A few highlights from our Dietician session –

Kim on “eating out and take away food”

Our Dietician answers Dietary Related Questions on Facebook,

every Tuesday between 1-2pm.

Q: I am always struggling to choose food when we go out to eat, I like seafood, pizza and Spur ribbs & Nandos! Do I choose chips or potato wedges? (from Marina Louw)

A: Hi Marina. Unfortunately when we eat out we cannot control the amount of fat in our food, so we need to make the best choices most of the time.
Seafood is a wonderful choice, as long as you order it grilled rather than fried and with the sauce separate so that you can control the amount of it that you use!
Pizza does not need to be unhealthy, especially if you avoid the highest fat foods on your pizza – bacon, salami, mince and cheese! Ask for feta instead of mozzarella for a cheesy taste that is not too high in fat.
Ribs are one of the highest fat meats around. A better choice would be a fillet steak.
And Nandos is actually a great option!

What is most important is the portion size that you eat. Meals tend to be double if not more than what a normal female can eat so try to put half in a take away and enjoy it the next day.
If your meal has carbohydrates incorporated into it (for example a burger) avoid the chips or wedges, but if the meal is only protein you can enjoy a small amount of the chips or wedges. Better choices, however, are rice or potato!

Q: What about alcohol? Is it any good when you are trying to cut out the calories? (from Mapule Gomolemo Sebattlelo)

A:  Hi Mapule. Alcohol contains calories, but if you drink it in moderation it can definitely fit into your ‘diet’ and you can still lose weight. The important thing to remember is that if you do have a glass of wine for example you will need to cut out your carb/starch at your supper meal! Something has to give, and you need to decide which is most important each day…

Q: What is the best choice, red or white wine, and all these lite wines that are on the market, does it really help to rather drink the lite version? (from Natasha-Lee October)

A: Hi Natasha-Lee. It really does not matter what alcohol you choose. How much is more important to watch.

• – A portion of alcohol is 125ml wine (very small glass!), 1/2 beer or a tot of spirits.
• – Generally the guideline is 1-2 units per day for women and  
•   2-3 units per day for men.
• – The lite wine does have a little less alcohol, but it is actually not that significant, so your portion may go up to about 200ml instead of 125ml!
• – From an energy perspective, an alcohol unit has the same energy as a portion of carbohydrate, so you would need to take out 1-2 units
  
•   of carbohydrates from your day to keep the calories controlled!

Q: How about eating two protein diets together. Like chicken and cheese gravy stuff together? (from Gaurav Walia)

Hi Gaurav. The cheese gravy is not too much protein, especially if you control the amount of gravy that you put on the chicken, so you can definitely have them together. The problem with the gravy is more so the amount of fat in it, so by ‘how much’ I mean 1-2 tbsp for flavour – don’t drench the chicken in the gravy!

Our Dietician is available every Tuesday on Facebook. Log in between 1-2pm to get your questions answered.