thePULSEA Local Guide to Eating Healthy
If you are what you eat, let’s start with ways to discern exactly what is in the food you’re putting in to your body. Take a look at the ingredients in a frozen dinner. Considerable technology goes into preservation: sodium benzoate preserves freshness; erythorbic acid maintains freshness; calcium disodium EDTA protects flavor and ethoxyquin is used to retain color.
And then there are the color additives and texturizers like silicon dioxide (sand) that is used to prevent caking. Some of these chemicals exist in nature and are occasionally an acceptable trade-off when used to keep food palatable. But unless you’re preparing meals in the privacy of your own kitchen, you may have little control over the chemical stew you’re putting into your body.
Sugar, salt and fat are a trio of flavor enhancers. Perhaps the major source of excess fat is the Friolator, that vat of hot oil from which any bland food emerges both crispier and tastier. If breaded carefully, even soft items such as macaroni and cheese can be deep-fried. This trick allows unsophisticated kitchens to offer a startling range of items. Beware of restaurants with endless menus; such abundance often indicates a kitchen too dependent upon bulk-purchased deep-fried food units.
It seems that our country has enthusiastically allowed just about every type of business to be bought up and consolidated into a few large corporations. We like to believe that this WalMart approach has lowered prices, and we seem to accept the reduced choices of where we shop and what we can purchase. In New England, at least, chain restaurants seem to have been kept to a minimum. To observe successful corporate-controlled dining, take a drive anywhere else in the country and witness the endless food franchises lined up like boxes along commercial strips. Then consider the goal of most corporations: to maximize profits through any method. To attain such a goal, corporations will employ every preservative, color additive and Friolator possible to maximize yields and reduce labor costs.
Fortunately, things are different in Central Massachusetts where independently operated restaurants still dominate. True enough, being an ‘indie’ doesn’t assure healthy cuisine and some of the large chains try to offer ‘low fat’. But given a choice, I’ll spend my dining dollar at a place were someone I can talk to is making the food, not trucking it in or buying from a factory. Here are some of my local preferences for healthy eating:
Healthy meals tend towards simplicity and, in this regard, Asian cuisines almost always feature fresh vegetables prepared in simple tasty combinations with seafood, meat or chicken. A good way to be sure that you’re getting what you want is to order a la carte from restaurants such as Nancy Chang’s at 372 Chandler Street in Worcester. This frequent winner of Worcester Magazine’s “Best of Worcester” Readers’ Poll for best Chinese Restaurant caters to the health-conscious with special soups, delicious entrees and reduced fat desserts.
Continue this pan-Asian arc by enjoying fine Japanese cuisine at Sushi Bar & Grill by Kenzo (formerly Zipangos) at 270 Shrewsbury Street which features pristine cuts of fish and tasty seaweed salad. Vietnam is also well represented in the city. I’ve enjoyed hot pot at Pho Dakao, 593 Park Avenue, a dish of crisp vegetables and seafood in a broth flavored with fresh cilantro cooked right at the table.
Cuisine of the sub-Continent completes our Asian tour through the Worcester area. Several local Indian restaurants have menus that will satisfy both vegetarians and carnivores. For delicious examples of one of the world’s most refined cuisines, try Surya at 299 Shrewsbury Street or Star India at 378 Maple Avenue in Shrewsbury.
Practicing vegans and garden-variety vegetarians head to The Living Earth at 232 Chandler Street for organic produce, groceries and tasty cuisine in the Garden Café. The menu is broad enough to please the rest of us; it offers bison burgers, salmon and chicken. I haven’t yet convinced myself to go all-organic; so when I need vegetables for fresh juice I head to Banana Joe’s Farm Stand & Deli, at 715 West Boylston Street. One of my favorite healthy juice drinks is made with kiwi fruit, carrot and ginger root.
Ethnic markets offer ingredients you can’t find in the big supermarkets. For healthy, fresh ingredients in Worcester go to Ed Hyder’s Mediterranean Market Place at 408 Pleasant Street and the Binh An Vietnamese Market at 64 Green Street. Santiago’s Market at 700 Main Street is a full grocery store featuring Spanish ingredients and fully prepared meals.
Most Worcester restaurants offer large portions, so even when you’re ordering healthy, it’s likely that you will be served more than you need. To avoid excess eating, get rid of the compulsion to clean your plate. Bring the leftovers home or leave them behind. There’s one restaurant that will tell you what the fat content (both good and bad), protein, calories and fiber is in each dish served. The Lo Fat/ Know Fat Grille & Café in the White City East shopping area, Shrewsbury, lists the contents of each tasty, quick meal. This place really caters to people who care about what goes into their bodies.
Finally, as a life-long runner, I have to rave about the carbo-loading opportunities at any Italian restaurant on Worcester’s Shrewsbury Street. You don’t need science to know that a good, home-cooked Italian meal beats burgers and fries hands down!
