netuk
Full Member
Pub food is usually good value for money, so it’s great for the pounds in your purse but not necessarily for those around your waistline! Some pubs offer home-cooked dishes, while others rely on catering suppliers but whatever type of food is on offer, follow the following guidelines and you won’t go wrong:
- Sit down for your meal straight away rather than having a drink at the bar first, that way you won’t be tempted to snack on crisps and peanuts at the bar first.
- Say no to the customary portion of coleslaw served with almost every pub meal, it can contain about 70 plus calories, depending on the portion size.
- Ensure you give sachets of mayonnaise and salad creams a miss, they contain 65 and 40 calories, respectively.
- Offer to drive - you’ll have the perfect excuse to stick with non-alcoholic drinks.
- Do skip the starters and desserts and have just the main course.
- Do ask for your main course to be served with jacket potatoes instead of chips.
- Do you have a baguette or sandwich? Most places make them to order so you can choose a low-calorie filling and ask for a roll or bread with no butter.
- Don’t get carried away with the pub atmosphere. It can really damage your diet if ‘just one drink’ leads to others.
- Don’t assume all the salads will be low in calories. Many of the ingredients may be loaded with mayonnaise. Good types to go for include lean chicken, ham or turkey.
- Don’t choose the ploughman’s lunch it might be the all-time pub classic but with the huge chunk of cheese, pickle, roll and butter as well as the portion of coleslaw, it can contain more than 1,000 calories!
- Don’t go for fried meals such as scampi and chips, chicken and chips or fish and chips they all contain around 600-700 plus calories each.
- Don’t have meals containing pastry such as steak and kidney pie or chicken pie. If you really fancy a pie, choose a potato-topped one instead, for example shepherd’s pie or fish pie.
- Don’t order snacks such as quiche, pork pies and scotch eggs, they’re loaded with calories.
