Rethinking Restaurant Food
Illustration © D. Yael Bernhard
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The small village near my Catskill Mountain home has three restaurants, all owned by the same person. Two of them are in the same building, where they share an adjoining kitchen and even partially the same menu. The third is just a few blocks away. All three restaurants have a distinctly different culture that attracts different crowds. Sports lovers are drawn to the first one, for its dark lighting, long bar, and wide TV screens. Families and casual travelers frequent the second one, for its kid-friendly pizza and pasta menu, quick service, modern decor, and diner-style counter. Upper-crust diners patronize the third establishment, where a high ceiling, higher-priced menu, and highly attentive staff grace the clientele with an ambiance of haute culture. Clearly, the experience of dining out is as much about culture as food – and perhaps nothing is more cultural than our daily meals, as so many aspects of our lives revolve around them.
Restaurant tourism focuses largely on places that reflect the spirit of local history and culture. The tablecloths matter as much as the food placed upon them. Landscaping, views, and wait staff dress code – or lack thereof – are equally important. Gatherings in these restaurants may be special family occasions, embedded in our childhood as fond memories; or they may serve as connection hubs for locals. One of my most memorable restaurant meals was on the terrace of a kibbutz overlooking the Dead Sea. The roasted eggplant with sun-dried tomatoes that I enjoyed as the sun set over the Jordanian hills that evening was forever burned into my memory, so that I cannot eat eggplant without remembering this experience thirteen years ago. Thinking back to childhood, I still remember my favorite booth in the little Italian restaurant where my family and I squeezed into a candlelit corner. These associations may serve as powerful unconscious drivers of our choices when dining out.
Beneath and beyond this cultural layer, whatever we eat in a restaurant is metabolized by our bodies just like all food: as energy and information. There’s a hidden side of restaurant eating, and that’s the ingredients, which are largely unknown to the eater. When we are seated at a table and handed a menu, we enter a mindset that sets aside cooking, leaving the details and labor to someone else. What a relief, especially for those of us who cook regularly! We just want to escape the daily grind, kick back, be served, and enjoy ourselves. It’s socially acceptable to surrender to what’s placed before us without question or concern. For most people, what matters most is taste and price, not the nutritional content of our choices.
Along with this passive mindset comes a general, often unconscious belief that what we eat outside the home doesn’t count, and won’t affect our health – because after all, it’s not our usual diet, and eating this way once in a while won’t matter. But what if “once in a while” in your mind may be a frequent occurrence for your metabolism. If you’re eating restaurant food more than twice a week, that constitutes a significant part of your diet. Even if it’s an exception to your regular diet, your body has not signed an agreement to tolerate your favorite dish a certain number of times per year.
Now that you know this, you can consider your choices more carefully. Try not to kick back and put your mental feet up until after you order. Making good choices from a menu requires some effort. Don’t be shy – find out how a dish was made, and whether it contains sugar or not. As an independent thinker, be prepared for pushback from your fellow diners. Any mention of even thinking about nutrition when ordering food may cause an upstart, as friends and family are quick to condemn restrictions while dining out as prudish or even orthorexic – that is, obsessively concerned with eating healthy foods. But is it obsessive on your part, or are your comrades merely resisting the inevitable change of paradigm that is necessary in order to restore our individual and national health? America leads the developed world with its surging rates of chronic disease and cancer, autism and autoimmune conditions, cardiovascular and neurodegenerative diseases, and above all, diabetes and obesity. These are serious, life-changing and longevity-limiting health issues that often develop gradually, invisibly, over many years. How many of the people who prefer to cast caution to the wind are incubating such conditions – or already have them?
Oddly, we are given a cultural pass if we have an allergy – that is, a doctor-endorsed medical condition. No one will argue with your decision not to order pizza if you’re allergic to gluten or have lactose intolerance. But allergies exist along a continuum, and only constitute a more severe adverse reaction to a substance than a sensitivity. Sensitivities often lead to allergies – and both are the body’s response to a toxic chemical or some other antigen. If we don’t listen to our body’s whisper, it eventually becomes an insistent shout. Wouldn’t it be better to avoid these problems before our vital organs suffer? Do we really know how much abuse our digestive organs, liver, and kidneys can take? We make assumptions based on how we feel, but this is largely wishful thinking. Many symptoms don’t show up until it’s too late. “I’m sure you’ll survive,” people say – but do we, after eating hash browns or drinking Coke for the 200th time and tipping our colon toward cancer?
The impact of what we eat when dining out may be considered more objectively prior to arriving in the restaurant. It’s harder to focus on your health goals when you’re dazzled by tempting choices and pressed to make a quick decision. Remember, the goal of the restaurant is to produce tasty meals, not necessarily healthy ones, and to sell you a cultural experience. When it comes to health, you must be your own advocate. And in order to cultivate good health, health must be a top priority. If you treasure your long-term health, you have every right, and every need, to stand up for it.
More important than whether to question restaurant food or not is the question of whether it’s healthy – and what can you do to make better choices?
Here are some considerations to keep in mind:
• Almost all restaurants use vegetable and seed oils. These oils are highly inflammatory, containing an excess of omega-6 essentially fatty acids that most people cannot afford. Chronic inflammation is now understood to underlie nearly all chronic conditions, from arthritis to asthma, from cancer to cataracts. Cooking at high heat or with repeated use, as restaurants often do, only serves to increase oxidation of these unstable oils, making them even more inflammatory and possibly even carcinogenic. (See my article “Know Your Oils” for more on this subject.)
Oils are used in virtually every cooked meal, which makes them a top concern in evaluating restaurant foods. Unfortunately, healthy heat-tolerant oils such as avocado and coconut, or animal-based fats such as butter or tallow are generally unaffordable even for fine restaurants, considering their large consumption. In my area, according to the app “Seed Oil Scout,” only one restaurant in the entire Hudson Valley does not use seed oils.
Many restaurants also dilute olive oil with vegetable and seed oils. The problem of inauthentic olive oil is widespread, both in restaurant kitchens and on supermarket shelves. But with consumers able to read the labels of what they buy for home use, at least store-bought olive oil may contain a seal of authenticity from the North American Olive Oil Association. You can’t scrutinize the olive oil used in restaurants.
• Almost all restaurant meat and dairy is factory-farmed. This is the worst meat, cheese, and seafood that money can buy: the most inflamed and unhealthy, the most harmful to the environment, the most likely to be unsanitary, and the product of the most animal suffering. Unless the menu gives specific information about its sources of animal protein, I try to eat vegetarian when I’m out, and use the money I save to buy enough high-quality meat for several home-cooked meals.
• Restaurant ingredients are rarely locally sourced. Unless the menu says otherwise, you can assume your food has been trucked a long way, stored a long time, and lost some of its nutritional value along the way.
• Many restaurant ingredients are delivered in bulk plastic containers or cans that are not BPA-free. These invisible toxins leach into the food – especially fatty foods and foods that are stored for a long time – and may cause harm in a number of ways. Microplastics and nanoparticles are being increasingly detected in people’s cardiovascular systems, where they may contribute to plaque and neurodegenerative diseases. Endocrine disruptors in plastics may block hormone receptors and disrupt all kinds of biochemical functions. These are just two of the deleterious effects of plastics that are setting off both environmental and health alarms.
• Most restaurants add sweeteners to their sauces, dressings, and other condiments. Good luck finding a house vinaigrette that does not contain sugar or even high fructose corn syrup – a truly evil substance (see my article “Fructose: Friend or Foe?” for more on this subject). Unfortunately, our government has been subsidizing HFCS for decades, which is largely responsible for the epidemic of diabetes that plagues our nation. As I have said before, the day these subsidies cease should be declared a national holiday.
• Few restaurants use organic ingredients. Again, most menus will brag about such inclusions, so unless you see otherwise, you can assume your pasta is made from non-organic wheat that’s laced with glyphosate and riddled with toxic preservatives; that your Mexican rice contains arsenic; and that your kale salad was grown with fertility-damaging pesticides. If knowing this spoils your pleasure in eating out (as it would for me), choose a different dish, or even a different restaurant.
• Restaurant foods may contain hidden, unwanted ingredients, such as MSG, artificial preservatives, emulsifiers, anti-caking agents, or a whole host of other harmful chemicals. Unless you can see what’s put into your food, you don’t know what’s in it. Even the mustard and ketchup on the table is transferred to plain decanters that rarely show ingredients. Is the salt on the table bleached? Most likely. Do the pickles have added sugar? Without a doubt. Does turning a blind eye to these issues erase their effects? Not at all. It’s better, and more empowering, to see them clearly, so you can consciously choose what to do.
How can you navigate this dizzying maze of considerations when dining out? Here are some tips that may be helpful:
• If you value good nutrition, don’t depend on restaurant meals (or takeout) as a regular part of your diet. Make them a special occasion, and use the money you save to treat yourself to good quality ingredients at home.
• Ask the waiter to take away the bread basket. Starting your meal with white bread will spike your insulin and put you on a path you probably don’t want to be on.
• Avoid fried foods, as they’re cooked in high-heat unhealthy oils that are used repeatedly.
• Consider eating vegetarian in restaurants that do not offer organic meat or wild-caught fish. You’ll save money, protect your health, and help spare animal suffering.
• Ask questions! Don’t be shy, and don’t assume anything is unsweetened, from the balsamic reduction to the onion soup, from the mashed potatoes to the cole slaw. Insist that your waitress find out what’s in the salad dressing. You can always ask for olive oil and vinegar. Does the tomato sauce have added sugar or corn syrup? Is the fish of the day wild-caught or farm-raised? You have a right to know.
• Ask for extra vegetables instead of the usual side of french fries, potatoes, or pasta. This is a common request which sometimes costs a few extra pennies – now that’s a worthwhile indulgence!
• Imagine yourself as an influencer. Ask questions, make requests, and give feedback when dining out. Let restaurants know you don’t want inflammatory factory-farmed meat on your plate, riddled with chemicals and drugs. Tell the staff you’d be willing to pay a little extra for gluten-free pasta, real extra-virgin olive oil, or organic cheese. Suggest an addition of dark leafy greens to the menu rather than the usual starchy sides. Insist on sugar-free salad dressings and sauces: good savory cooking doesn’t need any sweetener. Let your voice be heard, and vote with your wallet. Wherever you go, you add a pebble to the scales that determine which way our culture will lean in the coming years.
For me, eating in restaurants is a social occasion that I thoroughly enjoy. I’m there for the conversation and company more than the food. Because of this, if I suspect the menu is not going to be healthy, I’ll eat something light in advance so I don’t show up ravenous. That way, I can simply order a salad, maybe with a topping of grilled salmon, as my main course – not ideal, as I generally eschew farm-raised fish, but okay once in a while. For me, “once in a while” means 2-3 times per year, tops.
I’m optimistic about restaurant food, and believe it will get healthier with time, as many establishments are heading in the right direction. Words like “grass-fed,” “local,” and “organic” are appearing on menus more and more. Consumer demand is what leads these positive trends, and our culture is waking up to health issues, and to how unhealthy food drives the devastating costs of chronic disease to families, friends, caregivers, and tax-paying citizens.
As for takeout and snack foods eaten on the go – unless they come from a natural food deli, these packaged, processed foods are generally not healthy, and yield a great deal of waste material in the form of packaging. Without the cultural experience of dining out, resorting to chemical-laden food merely for convenience offers little value. The healthier, less expensive but slightly less convenient option is to bring your own food when you eat outside the home. Just as it’s helpful to keep foods you don’t want in your diet out of the house, it’s equally important to stock your kitchen with what you do want to reach for when you’re in a hurry. Apples, pears, nuts, sunflower and pumpkin seeds, hard cheeses, carrots, celery, kirby cukes, pickles, hard-boiled eggs, and certain kinds of jerky are among my favorite portable snacks. I also pack my own containers of yogurt, hummus, olive tapenade, leftover grains or roasted vegetables. Keep trying different ideas until you find the right finger foods-to-go. You might just grab a piece of sliced turkey and roll it in a leaf of romaine lettuce with a smear of mustard, or you might find yourself getting creative and making homemade chocolate-coconut balls. The sky’s the limit! A little thinking ahead and a little food prep is all you need.
As the holidays draw near, our cultural celebrations express themselves through good food and good cheer. May you remain faithful to your higher health goals as you rethink your relationship to restaurant food; and may you be an inspiration to all those at your table.
Wishing you good health and happy holidays –
Yael Bernhard
Certified Integrative Health & Nutrition Coach
Yael Bernhard is a writer, illustrator, book designer and fine art painter with a lifelong passion for nutrition and herbal medicine. She was certified by Duke University as an Integrative Health Coach in 2021 and by Cornell University in Nutrition & Healthy Living in 2022. For information about private health coaching or nutrition programs for schools, please respond directly to this newsletter, or email dyaelbernhard@protonmail.com. Visit her online gallery of illustration, fine art, and children’s books here.
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