How to eat less salt and less oil when dining out? Learn about healthy restaurants!

Map: Zhang Wenting

As the pace of life accelerates, more and more people choose to eat out or order takeout. But many people have concerns when ordering takeout. Is it healthy to entrust three meals a day to takeout? Especially for families with children, because children cannot consume too much salt and oil, they have higher dietary requirements, so it is more difficult to eat out. So, are there any delicious and healthy restaurants?

The answer is: Yes!

Recently, the Beijing Center for Disease Control and Prevention WeChat official account announced a number of healthy restaurants. What kind of restaurants can be called healthy restaurants? What services do healthy restaurants provide? Let me show you!

What is a healthy restaurant?

A catering enterprise that has relevant licensing qualifications, has dining venues, and provides healthy food services to the public.

What are the environment and facilities of a healthy restaurant like?

The environment is clean, the air is fresh and the temperature is suitable.

There are free-to-access promotional materials on healthy lifestyles, such as leaflets, books, etc.; there are fixed promotional forms, such as menus, posters, blackboard newspapers, tablecloths, tableware packaging, meal order cards, etc.

Healthy lifestyle support tools are displayed in appropriate locations, such as the residents' dietary pyramid, oil control pot, salt limiting pot, salt limiting spoon, BMI turntable and waist circumference ruler, etc.

What kind of restaurant can be called a healthy restaurant?

1. Managers and staff will receive more than 2 hours of training on "reducing salt, oil and sugar" cooking skills and balanced diet knowledge every six months.

2. Healthy restaurants will improve cooking methods, create healthy menus, label low-salt and low-oil dishes, and provide more foods prepared by steaming or boiling.

3. In order to improve the chefs’ skills in cooking healthy dishes, the restaurant will organize a healthy dish cooking competition at least once a year.

4. When customers place an order, the waiter will proactively introduce the nutritional characteristics of the dishes and guide consumers to choose dishes that are low in salt and oil, and a combination of meat and vegetables.

5. The waiter will explain to the customer: The restaurant can reduce the amount of salt and oil used in dishes according to the customer's needs.

6. Healthy dishes and meal packages suitable for children, pregnant women, the elderly and other groups can be provided.

7. Make fresh fruit, milk and drinking water part of the restaurant’s supply.

8. Sell small or half-portion dishes, economical meal packages, etc., and provide meal takeaway services.

9. Control the amount of oil, salt and sugar in the diet, control the amount of oil and salt in each dish, and gradually reduce it.

10. Have at least one healthy lifestyle instructor to regularly update health promotion materials and regularly conduct internal healthy lifestyle promotion and guidance at least once a month. (Based on the WeChat public account of Beijing Center for Disease Control and Prevention)