Every day, 40 percent of the U.S. population eats out, said James Huss, associate professor of hotel, restaurant and institution management. However, at the same time, millions of Americans are trying to eat healthfully.

It becomes a challenge for the health-conscious to wade through the fried food to find something suitable to eat, he said. Unfortunately, most restaurants are not interested in serving healthy menu items because they do not sell as well as others, Huss said.

“Restaurants will have a hard time making a profit on low-fat items,” he said.

Applebee’s Neighborhood Grill and Bar, 105 Chestnut St., offers several low-fat menu items, such as the low-fat veggie quesadilla, low-fat lemon chicken pasta and the low-fat brownie sundae.

However, these items are being removed from the menu, said Erikka Redman, hourly manager at Applebee’s. Redman said she is not sure why the items are being taken off of the menu. Without them, “everything else on the menu is pretty high in fat,” she said.

But there is no need for dieters to swear off eating out, said Becky Hammitt, former dietitian at the ISU Student Wellness Center.

With a bit of information and a little will power, she said students can have their fast food and eat it, too.

Ordering baked, broiled, grilled or roasted items instead of something fried or saut‚ed is one way to cut back on fat, said Laura Elliott, registered dietitian at Mary Greeley Medical Center, 1111 Duff Ave.

Other ways to cut back on fat at restaurants is to ask for sauces and salad dressings on the side, request vegetables without butter and cut off any skin or fat on meat, Hammitt said.

She advised ordering vegetarian pizza or Canadian bacon, which is the leanest meat. Thin crust has less fat than original or pan crust, she said.

At Mexican restaurants, Hammitt suggested topping food with salsa rather than sour cream or guacamole, and ordering enchiladas or fajitas instead of a fried chimichanga, she said. Corn tortillas are a better choice than flour tortillas, which are made with lard, she said.

Chinese food can be very healthy or very fattening, Hammitt said. Dishes like sweet-and-sour pork, fried wantons and crab rangoons are loaded with fat, sugar and calories. However, the vegetarian entr‚es are often low in fat and very nutritious, she said.

Hammitt suggested ordering a smoothie, a dish of ice cream or pudding for the sweet cravings after a meal instead of cheesecake or pie. However, if there is a rich dessert that can’t be turned down, “share it with your friends,” she said.

“Often times, a dessert is so rich that you only really want a couple bites,” Hammitt said.

Around Ames, students can grab a turkey sub without mayonnaise at Jimmy John’s, 108 Hayward Ave., a baked potato at Wendy’s, 327 Lincoln Way, a smoked turkey sandwich at Hickory Park, 1404 S. Duff Ave., or even eat a plain hamburger at McDonald’s, 217 Welch Ave. and still have a healthy meal, Hammitt said.

However, if there is one type of restaurant to avoid, it is buffets, she said.

“You will be tempted to eat more than you should,” she said.

In a “super-sized” society, Hammitt said, restaurants serve portions four times the recommended serving size.

Gigantic amounts of food are what people like, Huss said.

“When have you ever heard someone talk about a great restaurant that gave them three ounces of meat, half-cup serving sizes and two exchanges of bread?” he said.

To avoid eating everything on the plate at a restaurant, Elliott said to ask for a doggy bag with the meal and place half of the food in the container before starting to eat. Another option would be to share an entr‚e with a friend, she said. If you are trying to lose weight, restaurants really aren’t the place to do it, Hammitt said.

“Eating out should be limited to two times a week,” she said. “[It is hard to] control your portion sizes, and the way it is prepared.”