Top 5 no salt, no fat, no sugar restaurant posts of 2014

Our no salt, no fat, no sugar Top 5 list week concludes with this look today at the five most-viewed posts about restaurant or away-from-home meals I’ve blogged about.

Finding low-salt dishes at restaurants is almost impossible and so extremely disheartening to anyone who loves to eat out as I do. But I have been searching menus, and challenging chefs, to make low-salt, low-fat, low-sugar offerings and gathered the best of my findings here. So enjoy, you can eat out again, just plan ahead and don’t be afraid to challenge a chef or two to do better to meet your needs.

This is what a Costco food court Caesar salad looks like when you unwrap it, a giant cup of fat-filled Caesar dressing and a mound of high-salt, high-fat grated cheese — Stick to salad when eating on the run, and take out the high-fat dressing and cheese. Always carry your own oil and vinegar packets to use instead.

1. Costco Food Court Salads: you can make then healthier

With Costco nearly everywhere, it’s no wonder this was my most popular eating out post. I show you here how to take a salad that can be horribly unhealthy because of the dressing and cheese involved, not to mention the croutons, and field strip it down to its healthy essence.

That said, I still worry about how much salt was used in cooking the chicken on it.

2. What’s an airline no-salt/low-salt meal like?

Finding good airline food is impossible. Finding good airline low-salt food is even worse. This had to be the worst airline meal I have ever had. And that’s saying something given that I remember when meals were regularly served on long-distance flights.

3. Can you eat healthy at Universal Studios?

Speaking of horrible salads, Universal has the worst excuse for a salad I’ve had, on the ground, in a long time. I literally lost three pounds in three days in Orlando because of the lack of healthy food. Disney does have a fish place that made me some plain salmon, thankfully.

4. Seasons 52 offer a low-sodium menu — bravo!

We recently ate at Seasons 52 again and I had another tasty low-salt meal thanks to its low-sodium menu. My suggestion here is to lower the salt in some of the items on this menu and include more choices as well.

5. Yard House: can a chain restaurant serve healthy food?

The Yard House I’ve eaten at seems very willing to modify dishes to cut the salt. Thank you, thank you. I’ve enjoyed several visits without worrying about my diet here.

John