Can you choose healthy foods when eating out?

I get this question all the time: just how am I supposed to choose healthy foods, follow a low-calorie diet plan, and/or stick to my meal plan to lower my blood pressure (or cholesterol, or blood sugar) when I eat out?

Most of the time people just throw caution to the winds when they eat out. Deciphering the menus seems to be too difficult.

Not if you read Jo Lichten's update to her popular Dining Lean book! Check out Dr. Jo's Dining Lean at http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?z=y&EAN=9781880347508&itm=1 if you eat out just for fun or for business.

Here's what Brian Wansink, PhD (author of Mindless Eating and director of the CornellUniversity Food and Brand Lab) writes in the preface:

"Dining Lean to the rescue. Although restaurant 'calorie counting' bookshave been around for a long time, that's not what this book is about. Dr.Jo's book takes a more useful, more intelligent, and more insightful approach. Dining Lean provides the basics about restaurant food including ethnic cuisine, lots of rules-of-thumb about how to estimate sizes and calories, and what (and how) to order so you can have the great meal you want but without all the calories. Dining Lean is fun to read, well-organized, and graphically clever."

I keep a copy on hand to answer questions, and also to use myself when I go out to eat. Check it out!