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What's On the Menu: Diners All Miavita Features

by Hope Warshaw, M.M.Sc., R.D., C.D.E.
Here's how some of the most popular items on a typical diner menu measure up nutritionally, and how you may be able to make them better.

Breakfast

*indicates a healthy choice

*"Egg Beater" or egg-white omelet, scrambled eggs. Cooked to order with any number of vegetable add-ins.
A good bet if you order with onions, peppers, mushrooms and other vegetables instead of cheese or other fatty ingredients. If the egg-white-only option is too restrictive for you, ask for 1 yellow with 3 whites.

*Bran cereal with skim milk and fresh fruit. Diners usually have single-serving boxes of cereal.
If you feel hungry enough for 2 boxes, go for it - you'll still be far better off nutritionally than with many of the other menu options! Order some fresh fruit to top it off.

*Low-fat cottage cheese or yogurt with fresh fruit and a few spoonfuls of granola.
If it's not on the menu, you can request this combination, which any diner should be able to accommodate. Yes, granola adds fat and calories, but use it in moderation and it can bring a wonderful crunchy dimension and flavor to the mix.

Fried eggs. Cooked sunny-side-up or over easy, served with buttered toast, bacon or sausage, and a side of hash browns.
It's a saturated fat fest. To make it better, limit your order to 1 or 2 eggs, ask for whole-wheat toast, replace the butter with jam, and skip the bacon, sausage and hash browns. Washing it down with a large glass of orange juice is a good idea.

Pancakes. Plates are often stacked 4, 5 or 6 cakes high, served with whipped butter and maple-flavored syrup.
Shorten the stack; put a cap of 1 or 2 pancakes on your order. Choose buckwheat or other whole-grain options and blueberries, if available. Use very, very little butter, if any.

Doughnuts
Delicious? Perhaps. Nutritious? Uh uh.
Soups, Salads and Sides

*indicates a healthy choice
*Three bean salad. A blend of white, kidney and black beans with a hint of spice.
Dig in - beans do your body lots of good.

*Chicken vegetable soup. A light chicken broth with chunks of chicken and vegetables.
Bon appetit! - a healthy choice.

*Chili
An unusually healthful option on the diner menu, particularly when it's made with lots of beans. Stir in salsa for extra kick and antioxidants. Go easy on the saltines.

*House salad. Lettuce (all too often the lesser iceberg variety) topped with cherry tomatoes, shredded carrots, sliced cucumber and green pepper, and served with your choice of dressing.
Healthy filler-upper as long as you keep the dressing on the side and use it sparingly.

*Sliced grilled chicken breast over a house salad
Ask for a variety of vegetables in your salad. Choose balsamic vinegar and olive oil as your dressing. If you want to spruce it up a notch, sprinkle on 2 spoonfuls of crumbled feta, a lower-fat cheese with great flavor.

*Baked potato
Comfort food at its best. Top with salsa, ketchup or low-fat sour cream. But avoid all other diner potato preparations: Bye-bye to fries, hash browns, cottage fries, mashed potatoes, etc.

*Grits
If they've got 'em, dig in.

Macaroni salad. Elbow macaroni, peas, cheese cubes, celery and more, bound with mayonnaise.
Not worth the fat and calories.

Cobb salad. A bed of lettuce topped with grilled chicken, crisp bacon, avocado, cheddar cheese, hard-boiled egg and blue cheese.
There are healthier salads on the menu.
Sandwiches

*indicates a healthy choice
*Grilled chicken breast. A grilled chicken breast topped with lettuce, tomato, onion and mustard and served on a Kaiser roll or in a pita.
Hold the mayo - use mustard if you'd like a little more flavor - and this'll be fine.

*Turkey pita. Turkey (preferably fresh roasted) in a pita with mustard or honey mustard, if available, tomato and lettuce.
Turkey breast is a great source of lean protein.

Club. A three-decker sandwich with ham, turkey, cheese, bacon, lettuce and tomato.
If you have a craving, order half a sandwich with a broth-based soup or garden salad. Ask for it on whole-wheat toast.

Hamburger. A grilled 5-oz. or jumbo 8-oz. hamburger patty grilled to taste and served on a bun. You can (and should) add lettuce, tomato and onion.
If you can't resist, choose the smaller size or split the large one. Sorry, but cheeseburgers raise the saturated fat count way too high.

Sides. Sandwiches are often served with a choice of French fries, American fries, potato chips or garden salad.
Garden salad is the winner by a mile. Just keep the dressing on the side.
Dinner

*indicates a healthy choice
*Peel 'n' eat shrimp. A pound of steamed shrimp served with spicy cocktail sauce, often a specialty of coastal diners.
One of the healthiest menu items you'll see - order with a salad (dressing on the side) and/or baked potato (no butter or full-fat sour cream).

*Turkey dinner. Served with all the trimmings to make any day Thanksgiving.
Ask for white meat only. If you want gravy, ask for it on the side and dip - not dunk - bites of turkey and mashed potato in it. If you're lucky there may be a side of nutritious sweet potatoes, too.

Entree salad with soup. Some salads on the diner menu have lots of fat and calories, typically from cheese and dressings.
For a nutritious salad, look for romaine or spinach leaves, lots of colorful vegetables and grilled chicken or shrimp. For extra flavor, sprinkle some feta cheese on top. Use balsamic vinegar and olive oil as your dressing.

Meatloaf. Ground beef and pork blended with onions, ketchup, bread crumbs, an egg and seasonings.
This retro favorite is hard to pass up - resist the fries or hash browns in favor of a baked potato and house salad. And sorry, but it's best to skip the pie, too.

Chicken pot pie. A fresh-baked pastry shell filled with chunks of chicken, carrots, onions and peas, topped with a creamy sauce.
Basically healthy ingredients marred by lots of added fat. Walk away.

Minute steak. Generally served in 8 oz. or 10 oz. size.
If you insist, order the smaller one and split it, or take half home.

Popcorn shrimp basket. Shrimp lightly coated and fried to a golden brown, served with spicy cocktail sauce.
Go for the peel 'n' eat option if you're hungry for shrimp.

Chicken-fried steak. An 8-oz. steak breaded, fried and topped with country-style cream gravy.
Just looking at it may add inches to your waist.

Sides. Dinners are usually served with a choice of two sides: salad, rice pilaf, baked potato, mashed potato, steamed vegetables, French fries.
Take your pick of the salad, rice pilaf, baked potato or steamed vegetables.
Dessert

*indicates a healthy choice
*Fresh Fruit Bowl
Even if it's not on the menu, most diners will have fresh fruit to serve you as a dessert option.

Pie a la mode. A generous slice of fruit pie topped with vanilla ice cream.

Brownie a la mode. Large and rich brownie, topped with vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce.

Chocolate cake. A generous slice of a rich triple-layer chocolate cake.

Fresh fruit cobbler. A deep-dish peach or apple or whatever-is-in-season cobbler topped with fresh whipped cream.

All of these temptations have lots of fat and calories. If you simply need to feed your sweet tooth, split one rich dessert with as many people as you can. In any case, don't feel obligated to clean the plate.