Local restaurants promote healthy dining

LYNN – Eating healthy and dining out don?t generally go together as well as peanut butter and jelly, but the Lynn Food & Fitness Alliance, through the Lynn Public Health Department, is looking to change that by encouraging local restaurants to participate in its Healthy Dining Initiative.Lynn is a Mass in Motion Community, which is funded by Partners HealthCare. The Lynn Food & Fitness Alliance tries to increase the availability of healthy food and activity in the city.Restaurants interested in becoming Healthy Dining partners must meet a variety of criteria: They cannot have any unresolved health code violations; must follow guidelines for food allergen regulations; offer at least two choices of fruits and/or vegetable (other than potatoes); allow patrons to substitute a salad or other vegetable for fried potatoes at no extra cost; clearly designate low-fat, low calorie and lower sodium menu items; offer one percent or skim milk when milk is offered as a beverage; offer tap water free of charge and/or as the default beverage, and offer some dishes in a smaller portion size for a reduced price or offer a half-meal option to go.Kristina Pechulis is the Lynn Food & Fitness Alliance/Mass in Motion coordinator. She has been working to get local restaurants involved in the initiative. Other communities, like Somerville and Melrose, have gotten very active in promoting healthy dining, she said.?The goal is to get restaurants to provide healthy, nutritional selections,” she said. “When customers go into a restaurant in Lynn, they?ll know what the healthy options are.”Pechulis said to date, two establishments in the city have started the process of becoming a partner – Brothers Deli on Market Street and Christopher?s Café on Lewis Street. Christopher?s Café is the furthest along at this point.?We?ve always had a pretty healthy menu anyways,” Christopher?s owner David Shalvoy said.Shalvoy said he uses all fresh ingredients and can already cater to people who have food allergies, medical conditions such as Crohn?s Disease, diverticulitis or diabetes or who follow a vegetarian or vegan diet.?When you come in it?s leisurely. Everything is cooked to order. If you?re in a rush, you have a half hour for lunch, you?re not going to make it,” he said.Shalvoy, who had a restaurant in the South End in Boston before opening in Lynn five years ago, said he lost 100 pounds back in college by developing healthy eating habits that include things like grilled chicken, brown rice, salad and lots of fresh vegetables.?I think it?s a good thing that Lynn is trying to acknowledge it (the growing obesity problem),” he said. “It doesn?t take much to know how to do it, how to count carbs.”The alliance offers plenty of suggestions on how restaurants can become healthy dining establishments. They include greater use of fruits and vegetables on the plate and a decreased use of condiments and sauces on dishes and sandwiches. The list also includes making sauces and marinades with low sodium ingredients; grilling, baking, broiling or roasting rather than breading and pan frying when possible and offering broth-based soups more often than cream soups.Other suggestions, some pertaining more to particular types of food (deli, burgers, Asian, Mexican, Italian/pizza), include using lower fat cheeses or cutting down or eliminating cheeses when possible, taking the skin off poultry, using lean cuts of beef or pork, rinsing thawed seafood that may be packed with sodium, reducing the amount of sugar in recipes.Restaurants that participate will receive free promotion on the Lynn Food and Fitness Alliance website and Facebook page and they?ll receive decals to display in their establishment noting that they?re Healthy Dining Initiative partners.Pechulis said the overall goal of the program may be to improve the health of the community, but having more healthy options on the menu will also expand a business?s customer base.Restaurants interested in learning more about the Heal