Traveling to the UK

There are a lot of chains in the UK especially in London which have even low carb/hi protein meals which you can pick up quickly. Also, M&S (a supermarket) has a range of foods called Fuller Longer. These are typically low GI foods which you can pick up (salads, etc) for lunch which is probably much better than sandwiches (but then I don't eat bread)... I'd also pick up a few bags of nuts/seeds, some fresh fruit and bottled water.

Keep in mind London is quite expensive so if I were you, I'd go to a Sainsbury's/Asda supermarket to get the basics. You'll find IN GENERAL that UK/Ireland/Europe doesn't have the bazillion processed low fat/skim/nonfat/sugarfree type stuff you have in the US and I find dairy (though I'm off it myself) tastes better here (butter, cream)... ENJOY!

I've never had a problem eating well in London and I'll be there myself on Friday-Sunday for a long weekend! I can't wait!

Indian: I get tandoori chicken (dry, no sauce) and salad... I love peshwari naan but it's lethal and no amount of convincing myself that it has fruit and nuts so it must be healthy will offset the hi fat/carb content but YUM!

Brown chapatti with a dry meat or tomato sauce curry plus a vegetable side dish, some places now offer lower fat curries with much less ghee and yoghurt instead of cream. It's a shame not to have south Asian food in London IMO.

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tandoori chicken or chicken tikka without the sauces are good options. (and delicious, you won't miss the sauces)

Also Lebanese food. there are a lot of good Lebanese places in London. you can get various grilled meats and salads, plus hummous, just make sure they go easy on the olive oil, sometimes they serve up food swimming in it but you can ask them to serve it without olive oil or with just a tiny drizzle of it

If your in London and like a curry, then suggest you get on the District Line (Underground) and head to Aldgate East and take the 2 min walk to Brick Lane. Tons of fantastic restaurants to choose from and all willing to offer you something different to entice you in.

Hah!!!!!!! Brick lane ruby's taste like any other ruby house! Save your train fair and stay local to covent garden!

Chicken Tikka - no masala sauce is good with dry naan or chapathi and yoghurt.

Food from supermarkets will have calories on them, be careful, they may give the values by portion rather than pack. Ready meals def a no go.

UK and US tastes differ, for instance when we launched Ragu we reformulated taking out starch and glucose, so things may not taste the same despite same brand names .... not suggesting you smoke but camel cigarettes in Europe are different blend to UK to USA.

Some restaurants will have calorific values on the wem for their menu

It's a capital city, the food options are extensive. It's London, so there will be plenty of food you recognise.

When I'm in a hotel, I'll often choose to go to tesco and get a side salad and some cooked meat to assemble. Morrisons have a self serve salad bar... but unfortunately it's mostly dressing laden pasta, especially if you get there at the wrong time.

Chicken tikka masala could be much less calories if you chose either the rice or bread, and had a small portion.

I apologise in advance if you're already aware of most of our differences...

Most fast food chains (and some restaurants) have nutrition information displayed in store/house (usually just the calories and fat) with more details on their websites. Most American food chains over here have different nutritional information for their products than the States' version - something to be aware of if you have something in your frequent/my foods list.

Most nutrition labels have everything MFP tracks except potassium, and some omit vitamin and mineral information (also "X % of your RDA" may be different than the levels of the States' - and MFP's - RDA). Some products you may have to multiply salt grams by 400 to get sodium milligrams, if sodium is omitted. Nutrition labels also state either "per 100g/100ml" and/or "per portion" "per fraction of packet", "per X grams/millilitres serving", etc.

As far as not having a fridge, I regularly forget to put my juice and milk back and it is fine (don't know what temp your hotel room will be). Most shops also sell milk in (imperial) pints and juice in 200ml bottles. Milk: blue lids/whole/3.6% fat, green lids/semi-skimmed/1.8% fat, orange or purple lids/semi-skimmed/1% fat, red lids/skimmed/0.1% fat. Most (all?) is pasteurised, some is also homogenised - milk generally states it on the label, not so sure about juice.

Some of the larger supermarket stores have hot meat and deli counters - their websites list what services a store has and also a search feature to find the nearest stores with a certain facility.

Supermarket ready meals are not that bad. Plus most of them now state the nutrition information (calories/sugars/fat/saturated fat/salt) "per serving/pack/half pack" on the front as well as the back, so you don't have to pick one up just to see if it fits (and makes comparing several easier).

Our volume measurements are mostly metric now (e.g. a "15g serving" of peanut butter is approximately one metric tablespoon, a "4g serving" of Marmite is approximately 2/3 of a metric teaspoon - some things are just too hard to measure).

The Strand Palace Hotel has a nice restaurant and is just round the corner from Covent Garden. You have a starter bar with a lot of salads and fish and the like, and then you choose your meat and vegetables for the main course, and it is all fresh, though a rather expensive restaurant. There are two restaurants there actually. Also a restaurant in Covent Garden called 'The Bistro' that does fish among other things, that is very nice.

Also look out for a restaurant called 'Porters' that is renowned for it's pies, if you fancy more of a splurge. They do all kinds, including fish and vegetarian ones, served with fresh vegetables.

If your in London and like a curry, then suggest you get on the District Line (Underground) and head to Aldgate East and take the 2 min walk to Brick Lane. Tons of fantastic restaurants to choose from and all willing to offer you something different to entice you in.

Hah!!!!!!! Brick lane ruby's taste like any other ruby house! Save your train fair and stay local to covent garden!

No, the original poster is correct, go to Brick Lane. Most Brick Lane curry houses have much wider menus than your bog standard curry houses, and are quite cheap. The Standard curry house is a good one.

As to shopping, M&S is always good, and Eat is good for soups.

I work for a US company, and a lot of my colleagues are on secondment from the US. For some reason, they all love to eat at Pret a Manger.

all of what has already been mentioned. I like the POD chain that does some really different and low cal salads etc for lunch. if you like pubs then the JD wetherspoon chain prints the calories on their menu and has some lower cal options. Sushi places are also very common and good value for calories. I like the wasabi chain. Enjoy London and spend some time walking around to burn more calories and get your curry.

Pho (a Vietnamese chain) does delicious healthy soups. Pod and Leon also good and for a curry I'd try a Shashlick.

Have fun!

As others have said for currys can still have great food at lower cals. For me personally, i order chapati, sag bhajji (spinach and onion, and chicken tikka bhuna (or some other dry variety like others have suggested). Never really been too much into rice with curry so just a case of replacing my beloved sag aloo, and switching garlic naan with chapati. could also throw in a lentil dahl to bulk up meal if needed.

a great lunch from M+S (again as others have suggested this already) is cold salmon salad, really tasty and filling and only about 250 cals. from both sainsburys and m+s spincah and feta parcels are quite low and tasty, and houmous with veg to dip or falafels etc is quite a good option.

If your in London and like a curry, then suggest you get on the District Line (Underground) and head to Aldgate East and take the 2 min walk to Brick Lane. Tons of fantastic restaurants to choose from and all willing to offer you something different to entice you in.

Hah!!!!!!! Brick lane ruby's taste like any other ruby house! Save your train fair and stay local to covent garden!

No, the original poster is correct, go to Brick Lane. Most Brick Lane curry houses have much wider menus than your bog standard curry houses, and are quite cheap. The Standard curry house is a good one.

and much better value too.

I'll be staying in London on business for 10 days starting this weekend, and would like advice/suggestions on healthy eating options there, restaurants/chains/foods to avoid, interesting things to try, and whatever else you can think up. I am not one for a typical English breakfast (aka heart attack on a plate ), and most mornings prefer a cup of tea, a banana, and something with protein in it, such as a smoothie, peanut butter toast, scrambled eggs, bacon, etc.

Lunch is typically a sandwich or a bowl of vegetarian or lean protein-type soup and a roll.

I love me some Indian food, but know that my favorite meal of chicken tikka masala, rice, and naan is waaaay too many calories to consume regularly (but sooo yummy!). Any good nutritious ethnic suggestions?

For what it's worth, I'll be staying in the Soho/Covent Garden/Leicester Square neighborhood. AFAIK my hotel room won't have a refrigerator, but I could always pop into a Sainsbury's and bring back some non-perishables. What do you like from there or Tesco's or other British supermarkets?

Thanks in advance for your help!

Not sure what you thing an English Breakfast consists of as you have called it heart attack on a plate, but then say you will eat toast, bacon and scramled eggs, which are all basics of the breakfast.

The hotel will usually have a buffet breafast which will include cereals, fruit juice, fruit, yogurts, rolls, toast, and then the cooked breakfast which will include scrambled eggs, bacon, tomatoes, mushrooms etc.

There will be enough variety there for you to make a healthy choice.

Do you know what hotel you are staying in?

As for the restaurants in the evening, again you will be able to make healthy choices wherever you go. You will find the portion sizes a lot smaller than in the States, and not everything comes automatically with fries, there is nearly always an option to change the chips for salad or jacket potato.

God luck, and enjoy the trip

I moved out of London up north 2 years ago and the one place I really miss is Kulu Kulu sushi on Brewer street near Picadilly circus/covernt garden. If you like sushi I really recommend it and they do a nice range of salads and sides to go with your sushi/sashimi.

It's also good because you don't have to feel like such a loner when your sitting at the sushi train

Charlotte Street and surrounding area has loads of nice places and just about any cuisine you can imagine.

Google Maps - "restaurants near Charlotte Street, London"

Second the Brick Lane suggestion for authentic curry by the way.

Very interesting food market just south of London Bridge - Borough Market, open Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Loads of specialist/organic/farmer's foods to nibble and try plus a very historic part of London to explore while you burn of the calories.