Pub Grub: Yes or No
Everyone
loves to eat out, to indulge themselves on something delicious.
But some pubs have been claiming that they’re changing, that they’re healthy
and suitable for any diet.
I
am not one to believe this.
To me, pub food is and will always be stodgy, and something to eat when you
need cheering up.
There
are always ways to make your meal healthier when you’re eating out; some are
listed below thanks to NHS Change4Life:
- Try
swapping fried rice for steamed rice, or fried noodles for boiled noodles. You could
take this one step further and go for steamed dished on the menu containing
vegetables, chicken or fish.
- Dishes
made of tomato or vegetable sauces usually contain less fat than ones with
creamy sauces. Try swapping your usual curry for a madras or tandoori dish when
you’re eating out.
- When
you’re having pizza, swap your usual cheese stuffed crust with a thin, crispy
crust instead and choose lower fat toppings such as chicken, prawns and
vegetables.
- When
picking a starter, change your usual fried starter like prawn toasts for
something like soup. Soup will contain less fat and will fill you up, which
means you’re less likely to eat your entire main course.
- If
you usually have an alcoholic drink with your meal, choose the smaller size! This
way you will most likely drink less, which means less calories, and you might
save a few pennies too.
- If
you’re eating out, some restaurants offer free refills of fizzy drinks with
your meal. This makes it easier for you and your children to consume more
calories and more grams of sugar. Try asking for a jug of water on the table
instead of refills, this is free too!
- You
don’t always have to miss out on your favourite take-aways. When you really are
craving good grub, swap for the ‘low fat’ option.
To
explore the Pub world further I spoke to Simon Pick, the owner of the pub, The
Plough, Littlethorpe. I asked him all
about his food and the health industry, our conversation goes as follows:
“Do you think that your food is healthy?”
Simon replied: “I think it is. You can always improve things, but we always try
and get things like sour cream, all of our dips, low fat.
“I don’t think that when people come here for a meal they generally think about
the health aspects of the food, they just want to come out and stodge."
I
asked: “Has anything changed in the industry recently?”
He said: “The industry has become a lot tougher, and no one makes as much money
as they would do, it is very competitive.
“Everyone has to have an angle to get customers in, our angle is that
everything is home cooked, we don’t buy any of our meals in, this means that we
can get away with charging slightly more for our meals.
“There
has also been a legislation change in allergens. On our menu’s we now have to
state that if you do have an allergy, you can ask and we will tell you whether
our food contains it.
“We don’t all have to know what every meal contains but we must be able to find
out. That is the only thing that has changed massively, the most prominent thing.”
I also asked: “I know that schools have had to be governed, they have had to
change salt content and include vegetables in every meal. Has anything like
that changed in the pubs?”
Simon
replied: “We are not governed like in schools. However, we do get customers
asking to put no salt on their chips. Because everything is homemade, we can
change how much salt is in our cooking.
“Because
every batch of our food is different, the pies for example, one may have a
little bit more salt in than another. So a customer may come in one time, have
a pie, and say it has too much salt in, and then come in another and say it is
perfect.
“Salt content is something that we are very much aware of and we can also
advise about.”
My
last question was: “Is the food market in pubs really competitive around here?”
Simon said: “Around here, it is very competitive. Every pub or eatery has a
different angle. Ours is that all of our food is homemade.
“The Narborough Arms is cheap and cheerful; you get what you pay for. The
Dovecote is higher end than other pubs in this area, and is more of a dining
experience and they do charge a little more than the rest of us. And finally
the last one is Spice 45 and that’s completely different as it is a curry
house.
“We
have recently had to put our prices up because of the competition around the
area. This is the first time we have had to do it in 18 months.”
If
you do want to go out for healthy food, there are healthier options that you
can pick. However, if you are on a health kick, then steer clear of the pubs. Yes,
go out and enjoy yourself as much as you can, however, if you do want to tone
your body and lose some weight, the pub is not the way to go.
