Do you order food at home? These 5 tips will prevent you from gaining weight

July
28, 2021

5 min read

Social distancing measures and the home office have made food delivery services , through applications, become very important. However, we may be tempted to order food, which while it may be delicious, is perhaps not the healthiest.

How can we be wise to make healthy choices and leave the craving behind?

“It is certainly possible to eat healthy when ordering food at home, but unfortunately, it is probably easier to order an unhealthy meal than a healthy one,” said Dr. David Victor, program director for Metabolic Liver Diseases from Houston Methodist Hospital . “None of these food delivery apps offer calorie counts or nutritional information, which makes it difficult to separate what is healthy from what is not.”

Next time you order through a food app, try these tips from Houston Methodist Hospital for healthy eating:

1. Choose grilled over fried

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When fried foods are an option, they can be hard to resist, which is why Dr. Victor said it’s important to fight the urge. Frying foods increases the calories, carbohydrates, and fat content in foods. Not only is eating fried foods an easy way to overstate the calories in your daily intake, but the extra fat you’re getting is not the healthy kind. And if it’s frying oil that’s been used over and over again, which is common in restaurants, there may be trans fats, which aren’t healthy at all.

2. Replace the garnishes

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This is difficult, we know, but if you want to order healthy, it is important to keep it in mind and resist the delicious mashed potatoes or French fries.

“If your meal comes with French fries, substitute a non-starchy vegetable option like broccoli, cabbage, carrots, or a salad. If you’re worried about feeling full, ask for more veggies. This will give you more abundance and variety, but more importantly, it will help you feel satisfied, ”explained Dr. Victor.

3. There are salads to salads

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There is always a way to turn a healthy menu item into a less healthy one, and salads are probably the perfect example. What should be a great source of vegetables and lean protein can easily turn into a creamy, calorie-laden meal.

“The most important thing with a salad is to verify what it really contains. Dressings can add calories quickly, ”said the Houston Methodist Hospital expert.

4. The healthy and the unhealthy

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Sometimes you don’t want to think and just want to let the algorithms do the work for you. And while some food delivery apps have a “healthy” filter that appears to eliminate obviously unhealthy options, this can be misleading.

For example, Poke dishes are a staple in the healthy section of many home delivery apps. But Dr. Victor warned that a single poke bowl can easily contain more than 1,000 calories.

5. Resist the urge to eat straight from the container.

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What has always been an unhealthy problem when eating at a restaurant remains so when using a delivery service – huge portions that exceed what you really need.

“Most restaurant serving sizes are for more than one person. To overcome this, I recommend taking the food out of the delivery container and placing it on a standard 9-inch plate. Half of your plate should consist of vegetables and / or fruits, a quarter should be protein, and ideally carbohydrates should be limited to roughly the size of your fist, ”commented Dr. Victor.