The Glycemic Index Diet for Dummies (59 page)

Picking Low-Glycemic-Friendly Restaurants

Eating out when you want to lose weight frequently means you need to pay a little more attention to the restaurants you're choosing, which in turn means you should know a little something about what a low-glycemic-friendly restaurant looks like. Such establishments tend to

Offer a wide variety of menu options

Feature multiple choices for breads, rice, and pastas (rye, whole-wheat, brown, and so on)

Have menu items that contain low-glycemic food choices, such as vegetables, beans, and whole-wheat bread

Serve side vegetables or salad entrees

On the flip side, some restaurants may leave you hard-pressed to find much of anything that's low-glycemic. Restaurants that aren't so low-glycemic-friendly generally have these characteristics:

A very limited menu

A lack of vegetable choices (think sides, soups, or salads)

Fries, potato salad, or potato chips as the only side options

A lot of pasta, noodle, or rice dishes

If you live in a small town with limited restaurant choices, don't stress about not immediately being able to find low-glycemic dishes on the menu. Instead, try to make friends with the owner, chef, or wait staff. If you do, the restaurant just may be able to accommodate your needs. For example, maybe it has a soup of the day that changes frequently. You can send in your request for a low-glycemic-friendly soup. Asking never hurts so long as you're friendly about it.