Eating out: make the right choices

• Try to find opportunities for increasing your vegetable intake wherever you can, such as asking for extra salad in your taco or kebab.
  
• When ordering vegetables, look for steamed or raw dishes, which have the highest nutritional value and are lowest in calories.
  
• When ordering meat or fish, choose grilled rather than fried dishes.
  
• Choose dry and tomato-based sauces like tomato and basil instead of carbonara, or rogan josh instead of creamy curries such as kormas.
  
• Choose plain boiled rice over fried rice.
  
• Choose oven-baked breads instead of deep-fried ones. Go for naan bread instead of puri, or have a burrito in place of a chimichanga (essentially a deep-fried burrito).
  
• Go easy on toppings such as mayonnaise, ketchup or sour cream and particularly oil-based ones like chutneys and lime pickle.
  
• Drink a large glass of water or even eat a small light snack like raw veggie sticks before going out to dinner. This will help you avoid being ravenous and stop you filling up on bread before the meal.
  
• Sharing dishes is a great way of introducing variety and controlling your portions.

Remember - eating out is an enjoyable event, which you can take part in even if you are on a diet. Healthy eating doesn't have to be boring. Bon appetit.