Healthy eats at DL?

[awdsmama]

What healthy meal and snack options have you found?

Do you LOOK for healthy options or figure "hey I'm on vacation, bring on the fun food"?

I'm curious after reading this article "Dining in Disneyland: Not the Happiest Food on Earth"

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-suzanne-steinbaum/disneyland-health_b_5088085.html

 

[ImDMous]

We usually go to Paradise Garden Grill at DCA for chicken skewers and greek salad. At Carnation Cafe they have a delicious turkey sandwich on a pretzel roll or a spinach salad. The fruit stands all over the place have carrots, pineapple, apples, etc. It's really not hard to eat reasonably well.

Too bad the cardiologist wanted to spend her time judging everyone instead of doing some research to see that she could ask for whatever she wanted to be taken off or put on the side of anything she ordered. Seems like she was just looking for trouble, not solutions.

I'm all about eating what I want on vacation, but since we're passholders and go frequently we can't just eat whatever we want all the time.

 

[lovebug33]

I think that goes over board. My bro and SIL eat super healthy. At Disney, it's all hands off. That's the fun. Although their boys will beg to get a fruit off the fruit cart. That said, how did the guy not find the fruit cart?

 

[awdsmama]

I think that goes over board. My bro and SIL eat super healthy. At Disney, it's all hands off. That's the fun. Although their boys will beg to get a fruit off the fruit cart. That said, how did the guy not find the fruit cart?

I know I myself canNOT pass up the fresh pineapple spears next to the Jungle Cruise! Yummmmm

 

[juliamollymama]

We also like Bengal BBQ. They have grilled veggie skewers and we get the chicken skewers with no sauce--my DD's are weird about sauces. There is a fruit stand near by for dessert and Dole Whips are just around the corner. I usually get a few of each kind of skewer and everyone just takes what they want.

I second the greek salad! It is really pretty good!

 

[lovebug33]

I know I myself canNOT pass up the fresh pineapple spears next to the Jungle Cruise! Yummmmm

And while you are there get one of those skewers at the Bengal BBQ with the veggies. One of my faves! This person just probably wanted to complain

 

[dragonflycurls]

In the past I looked at trips to disneyland as a
No holds barred binge fest. I'm now working woth a nutritionist and have not had sugar soda or white flour for over 3 months and plan to continue through my disneyland trip in June. I've started peeking through menus and have contacted DL dining through email to make sure I can have items without added sauces (like the glazed chicken at Ariels) I don't want my restrictions to affect my party. There are certain places I won't be able to get anything (stage door cafe) but there is lots of fresh healthy items at Disneyland!

We eat at the BBQ place (I'll be getting plain chicken and plain veggie skewers), ariels grotto and pch breakfast off the menu not the buffet. Still looking up other options but will probably have salads and bunless burgers

 

[Aladora]

Do you LOOK for healthy options or figure "hey I'm on vacation, bring on the fun food"?

Yes to both.

I figure "hey, we're on vacation, bring on the corn dogs!" but I also tend to get to day 3 and just want healthy stuff. DS is a huge fruit and veggie fan so by day 2 he is done with the junk.

I remember when DH and I went to Disneyland for our honeymoon back in 1999. Back then, the healthy choices were few and far between and by day 5 I was desperate for anything that was not deep fried or covered in sugar. We ended up finding the one cart that sold fruit and paid an astronomical amount for an apple. Best apple I think I've ever had!

I also find the serving sizes for a lot of the places to be gigantic. We went to Denny's (or IHOP?) for breakfast and I got an egg white omelet with I think tomato, avocado and cheese. Not only was the omelet give enough for all three of us to share but I would not be exaggerating to say that there was close to a full cup measure of cheese covering it!

 

[awdsmama]

but I also tend to get to day 3 and just want healthy stuff. DS is a huge fruit and veggie fan so by day 2 he is done with the junk.

This was me this trip. For our 2012 trip, we drove, I brought a good amount of groceries: bagels, peanut butter, applesauce pouches, caprisuns, gogurt, granola bars...


This trip the budget was a bit larger and we were flying so I said to heck with groceries, bring on "park food". Well we arrived on Weds and on Saturday I used the car rental we had for that day to stop at Target and get bagels, pb, fresh fruit etc because 1) it really was cheaper and makes a difference over 7 days and 2) I wanted "normal" food again.

 

[Aladora]

I know that you can get veggie cups and berry cups at the Starbucks in DCA. They also have sandwiches that were on the healthier end of the spectrum. Also, Pacific Wharf Cafe.

The healthy food is there if you look for it...but I have a rule that I don't worry about what we eat on vacation unless our bodies tell us that we have had enough junk!

 

[roflclaw]

I really like the apple slices they have at a lot of the carts...although it comes with caramel for dipping, you don't have to eat all of the caramel ahah.

I also bring a lot of veggies into the park with me, carrot sticks and cucumber slices are things I normally eat on a daily basis so not having them feels weird to me.

Also during my last trip my mom got a chicken cesar salad from the boardwalk grill (while I shoot for the sundried chicken tomato pasta omg) and they were pretty light on the dressing.

 

[bouds]

At Ariel's grotto, everything comes with fruit and vegis. I had the chicken/udon noodle thing which seemed quite healthy. For the kids, we usually order a kid's meal with carrots and apple slices instead of fries, and milk instead of soda. We might get one order of fries for the 4 of us to share. At Bear country, they have sweet potato fries, which are generally a little better than regular fries, or you can choose slaw, which looked reasonably healthy. I have one kid who is super picky, so I bring baby carrots and applesauce with us for her, just to make sure she's getting something resembling healthy. Luckily, they prefer regular (not chocolate) milk to soda, so that's an easy one for us.

 

[LisaT91403]

Seems like a silly article to me, as she clearly didn't even try to find the healthier options. When I was a kid and we visited Disneyland, it seemed like burgers and fries were the only option. Now, I'm amazed at all of the choices!

In addition to the options others have already mentioned, I like the carved turkey at Riverbelle Terrace. I don't want the bread (sandwich option) or the potatoes (dinner plate option)...so I order the salad and add turkey to it. How much to add turkey? $1! And it's a good portion, too. There was nothing "unhealthy" in that salad, and the dressing is self-serve...so add as much or as little as you want. They have really nice fruit platters at RBT as well.

 

[DisneyDynamo]

Since we go to DL often we cannot always eat as if we are on vacation so I am a big fan of Paradise Garden Grill and I get chicken skewers or the greek salad. Also, at Jolly Holiday I get the turkey sandwich and tell them to hold the chips. I don't think it's really that hard to go and not get out of control with the eating. However, when we have guests in town I'm all about Dole Whips and Matterhorn Cookies!

 

[rentayenta]

We eat whatever we're in the mood for but as I posted in another thread, we share a lot. Two buckets of popcorn are plenty to share between the 5 of us. Same with Dole Floats, one each is too much. We're pretty healthy at home and don't have a lot of junk in our cub boards (minus the boxes of GS cookies right now- lol) so when we're on vacation we eat what we want. I also don't drink a lot at home but like a cocktail or two on vacation.

As far as the article, I find plenty of healthy options at the parks. Fruit is everywhere. Bengal BBQ isn't bad. Salads with dressing on the side is easy. Portion control is key.

 

[Viva Las Disney]

I eat my fair share of churros, corn dogs, and burgers in the parks but because the sides are usually apples I seem to be munching on apples the whole time I'm in DLR. I also end up eating broccoli soup in a sourdough bread bowl at least once a trip and I also love the Lucky Fortune Cookery so at least one meal is rice, chicken, and veggies.

Not exactly health food but not bad for a theme park.

 

[JadesFire]

We eat a largely WAPF-style diet, and so we basically think that just about everything at Disneyland is unhealthy. I assume all the fried things are fried in something awful, like soybean or corn oil (bring on the glyphosate!), but I generally ignore that for things like vacation. We do try our best to avoid that stuff the rest of the year, so I just chalk it up to a really generous 20% of our diet (we do the 80/20 rule) and ignore it.

When we went in September (4 days), my husband baked us a nice loaf of whole wheat (with rye!) sourdough bread, and we brought grass-fed butter and grass-fed yoghurt, and raw milk (yay for Organic Pastures!), and our fermented cod liver oil, and had a nutritious breakfast in our hotel room before we went into the park and ate almost anything (we still avoided anything with obvious corn in it) -- we had beignets at least once a day(!). We also avoided the Dole Whips because they have hydrogenated soybean oil in them, and that's just a little too much for us. (Now that hydrogenated oils are no longer on the FDA's generally regarded as safe list, I am hoping for positive changes.)

We're going again for a couple of days at the beginning of June and this time we're just going to bring raw milk and some healthy snacks for the park (I'm going to make bulletproof coffee gummies) because our trip to the park is appended to the back of another trip to SoCal, so it's too much hassle to bring everything everywhere we go.

 

[kitayama]

Are the amount of unhealthy choices greater then the amount of healthy ones? Yes!
Are there healthy choices available? Yes again.
Should there be more healthy choices? Definitely.
Should Disneyland reduce the amount of unhealthy foods in the park? Heck no!

I am all for people being able to make their own choices. I feel Disney does a good job at giving people choices, but it is impossible to please everyone.
I personally chose to eat whatever I want to whenever I want to. I say relax and have fun with food while at Disneyland (if that is what you want to do.)

 

[SammiL]

For a healthy meal I pick up a pork shank or turkey leg and corn on the cob. Probably more sodium than necessary but it's a great alternative to other options.

 

[Aladora]

For a healthy meal I pick up a pork shank or turkey leg and corn on the cob. Probably more sodium than necessary but it's a great alternative to other options.

Are you talking about those gigantic turkey legs???