Let’s take a deeper dive together:

1)      What choices were made for you as a child? How did movement and food play a role in a typical day? If it helps, record your observations. It’s not about blame or getting stuck in the past. For me, as a kid I was encouraged to spend time outside and mealtime was a sit-down affair with others where I wrestled with eating certain foods (like vegetables, fish and beans).

2)      Become aware of the choices that you make for yourself each day and understand why you make them. Again, no judgment – simply acknowledge what you do and write it down. Notice any connections from past to present? In my past, I ate lots of mac and cheese to save money, but avoided foods like fish and beans. That’s a big connection for me that I needed to work on to build better health.

Often, as said recently by musician Bonnie Raitt, we’re on a quest for authenticity. Peers and cultural influences play a role in our choices. Do you feel you need to go to extreme measures to prove something to yourself or others? Maybe a diet or product or activity is all the rage with your peers so you try it too. The search for authenticity takes many forms and the reality is that extremes are rarely necessary. Whatever your past choices – they are not your future. Each day offers you a fresh start – if you’re willing to choose it.

3)      Plug this new-found awareness into your choices going forward. Where do you want to go in terms of your health and fitness level? What reasons do you have to get or stay healthy? Maybe you want to experience life to it’s fullest each day. Maybe you want to get off expensive prescription meds with harsh side effects. Maybe you want to stick around for people who love and rely on you.  Whatever the reason(s), find and record the ones that get and keep you moving.

4)      Redefine your future in ways that keep drama to a minimum. What if cause meant choosing to take action in your life – and effect meant choosing between peace or its opposite, drama. What choices force you to live with lower energy, greater stress, additional worry and fear? What choices empower you? For me, life will throw enough curve-balls on it’s own. In the meantime I’ll skip the drama by choosing a more healthful – read: peaceful path.

Actively choosing health really matters – not just because it saves us all big bucks but because it improves the quality of our lives immeasurably. Poor health isn’t an inevitable part of life or of aging. The fact that you’re reading this is a living testament to your body’s amazing resilience and ability to rebuild and heal itself, sometimes with a little or a lot of help from those around you. Find your best health by becoming aware and getting the help you deserve. You don’t have to go-it alone.

“What exactly is diabetes?” and

“Am I at risk for developing diabetes?”

These are important questions to a nation dealing with an explosion of prediabetes and diabetes. So let’s get started by covering the basics and you can follow-up by taking a quick, informative, online test from the American Diabetes Association’s website.

What exactly is diabetes?

Diabetes is defined as a condition characterized by high blood sugar resulting from the body’s inability to use blood glucose (AKA: sugar) for energy. Let’s take a look at the different types:

• Prediabetes - meaning: before diabetes, occurs when your blood sugar levels are higher than normal but not yet high enough to actually have type 2 diabetes
• Type 2 Diabetes – is a condition where the body does not properly use insulin or produce enough insulin
• Type 1 Diabetes - occurs when the pancreas does not produce any insulin at all, which means blood glucose cannot enter the cells and be used for energy
• Gestational Diabetes - is a temporary type of diabetes that can happen during pregnancy

At the Friedman Diabetes Institute (FDI) I see patients with all different types of diabetes. I teach people with Type 1 diabetes, Type 2 diabetes, gestational diabetes and prediabetes how to manage their condition. Unlike Type 1, which is an autoimmune disease, Type 2 diabetes and its precursor prediabetes can be prevented through diet and exercise. With this said, FDI has partnered with iBeamforLife to coach people diagnosed with prediabetes. You can click here for FDI videos about diabetes.

Am I at risk for developing diabetes?

Given the fact that diabetes appears to affect close to 50% of the population in one form or another, it’s important to know the risk factors for developing Type 2 diabetes. Risk factors include:

• Age – risk goes up as you get older
• Weight – risk goes up if you’re overweight or obese
• Family history of diabetes – it can run in families
• Racial background – some races have a higher risk of developing diabetes
• High blood pressure – often puts you at greater risk of developing diabetes

The big question: Are you at risk? Find out by taking the test offered by the American Diabetes Association. Click here to take the test (it takes less than 5 minutes) and see if you’re at an increased risk for developing Type 2 diabetes.

Don’t go it alone. If you scored “5 or higher” it’s important to see your doctor for further testing. If your doctor confirms you have diabetes, ask to be referred to a Certified Diabetes Educator for further information about diabetes and diabetes self-management such as nutrition, exercise, blood sugar testing and medication.

Lower your risk by taking action. There are steps to be taken to lower your risk for type 2 diabetes. If you’re overweight, you can lower your risk by losing 5-10% of your body weight. It’s also suggested to get 150 minutes of physical activity per week, which is about 20-30 minutes per day. Taking action really matters. And making healthful choices at each mealtime will serve you and those you love for life.

Sounds like quite a destination. So how can you find it?

It all starts by taking responsibility for your own happiness and destiny – and knowing that happiness is found more often along the journey, than as the ultimate destination. Negative emotions, and the distraction they cause make us feel less-than and come from within, so let’s begin there.

Here are 5 ways to look inside and find your personal version of bliss:

1. Take responsibility. You are the only one living your life. Live it the way you want to live it, now. Counting on others to provide for your well being will often lead to disappointment. You are the only one who knows what you feel, think and want. Act on your heart’s desires and create your life the way you want it to be.
2. Set goals, not resolutions. Set short, medium and long terms goals instead of hardened demands for yourself. Start with small goals to reach in smaller increments of time so that you can build on your successes. You can only lose weight one pound at a time; finish a book by reading (or writing) one page at a time. As your confidence builds, so will your momentum.
3. Set aside judgement. We are our own harshest critics. Your critical mind serves no purpose except to keep you stuck. Mistakes and failures are learning experiences, not road blocks. If you can override or turn off one negative thought a day, replacing it with a positive one – that practice could grow to include two, maybe five more positive thoughts in your mind every day. More momentum gained!
4. Treat, nurture and pamper yourself. Be your own best friend and lover. When we love ourselves the way we want to be loved, we attract those who treat us the way we want to be treated. You’ll be amazed!
5. Encourage bliss – ask for help. Getting help from people who are having success can help encourage us in the journey toward our own dreams. Put yourself in the places where people are doing the things you want to be doing, even if you are not there yet. Ask for guidance and a helping hand. Learn from those who know how and can do. Success and happiness are contagious – be open to the energy.

Life is organic. Each day offers a new start. By living in the past or the future, looking outside ourselves or continually buying into the latest fad – we cheat ourselves out of the joy, accomplishments and true miracle of the present moment. Beauty truly comes from within so why not ask what you can do for yourself today? One small change can create momentum. Move toward what makes you happiest by taking hold of your life’s journey. You are the one who owns it.

This year, how about resolving to eat more healthfully, so that you can nourish your body and life and not just feed it?

This concept of nourishing vs. feeding popped up recently when the U.S. Congress debated whether or not the nutritional content of tomato paste counts as a serving of vegetable. Sure, on paper the nutritional content of 1/8 cup of tomato paste seems to be equal to the content of a whole piece (1 cup) of fruit; but does that mean that eating foods that contain tomato paste are more healthful than an apple or orange?

Not necessarily.

Many times we think of foods only by the numbers – how many calories, how many grams of fat, how much fiber, or how much sugar they contain – without really looking at the deeper nutritional value of the food. Instead of focusing purely on the numbers, maybe it’s time that we take a look at the whole food. Is pizza a healthful choice just because it has tomato paste on it?

Probably not.

Even the U.S. Department of Agriculture has recognized this distinction by changing the focus of their nutrition guide from MyPyramid – with its confusing charts of numbers of servings, cups and ounces – to the more streamlined MyPlate, with its focus instead on the proportions of foods on your plate at each meal. This draws the focus away from counting servings of food and brings it to – How balanced is this meal? Am I eating too much starch? Not enough protein?

Nourishing meals are foundational to health and wellness.

My thought is that good nutrition doesn’t come from meticulously counting numbers all day. It comes from making healthful, nutrient-rich choices on a daily basis that work together to nourish your mind and body. It’s a much more holistic and humane way to care for yourself and those you love. I think it’s time for us to forget those typical stringent New Year’s resolutions and instead resolve to do our best to nourish our lives by eating smarter. Nourishing choices do more than fill your belly, they help you build the body and life you want – one plate, movement and day at a time.

This is a complex form of self abuse that’s sadly synonymous with American culture and no-one is to blame, yet as adults we are all responsible for making choices about self care each day. If we don’t make the choices that embrace prevention in an effective way – someone else will, often at a hospital during a stressful emergency situation and at a cost much higher than simpler preventive methods. That’s why a periodic reality check-up is so important. The private client stories we regularly hear are poignant, frightening, filled with drama and sadly – preventable.

Can you see yourself or someone you love in what follows?

I don’t have a health issue! – Would you be truly shocked by a personal health crisis? Often in retrospect, you’ll see that it’s been looming with clues for some time. Symptoms involved include weight gain, obesity, headaches, digestion or sleep issues, depression and more. When your body is out of balance in chronic ways, it leaves clues. Some can be likened to a subtle tap on the shoulder at first but if ignored over time can hit you and those you love like a painful ton of bricks. Listening to your body requires quiet time for reflection, self assessment and regular check-ups with your doctor.

I’m too busy for this! -  Do you put your own needs off because you’re “too busy” with other people, places, things? It’s easy to ignore your health in the blur of busy days. This surface behavior can be rooted in fear of facing health issues, doctors or your own mortality.

I already know all this! – Do you think: “I’m educated. I can do this alone. I can look up studies and I already know what to eat and how to move my body, so I’ve got it covered.” An “I know it all” approach can be extremely dangerous because it ignores the fact that there’s a deeper behavioral piece at work in your life. Those closest to you may see it, but may only go so far to point it out, since it’s stressful and at some point they want to keep-the-peace out of love for you. If you find yourself in conflict with loved ones over health issues it may be a sign that something’s not working. You could benefit from a professional perspective from someone outside your circle of influence.

I can’t believe this is happening to me! –  There’s hope amidst a health issue. Why? Because your body has an amazing ability to heal and balance itself with consistent choices that support your long term health. Humbling health related physical, mental, emotional and accompanying financial burdens require change – and the afflicted person is often highly motivated. It always amazes me how people on one end of the continuum get moved to the other end – to humility by life changing events.

Dr. Oz said it best during his recent health scare – prevention and the fields that provide it are not highly regarded in our culture. We would rather pay a surgeon big bucks to come in and save-the-day when self awareness and a consistently effective prevention plan could have done the job for thousands (and thousands) less. Behavior change isn’t easy. It requires professionally trained people who can see the best approaches when you can’t – providing realistic, thoughtful alternatives that you can use daily for life. And that’s why we started iBeamforlife. So you don’t have to go it alone now, or in the new year.

Next stop: Thanksgiving!

I can honestly say I have always looked forward to this time of year and can’t believe how quickly it arrives. It’s like we’re on a fast train with a lot of quick stops. Yet the choices we make through this stop-and-go-go-go time of year can have a lasting impact on our health. We all know that Thanksgiving dinner is a carbohydrate heavy meal. It’s important to know how to navigate the meal so you can enjoy the season without feeling deprived.

Here are five Thanksgiving tips:

1) Build a better plate - Fill half your plate with non-starchy vegetables like string beans, a leafy green salad and Brussels sprouts. Fill a quarter of your plate with lean protein like turkey without the skin, or even tofurky (for the vegetarians). Fill the final quarter of your plate with carbohydrates.

2) Avoid too much Fuel - You probably know that “carbohydrates” means the stuffing and potatoes – but it also includes bread, milk, yogurt, fruit, and starches such as pasta, rice, crackers, peas, corn and sweets. A tough one to limit at Thanksgiving, I know, but very necessary especially if you have diabetes. It means having very small portions of carbohydrates. Large portions won’t work, especially if you have diabetes or if you want to stay alert – read: awake through the festivities.

3) Special Stop for Diabetics - If you take insulin, be sure to bolus enough insulin to cover the carbohydrates you plan on eating. Carbohydrates are the types of foods that have the biggest effect on blood sugar. When you have diabetes it’s not that you cannot have carbohydrates, it’s just that you want to have a moderate amount of them with each meal.

4) Keep the Train Rolling - I like to go running with friends on Thanksgiving morning before the feast and football begins. It’s become our new tradition. If you have diabetes, get your friends and family to go on a walk after the meal as this will help to lower post-prandial blood sugar and that’s good for all people, diabetes or not! This is the time of year when you definitely want to get physical activity. It’s suggested to do about 30-60 minutes of physical activity daily. Not only will this help to lower blood sugar it will help to manage holiday stress.

5) Enjoy the Journey Mindfully - worried about weight gain or your health? Think of it this way: indulge on the actual holiday, not three weeks before and three weeks after the holiday. Even though most offices, homes, and grocery stores will be over-stuffed with holiday treats for weeks, it doesn’t mean that your stomach has to be as well.

Whether you have diabetes or not, it’s important to know that you can still enjoy Thanksgiving and the holiday season without tipping the scale and making your blood sugar soar to the North Pole. Of course, be sure to take your medications and practice portion control with your meals. And most important of all, enjoy the ride!

Improve your Memory!

Strengthen your Immune System!

All it takes is this… pill?

Did you know that supplements and multivitamins will cure whatever ails you? What, you don’t believe in magic pills? When I was a kid, my parents would periodically decide that I should be taking a multivitamin. The chewables were chalky, and the pills were humongous. I thought surely no one but my parents would ever consider taking one of those things!

I was wrong.

One in three Americans takes one or more supplements a day, at a cost of up to $75 a month, according to a recent  Nutrition Action Health Newsletter. So, the question: Do we need supplements to be healthy? The answer, as it is so often, is — it depends. But more often than not supplements are not the magic bullet they claim to be.

1) If a little is good, a lot must be better, right?

Not when it comes to nutrition. Our bodies are designed to handle the vitamin and mineral load that is found naturally in food, say, 300 milligrams of Calcium found in milk, but not the “mega dose” of a 1,000-milligram supplement. Our kidneys work overtime to clear out the excess through our urine.

2) The same thing I get in food, I can get from a pill, right?

A pill cannot duplicate the complex combinations of antioxidants, vitamins and minerals found naturally in fruits and vegetables. More than 8,000 phytochemicals in different combinations in plant-based foods protect us from chronic diseases, according to a Cornell study. These combinations could never be duplicated in pill form, and we only get the full benefit when we eat a variety of whole foods. Numerous studies show that people who take a multivitamin or mega-dose supplements are just as likely to be diagnosed with a chronic disease as those who never take a supplement.

3) They wouldn’t lie to me, right?

Don’t believe the hype. Just like the claims made on the packaging of processed foods, supplement manufacturers will claim that their products do it all: boost immunity, fight cholesterol, improve memory. Continuous research shows most of these claims have little to no merit. Studies show that mega doses of some recently touted supplements such as folic acid and selenium may increase the risk of getting colorectal cancer and diabetes, respectively. But reaching those toxic levels is near impossible when eating food alone or even taking a standard multivitamin. So back to basics: more is not always better.

4) All right, so, I should give up supplements completely, right?

Not exactly. A standard multivitamin can be an insurance policy on your health, a great way to ensure you are covering all your bases, in case you are missing something from the food you eat. But, important to remember: A supplement does not replace a healthy lifestyle. Eating a variety of whole foods like fruits, vegetables, whole grains and lean protein will ensure that you get all the vitamins and minerals you need.

Still wondering if a multivitamin is right for you? Talk to a dietitian! We can help you figure out if you really need it and, more importantly, if it poses any risk to your health. And always check with a doctor before adding a supplement to your routine, especially if you take any kind of regular medication.

Louisa Kasdon, a former economist, is also a former restaurant operator turned food writer and editor, most recently of Stuff magazine. And that’s only the short list. Kasdon is always busy, recrafting and reshaping her relationship with the topics she writes about and food — as much as it is changing in our culture.

A member of the Harvard School of Public Health’s Nutrition Round Table and founder and CEO of Boston’s Let’s Talk About Food Festival (in partnership with the Boston Museum of Science) , Kasdon has become a staunch advocate for public education around food and health. In conversation with iBeamforLife blogger Tracy Ilene Miller, Kasdon reveals how shifts in our culture are galvanizing forces in the restaurant world, departments of public health, the educational system and beyond, creating a movement worth watching — and joining.

How did you get into the restaurant business?
My husband, in college, with friends was starting a restaurant. I was the support. I started working in the kitchen, and watching the chef. That’s where I learned to cook. We were all MIT [Massachusetts Institute of Technology] kids. It was French rustic cooking. Julia Child used to live a block away, and she came in all the time.

I put that away for a long time. I went to business school, got my MBA, had two kids, and was pretty thoroughly corporate. My husband [a banker] was older, and he needed to make a career change. He decided we would launch a chain of restaurants. He was the only banker who gave restaurants money – and he did it successfully. They all knew him. In 1990, we opened.

How did you go from restaurateur to food advocate?
After I left operating three restaurants for five years, I started writing about the food world, from the point of view of someone who is sympathetic. Over time, I became more sensitive to public health, obesity and sustainability. It seemed to me that food was a lot more than entertainment. I became captivated by the changes [in perspectives about food]. I was the first person here who started writing about chefs who were concerned about health. There was a shift in the culture, but there was also a shift in me.

What was the problem for chefs?
The problem for restaurants, when they want to be more responsive, for example to obesity, is the plate looks different, and consumers don’t think they are getting enough. For instance, in most cases, the protein is too big. But for the customer who has grown up on a 14-ounce porterhouse steak, a large protein and overflowing plates signify value. My older sister died, effectively, of obesity; it claimed her at 53. I started to understand and multiplied her, what obesity was doing to life and to the cost of health care.

Have there been notable shifts then?
Yes. Restaurants and chefs are feeling a sense of responsibility not just to make something delicious but healthy and authentic. One of the things I wanted to do [with Let’s Talk About Food] was pair chefs with nutritionists. Chefs have been trained to make something taste delicious, but not taught about nutrition. Traditionally, they think of portion control from a savings point of view — not caloric.

But over time there has been an education, not only of local and seasonal foods, but nutrition, to change what is considered an attractive plate. Chefs are much more interested in whole grains and vegetables. I think everyone is looking at obesity. Chefs have become rock stars, and they have celebrity power that they can bring to the conversation.

So, is the concern about food confined to a few rock star chefs and maybe the East and West Coasts?
I recently screened “Food Fight,” a great documentary and a big huge warm embrace of Alice Walters [owner of Chez Panisse in Berkley, California, and an advocate of the farm-to-table food movement]. But she could not have been the only person doing anything on this issue.

Clearly not everyone is [involved in food issues], but it is not just the elite. I look at the [Let’s Talk About Food] event in June, with 15,000 people there, and a lot of them were college and post-college students. And for them, food is a huge issue, like Earth Day was for us. The food movement is the social movement of our time, and people want change. Every movement has elites; things start with people who read and talk the most.

But all over the country people are organizing potlucks and farm dinners. I don’t think it is just little blocks of people with MBAs in Boston. In Kansas City, Montana, Birmingham, there are pockets of people who care about this issue. Physicians are concerned about obesity in young children.

For instance, school lunch has become a rallying cry. It’s an area that people can organize around. School lunches are a huge issue for young mothers and parents. Chop Chop, a magazine that has been around for a year and a half, and in its sixth issue is a healthy, fun cooking magazine for children. Original distribution is through pediatricians, and its printing a million issues, and in every state. It is all over the country.

What can we expect in the future on the issue of food?
I think food is going to get better. It took us 40 years to screw up, and it probably won’t take us as long to fix it. I think that the whole future is about not just what you put in your face, but about how it is grown, how to protect it and keep it safe — how we manage not to degrade the land and how we teach children to cook. I teach children to cook, and they don’t know how to cook. I paired a chef and physicist together, and the kids were like, “This is how you make spaghetti, what?” And all those Cs [carbon] and Os [oxygen] have to do with spaghetti? All that awareness is what I see for the future.

How will awareness make a difference?
I’ve run 25 events, and I’ve been writing about food for 15 years. What I know is, once you raise people’s awareness, they want to change. People can make choices about food, where, for instance, they can’t make choices about the debt crisis. It is an empowering movement to be part of — “I can make choices about what I put in my face.”

Is there one way to make a difference?
What I keep saying to people is everyone has a stake in food. I think everyone is concerned about food. Some people are turned on by cooking, some focus on obesity, local cooking, food justice, or safety — all of these currents run together.

Whatever seems to be most important to you, ride that ray of sun. Whether it’s writing about it, food security, or teaching cooking or buying at farmer’s market, the more people involved, the more people concerned about the quality of the food we serve, the better off we will be.

To get involved, stay in contact with the Let’s Talk About Food event, or experience one of the festival’s year-round events at the Museum of Science. And for your own personal journey in food and nutrition, iBeamforLife can be your guide and partner to a healthier, more vital you. Join us.

Scientists, she learned, observe, gather information (and specimens, which could account for the 20 different bugs she’s collected in her outside “workshop”), ask questions and then make decisions or come to conclusions.

For a mother continuously gearing up to shield her daughter from those forces that beckon her to develop poor eating habits, this proclamation was one key to my summer strategy for continuing to develop my daughter’s internal compass about food.

I have of course used the well-worn “either-or” cornerstone to parenting young children to steer my daughter toward the decisions I wanted her to make as soon as she was old enough to make them. “Do you want water or milk?” No choice other than the ones I gave her.

That works when kids are two or three, but at seven, the age of reason, and beyond, children’s ability to internalize good eating habits must be just that — food choices internalized based on their own developing values and sense of self, and not ones made to rebel against parents. I’ve gladly and most definitely used my daughter’s recent self-identification as a scientist to influence her food choices.

Take for instance a recent trip to a fast casual restaurant that offers fresh, healthful options but also some of the awful choices that, seriously, make me cringe when directed at kids. Fast food restaurants may call a sub sandwich, a fountain drink and a choice of potato chips or cookies a “meal deal,” but I call it a raw deal for kids.

Never mind that a recent study found that consistent consumption of potato chips and sugar-sweetened beverages were the most likely contributors in weight gain over time. As a parent, I balk at how kids are set up for poor eating in our culture when sugary beverages and treats are offered as side dishes to meals, not the small indulgence they should be following a healthful meal, or even later.

So, my little scientist and I were standing there, looking up at the selections on the brightly lit board. There were two things she already knew: from school, she knew that foods are chemicals; from me, she knew that too much sugar in one day is unhealthful. It’s something I’ve been talking to her about since she was five, to understand the hidden ways sugar appears in foods, especially processed foods, and how sugar provides no help relieving that physically raw hunger she feels, especially during growth spurts.

From there, I made it a game, that she was the scientist and I needed her to make the best decision of what chemicals I was going to eat that day. Working off of her observations, it actually didn’t take long to determine which foods had the “chemicals” to eat now, and those to save until later. I followed her line of thinking, she was engaged and she then used her conclusions about my meal to apply to her own menu choices.

By using something that she identified with, I involved the little scientist in her own decision-making process, at a level she could understand. Without getting pedantic or preachy, I found a way to help guide my daughter toward making her own choices rather than my setting a command. And, we had fun!

Every child will be different, but there’s no doubt that as obesity rises in kids not only do parents have to model their own good behavior, they have to adopt an ingrained, consistent focus toward healthful eating habits as much as any other decision-making tools they foster for living in the modern world. Using this one source and its summary on child development, we parents can map it this way:

1. Identify clearly the need to make a decision.
2. Define the issue in simple terms.
3. Brainstorm possible solutions.
4. Narrow down solutions based on pre-determined criteria.
5. Try 1-3 of the narrowed down solutions.
6. Evaluate the solution(s).
7. Vote on a decision.
8. Re-evaluate as needed.

Defining the issue in simple terms helps guide my approach to balancing my child’s wants with my own desire to have her partake in all the fun of childhood, like summer = ice cream, and special times call for special foods (cake! cupcakes!).

As well, involving her in the brainstorming process, where she has ownership of the choices and the outcome, has resulted in fewer battles between us and more control for her, which of course is what every child wants! It’s definitely a process that takes being present, purposeful and consistent, but the long-term benefits are undeniable. My daughter is like all kids and will push for chocolate milk and ice cream before dinner, but she also continues to show balance and that she’s internalized the criteria for good eating, which is reward enough for me.

—Tracy Ilene Miller

Eating out is very American, and in my case nicely linked to my family. As a kid I spent summers with my grandmother who believed in a three-hour lunch at a good restaurant. And to this day, my mother and I do our catching up at our favorite restaurants. Dietitian or not, in my family a restaurant table is equivalent to a kitchen table.

I’m happy to report, it’s not impossible to enjoy restaurants while still meeting your nutrition goals, if you prepare. When you know what to look for, you can go restaurant hopping and feel great about your choices. Here are three must-know tips for how to order guilt-free.

Learn how to read the menu: No, I don’t mean educate yourself on some fancy French words for sauces, but rather the age-old lexicon of cooking. Menus are designed to entice you into ordering as much food as possible. So sometimes you need to look past the persuasive descriptions to know exactly what’s being said.

”Broiled,” “baked,” “grilled,” and “steamed” denote the lightest, most healthful cooking methods.

On the other spectrum, be wary of words such as “sautéed,” “battered,” “fried,” and “coated,” which indicate heavier, fat-laden foods.

Are you staring down a menu of dishes “smothered in cream sauce,” or described as “cheesy”? Then expect your dish to be covered in saturated fat and calories.

Instead, look for tomato-based sauces and words like “drizzled,” or “sprinkled.” Can’t pass up the cream sauce? Order it on the side so that you control the amount you add.

If it’s possible, sometimes viewing a menu online, or in a phone book, before you go can help you decide if a restaurant is the best place for you. It may be hard to find healthful options at Fred’s Fried Palace, so check beforehand.

Finally, don’t be afraid to go to another restaurant if you do arrive and find the menu isn’t to your (healthful) satisfaction. Or, don’t be afraid to ask how dishes are prepared or whether you can make changes. If you want steamed vegetables instead of sautéed, ask! The server and chef should be happy to meet your needs.

Empower yourself to make more healthful choices and habits: Have you ever gone to a restaurant starving and suddenly found yourself on a second basket of bread before you’ve ordered your drink? Me, too. Instead of blaming yourself, realize that being famished has taken away your ability to think rationally. Suddenly words like “creamy” or “battered” sound perfect, and grilled salmon sounds like rabbit food. Before you know it, you have a gigantic fisherman’s platter in front of you and a cheesecake on the way!

Have a snack before going to a restaurant. It’s essential to eating out guilt-free. It may seem counterintuitive, as we’ve been warned since we were young about ruining our appetite if we ate before dinner. You are “good” when you avoid eating before dinner!

The truth is you are setting yourself up for guilt (and indigestion) later on. Empower yourself to make healthful habits by having a small snack an hour before going to a restaurant. Think protein, whole grains and a fruit or vegetable. Options include:

• Apple slices with a tablespoon of natural peanut butter
• 5-7 whole grain crackers with 2 tablespoons of hummus and 5-7 baby carrots
• Romaine lettuce rollup with 2 ounces of deli meat

Know your portions: American restaurants rarely serve “normal” portions. You can easily eat a day’s worth of calories, sodium and fat before dessert arrives. To practice portion control, don’t worry, you don’t have to go to a restaurant with measuring cups in your purse. Instead, keep the following in mind:

• 3 ounces of steak, chicken or pork = a deck of cards
• 3 ounces of fish = a checkbook
• 1/2 cup of rice or couscous = a light bulb
• 1 cup of pasta = a baseball

You can also use the Healthy Eating Plate to judge portion sizes, which suggests half your plate be fruit or non-starchy vegetables, a quarter grain and a quarter protein. If you feel that you may not be able to stop yourself from cleaning the plate, ask your server to wrap half before the food is brought to the table.

Beyond these three essential tips, be sure to enjoy the experience, savor your food and be proud for treating yourself and your body to a healthful meal.

How do you dine out guilt-free?

— Caitlin Quinn MS, RD, LDN