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. Continue reading “Top 5 no salt, no fat, no sugar restaurant posts of 2014” →

January 23, 2015 0

No salt, no sugar, no fat: read our Top 5 posts of 2013

Top five lists always seem to get people’s attention, so here’s the first Top 5 list of posts from the No Salt, No Fat, No Sugar Journal. While we launched this blog in late 2012, 2013 was our first full year and hence our first list. Enjoy and thanks for stopping by.
John

Top 5 Posts of 2013

The driest chicken ever. At Universal studios.

1. What Can You Eat on a No Salt, No Sugar, No Fat Diet?

This post has become the gateway to our blog, really, with more people clicking on it than any other. We’ve added updates to it throughout the year because of that, so it’s worth another read.

2. Can you eat healthy at Universal Studios? Not even Harry Potter could help

Everyone wants to know if they can eat healthy at Universal. My answer: no, at least not at the Florida location I was dragged to late last year. I lost four pounds in four days because of the lack of healthy alternatives.

3. INdustri Café – a Milwaukee gem for restricted eaters, and others

This Milwaukee eatery was such a pleasant surprise, the only restaurant I knew of at the time where the chef would make special dishes for people who asked for no salt, no fat and no sugar. I recently found another in Chicago and will be blogging about it shortly.

4. Salt-free teriyaki sauce — a taste test of three varieties

Teriyaki without salt sounds impossible, but it’s not, check this piece to find what’s out there.

5. What’s life like six months after angioplasty?

A look at the massive upheaval I’ve experienced in my food life since my heart surgery.

Our individual pages also got heavy viewership, the most popular being:

Recipes
Ingredients
Eating Away from Home

December 27, 2013 0

Movie popcorn: can you ever eat it again?

Movie popcorn, loaded with fake butter and salt, was a staple of mine prior to my angioplasty in August 2012. Is it any wonder my arteries clogged? My wife and I tend to see movies every week, and in the past we routinely split a large AMC popcorn while doing so.

A large AMC popcorn has 1,030 calories and 580 mgs of sodium. And that’s before adding the fake butter which accounts for another 20 calories per cup of popcorn, or 320 calories more given that a large popcorn has 16 cups of popcorn. What’s worse is the saturated fat in that bag, about 60 grams before adding toppings.

Those were the days my friend...these days I stay away from movie popcorn. — Those were the days my friend…these days I stay away from movie popcorn.

I have not eaten any popcorn at the movies since last August. But this past weekend, when we went to a Regal Theater and got a coupon for a free small popcorn when we purchased our tickets. I couldn’t resist, so we got a bag, put nothing additional on it, and split it. A small bag has roughly 370 calories, 210 mgs of sodium and about 10 grams of saturated fat, or a days worth on my 40 grams of fat a day diet. So technically I could have that half bag.

But that said, I don’t plan to buy it any time soon. That little bit made me long for the topping we did not add, and the flavored salts we once used. So better to stay away entirely. A taste of something is more trouble than it’s worth to me these days.

If you’re facing similar diet restraints, know yourself. If you can have a bite now and then of foods you once loved without going off your diet, enjoy. If you’re like me though and need to go cold turkey on such offerings, by all means do so.
John

July 2, 2013 2

Can you eat healthy at Disney World?

My wife and I recently spent a holiday week at Disney World in Orlando, going at perhaps the busiest time of the year. But the crowds weren’t worrying me so much as was the food, or more precisely the lack of food that I can eat on my no-salt, no-fat, no-sugar diet.

Would I be able to find any healthy food at Disney? Or at Universal Studios where we also planned to spend considerable time? And what about in Orlando itself, a place I think of as a mecca of fast casual restaurants that have little to nothing healthy on their menus?

The bottom line is that in four and a half days there, I lost four pounds from the combination of little to eat and all the walking we inevitably did. Disney World surprised me with a healthy option for lunch, one of the best I had on the trip in fact. Universal was a total junk food mecca, as were the places we ate in Orlando itself, TGI Friday’s and Carrabba’s, an Italian chain.

Continue reading →

January 14, 2013 2

Tag: Universal Studios

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

No salt, no sugar, no fat: read our Top 5 posts of 2013

Movie popcorn: can you ever eat it again?

Can you eat healthy at Disney World?

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