Eating In and Eating Out

Healthier Choices in a Modern World

A reader asked my opinion about whether it is better to eat in or eat out. Obviously, that depends on what and where you are eating and, just as important, when you are eating. Eating out is fun. Yet a regular practice of healthy eating, along with exercise, should form the core of your health practice. Throughout our entire history as a species, eating a meal together has always been part of all forms of social interaction. But eating out, especially if it for a big occasion or if you do it regularly, can also be a source of ill health depending on how far and how much it causes you to stray from healthier habits. Here’s my take on that reader’s question.

Two Cautionary Tales

They are extreme versions of the dangers of eating out, but 2 stories stand out in my studies. The first is Morgan Spurlock’s documentary film Super Size Me, in which he ate nothing but McDonald’s for a month. His medical readings taken before and after those 30 days showed a dramatic change for the worse in weight, blood sugar, blood pressure, cholesterol and most other signs of ill health.

The second is more close to home. The former New York Times restaurant critic, Pete Wells, abruptly left his job (and wrote about it) when a doctor told him that his eating out every night for years had caused his health to decline so much that if he didn’t stop he was heading for an early grave. The New York Times has since split the job up between several critics to avoid the same fate for his successor.

My Own Experience

I can only offer my own practice and experience as a guide. I’ve always enjoyed eating out, but I now approach dining out much more carefully and differently than I used to. Gone are the days when I ate out several times a week, usually later in the evening. I spent a good part of my life staying up late and eating in upscale restaurants as part of the business and theater entertainment culture I used to work in. Now, trying to keep to healthier nutrition habits, as well as ensuring adequate, comfortable digestion and sleep time, has forced me to change my ways. And while there are still a few “all bets are off” celebrations or occasions in my life, like my daughter’s recent 21st birthday those days are thankfully over.

My general guidelines for most of my eating follows Michael Pollan’s Food Rules: An Eaters Manual, “Eat food (i.e. recognizable as food and not processed), mostly plants, not too much.” And remember 16th century centenarian Luigi Cornaro’s word temperance as the reason he lived so long.

My Practice Informs When to Eat

The first thing I changed when I started practicing better eating habits was timing. My practice takes into account a minimum of 12 hours every night of intermittent fasting to allow my immune system to have adequate time to do its vital work every day maintaining and healing my body, as well as helping to ensure I get a sound night of sleep. Once I regained the comfortable feeling of emptiness in my stomach and digestive system that I experienced with my first detox, I never wanted to go to sleep on a full stomach again. (The idea of fasting can be daunting to some people. It’s actually easy to fast for 12 hours every night; you simply don’t eat anything between 7:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m.)

Going to sleep early and getting up early is also a big part of my practice. This means I needed to shift my routine and start eating dinner earlier than I had all my life, when the 8:00 p.m. evening meal was the norm. Now, I eat dinner at 5:00 or 6:00 p.m., and often earlier. For example, I might “combine” dinner with a late lunch around 2:00 or 3:00 p.m.

This timing can be challenging, and I often accommodate others who don’t share my eating habits by compromising on lunch and dinner times when making social plans. In several cases, though, my dining partners reported that they felt better and slept better when we’ve shared an earlier dinner together.

Allowing myself the freedom to practice what I find works best for me, as well as finding time to enjoy social meals with my daughters and others, has become a bit of a balancing act that gets easier with practice. In addition, I let others know how I’m approaching my own health, and this open communication leads to interesting discussions about nutrition and health in general. I realize my path of health is fairly unconventional (I prefer to call it radically effective), but it seems to be working for me. It’s how I have, so far, maintained an active, unhampered, medical-issue-and-drug-free existence at 75 years old.

Eating Out? Choose Clean Food

For many years, I have divided my time between New York City and London, calling each city home. I still have an ownership interest in 5 restaurants in Manhattan and once owned a prepared-food business in London, which had its own kitchen as well as outsourced certain food items from an industrial factory kitchen. I have seen the inside of the food business for many years. I also like to cook, and my daughters are both good cooks. As I’ve written in many posts clean, fresh, natural, simple foods are my favorite way to eat, as close to the source of the food as possible. I buy much of my food from farmers’ markets and other fresh sellers. There is nothing to hide—the ingredients are on view to see and taste. The art becomes using them in unique combinations and seasoning them with flavors from all over the world.

Restaurants and food businesses are intensely competitive and price conscious. Clean food is not cheap. These businesses are always under pressure to use cheaper ingredients, like lesser-quality oils, non-pasture raised meats, and non-sustainable seafood, and to “pad” their recipes with added sugar and salt for flavor. The restaurants I’m involved with almost all have open kitchens. I also know the ingredients they cook with and have even been to some of the farms that supply their fresh vegetables. A restaurant that serves cheap, bulk food and has a hidden kitchen is always a danger sign—it’s quite possible they are relying on ingredients that you probably shouldn’t be putting into your body. Here’s my tip: If the restaurant has an open kitchen, there’s less mystery. The chef is likely proudly preparing your meal with fresh, clean ingredients.

How Much?

There is always the temptation to overeat when eating out, especially on special occasions. Part of it is the alcohol that usually accompanies the meal. Part of it is the appetizer, main course and dessert format that we almost never do at home. Part of it is not wanting to waste the money the food cost. Keep in mind that overeating, especially when close to sleep time, is one of the major sources of weight gain and metabolic disfunction, neither of which are very good for your health outlook. Try and be honest with yourself and let your stomach decide when you’ve had enough for comfort, even if it means not finishing everything. Any more, especially on a regular basis, and you increase health risks. Doggie bags are perfectly acceptable.

The Joy of Eating In

I’m saving the best part for last. Eating in combines the best of all worlds. You can enjoy buying fresh ingredients at farmers’ markets and delis, have a great time preparing your meal (turning on some tunes always helps!), eat at whatever time you want, and enjoy the entire process of preparing and cooking as well as socializing if others are present.

You don’t have to be a great cook to prepare simple, great meals. I tend to eat variations of the same sorts of ingredients, mostly different vegetables and proteins, in simple dishes or salads and vary cooking styles depending on the seasoning I add.

Especially after a long walk or gym workout, when your body needs to be refueled, eating in is one of the great, simple joys of life, in gratitude for what nature has provided us and knowing that we are doing ourselves a healthy favor.