How to Eat Smart in Chicago
By Staff in Food on Oct 19, 2009 6:40PM
Chicago is overflowing with fantastic food, a majority of which is not conducive to maintaining a healthy weight or preventing cholesterol from clinging for dear life to the inside of our arteries. Contrary to the reputation of a dietitian, we cannot easily conjure the name of a single food that we would forbid from touching our lips. That said, eating a healthy diet is necessary to preventing disease, avoiding weight gain, and feeling happy and energetic. Here are a few strategies to help you navigate your way around Chicago’s equally glorious and treacherous culinary landscape.
MAKE WISE CHOICES: Whenever possible, preview a restaurant’s menu online before booking your reservation. For example, by opting for traditional Mexican or Italian cuisine, you set yourself up for the challenge of extracting the few healthy options from a menu of less than stellar, albeit good-tasting, foods. In general, Thai, Japanese, and Mediterranean cuisine is more likely to offer up lighter, leaner, vegetable-rich fare and contain far less heart un-healthy saturated fat.
CHANNEL YOUR INNER LOCALVORE: As the “localvore” movement permeates our city, many restaurants are putting forth admirable efforts to serve fresh, seasonal produce and locally-raised meat and poultry whenever possible. Check out Mado, the Bristol, and Avec, to name a few, for wholesome locally-rooted cuisine. Whenever possible, eat more plants and less meat. Check out markets like Green Grocer Chicago, that specialize in local, organic foods and limit the guess-work you confront when shopping at traditional grocery stores. Read “Animal, Vegetable Miracle” by Barbara Kingsolver for a big inspiration.
AAAH, EVERYTHING IN MODERATION: The cliché by which we live and a concept requiring little explanation. Pizza is not forbidden, however we emphatically suggest you avoid the deep-dish variety, in favor of a thin-crust pie. Nutritionally-speaking, we can muster virtually no redeeming qualities of deep-dish. We hate it! The delicate, crispy thin-crust pizza produced by Coalfire in Chicago is our go-to pie. Cooked in a wood-fired oven and adorned with a delicate amount of cheese and toppings, Coalfire is making pizza that is delicious and relatively healthy. Best when eaten with a fresh, green salad.
— Megan Tempest