Disease Proof : Disease Proof : Health & Nutrition News & Commentary : Dr. Joel Fuhrman

I’m not so sure how “ruby” any day of the week would be for an Eat to Liver dining at Ruby Tuesday—it’s a tough one. Now, you’ve probably heard me say this a bunch of times, but if this weekly series has taught me anything, its that many standard American restaurants are nightmares when it comes to responsible eating. Ruby Tuesday isn’t much better—lots of burger, steak, and cheese-oriented food. Oh goody! I can feel my arteries hardening already.

No surprise here, but the safe-haven on the menu is the “Salads, Soups & Sandwiches” section—although not with out its problems. The first item I don’t have too many hang-ups about is the Garden Vegetable Soup. Now, it’s not perfect. After all it is prepared with chicken broth, so this may discourage some Eat to Livers. As for me, I eat meat once a week, so if my weekly meat intake was simply chicken broth, well, I’m not exactly going to beat myself up over it. Besides the chopped tomatoes, roasted corn, and green beans make me feel a whole lot better about. If this doesn’t suit your fancy, Ruby Tuesday does have a Fresh Garden Bar. This is a great fallback option, why take your chances with the chef’s creation? Grab a dish and pile-high the veggies!

Evidently Ruby Tuesday is known for their burgers—and there’re a lot of them! Most of them don’t interest me, especially the ones drowned in cheese and topped with bacon. But surprisingly a few did catch my eye. I like the Turkey Burger, the Portobello Swiss Turkey Burger, and the Veggie Burger. Okay, all three burgers come served on a bun with lettuce, tomato, and pickles. Not bad, the bun would be my biggest concession. The other thing is, each burger can come topped with cheese—now I don’t care if it’s Monterey Jack or Swiss cheese, I’m ditching both. Diary and I went through a nasty divorce, so I don’t go anywhere near cheese. Also, I guess I could just eat the burger without the bun, but I don’t want to be mistaken for a low-carber—dread the thought!

Finally, and we’ve seen this come up before, Ruby Tuesday has a decent selection of side dishes. So I think another great option would be to construct a meal out of the healthier sides they have available. For example, the premium baby greens, sautéed Portobello mushroom slices, fresh steamed broccoli, and plain baked potato all look good—just think of all the phytonutrients in the broccoli and baby greens. The creamy mashed cauliflower also caught my eye, but before I’d order it, I’d want to ask the waiter if there’s really cream in it. If so, that would certainly ruin a good thing.

Overall I’m not very impressed with Ruby Tuesday. So much of the menu is devoted to standard American urges: ribs, steak, cheese, fries, bacon, etc. They do provide the menu’s nutritional information online, but little good it does you when you’re seated at the restaurant. And, lets be honest, just because people know how unhealthy the food is, doesn’t mean they won’t eat it—after all McDonald's is still selling burgers!

Okay, you know the drill—we want your feedback! Check out Ruby Tuesday’s menu and let us know how you Eat to Live on the Outside? Leave a comment or email us at diseaseproof@gmail.com.

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If I had to equate Eating to Live on the Outside to an amusement park ride, it’d be a rollercoaster. Why? Because there are the ups, health conscious restaurants like Just Salads, Chipotle, and P.F. Chang’s, and the downs, like Denny’s, IHOP, and Sizzler. After months of doing this series I can honestly say this rollercoaster is more often than not, barreling downward—which makes sense when you consider the state of obesity in this country.

The U.S. landscape is littered with standard American restaurants—menus teeming with bacon cheese fries, deep-fried green beans, and full-slab spare ribs—and this week’s restaurant certainly falls in line with all that. Say hello to Boston Market. While not as bad as other eateries I’ve examined, it’ll definitely make an Eat to Liver cringe. Tighten your boot straps, we’re going in.

The first section of the menu entitled “Individual Meals” won’t appeal to non-meat eating Eat to Livers; lots of turkey, chicken, and beef. To be honest, even though I eat meat, I’m not exactly ecstatic about it either. The All Beef Meatloaf and Roasted Sirloin are history because I don’t eat red meat, under any circumstances. I don’t trust the Chicken Pot Pie because the menu says it includes a touch of cream—that touch of cream is enough to give me a touch of gastritis! So what’s left? Basically just the rotisserie chicken, rotisserie turkey, and roasted turkey—I’ll take the roasted turkey. For both the rotisserie chicken and turkey the portion sizes are too big for me, I’ll eat chicken or turkey, but I don’t want ¼ of a bird. I’d probably also go easy on the poultry gravy too.

Now, if meat isn’t your fancy, and it isn’t always mine, Boston Market does have a couple salads you can choose from—I say a couple because there are only two. Just the kind of health variety you’d expect from a standard American restaurant (tongue in cheek). The first option is a Caesar Salad, not for me, too much cheese and dairy—not worth the risk! The Market Chopped Salad would be my safest bet. It doesn’t tell you exactly which vegetables are in it, all the menu reads is, “More fresh veggies than a farmers market! A wondrous collection of crispy vegetables, mixed green lettuce, and flavors mixed with Craisins [dried cranberries], and crumbled blue cheese. Tossed with our signature champagne vinaigrette.” If you want you can add chicken, turkey breast, or hot sirloin—I’ll pass! I’m also ditching the blue cheese and of course I’d go easy on the dressing, no sense sabotaging my salad.

Okay, Boston Market’s problems really become evident when you take a look at the “Soups & Sides” section of the menu. In total there are eighteen offerings, I only flagged four as potential candidates, but I can only order one of them with a somewhat straight face. The Seasonal Fresh Fruit Salad is the most Fuhrman-friendly out of them all; a fresh mix of melon and seedless grapes. Remember this one because everything else is iffy, at best. The Fresh Steamed Vegetables sound like a good idea, but they’re tossed in olive oil, salt, and pepper—this kind of compromises the broccoli, carrots, zucchini, yellow squash, and green beans. I’d still order it, but it’d be so much better without the toss-job. I might also consider the Cinnamon Apples, but they come with brown sugar. Also, the Cranberry Walnut Relish could be a nice alternative to gravy, if I decided to order meat.

At first glance there are other sides on the menu that grabbed my attention, but if you read the fine print, they’ve got problems—especially for me! Take the Sweet Corn and Greens Beans for example, I love them both, but they’re both seasoned in a garlic butter sauce, and butter is a major no-no! And the sides that aren’t prepared with butter have cream in them, this doesn’t bode well either. So despite the vast offerings, and Eat to Liver would find this list pretty limiting.

So, if you were to ask me if Boston Market has any redeeming characteristics, I’d probably point to the nutrition facts. Every item on the menu has them, so at the very least you can maintain damage control because you’ll know exactly how many calories, sodium, fat, etc. are in what you’re eating. A small consolation I know.

Don’t forget, we want your feedback! Check out the Boston Market menu and let us know how Eat to Live on the outside? Leave a comment or email us at diseaseproof@gmail.com.

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This week Eating to Live on the Outside takes a look at Luby’s. Now, prior to today I’d never heard of Luby’s, so I didn’t know what expect. When I first visited their website it seemed to me that Luby’s was just another restaurant along the same lines as Friday’s, Perkins, The Office, Bennigan’s, etc., but, a closer examination revealed something different.

Something better? Well Luby’s is no Baja Fresh or Just Salads, but it certainly doesn’t deserve to be lumped into the same category as Sizzler, Friendly’s, or Denny’s. So if standard American restaurants are on one side and healthy eateries like the Go Raw Café are on the other, I’d put Luby’s a few clicks down from the healthy. Luby’s looks like what would happen if a typical America restaurant were to ratchet up the healthiness of their food. The best way to explain what I mean is to take a look at menu, so, let’s check it out.

The first two menu items that snagged my attention were the Pan Grilled Tilapia and the Lemon Basil Salmon, under the “Classic Combos” section. Now if you’ve been keeping up with this series you know that I am not hardcore anti-meat. I eat meat once, occasionally twice a week, and it’s usually fish, but when fish isn’t around I’ll substitute chicken or turkey. I’m sure some Eat to Livers might not agree with this, but it works for me. In this case salmon and tilapia certainly work for me because, as I’ve mentioned many times before, Dr. Fuhrman regards salmon and tilapia as a low risk for mercury contamination.

Now even though these fish sound tasty, what really caught my eye were the sides that come along with them. Unlike many of American restaurants, Luby’s actually lets you pick the sides that accompany your dish, this way you’re not at the mercy of the chef. Trust me, this is a good thing. Luby’s sides, for the most part, are pretty health conscious. Here are the ones I’d order: broccoli, carrots, cabbage, corn, spinach, pinto beans, pineapple, fresh green beans, black-eyed peas, mixed field greens, mixed melons, and marinated cucumbers. Compared to the sides of many standard American restaurants, Luby’s offerings kick butt!

In fact, if you didn’t feel comfortable ordering an entrée, you could easily put together a nutrient-rich meal from just the sides. And guess what? Luby’s encourages this! If you flip over to the “Salads & More” section of the menu you’ll see special prices if you order three or four sides as your meal. Pretty cool right? As much as I like fish I think this is the way to go. So if I were piecing together a four-side meal I think I’d go with broccoli, spinach, fresh green beans, and pineapple. What would you do?

Perhaps the best thing about Luby’s is the section of the menu entitled “Healthy Eating.” Here they give you suggestions to make your meal even healthier, like “Choose poultry and remove the skin” and “Ask for sauces and gravies on the side.” This is really wonderful, it tells me Luby’s is a place that cares about their patrons’ health, and they don’t just want you to gorge yourself silly on Potato Skinny Dippers, Fried Green Beans, Fried Macaroni & Cheese or whatever else most standard American restaurants spend time concocting—hats off to you Luby’s!

And don’t forget the feedback! Tell us what you might have done differently or what you agree with. Check out Luby's menu and let us know how you Eat to Live on the Outside? Leave a comment or email us at diseaseproof@gmail.com.

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“My kind of town, Chicago is…” Old Blue Eyes was onto something when he sang these lyrics because this week Eating to Live on the Outside takes a look at Chicago’s own Lake Side Café—and it’s a good one! No way is this place a standard American restaurant; healthy eateries like P.F. Chang’s, Just Salads, and California Pizza Kitchen just gained a new ally. So let’s see what’s cooking!

First off, their fruit smoothies caught my eye. All three flavors sound good to me: Banana Cinnamon, Blueberry Banana, and Strawberry Banana. Now, you have the option of ordering any of them with soy milk, rice milk, or regular milk. For me dairy is not an option and I prefer soy milk over rice milk, so if I had to pick, a Banana Cinnamon smoothie with soy milk sounds good to me. There are also a few interesting juice creations on the menu too, but I’m not that into juice, I prefer my fruit with a little more substance—and fiber!

Okay, onto the munchies. I really like the Italiano Toasted Sandwich—and no it’s not because I’m Italian—it’s because I love artichoke hearts! In addition to artichoke hearts this dish comes with pesto, cucumber, tomato, and mozzarella. Mozzarella! Relax, Lake Side Café gives you the option to veganize the cheese and that’s exactly what I’m doing. Also, since this is a sandwich, I’d ask the wait staff if you can get whole-wheat bread. No sense spoiling all these veggies in between two slices of white bread. So if you do all this, you’re left with a pretty Fuhrman-friendly meal, your only concessions would be the bread and the olive oil used to make the pesto, but the side salad should quell your apprehension.

Lake Side Café also offers up a couple interesting salads as well. Naturally they’ve got a Simple House salad that’s prepared with lettuce, carrot, peppers, tomato, onion, and sesame seeds—pretty cool right? But the one I really like is the Greek Islands. It’s not very fancy, but I’m a sucker for balsamic vinegar. In addition to the balsamic it comes with red onions, olives, peppers, tomato, cucumber, olive oil, and feta cheese. Now, I’m not sure if you can veganize the feta, if you can that’s great, but I take no chances with dairy so it’s gone. I’d also ditch the olive oil in this case because balsamic vinegar is all I need to top off a salad. It’s got more than enough flavor for me.

If you’re an Eat to Liver with a lust for pizza, check out Lake Side Café’s Thin Crust Pizzas. Both of them look great to me. For starters you can order both of them on a wheat-free spelt crust, so that should calm your refined grain worries a little. And you can pretty much veganize both dishes if you so choose. The Organic Garden Pizza is prepared with broccoli, mushroom, green pepper, red onion, mozzarella, and red sauce. Once you’ve swapped out the dairy cheese, this is a pretty good line up of veggies. The Mediterranean Pizza is nice looking too; red onion, artichoke hearts (yes!), feta, mozzarella, and pesto sauce. Clearly I’d skip the feta and once again veganize the mozzarella, even after these alterations I still like what’s left. Probably even tastes good cold the next morning—oh you’ve done it too!

All and all there’s lots of neat stuff on Lake Side Café’s menu, these were just the ones that caught my eye, check out their menu and let us know what got your mouth watering. And give us your feedback too! Leave a comment or email us at diseaseproof@gmail.com. Let us know how you Eat to Live on the Outside!

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