Healthy Eating Tips: Best Italian Meal Options

In part 2 of my healthy eating tips for dining out I am focusing on Italian restaurants today. If you missed last weeks Best Thai Meal Options post I’d recommend you check that out too.

For those that think eating Italian always has to be a cheat meal, think again.

I’ve got a menu in front of me from one of my local Italian restaurants and I’ll point out some good and okay options that you can make.

Entrée

Now the big obvious one is to stay clear of the bread, so herb or garlic bread would be out.

I know that this is a staple for most people when they do Italian but think about this. Do you want the garlic bread now or do you maybe want a little bit of pizza or pasta later on?

Weigh up what you’d prefer. I know that personally, I’d rather skip the garlic bread at the start (no matter how nice it may be) and have some pizza.

I would recommend getting a side of salad – something like a rocket with parmesan would go down well and will stop you from overeating on the other stuff.

Mains

I’ll give you a couple of options here. Usually there will be a salmon or fish option at most decent Italian places. This one doesn’t have any listed on the menu but it may be a special available.

Usually that will be a safe bet as your guaranteed the salmon will be grilled and the chances are high that there’ll be some veggies that come with it. No cheat required.

If that’s not the case or you’d prefer a bit of meat, go for something like grilled fillet steak or a veal with mushroom and wine sauce. Not the worst thing you can have on the menu by far.

If you want to have a cheat than I’ve got a couple of ideas.

Pasta is always going to be a cheat meal so if you are determined on having this then your best choice will probably be some type of risotto dish. Failing that the lesser damage option would be something with a napolitana sauce as it’s base and go for the marinara seafood option or something like the Penne Arrabbiata (pasta and chili in a napolitana sauce).

Pasta Will Always Count As A Cheat Meal

Pizza wise, and something I love to cheat on is pizza, I’d recommend a medium size and preferably share it with someone and have some salad. Topping wise you want to stay away from the meat lovers type of pizzas. These just have processed rubbish on them – and lots of it.

A seafood choice will normally be a good one for not blowing the cheat totally but always go for a thin crust pizza if you have an option. The thinner the better. Gourmet pizzas are usually a smarter option as well because you get a few extra veggies that don’t make the cut on your normal pizzas. And you can usually select a chicken topping rather than a processed meat option.

Dessert

Desserts at an Italian place are usually going to be great to taste but not so great for the hips. Best options would be something like a gelato or pick something and share it with someone. All of these are going to count as a cheat though.

Don’t be fooled into thinking gelato is fine because it has no fat. That’s the problem. There’s no fat so it’s all sugar and excess sugar, like every other excess calorie is just going to get stored as fat eventually.

At least when something has fat in it you usually don’t eat as much because fat has a tendency to fill you up faster than just sugar.

That pretty much tops off an Italian menu. Most places will have something similar to the menu I went through. Or if you want the real deal just go to a fantastic place in Florence and eat the real thing – without half the rubbish that us westerners put in it.