Thai Food... Healthy Choices???

Alsison

Hi All,

Any recommendations on healthier choices when eating out at a Thai restaurant?? Most of these restaurants do not have nutritional information for their food...

Any help would be greatly appreciated...:flowerforyou:

Cheers,
Alsison

careyannal

Last time I ate Thai I got garlic chicken, no rice with a side of broccoli. Your best bet is probably any of the chicken your chicken dishes, avoid the rice and noodles.

iAMsmiling

Won ton soup.
Silver noodle soup.

Actually, I think most of the curry dishes aren't too bad. The sauces often have coconut milk in them, but they run thin and if you eat the veggies/meat/fish not over rice, you should be good.

hughv1

I always opt for the stir fries that come with veggies and I skip the rice. The coconut milk curries and noodle dishes can really pack a caloric whallop!

Ginnyesq

I usually get the tom yum shrimp soup. Any clear broth soup will do, though.

healthyCAL

tom yum soup. my favorite and sooo filling. I ordered an entre' and couldn't even eat it.

Topher1978

I have never had Thai food that wasn't healthy. Do you mean low calorie?

FabMrFox

I increase activity for the day to make room for the extra calories. Everything I love at the thai place is loaded with calories

Eafears

Oh I love the FRESH spring rolls. These are not of the fried variety, just watch the sauces. Personally I love Pad Thai, but I always cut it in half. Cashew chicken is good too and I don't know the name of it, but I had this very spicy shrimp dish that had a red sauce lots of veggies and rice. It was delish. Enjoy your meal!

batgirlmama

If you are looking to make it yourself, head over to skinnytaste.com. She has some fabulous curry recipes. I actually ate at a thai restaurant today. My whole meal was 350. I have a chicken borth soup and four pork dumplings with lemongrass tea. I was stuffed afterwards too!

You can totally do this.

acpgee

The salads contain sugar but no oil Ie Green Papaya or Mango salad or Laab.

The stir fries will have some oil, but less than Chinese. The BBQ dishes will contain sugar, but little oil. Would avoid green curry and Tom kha soups because of the coconut cream.

gingerjen7

I'd make it at home and eat small portions, but in the even that I want paenang curry and I'm not interested in grinding up ingredients and I'm going to get it take out, I'd just skimp at other meals so I can enjoy the treat.

TexasRattlesnake

I don't know if it's healthy or not, but here's my advice: Drunken. Noodles.

OMG... The Bomb.

sullykat

Soup, fresh rolls, grilled anything. But, you really can only choose one thing because they tend to be very big portion sizes, so unless you allot it into your day by eating less at other meals, I'd still stick with just one item off the menu.

I would stay away from anything with a sauce. They are either very high in fat, or high in sugar.

SuperVegan8

Give white meat dishes (chicken/fish) or vegetable/tofu dishes a go. Most people are surprised by Tofu, its as high in protein as many meats, low fat and a better calorie/protein ratio than many meats. Give it a go, Tofu is horrid if it isnt cooked right, but in stirfries etc its great.

I often get vegetable stirfries and tofu vegetable stirfries and you can eat and indulge without worrying about too many calories.

Once side note though, satay and cashew nut dishes add calories quicky. HOWEVER - calories dont always mean a bad thing its just keep it in mind. Nuts in dishes provides alot of nutrients and 'good' fats.

I usually just skip desert and entree (spring rolls etc are 200 calories plus usually) and i tend to order 2 veggie dishes (a plate of veg and a tofu/veg dish and i usually cant eat it all (i am a pig!).

julieh391

I will seriously eat nothing but raw fruit and veggies all day to be able to stuff myself like a pig at a Thai restaurant. LOVE me some Thai!

SuperVegan8

Soup, fresh rolls, grilled anything. But, you really can only choose one thing because they tend to be very big portion sizes, so unless you allot it into your day by eating less at other meals, I'd still stick with just one item off the menu.

I would stay away from anything with a sauce. They are either very high in fat, or high in sugar.

I agree with you here. 'Special sauce' usually translates into salt with fat with sugar.

I stick with soy, chilli, basil based sauces but you need to just note that soy sauce is high in sodium/salt if you track and monitor salt intake (which is a good idea).

For drinks, stick with a FRESH juice, green tea or water.

sc1572

bump!

ninick

I always get either the papaya salad, BBQ chicken (remove skin and do not touch the sauce), or the steam fish with sauce on the side.

8837Graham

I love Thai Red Curry! I stay with chicken or seafood and keep my portions in check. I swap rice for veggies, and only have this as a once per month treat.

zekni

You guys know how easy the red or panang curry is to make at home and avoid the whopping calories? I do this all the time. Two words:
Crock pot.
Can of coconut milk, half a little can of red or panang curry from the asian food store (some regular grocery stores carry it, but not many), about a teaspoon of sugar and a dash of fish sauce (also asian food store). Fill crock pot the rest of the way with veggies. I usually go with onion, bell peppers, pineapple, and butternut squash. Let cook all day while you're at work, come home and add shrimp and crab, and 15 or 20 minutes later you've got yourself a whole week's worth of curry dinners. Just skip the rice and eat it like a soup.
I can't remember the calories off the top of my head because I just have it added as a meal in my journal, but one bowl of this "soup" is not outside of my normal dinner calories. You can still eat the rest of the day and it tastes just like the real thing.

Alsison

I have never had Thai food that wasn't healthy. Do you mean low calorie?

Yes I do mean low calorie. The place close to my work seems to have nice smaller lunch portions and they have the option to go with brown rice. It is just hard to log as I have no idea what the calories would be...

Thanks for all the great advice.

Cheers,

Alsison

Kotuliak

Most calories in Thai food are in the curries, and they come from the coconut milk. That includes red, yellow, green, panaeng, and masaman curries, as well as Tom Khaa Gai soup. All of them, by the way, are excellent and very tasty dishes.

Among the good low calorie choices would be fresh spring roll (i.e. not fried), green papaya salad (som tam), beef salad (yam nuea), laab (a meal made with minced meet of any variety, e.g. pork, chicken), and Tom Yum Goong.

Pat Thai is made of rice noodles and sweet sauce but not much oil. Thai style fish would be a good choice but is not common at the Thai restaurants in the Western world.

Sticky rice is delicious beyond words but again, it is much higher in calories than regular rice and few Westerners know how to prepare it right.

Personally, I'd rather save other calories to make sure that I can have a nice tasty Thai meal.

amberaz

IF I am looking to keep calories low, I will get Laarb Gai...but then I usually get fried spring rolls and coconut sticky rice with mango, too. :laugh:

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fishshark

i say this anytime one of these threads pop up. If i am going out to eat im gonna eat whatever i want. Im spending money so im going to enjoy myself. If i want plain chicken and veggies il making that at home for 5 bucks.

fibonacci11235

I'm half Thai. You want to avoid a lot of the noodle stir fries and a lot of other fried Thai food. Although it is delicious, stuff like pad Thai and drunken noodles can often be cooked in a heavy dose of oil and rice noodle pack a huge amount of calories with little nutrition. Good choices:

-- as mentioned laarb (Herby salad w lime juice and a bit of ground meat like chicken)

--- som tam (papaya salad)

-- any of the grilled meat dishes (limit the amount of sticky rice you eat)

--tom yum

--spicy beef salad

If you can find a place that specializes in Northern style Thai, that's also good. Northern style Thai is probably the healthiest because it uses a ton of herbs and veggies and less noodles, stir fries, and curries.

You absolutely want to avoid things like Thai tea which are calorie bombs like a large Starbucks frappe. I mean I love all of that stuff too, but it isn't conducive towards meeting your goals if you are in weight loss mode.