Balancing menus with healthful choices is weighty matter restaurants must take on

Recently, one of my research volunteers came in with a complaint. She was part of a medical study using a low-cholesterol diet, forcing her to make some major changes in her eating habits. She had to eat at least five servings of fruits and vegetables every day, favoring high-fiber foods over white bread or pasta. And she had to strictly limit fat and cholesterol.

Every Tuesday night, she and the other volunteers came into our offices for cooking classes, rolled up their sleeves for blood pressure checks and stood on our digital scale. After about two weeks she lodged her protest. "I can do this diet pretty easily at home," she said. "But last night we went out to dinner, and there was virtually nothing on the menu I could eat. What am I supposed to do?" She was by no means the first to raise the issue. I hear that complaint over and over.

Now, the truth is that there are plenty of healthy choices at restaurants. We have been doing diet-research studies for years at the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, working with Georgetown University Medical Center and sending scores of people with weight problems, cholesterol problems, diabetes or other conditions out in search of foods that are new to them. We have found that even the most persnickety eaters can eat to their hearts' content at many establishments in every price range. Most chefs gladly will go well beyond their usual menu offerings to accommodate a special request.

But you would never know it to look at their menus. To judge by many menus, American restaurants are a more challenging terrain for would-be culinary survivors than the Australian wilderness. That particular individual had had enough problems dining out, and volunteers in our vegetarian studies have even more. And there are hundreds of thousands of people leaving doctors' offices with advice about changing their diets or reading about vegetarian foods, only to find restaurant offerings looking pretty bleak.

So while most restaurateurs are able and willing to prepare foods for the especially health-conscious eater, too often that fact remains a secret, despite the fact that a National Restaurant Association survey found that one in five diners looks for vegetarian dishes on the menu.

It's time for restaurateurs to get with it. In every party of four or five, there is at least one diner who would go for a vegetarian item if it were offered. And with many Americans eating out every night, many are looking for meatless choices at least occasionally. The number of people weighing in for healthier choices will continue to rise, especially with cholesterol problems, obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure and other conditions showing up in younger and younger age groups.

Every menu ought to have at least one vegetarian -- ideally vegan -- soup and main dish. Minestrone, lentil, split pea or black bean soup all fit the bill. And spaghetti marinara, vegetable stir-fry, bean burrito with roasted vegetables, veggie burgers or wraps -- all are familiar and welcoming to vegetarians.

Grocery stores began accommodating vegetarians years ago. Gone are the days when health food stores were dark, dusty places with a cashier named Sunshine in a tie-dyed shirt and folk music playing in the corner. Today, health food stores are big, bright and filled with a wide range of delightful products. They are meeting an emerging demand. And regular groceries have followed suit, with tofu, veggie burgers and soy milk stocked alongside more familiar fare.

Have America's restaurants kept pace? Not yet. But America's tastes always are changing, and keeping an eye out for health trends is not just a good service. It also is good business.

Neal D. Barnard, M.D., is president of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine in Washington, D.C., and the author of six books on health and nutrition. PCRM publishes a Vegetarian Starter Kit for Restaurants.

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