Smart business lunches, networking dinners in stylish restaurants, deli carryouts for easy home meals and Sunday brunch out for all the family. Outsourcing our food has become a regular feature of life in these more affluent times. Enjoy it while you can, because soon you'll have to wake up to the reality that the huge increase in numbers of Irish people eating outside the home is contributing to the rising numbers of obese people in this country.
"More and more people are eating out regularly and not just for special occasions. The recent North/South Food Consumption survey found that a quarter of all food energy comes from food and drink taken outside the home," says Maureen Mulvihill of the Irish Heart Foundation (IHF). When you consider that more than 50 per cent of Irish men and 34 per cent of Irish women are overweight, it is easy to make the connection between the two. And, this is where the IHF comes in. With the death rate from heart disease here still almost twice the European average, the Irish Heart Foundation is targeting eateries to offer more healthy choices on their menus.
More than 200 restaurants, coffee shops and pubs throughout Ireland are participating in the IHF's Happy Heart Eat Out this month.
Now in its 10th year, the focus of this year's Happy Heart Eat Out is on low-fat. In the lead-up to this month-long campaign, local volunteers (in Happy Heart Groups) from the IHF visited restaurants, coffee shops and pubs up and down the country, encouraging them to use low-fat oils in cooking, to offer low fat spreads to their customers and to keep deep-fat frying and olive oil drizzling to a minimum.
Once the IHF is satisfied that a particular eatery is making a genuine effort, it will be given that smiling heart sticker for its window to entice healthy eaters into its establishment.
"Healthy eating doesn't have to be boring. We are not asking chefs to change their recipes but to cut down on the amount of oil they use or cook the dish in the oven rather than on a frying pan," says Aoibheann O'Connor, dietician with the IHF.
In terms of alcohol, moderation is unsurprisingly the key. "Studies have shown that small amounts of alcohol are beneficial, and 50 per cent of this benefit comes from the alcohol itself (as opposed to the anti-oxidants in red wine, for instance). We would recommend one to two units per day (two glasses of wine) with plenty of water in between," says O'Connor.
Cavistons Sandycove and in the Epicurian Food Hall on Liffey St have been given the Happy Heart Eat Out award (in association with the Georgina Campbell Jameson Guide) this year for offering the best selection of healthy choices on their menu. "We try to keep things simple and not douse our fish with too many rich ingredients. We steer away from cream, butter and heavy sauces," says Stephen Caviston. Stephane McGlynn, chef at Cavistons, who has just moved from Sandycove to run the Liffey St operation, adds, "We use olive oil and steamed, roasted or char-grilled dishes as much as possible, and we serve our fish with sweet potato mash and side salads."
Ross Lewis, the chef/owner of Chapter One restaurants on Parnell Square, Dublin believes the way chefs cook has changed radically over the last seven years or so. Healthy eating trends have contributed to this change. "Our fruit and vegetable bill is now more than our meat or fish bill. In the past, it would have been about half. Dishes are no longer based solely on meat or fish. There is a more interesting selection of beans and pulses that are also used. Also sauces are lighter and stocks are better constructed," says Lewis.
While it has almost become the current fashion for many upmarket restaurants to add healthy options to their menus, fast-food outlets are still lagging seriously behind in terms of attempts to use healthier cooking methods. But to be fair, when the majority of your customers are queuing up for fish and chips on a Friday night after the pub, it is hard to encourage them to eat an apple instead.
"The problem with take-away food is that you never know how it has been cooked, whether a good or bad cooking oil has been used and how often it has been reheated. Constant reheating of cooking oils changes their chemical structure and turns them into hydrogenated oils, which convert to saturated fats in the body, leading to cholesterol build up. All deep-fried convenience food is also high in salt (sodium increases blood pressure), and monosodium glutamate (which has a high sodium content) is used a lot in Chinese food," continues O'Connor.
Coffee shops are another targeted sector of the Happy Heart Eat Out campaign. Long associated with creamy buns and milky coffees, establishments such as the Bewleys chain of restaurants are now consciously offering healthy menu options.
"We took a look at our sandwiches and salad bar recently and now offer things like tuna sandwiches without mayonnaise. Also, there is the choice of coffee with skimmed milk, and low fat spreads instead of butter," says Sheila O'Molloy, the promotions manager at Bewleys. Smoothies, low-fat yogurts and fresh fruit salads have also been incorporated into the Bewleys menu.
But can restaurants seriously be expected to take responsibility for the health of their customers? "We can't give them bowls of muesli and nut roasts, but if you get simplicity into your food - good quality smoked salmon, freshly baked brown bread - restaurant customers will appreciate what you are trying to do and will be attracted to that," says Ray Byrne, the president of the Restaurant Association of Ireland and co-owner of the Wineport restaurant, Glasson, Athlone, Co Westmeath.
"The message of the month-long Happy Heart Eat Out filters down throughout the year, and on menus now you will often see things like 'please ask if you want dressing on the side or vegetables without garnish and butter'," he says.
Byrne does, however, acknowledge a rural/urban divide when it comes to eating out healthily. "In Dublin, there is a regular dining out culture, and people will often think about not eating too much. Customers in Dublin are often completely satisfied with smaller portions, but they wouldn't be happy with that in Athlone. In rural Ireland, there is still a special occasion culture, and unless they go home stuffed, customers will often feel they got a bad deal."
Apart from their annual Happy Heart Eat Out month, the IHF, together with the North Eastern Health Board, has been running a pilot project in which restaurants in the region who comply with hygiene and no smoking legislation as well as offering healthy options on their menus are given certificates of good practice.
"We do an audit of their menus and ingredients and make suggestions to use low-fat milk instead of full cream milk, to offer two side salads without dressing and to have brown bread, low-fat spreads, sugar substitutes and fresh fruit available," says Olive Carolan, the dietician with the North Eastern Health Board. Undercover monitoring visits to the restaurants awarded certificates are also carried out throughout the year. An evaluation report on this pilot project is due next month, and there are plans to extend it to all health boards.
To coincide with Happy Heart Eat Out, a free booklet of enticing recipes has been compiled by chefs Derry Clarke from L'Ecrivain and Ross Lewis from Chapter One for anyone who wishes to try out some of the healthy options at home. The Irish Heart Foundation's website (www.irishheart.ie) also has a bank of recipes to choose from and a list of restaurants, coffee shops and pubs participating in Happy Heart Eat Out.