Dining Out Suggestions

When you switch to a new diet which involves preparing most of your meals from scratch, you'll soon be wanting a break. But now that sugar and starches are off your plate, what in the world can you eat from a typical restaurant or takeout joint? All the low-end options are now out:
- pizza
- submarine sandwich shops
- burger joints (some will fill their patties with breadcrumbs, and of course, no fries with that)
- pasta diners
- sushi (sugar in the rice, yes it's true! and in the mayo, wheat in the soy sauce)
- chinese food (sugar in the sauces and white rice)
- many salad and wraps places (their dressings will contain sugar)

Instead of focussing on the negatives, let's examine our options:
- Burger shops which sell 100% beef patties, no bun please and salad with no dressing, yam fries only in moderation and if you are positive they are not coated in flour.
- Japanese sushi made with brown rice, hold the mayo and sub your own wheat-free tamari for soy sauce. Or sashimi is a good choice if you can find some sauce-free vegetables.
- Mediterranean and Arabic foods: lebanese, greek, turkish
- Mexican: while heavy, this food is often great for the gluten-intolerant since the main starch is corn flour, not wheat. Choose fish and vegetable plates, ask for no rice and go easy on the sauces.
- Thai is also a good gluten-free choice, and if they make food to order you can ask them to hold the sugar. Avoid meals prepared with Sri Racha sauce (spicy ketchup) and soy sauce of course. Don't eat too much rice or rice noodles.
- Indian restaurants will serve you lots of rice so ask for none. Naturally steer clear of any all the deep fried dishes such as pakoras and samosas. That way you can focus on the vegetable and protein choices. Sugar is not a typical ingredient in Indian food, except in the butter chicken, so ask your server which choices contain no flour and no sugar. Also, look for yummy and filling soups and salads.
- Higher-end restaurants will make their food from scratch and will often not add unnecessary additives such as sugar to enhace flavour. Think of Spanish tapas bars or southern Italian venues (think salads, not pastas, and grilled fish and veggies). Also French food is often fine, if you can say no to the bread and desserts.