How to Eat Healthy at Olive Garden

If you’re a health conscious diner, you’d definitely look for healthy food on the menu when you eat out in a restaurant. That means, a healthy meal is your top most priority. The food you consume is very important as it is responsible for maintaining your body function, prevent illness and growth. We need to check the nutritional content, calories, and sodium content of each dish before we order it. So if staying healthy is what you really value, you ought to know some quick facts about eating healthy food at your favorite restaurant.

You’d be happy to know that Olive Garden menu offers many healthy options for people who are conscious about their health. Olive Garden is a popular restaurant known for its wide variety of healthy choices. They have recently revamped their kids menu too to replace unhealthy items like the French fries and milkshakes with healthier options like grapes, 0 fat milk and fresh fruit smoothies.  You can find more information about healthy menu items at Olive garden here. Enjoy your favorite appetizers, soups and salads with these tips about eating healthy at Olive Garden.

Olive Garden Healthy Choices

Some pastas like Ravioli de Portobello, Spaghetti or Cheese Ravioli with meat sauce are among the healthy options at Olive Garden, that have less than 800 calories & 30g of fat. You can limit or share some entrees like 5-cheese ziti al forno, Fettuccine Alfredo, Chicken Parmigiana, Braised Beef & Tortellini. Avoid having the tour of Italy, as it contains 3,830 mg of sodium, 33g of saturated fat, 74g of fat and 1,450 calories, which exceed daily recommendations for sodium, fat and saturated fat.

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The Parmesan-crusted tilapia and Herb-crusted salmon are few of the healthier entrees on the Olive Garden menu. They have 30g of fat and calories fewer than 600. Fish is a good resource of omega-three fatty acids, which keeps your heart healthy. You should share entrees like Chicken Alfredo, Pork Milanese, Chicken and Shrimp Carbonara because each one of these have high sodium & fat level.

Olive Garden Healthy Menu – Appetizers

When you eat at Olive Garden, it’s a better choice if you skip appetizers which include refined-flour breadsticks. But if you still want to have a light bite without compromising on the taste, you can have the Stuffed Mushrooms. This appetizer is low on calories, and has fiber which adds to the carbohydrates. Moreover, stuffed mushrooms, is an item which you can simply split and share with your friends while you dine.

The other healthy option in the appetizers is the Breadsticks with Garlic-Butter Spread. It is low on fat and calories. When you have these appetizers, avoid having the alfredo dipping sauce as it is high on sodium and calories.

Olive Garden Healthy Menu – Soups

At Olive Garden, soups are top favorites. Their soup menu is vast, and every soup has its own specialty. All soups have a different taste and they also differ on nutrition content. They have a variety of soups, ranging from the Classic Minestrone to the delicious Angel Hair, 3 Onion, and the most favored Toscana soup.

But amongst all the Olive Garden soups, the Pasta e Fagioli and the Minestrone are healthy choices. The Pasta e Fagioli soup has a good balance of proteins and carbohydrates.  It consists of pasta and tomatoes, red and white beans and ground beef in a spicy broth.

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Minestrone is another healthy option at Olive Garden which is made with fresh beans, vegetables, and pasta in a tomato-based broth. It is low on calories and has a good amount of carbohydrates. The carbohydrates mainly derive from beans and pasta. 3 grams of Fiber add to the carbohydrate value. Fiber is a significant nutrient that increases satiety, normalizes the cholesterol and glucose levels and improves digestion.

Olive Garden Healthy Menu – Salads

Like the long list of soups, Olive Garden also has a variety of Salads. Among all these, the Grilled Chicken Caesar and the Garden–Fresh Salad are the healthiest options. The Grilled Chicken Caesar salad has good amount of protein and carbohydrates. It consists of grilled chicken placed over romaine in creamy Caesar dressing and is topped with croutons and parmesan cheese.

The Garden-Fresh Salad is Olive Garden’s own house salad. It is tossed with Olive Garden’s signature Italian dressing.  It is low on calories, fat and sodium which will perfectly suite your health requirements.

So now, you can choose your favorites from the menu and enjoy a healthy and delicious meal at Olive Garden. We hope you’d benefit from these tips about how to eat healthy at Olive Garden.

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