by Adele Mackie
Accrediated Practisng Dietition
There’s absolutely nothing wrong with the occasional take-away meal or celebration dinner at your favourite restaurant. However, with the ever-increasing variety of take-away outlets, restaurants and online food options, it’s becoming more and more common to eat meals that we haven’t cooked ourselves.
Eating out, or ordering take-away on a regular basis, can have a huge impact on your body weight, blood glucose levels, cholesterol and bank account! This is because most take-away meals come in large portion sizes, are high in saturated fat, loaded with sodium (salt), and contain far more carbohydrate than most of us need. In addition, most take-away meals contain very few vegetables and very little fibre.
Kilojoules measure the amount of energy in food. The number of kilojoules you consume compared to the number of kilojoules you burn via physical activity has the biggest impact on your weight.
Over the next few months, this series of articles titled ‘Comparing Nutrition’ will examine the nutritional content of a few popular take-away and restaurant meals. You may be shocked at just how much healthy food you could eat for the same amount of kilojoules!
Fish and chips | One piece of battered fish, 20 chips and two potato cakes | ||||||||||||
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Source: www.calorieking.com.au
As you can see, a typical fish and chip meal contains a whopping number of kilojoules, fat, carbohydrate and sodium! To help manage your portion size when eating fish and chips, put your own individual portion on a plate, rather than mindlessly picking from the packaging.
Better yet, why not try making your own, healthier version, such as the recipe further below!
Similar kilojoules, but more food!
Rather than eating one meal that contains a huge number of kilojoules, you’re better off spreading them out across the day. This will help you manage your appetite, weight and blood glucose levels a lot better. The food options mentioned below also contain a variety of different vitamins and minerals to help keep your body healthy.
Snack 1 | ||
Small, skim milk latte | *Nutrition fact: Low fat or skim milk has less kilojoules than regular, full fat milk | |
Meal 1 | ||
Hummus and salad sandwich + one medium apple | *Nutrition fact: Vegetables are very low in kilojoules and are a great way to add bulk to your meals, helping you feel full. By boosting your salad intake at main meals, you’ll see the health benefits. | |
Snack 2 | ||
Handful of almonds | *Nutrition fact: All types of nuts are loaded with vitamins, minerals and healthy fats, however, they’re also very high in kilojoules, so a controlled portion size is key to weight management. | |
Meal 2 | ||
*Nutrition fact: Fish is a great source of omega 3 fats, which are great for your heart. By baking fish and making your own homemade (baked) chips, you can really cut down on the amount of total and saturated fat in this meal. Adding salad will further boost your vitamin and mineral intake. |
Total for two meals and two snacks | |
Kilojoules (energy) | 4517 kilojoules (1075 calories) |
Total fat | 40 grams |
Saturated fat | 5.3 grams |
Carbohydrate | 111 grams |
Fibre | 22 grams |
Sodium | 1951 milligrams |
As you can see, you can eat two full meals and two small snacks for a similar number of kilojoules, much less total and saturated fat and sodium, and with a huge amount of fibre, compared to the one fish and chip meal. Although there’s more total carbohydrate in these meals and snacks, it’s spread out across smaller portions compared to the fish and chips. Spreading out your carbohydrate intake into smaller portions can help you better manage your blood glucose levels.
For more information about managing carbohydrates when you have type 2 diabetes, why not attend our Carb Smart Program? Our first program this year is running on 31 January 2019.
Book online now!