Help - where is the healthy food??

[tinyhandz]

I'm planning our first trip as a family with my DH, DD4, and DS2 in October. We just found out we're going, so I'm already having a difficult time getting reservations due to being WAY under the 180 days time frame. It's very helpful to me to see the dining reviews that have photos, but I'm a little scared about gaining 10 pounds while I'm there! The plates I'm seeing photos of are primarily fried or very greasy looking. Is it just me, or are there very few healthy options here? Even the salad photos people post are drowning in cheese and dressing and some even have fried food on top!

We're staying off property, so I'm planning some dinners off property, but trying to book character breakfasts and lunches during the day on site.

Looking for replies from health-conscious moms who have successfully navigated Disney dining options before. Many thanks for your expertise!

 

[katclicks]

I think garden grill in the land pavilion in Epcot may be a good choice. It is all you care to eat served family style. The salad was really good, our table ordered 2. The second course was turkey, fish and beef. We got a berry cobbler and cupcakes for dessert. I did not feel stuffed or like I had just eaten a bunch of really unhealthy food. That being said, with the amount of walking you do while visiting I think it has to be hard to gain weight

 

[AAshleySEG]

I am not a mom, but I have eaten at tons of Disney resturants with healthy options! I feel like a bunch of people only eat fried foods. There are MANY MANY options of places to eat at Walt Disney World. I have eaten Vegetarian and Vegan diets there and found lots of options!
It basically comes to down to people being picky. At the breakfast buffets there are plenty of fresh fruits, whole grain breads, cereals, oatmeal, all of that sort of thing, some of them even make fresh to order omelettes, with whatever vegetables you like! It is just, I say majority because they wouldn't serve the food if people didn't eat it, the majority of people eat the sausage/bacon/waffles type of breakfast. But you should be fine with ANY of the characters breakfast buffets. If you are more interested in certain places and menus you can easily look up the menus of the places that have open reservations on Disney's website or All Ears Menus to get specifics.
There are tons of unhealthy, fried, greasy things to eat at Disney World, but there are even more that are healthy and delicious! It is just not what most people choose to show on their reports...If you can narrow down which parks/resorts you are wanting to eat at I can suggest some specific restaurants which may be what you are looking for!

 

[AAshleySEG]

These restaurants have plenty of healthy options, I added the links to their menus so you can see them! Every restaurant will have some sort of healthy option, whether it be a veggie burger or vegetable sandwich at the "burger" places, a vegetable pizza at the "pizza" places, or a black bean and rice vegetarian burrito at say "Tortuga Tavern" in Magic Kingdom, the restaurants that I selected have MULTIPLE healthy options! If you are looking for certain specific types of foods I could probably narrow it down further for you! Good Luck! Hope this helps!

A new thing Disney started recently is called the Mickey Check! Healthy options at each restaurant will be marked with a Mickey check to make it easier to identify nutritious choices. If you want to learn more about that program you can find it here!

Magic Kingdom:
Be Our Guest Lunch:
Adult Menu
Children's Menu
Cinderella's Royal Table:
Breakfast
Columbia Harbour House:
Quick Service Lunch/Dinner
Liberty Square Market:
Healthy Snacks
Crystal Palace:
Character Breakfast Buffet

Epcot:
Tangierine Cafe: (Morocco)
Tangierine Cafe
Spice Road Table: (Morocco)
Children's Menu

Adult Menu
Kringla Bakery Og Cafe (Norway)
Quick Service Lunch/Dinner
Akershus Royal Banquet Hall:
Character Breakfast Buffet
Via Napoli: (Italy)
Adult Lunch/Dinner
Children's Lunch/Dinner

Hollywood Studios:
Hollywood & Vine:
Character Breakfast Buffet
Studio Catering Company:
Quick Service Lunch/Dinner
Anaheim Produce:
Snacks

Animal Kingdom:
Harambe Fruit Market:
Snacks
Tamu Tamu Refreshments:
Quick Service Lunch/Dinner
Tusker House:
Character Breakfast Buffet
Bradley Falls:
Quick Service All Day
Mr Kamal's:
Quick Service All Day
Restaurantosaurus: The Black Bean Burger here is Awesome!
Lunch/Dinner
Gardens Kiosk:
Snacks All Day

If you would like to know any resort restaurants which have a lot of healthy options let me know! Again hope this helps!

 

[EvangelineG]

I was concerned about this before our first trip too. You are doing sooooo much walking that I wasn't worried about calories, but rather that we would all get sick after a few days of eating much less healthy than we are accustomed to. We found that the TS places in particular had many healthier options, and we did just fine. Portions are huge for the most part, and so we did a lot of sharing.

We stay offsite too in a villa, and so we had the huge advantage of a simple healthy breakfast, and then got lots of vegetables for afternoon break and evening snacking.

No one got sick, everybody felt ok, and we did have a lot of treats (I mean you gotta have treats at WDW!! ), but we did a lot of sharing. Not too sure of what the server thought at LTT of our Ooey Gooey Toffee cake with 8 spoons! LOL But it worked for us.

 

[disneydacey]

Many times I order off the child's menu at counter service locations. The portions are more reasonable and they include healthier sides: fruit and veggies instead of fries.

 

[tinyhandz]

Thanks for the wonderful suggestions!

 

[mousekatool]

I don't think the majority of the food at WDW is fried, but there are the usual burger/chicken/fish places. Seems like pretty much every restaurant offers at least one non-fried, healthier option. Just off the top of my head, my CS choices from our last trip weren't horribly unhealthy:

Roasted beet and goat cheese salad from Sunshine Seasons (this was possibly the best salad I've ever had)
Lobster and shrimp roll from Hurricane Hanna's
Chicken soft tacos from La Cantina de San Angel
Roasted chicken with green beans and mashed potatoes from Cosmic Ray's
Smoked chicken and ribs combo from Flame Tree Barbecue

If you check out the menus from allears, there is actually a lot of food out there that is not fried!

 

[jstjax]

there are a LOT more healthy options now than there were in years past. I'm on a pretty strict diet in order to lose 113 lbs and I was really worried that I would gain the 30 lbs I lost prior to going there all back while I was there. I had the pedometer on my phone going the whole time and we averaged almost 10 miles of walking per day. So the foods that I indulged on didn't make a difference and I came home 8 lbs lighter! I was able to eat salads and whole grain pastas and other healthy choices. PLUS, we had the dining plan which gives you a dessert every meal. I ate those with no remorse LOL! Every meal. Every day for 6 days. Again, I lost 8 lbs. So, my point is that you can get healthy food options AND if you don't you should walk it all off.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

I'm the same way OP. I don't care about the weight gain. Walking almost 10 miles a day and then once you get home drink tons of water and get some cardio in and the weight goes off quick.

For me it's feeling during my trip with all of the unhealthy options. Don't get me wrong. I indulge but not for every single mom and snack.

If you are planning on buffets you will be fine. They have tons of healthy options IMO.

The PP gave a great list on places with healthy options. I believe Flame Tree BBQ even has a great salad. And they have a roasted drumstick for a kids meal.

 

[bangzoom6877]

I'm very health conscious but I do indulge on vacation. That said, I have found reasonable and healthy options at the following places:

Breakfast: 1900 Park Faire, Crystal Palace, Hollywood & Vine, Cape May Cafe, Boma (Kona also has healthier options but I got tonga toast when we went...couldn't resist!)

Lunch: Cosmic Ray's, Plaza (loved the veggie sandwich), San Angel, Flame Tree BBQ, Tangierine, Boardwalk bakery

Dinners: Biergarten, California Grill, Kona Cafe, Garden Grill, 1900 Park Faire, Boma, Sanaa, Yachtsman, Captain's Grille.

It's better to check the menus on the official Disney site or All Ears, than it is to rely only on pics people post. Many people will go for the fried foods because it's what they're used to eating, or just what they choose as their vacation indulgence. I don't eat french fries all that much at WDW and I do love them once in a while, especially on vacation when I'm indulging. There are better options there for me that I like more than fries, so I go with those a lot of the time.

I have also gotten an appetizer as my meal. Or sometimes two appetizers if I'm a bit more hungry. This will give you a smaller portion than a full entree, but some of the appetizers are the best dishes at the TS restaurants. In particular, I loved the chicken tostadas at San Angel, as well as the crab cake and the wedge salad at 50s Prime Time. At Yachtsman, DH and I shared two appetizers (charcuterie plate and Caesar salad) and porterhouse steak and it was plenty!

One more thing I've done is get a kids meal at a CS location. If there is something appealing on the kids menu, that's what I order. It comes with a drink and sides so I get grapes and carrot sticks for example, and a small bottle of water as my drink. One that stands out was a kids meal turkey sandwich at Cosmic Rays. It was very tasty and plenty for me!

 

[mare1203]

My family lost about 150 pounds together just a few years ago and found navigating WDW for healthy food to be pretty easy. Hard because we wanted to indulge in snacks and treat ourselves (and we did, and still do), but we also thought it was pretty easy to find something on the menu at both TS and CS that was healthy. Some of my favorites are the tuna sandwich or hummus sandwich at Columbia Harbor House and the turkey sandwich at Flame Tree Barbecue. Dole whip is a great snack and very healthy, considering. There are tons of other options as well, and generally for CS they give you a packet of dressing so you can control how much goes on.

As others have mentioned, you walk so much you don't have to worry as much about calories. In the trips where I've actually been weighing myself, I've never come back more than a pound heavier and that typically comes off pretty quickly.

 

[msdroz]

We just got back and I found that it was very difficult to find healthy options on the fly. I would try to research some of the options that people mentioned here. Yes, it seemed like a lot of places had salads but looking at them they really looked subpar. I saw a lobster roll at Hurricane Hannah's and it was loaded in mayonnaise. Maybe you could stick to fruit/yogurt as I saw those as options, I even considered getting an uncrustable just to avoid fried food. With that said, we ate pretty bad and I didn't gain one pound due to all the walking that we did. Enjoy and maybe try to eat in moderation, it's vacation!