How will I manage LCHF whilst dining out? That’s a question many have asked me especially in their first month after the change. Following the LCHF guidelines you quickly will experience slight difficulties, when you buy your lunch or are invited out for dinner. You’ll manage to keep yourself on the LCHF track without offending anyone even if you have to say; “No thanks, unfortunately, I don’t eat pasta, rice or pizza, and I don’t drink beer or softdrinks….. and by the way, I do not eat bread nor cake..” You will need ideas for finding a healthy LCHF lunch as well or how to create an easy one to carry with you.
How To Manage LCHF dining out
Saying No to traditional food carb-wise might be annoying for both you and your friends. It shouldn’t be that complicated though to deal with. Just avoid making a big fuzz out of it when dining together. There is always something to choose from. If however you are following a Strict LCHF diet it calls for creative thinking to participate in private dinner parties. When you follow a regular LCHF lifestyle you can eat as anyone else. Try to avoid the carbs and choose more of the carb-free and fat ingredients.
And how so? Make the green salad fill your plate or what is available of veggies, and choose the meat. No rice, no potatoes, no pasta and no bread. In case the meal you’re offered is low in fat, which quite often happens in modern homes, you can ask for some butter – might be served with bread – or olive oil. In addition have a teaspoon of coconut oil or a piece of cheese, when you get back home. Or even better, if the dinner is served mayonnaise, add some of this to your meat or fish. Only eat natural healthy fat. There are too many additives and types of oil, which are not good for you. Go for olive oil or avocado oil.
LCHF Lunch
For lunch, you can have soups, eggs, salads without bread made of flour. You can have all kinds of meat, and fish such as salmon or tuna, but again no rice, no pasta, no buns and wraps etc. I would choose a kind of salad. Many places you can make a bowl of your own choice, which makes it easier and possible to vary. Regarding the fat that you need it can be a challenge as many dressings are made with sun seed oil and other vegetable oils with a high content of Omega-6. If you buy lunch frequently at the same shop, why not ask them to offer their customers a natural olive oil.
Bringing your own lunch can be a box of veggies or salad with hardboiled eggs, mayonnaise and ham or salmon. A handful of nuts or blocks of hard cheese will be lovely as well. The Cauliflower Muffin is perfect for a lunch box. We often make a sandwich with the Buns or the Panini.
About the fat
The tendencies in modern life is low carb no (or low) fat, but it is extremely important for you to get the healthy fat. So I recommend you follow my advice on this. You could have your own olive oil for pouring over your salad and eggs, to put in your soup, or you could have a nice mayonnaise made of olive oil in the fridge at the office. Avoid margarine, trains fatty acids, sun seed oil, soy oil, corn oil and grape seed oil.
This leaves olive and avocado oil together with flax seed oil and nut oil to be your favourites in the future!
2 comments
Hi, what is the problem with Omega 6 ? I’m curious.
By the way, I’ve started a LCHF regime, but I don’t have much time to cook and I often have to eat out. Therefore, I still eat a fair amount of carbs. In terms of health, do you think it’s better if I return to a “normal” diet or should I still try to eat mostly fat, even if there are carbs mixed into it ?
First of all, I do apologise for my late action to your comment. I just left my residence in London, UK, in order to relocate in Toronto, Canada, for three years. I have stop-overs in Norway and The Netherlands, so you caught me on a super busy week. I’ll try to answer you thoroughly despite the huge subject. If you’re looking for references and the newest research, I recommend dietdoctor.com, and I also recommend healthy-eating-politics.com.
Living the LCHF lifestyle means you must have fat whilst cutting the carbohydrates.Your body changes fuel, and the fat gets another metabolic role. Eating fat, means burning fat. For years we learned to replace animal fats with polyunsaturated fat, such as plant oils. Recently it has shown that animal fats, which mostly are saturated fat, will stand up better to high heat and last longer than vegetable fats. Reduced oxidation means they are less susceptible to the toxins and carcinogens generated by using vegetable oil alone.
Regarding the Omega 6, it is a very unstable fatty acid and should always be balanced with Omega 3, and should never be taken in large amounts, which is difficult avoiding if you eat like people normally do due to years of misinformation on fat. Try this link for a short and very informative information of the fat types. Recent studies show that too much polyunsaturated fat are increasing the risks of cardiovascular deceases. Read more about that here” This is a huge subject, and I recommend you to stay on the LCHF path as more and more official organisations finally starts to change their advice of eating saturated fat in combination with no sugar and a low carb intake. I do hope you have the time to go deeper into the knowledge via the provided links.
Regarding eating out and travelling, you’ll need to think different. At many stores, you can buy hard types of cheese or sliced meat, packed to go, and salads without pasta. If you eat enough fat via these sources, you’ll not get hungry. Do never eat bread or drink beer (have wine instead), and try to eliminate the carbs during each meal, otherwise the body will not change fuel and might stick to the well-known metabolism.
The problem about eating out is that you’ll easily get the wrong fat, or there isn’t enough of the good fat. Except from the cheese trick (you can even make rolls of sliced cheese and salami) I recommend cold butter or cream in you coffee, which is almost available everywhere. Never eat spreadable or light products. Pour live oil on your food; most restaurants will provide a bottle of olive oil. Go for natural food.
If and when you cook at home, make double up, so you have leftovers. It is extremely easy to fry a piece of meat or fish, and have salad and olive oil on the side. Please find more inspiration via my Instagram profile, lchflondon, I try to put inspirational dishes up 3-4 times a week also showing quick and easy meals.
I hope all this was informative. Good luck with your LCHF path. Please always contact me on further elaboration.