After a hard day’s work or a busy weekend the last thing you feel like doing is slaving away in the kitchen over dinner. Nightly takeaway meals can undo all that hard work you have put into exercising, though. Healthy takeaway meals are often hard to find especially if you don’t really know what you are looking for. So get smart about eating healthily and find quick and easy foods that are great for the entire family.

Fish and chips

Already a healthier alternative to greasy hamburgers, fish and chips can be made even better in a few simple steps. Ask for a side of veggies, peas or a salad to replace fatty, salty chips and make sure you get your fish baked rather than fried if at all possible. If it isn’t possible to order the fish without the batter, simply remove it yourself before eating it. Also stay away from mayonnaise and other fatty sauces, instead flavour your fish with some lemon.

Chinese and Indian

Chinese foods can contain a lot of oil, especially seeing as a lot of the options are deep fried. Stay away from fatty starters and deep fried meals and opt instead for meals that contain veggies like chow mein and prawns or chicken with black beans. Also stay away from egg fried rice or noodles and opt instead for boiled rice. Like Chinese, Indian foods can also contain a lot of oil – stay away from creamy curries and opt instead for something with a tomato base. Also beware of consuming lots of fizzy drinks when eating hot curries; opt instead for some low-fat yoghurt or fresh fruit juice.

Italian

Pizzas are great as a sit-down meal or take-away but they are deceivingly high in calories. Opt for low-fat toppings like prawns, ham and vegetables and stay away from pizzas with extra cheese – the mozzarella already on your pizza is more than enough. Always ask for a pizza with a thin base as a thick base simply contains a lot of unnecessary carbs. You could also opt for a smaller pizza and order it with a side salad.

Burgers

The all-time favourite take-away and often the most fattening, burgers are always sure to fill that spot when you are tired and hungry. Instead of avoiding burgers altogether just make sure you take some steps to ensure you eat them in the healthiest way possible. Stay away from crumbed burgers and always opt for a simple grilled chicken breast instead. Also stay away from fatty sauces, extra cheese and added toppings like bacon. Swap out your chips and milkshake for salad and a water.

If there is an option of vegetarian variants in the menu, you should try restricting your choice to that. If not, then choose chicken or fish over beef or pork. Select the option of the less fatty cheese, if it is available when ordering for a pizza or burger. A double cheese burger can be restricted to a single cheese or for that matter you can entirely do without the cheese. If there is an option of salad available, then it is always better to stick to that as your meal. Anyone kind of greasy and fried side dishes, such as fires or onion rings, are always a big no-no.

Try keeping yourself away from the temptation of deserts. Avoid any kind of carbonated drinks. If thirsty you can go for iced tea, low fat milk or fruit juice, and the best option would naturally be a bottle of water. Blended juice shakes are always a healthy alternative, and can even be made at home with the help of a mixer like the Philips HR 2094. These are just some precautions that you can take but the million dollar question still is why must something so unhealthy taste so good?

The same team of researchers already concluded that poor eating habits among pregnant rats led to their children developing cravings and addictions for unhealthy food. The team’s additional research has concluded that the mother’s unhealthy eating habits can raise the risk of diabetes in their children and their likelihood to be overweight. It might therefore be wise to avoid purchasing a deep fryer in the future, and instead opt for juicer, like the Magimix Le Duo, for creating healthy fruit shakes. The tests that found a strong correlation between the mother’s and child’s eating habits were all conducted on rats. Although this seems to be more clear evidence of the dangers of unhealthy eating, many researchers feel more tests are needed on the issue before any definitive link can be proven. Nonetheless, it looks as if pregnant mothers, like the ones that wear Freya might have to satisfy their food cravings with salads and other healthy snacks in the future.