Hey you, with your organic, gluten-free muffin and soy latte!
Careful: even the healthiest venues can be secret calorie silos!
Drinks
Choose:
Fresh juices. Avoid pre-packaged drinks as pasteurisation damages antioxidants. Just ditch high-GI fruit juices (anything with banana/pineapple) for low-GI options, like blueberries.
Lose:
Protein shakes, unless you’ve exercised in the past 30 minutes. Most have 100 calories a scoop, but it’s the extra ingredients, like whole milk and yoghurt, that can take it nearer 450 calories!
Snacks
Choose:
Popcorn. It’s 100% unprocessed wholegrain, and most come in under 100 calories per bag. Plus a recent study showed popcorn has more antioxidants than some vegetables.
Lose:
Protein bars and balls. They can pack in more than 200 cals, nutritionist Rose Chamberlain says. Find ones with a sugar content lower than 15g per 100g, dietician Sophie Claessens says. Got that?
Choose:
If there’s a salad option with lean meat (chicken or turkey are best) and quinoa, go for that. Quinoa as seven times as much protein as brown rice, so will keep you full for longer.
Lose:
Avoid veggie burgers, says Chamberlain. Meat is bound with natural fats and can be grilled; veg patties need to be deep-fried, which can up their calories by a huge 60%.
Desserts
Choose:
Raw chocolate cake. It’ll be calorie heavy (250 cals per slice) from the coconut oil, but your body converts its medium chain triglycerides to energy rather than fat. Smart stuff.
Lose:
Gluten-free goodies. To make up for the lack of texture, most are loaded with sugar and fat,
says nutritionist Danielle Collins. Gluten-free muffins can pack 20g fat and 450 cals. Forget it.
Tips:
Avoid vegetable crisps. The smaller surface area of each crisp means they absorb almost double the amount of fat of regular potato crisps when fried. That’s not a fat lot of good.
