Healthy Treats To Beat The January Blues
Brits are choosing to cheer themselves up this January rather than stick to strict New Year resolutions, as Just-Eat.co.uk, the UK’s largest online takeaway ordering service, has seen a 30% rise in weekend takeaway orders during the beginning of the month, compared to an average weekend.
More customers are also searching for healthier options, so Just-Eat has teamed up with nutritionist Carina Norris to provide hints and tips as to the best takeaway orders to choose if you’re counting your calories:
1) Indian: Go for oven-cooked Tandoori and Tikka dishes (not Tikka massala which comes with a rich sauce), rather than curries.
If you do have a curry, choose one with a tomato-based sauce like a rogan josh, rather than a creamy korma.
Save extra calories by having a chapatti rather than naan, and boiled rice rather than pilau.
2) Chinese: Avoid deep-fried starters like prawn toasts, prawn crackers and spring rolls. As with Indian, have boiled or steamed rice rather than fried.
Run a mile from anything involving ‘ribs’, as it will be high in saturated fat, calories and probably sugar.
3) Thai: Thai is generally a very healthy cuisine. Steamed dishes, especially fish, are healthier than those that are fried.
Watch out for the peanuts, which feature highly in Thai recipes – they’re high in fat and often salt.
4) Pizza: Always have a thin and crispy base rather than deep-pan or stuffed-crust.
And ask for the maximum amount of vegetables (full of vitamins and fibre) in your topping; tomatoes are particularly nutritious, and cooking them makes the nutrients easier to absorb.
Finally, go easy on the cheese, to cut your intake of saturated fat and salt.
5) Fish and Chips: Choose fish in crumbs rather than batter and - if you can - leave some of the coating.
Go for the smallest portion of chips or, even better, have baked beans or mushy peas instead. All this will help keep the fat content down.
6) Avoid anything deep fried where possible, as it will be high in fat. Stir-fried dishes are better as they involve less oil, but best of all are those that are baked, grilled, braised or steamed.
7) Many Indian, Thai and Chinese dishes contain spices with healthy properties, such as turmeric, ginger and chilli.
These can help fight colds and flu, but still remember to check what sauce they come in.
8) Chicken, turkey and fish are lower in fat (especially saturated fat) than red meats like beef and lamb. Avoid duck if you’re trying to be low-fat.
9) Vegetarian dishes based around pulses (beans and lentils) are often the most healthy. As well as being low in fat, pulses are high in fibre, which is good for your digestive system and extra-filling too.
10) If you have chips, choose thick ones rather than thin-cut French fries. Chunky chips have less surface area exposed to the frying oil, so they soak up less of it.
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