Eating out can sometimes be challenging especially if you are trying to make healthy choices. Here's a guide to eating out healthy that should help you make good choices for those times when you choose to eat out. The first tip in this guide to eating out healthy should really be "do not eat out at all" or "significantly limit the number of times you eat out." However, for most normal people, living in modern America, this is simply not feasible. With this in mind, here are some practical strategies you can begin implementing right away when you eat out. You should see a marked improvement in your health once you begin implementing these strategies.

1. Remember that two big culprits you always want to be on the lookout for are foods with artificial trans fats and processed sugar. The food in most restaurants is pre-packaged and very highly processed.
2. With this in mind you want to avoid fried foods such as deep fried chicken and chips, and sodas and juices. High glycemic foods such as pasta also fall into this category. Go for low glycemic foods such as vegetables. So, instead of having pasta or fries with your meat, opt for low glycemic foods such as steamed broccoli and carrots or cauliflower.
3. Stick with soups or salads for appetizers.
4. Many restaurants use unhealthy oils to prepare food so stay on the safe side and opt for grilled, roasted, or steamed meats with vegetables.
5. This is a big one for eating out healthy- instead of fries take a house salad. French fries are loaded with trans fats and other cancer causing substances.
6. Drink plain water instead of sweetened juices and sodas.
7. If you choose to have bread make sure it is whole wheat bread not white bread.
8. Contrary to what you might have heard before use butter instead of margarine or eat plain bread if they don't have butter. Butter is a much healthier choice for you than margarine. Butter, especially if it is from grass-fed cows contains an essential fatty acid, CLA that fights cancer, diabetes, and aids in weight loss. Margarine, on the other hand, is a dangerous trans fat that wreaks havoc with the body's metabolism and overall immune function. Trans fats like margarine are implicated in a host of serious diseases including diabetes, immune system dysfunction, obesity, and many more.
9. Salad dressings usually come loaded with lots of preservatives including high fructose corn syrup. High fructose corn syrup is a dangerous toxin that leeches nutrients from the body and is associated with many chronic health problems such as diabetes and obesity. If eating out healthy is something you are trying to do, simply avoid the dressing or ask for lemon with olive oil instead.
10. Stop when you are full. Stopping when you're full is one of the most important positive changes you can make towards eating out healthy. Many restaurants now offer super-sized servings of food intended for one person that could very well feed 3 - 4 people. This single practice alone sends too many people down the path of obesity and its attendant chronic health problems, since it can be difficult for some people to look at so much food on their plates and not be inclined to finish it or at least eat most of it. When you consider that the average meal in a restaurant averages 1000 calories of highly processed food, it becomes even more important to eat a regular portion of food and stop when you are full.