Healthy food choices offered at National casual dining restaurants

March 9, 1:08 AMPhiladelphia Weight Loss ExaminerCheryl M Brown

Previous Next

1 comment Print Email RSS Subscribe

Subscribe

Get alerts when there is a new article from the Philadelphia Weight Loss Examiner. Read Examiner.com's terms of use.

Email Address   Include other special offers from Examiner.com Terms of Use

Health.com ranked what they consider to be America’s healthiest
casual dining restaurants. Dining out has the reputation for
being the down fall of many weight loss programs. Low fat
food choices, smaller portions and healthier preparation
methods have been added, to appeal to the consumer that has
made healthy eating a part of their overall diet. Some of the
following restaurant choices may initially surprise you, but you
can check them out for your self, because the top winners have
restaurants in Philadelphia and the surrounding areas:

Uno Chicago Grill  unos.com

Uno's is still famous for it's deep dish pizza, but healthier
selections such as brown rice, grilled entrees, whole-grain
pasta and organic tea and coffee have now become standard fare at
Uno's. In addition to a trans fat-free menu, their famous pizza
can now be purchased in a flat-bread version, which boasts of
half the calories of their signature deep-dish version.

Bob Evans Restaurants   bobevans.com

You've read it right! That is Bob Evans "down on the farm"
sausage king. I'm sure you know, Bob Evans didn't make list
based on their breakfast menu, but their dinner menu contains
a variety of low-fat, low carb entrees,like grilled tenders,
salmon stir-fry, and potato-crusted flounder. Healthy sides
like fresh fruit, yogurt dippers and steamed broccoli are
welcomed favorites of both children and adults.

Ruby Tuesday   rubytuesday.com

Believe it or not, the home of the gigantic "every burger
you can think of" made the list. Even though Ruby's now offers
a turkey and veggie version of their scrumptious burgers, their
menu contains a respectable variety of healthy ingredients
and entree selections from whole-wheat tortilla chicken wraps
to broiled tilapia, organic teas, organic greens, hormone-free
chicken and trans fat-free oil.
 
 
Romano’s Macaroni Grill   macaronigrill.com
 
Romano's Macaroni Grill has published it's menu online and each meal's
nutritional content, so you can check it out and plan ahead.
In addition to their heavy pasta entrees, they also have
what they call a "Sensible Fare" menu . This menu consists
of entrees like a grilled salmon fillet accompanied by
grilled broccoli and asparagus, whole-wheat penne pasta, and
steamed broccoli, a grilled skinless chicken breast and pasta
on the children's menu. Biscotti and Italian sorbetto are
great low fat choices for dessert.

Olive Garden   olivegarden.com

This popular Italian restaurant also made the list. Olive Garden
offers a low-fat "Garden Fare" selection which can be
identified by an olive-branch icon. Everything is done in
trans-fat free oil, and on the dinner menu whole-wheat linguine
can be substituted for pasta.

Denny’s    dennys.com

Another shocker! The home of the "Grand Slam breakfast".
However, Denny's offers "Fit-Fare" entrees that have 15 grams
of fat or less, like Tilapia with vegetables and rice and a
grilled chicken breast salad. Denny's still uses trans-fats
to deep fry their French fries, but all the other fried food
is trans-fat free. They also post all nutritional values
on their web site along with Weight Watcher's Food/Point Values.

I could only find one Denny's in the Philadelphia area located
at 640 East Lincoln highway in Langhorne. If you know of any
others, please let me know.