. You might not live in an area where you can visit a natural foods restaurant regularly, but if you’re traveling, do some research and see where there might be a natural foods place to visit. Here are a few notable restaurants around the country:

Delights of the Garden has gained amazing popularity in Washington, DC, considering that city is a haven of power lunches between lobbyists and the like. It features a cool-looking cafe with raw and cooked vegan favorites.

Arnold’s Way is located outside Philadelphia, PA in the Bucks County town of Lansdale. They have a raw café and also have classes in raw foods preparation.

Au Lac in Fountain Valley, California serves 7-course raw dinners, although you want to call in advance to give the chefs time to prepare.

Café Gratitude has two locations in San Francisco and one in Berkeley.

Quntessence in Manhattan features an all raw menu, all organic, salads, fresh juices, soup, guacamole, essene bread, almond shakes, and more.

Dining in the Raw in Key West, Florida features macrobiotic, vegan and raw foods.

The Organic Garden in Beverly, Massachusetts is a living and raw foods restaurant.

Suzanne’s Vegetarian Bistro in Miami, FL has a daily raw soup on its menu.

Enzyme Express in Anchorage, Alaska is a raw foods restaurant.

Golden Temple in Birmingham, Alabama is a vegetarian restaurant that features a juice bar.

These are just a few raw foods restaurants in some likely (and unlikely!) cities. Many cities have magazines with restaurants listed by categories.

We are often asked questions by travelers, which Kiev fast food restaurants are nice to have a dinner, to try Ukrainian food or to invite somebody for the lunch.

Kiev abounds in fast food restaurants of different pricing categories, where you can have a dinner from $3 to $15.

We have prepared what we recommend out of numerous Kiev restaurants so that you could choose what suits you best.

Puzata Khata (Big Bellied House)

This Kiev restaurant combines original interior in peasant house style, tasty Ukrainian food, vast choice of dishes and low prices.

Here you can try traditional Ukrainian borsch, varenyky , pampushky, Chicken Kiev, different salads and main courses. On the first floor you can also choose one numerous cakes and even order fresh made juice.

The only disadvantage of the place is great number of people at 13-14 o’clock, when people from the offices come to take their lunch.

Dinner: $3-5 per person

Address: 1/2a Basseinaya St.

Zdorovenky Buly (Good Health to You)

That’s a very popular fast food restaurant located in very center of Kiev which probably has the largest choice of different foods: salad bar, pancakes, varenyky, pizzas, soups, tasty desserts.

Its comfortable rooms are decorated in various styles: Chinese, Indian, Egyptian and Greek. It also has Tea bar with cakes where one can sit and talk.

Dinner: $3-5 per person

Address: Khreschatik metro station

Dva Gusia (Two Geese)

This is a fast food chain made of restaurants located in Kiev center. It is loved by Kiev people for its tasty food and convenient service.

Here dishes change often, according to the season, market surveys or new recipes.

Dinner: $4-7 per person

Addresses:

Pecherska Sq.,

Kreshchatik St., 42

Kreshchatik St., 7/11

Independence Square (Globus shopping center)

Bogdana Khmelnitskogo St, 46

Bessarabska Sq (underground, Metrograd shopping center)

Velyka Vasylkivska St 72

Domashnia Kuhnya (Home Cuisine)

This is a restaurant where you can try national Ukrainian food for low cost. The fresh products are delivered daily to the restaurant and the food is cooked according to 18-19 century recipes.

The menu includes borsch and a few other soups, numerous salads, main course of meat or fish, various garnishes. Choice of desserts is rather small. That is the place to have a lunch or dinner and not sit for the long time.

Dinner: $4-7 per person

Addresses: Bogdana Khmelnitskogo St., 16-22 (near Khreschatik) and Konstantinovskaya St, 2A

Shvydko (Quickly)

This is a fast food restaurant chain, specialized in Ukrainian cuisine like borsch, vareniki, deruny, various salads, Chicken Kiev.

The advantages are quick service and low price, disadvantages: small choice and taste of food.

Dinner: $4-5 per person

Addresses:

Independence Sq. (underground),

Peremohy Sq. (Kvadrat underground shopping center),

Gnata Juri St., 20

Pechena Kartoplya (Baked Potatoes)

Here you can try delicious baked potatoes with different fillings and also a few salads and desserts. Potatoes is cooked right in front of you while you are choosing the fillings.

Dinner: $3-7 per person

Addresses:

Independence Sq underground (Globus),

Privokzalnaya Sq. 1 (Kiev Railway Station),

Moskovsky Ave. 23 (Gorodok shopping mall)

Bessarabska Sq. 2

Shota Rustaveli St, 20

Odesska Sq (Magellan shopping center)

Peremohy Sq (Ukraine shopping mall)

Aladdin shopping center (Pozniaki metro station)

Lugova 9 (Karavan shopping center)

Italian food is one of the most popular cuisines in the world.  It has long been an American favorite and there are countless Italian food restaurants throughout the United States.  While Italian food was first brought to this country by immigrants and ma and pop shops, like everything else in this country Italian food franchises are quickly defining this country’s perception of Italian food.

Probably the first and most well known of these franchises is the Olive Garden.  The Italian food served here is heavy on spices and thick, creamy sauces.  The salad is dressed with Italian dressing and served with breadsticks.  Popular dishes include ravioli, lasagna, and minestrone.  While this restaurant has done a great job of introducing people to the concept of Italian food, the food served here is a far cry from the real thing.  The salad dressing and breadsticks served here would never be found in Italy.  Since the menu is the same year round fresh ingredients are not a priority and hence the dishes are heavily seasoned to hide the fact that the underlying ingredients hold little flavor.  Sadly, many people’s views of Italian food and the stereotypes surrounding this cuisine are only furthered by this Italian food restaurant.

However, there are other large chain Italian food restaurants.  Places like Macaroni Grill, Carino’s, Buca di Beppo, and Carrabba’s give a much better Italian food experience.  While the Italian food served at these places certainly doesn’t live up to the high standard of Italian food set by those who originated it, the food is still quite good.  The ingredients at these restaurants are of a higher quality and the dishes are closer to an authentic flavor.  Carino’s is a great restaurant to go to for a casual meal.  Macaroni Grill and Carrabba’s are a little nicer and are great restaurants for an Italian food date.

These restaurants don’t rely on pastas with overly seasoned heavy sauces to convince you that you’re eating Italian food.  They use a wider variety of ingredients that are more true to the spirit of Italian food.  Buca di Beppo is a great family Italian food restaurant.  The décor is that of an Italian home and the meals are served family style.  It is recommended that you find some friends or family that enjoy Italian food to share with because the portions are quite large.

While Italian food chains are certainly not the best way to experience Italian food, they have come a long way and more and more restaurants are raising the standard to bring good quality Italian food to the general public that can’t afford a plane ticket to Italy.  More chefs are venturing out and trying new things with Italian food and the results are absolutely mouth watering.  Italian food will always be popular in the United States.  Just realize that when eating out at franchise restaurants you will never be able to replicate the flavor and quality of authentic Italian food made by Italians using recipes that have been passed down through the generations.