If you tend to eat out frequently, then you know that it is tough enough to make healthy choices, let alone having those choices reflect your particular hormonal makeup. To help you out, Dr. Lark and I created several tools in Hormone Revolution to make your food selections much easier when you are dining out.
Whether you tend to be overall acidic woman dealing with menopause problems or a more alkaline, woman with estrogen dominance or someone with low estrogen levels but excess yin, eating out can prove to be tricky since you are not the one preparing the food.
Traditionally, people have chosen mostly highly acidic dishes and entr?es when eating in restaurants. Luckily, all-American, overly acidic fare such as the 16-ounce porterhouse steak, French fries, and rich, sugary deserts, and French cuisine with its heavy butter- and cream-based sauces have been replaced or supplemented in many restaurants by lighter, healthier, and less acidic, more alkaline dishes. This is true both in American restaurants and in those serving ethnic cuisines. The important thing is to know which dishes on the menu represent the less acidic, more alkaline options and to select a variety of these types of dishes when dining out.
International Cuisine
The following list can help you make healthy choices, particularly if you are working hard to balance your female hormones. In general, you will want to order salads, non-dairy soups, vegetable or bean appetizers and side dishes, and vegetarian or fish entr?es. Remember, most restaurants are willing to make up vegetarian entr?es and platters at your request, even if they are not on the menu.
- American cuisine: salad or salad bars, bean or vegetable soups, baked potatoes, rice, vegetable side dishes or platters, fish or shellfish entr?es.
- Italian cuisine: escarole soup, bean or minestrone soup, white bean salad, Caesar salad, risotto, polenta (cornmeal) with a mushroom sauce, grilled eggplant entr?e, fish or shellfish entr?es.
- French cuisine: vegetable or seafood salads, nondairy soups, vegetable side dishes, stewed beans, fish or shellfish entr?es.
- Indian cuisine: lentils, rice pilafs, cucumber salad, curried vegetable or shellfish dishes.
- Chinese cuisine: stir-fried vegetables, sizzling rice soup, tofu or bean curd dishes, steamed rice, shrimp and mixed vegetable entr?es.
- Japanese cuisine: Japanese salads, miso soup, sticky rice, sushi, side dishes and soups made with vegetables and tofu.
- Mexican cuisine: mixed vegetable salads, tostada salad, bean and rice side dishes, bean or shrimp burritos, chicken or shrimp fajitas, bean or seafood tacos (skip the cheese and sour cream).