My name is Christine Marquette and I'm a registered dietitian with the Austin Regional Clinic
and I'm going to talk to you about how to eat healthy at TGI Friday's. The easiest way
to eat healthy at TGI Friday's is to choose from their lighter side menu. They have choices
listed there that are either low carb or low fat so this is going to be your quickest and
easiest option. If nothing on that menu appeals to you and you go back to the regular menu,
some things to keep in mind is you want to try to avoid anything that is battered and
fried, you want to avoid a lot of excess cheese that tends to have a lot of saturated fat
in it and a lot of extra calories. You want to choose items that are grilled or broiled
or charbroiled. Those items are not going to have a lot of added fat from cooking oils
or from batter that will absorb the oil. So grilled would be your best option for meats
as far as vegetables, salads are a good choice as long as you are getting your dressing on
the sides and the best dressings to choose would be some type of vinegarette over the
creamy based dressings. Other things to keep in mind would be the side vegetables. If you
can try to choose some steamed vegetables again as opposed to anything that is fried
like a french fried potato, basked potatoes loaded with sour cream and cheese, those kinds
of things so really angle for the steamed vegetables if you are choosing off the regular
menu and then lastly you want to choose a beverage that doesn't have added sugar to
it, plain tea, coffee, water, diet soft drinks, anything that doesn't have added sugar to
it that won't cause you to have additional calories to your meal. Then as far as alcohol
if you do want an alcoholic beverage limit it to only one with your meal because any
kind of alcoholic drink is going to have a lot of extra calories to it. Lastly if you
really want desert make sure you are splitting it with a couple of other people, avoid ever
ordering a desert just for yourself because that will have a lot of extra calories and
a lot of extra fat. So those are just a few basic tips for how to eat healthy at TGI Friday's.