Dining Out on the Alkaline Diet
Trying to maintain a life-supporting, fresh, whole foods eating program while eating out can be a challenge.
However, the tide is shifting and consumers are becoming more demanding about their restaurant food choices. Here are a few tips you can use to maintain your alkaline reserves when away from your own kitchen:
#1. Look over your choice of restaurants
Instead of saying to your friend, “you pick the restaurant,” take responsibility yourself. When you have a choice, locate establishments where the food is prepared fresh on site. Independent eateries, ethnic restaurants, and places offering vegetarian menus are often alkaline friendly.
#2. Detour around the bread appetizer
Bread is often brought out first to “quiet down” the appetite. Bread is acid forming and not essential so consider an appetizer of vegetable soup or salad.
#3. Look carefully at main dish options
Fish is easy to digest and less acid forming than many meats. Also, there is nothing wrong with other flesh foods, just keep the portions small and make sure the side dishes are mostly low-carbohydrate vegetables (like greens) and root crops (like sweet or white potatoes).
#4. “A-la-carte” ordering might be the best for you
Look at the side dishes and put together a nice meal with an alkalizing soup, side dish of steamed veggies and baked potatoes.
#5. Beverage choices
A little mindfulness can go a long way in beverage selection. Spring water, or at least purified water, is often available and a few squirts of lemon or lime make it alkalizing. Orange or grapefruit juice can be mixed with water for a refreshing drink. Green tea, hot or iced, is always healthful. And a drink great with any meal? For many this is hot water with a bit of lemon. This soothing beverage is comforting, aids digestion, and feels great. Try it, you might be pleasantly surprised.
#6. Remember the 80% rule
As nutrition pioneer Dr. Max Gerson long ago suggested, if one eats 80% of their food for health reasons then most individuals can allow the other 20% to be more of a “recreational or personal-preference” nature.
