Dinner:

The restaurant: If you're out to lunch with colleagues and start with pate, go on to steak and kidney pie and finish with bread and butter pudding, you're heading into diet danger. This meal contains twice as much fat as you should eat in a day, two thirds of your day's calories, and enough salt to push your blood pressure through the roof. You'd need two hours on the squash court to burn off this meal.
Switch: Start with smoked fish or melon then for main, go for a lean grilled steak. Avoid the rich creamy sauce that comes with it and order mashed potatoes instead of chips or roast potatoes. Say no to a dessert and you'll end up with a meal containing just a third of the fat and just over half the calories of the first fatty option.

Parties: Most of the finger food served at cocktail and office parties tends to be very high in both fat and salt. Sausage rolls, vol-au-vents filled with creamy sauces, salty nuts and nibbles, sausages on sticks, fried chicken wings are all likely to expand your waistband. It's amazing how quickly you can munch your way through a thousand or more calories and massive amounts of fat which together pile on the pounds.
Switch: This is not always easy at this type of party, so the best thing is to eat something healthy before you go. While you're there, opt for unsalted nuts, olives, mini smoked salmon sandwiches and prawns. If there's a choice of dips, go for tsatsiki (yohurt and cucumber), houmous or guacamole rather than garlic mayo or cream cheese.

• For more information and ideas, visit www.michaelvanstraten.com.

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By Louie Matthews

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