Last week I spent three days in Quebec City in Canada. If you’ve never been to that part of the world, Quebec City is a quaint little town with extraordinarily beautiful buildings, pretty streets and a lot of French (which embarrassingly I can’t speak a word of).
The city is currently celebrating its 400th anniversary so I shared my Quebec City weekend with a bunch of other tourists, most of them over the age of 70. It’s the perfect city for old people, because there’s not much else to do apart from wander around and eat food.
I had a lot of trouble finding places to eat because the city is so heavy on meat dishes. They had a lot of game meat too, like elk, boar and rabbit. I’m a vegetarian so finding a dish on the menu that didn’t contain meat was the tricky part. Most menus were in French too, so I often had to ask what was vegetarian (I’m getting good at saying “Vegetarian?” with a sad and confused look on my face). Actually, I felt really embarrassed that I didn’t at least have a French phrase book with me. A lesson learned for when I visit Europe.
In every restaurant that I wandered into, I found at least one token vegetarian meal on the menu. Although usually it was very rich in cheese and white pasta. So after the second day I’d overdosed on cheese and was craving a big salad, a lentil soup, or at least something that didn’t contain meat, cheese or refined grain. I’m used to eating a relatively healthy diet so eating a lot of refined foods and saturated fats is something I don’t do that often.
I thought I’d enjoy eating a lot of deluxe rich meals and not worrying about being healthy for a few days. But it played havoc on my digestive system. By the third day my guts were funny in a bad way and I felt bloated and had indigestion for the remainder of my trip through Montreal. My skin also lost a bit of its happy glow, and my face went a little blotchy. One thing eating healthy food does so well - even out skin tone.
It made me wonder how so many people survive on a Standard American Diet (SAD). Doesn’t eating all of those burgers, pizza and coke make their belly’s fill with gas and their digestive systems clog up? Don’t people want to eat better just so that they can feel better every day? Or do we not put the connection between what we put into our mouths and how our body feels?
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a health food nag. And I’m not at the point myself where I eat a 100% strict healthy diet all of the time. I’m currently writing this blog article sitting in Wholefoods cafeteria in Toronto with half a block of Green and Black organic chocolate on my mind (and soon in my belly) so I have my treats too. I just don’t understand why people choose to eat junk all of the time.
I felt so rotten and miserable after eating badly for just three short days in Quebec, that no matter how delicious the food tasted I didn’t want it anymore. I just wanted food that would make me feel physically and emotionally good.
Tips for eating well while traveling
Some cities that I travel to make it really easy to eat well and to eat vegetarian. Quebec City was just one of the hardest I’ve found yet.
If you’ve got time do a little research before you travel. I spent half an hour on the web looking for raw and vegetarian restaurants in New York City before I went and it made a difference, I ate really well.
Make use of the global vegetarian restaurant guide - HappyCow. It’s a huge directly filled with personal reviews of restaurants from all over the world. And it’s not just for vegetarians, it includes reviews and listings of restaurants that contain meat dishes so it’s a great resource for anyone who just wants to find a healthier option.
My travel buddy is not a vegetarian but loves organic food so I helped him out with it in NYC by looking for an organic restaurant. Turns out there was an organic restaurant just a block away from our apartment that we never would have found without looking it up in HappyCow first.
For vegetarians
If you can find an Indian or Asian restaurant, you’ll always find something vegetarian safe on the menu. Indian in particular seems to be especially vegetarian friendly (makes sense considering a large chunk of the people in India are vegetarian).
For everyone
Health stores often have a bain-marie, or sandwich/juice bar attached to them. So wander in to some of the health food stores you pass to see if there’s a little food section in the back. Health store eateries are a hit or miss. I’ve been into some amazingly good health store eateries (of course whole foods is one example, and the Big Carrot in Toronto), and some sketchy ones too.
Here is a photo of a veggie burger sandwich I picked up in New York City on the way to the US Open. I was worried about the food at the open being nothing but street meat, so picked up this sandwich at a deli in the back of a health store on the way to the subway. It was wrapped in a black bean tortilla and looked hideous so I don’t know why I bought it. I ate half and it tasted okay, but looked so bad that I couldn’t finish the rest!
My default health food option is always Japanese, because Japanese food is so darn healthy. If you’re craving the healthiest item on the menu, opt for a soup. Usually you can order a vegetable soup which comes in a light broth and just tastes nutritious (but delicious too). Sushi is another good option, but really anything on the menu is good.
And keep your eyes open. There are healthy people in every city in the world so you’ll always find something good to eat. If you really can’t find anything then stock up on healthy snacks to eat between meals. I always wander into the first health food store I find to buy a small pack of raw nuts, and fruit to keep me going between meals while I’m wandering around touring. Usually you can also find little health bars made with dried fuits or nuts and honey which taste great.
Fran Kerr is the founding editor of High on Health. To cure your acne, sign up to Fran's FREE acne cure mini-course or download her latest how to guide, Eat Away Your Acne.
8 responses ↓
So true, I went traveling on a cruise this summer around central america and in places like Belize and Honduras there wasnt much items available for a healthy eater far less any vegetarian.But on the cruise,which I really applaud them for, at the dinners in the ballroom/main dining room the chef always had a vegetarian meal as one of the things he specifically made each night meaning that it was one of the meals that was always different each time as well as almost any type of fish you can think up done how you want it for half vegetarians or just plain healthy eaters.it just shows that vegetarians won’t be left out everywhere they go to eat.
When I go to school it’s so hard to find a vegetarian restaurant anywhere near me so it’s been quite hard for the past month to eat anywhere near healthy. But I found a vegetarian restaurant 9 minutes from my school so hopefully I can start eating there.
I definitely agree about the eating healthy thing helping the skin tone and making you feel better. When I started doing Fran’s mini course and eating better I noticed I felt happier more of the time and better about myself. I even had more energy and found myself not taking as many naps! I was also so amazed that despite the fact I had a couple acne break-outs, the rest of my skin looked beautiful, and even, and just so healthy. It really helped me cope with the few pimples I had.
Great and very useful article - I’m not a world’s traveler, but I understand what you mean by being convicted to white and fatty :-). I’m not vegetarian, but I don’t eat meat (I still eat fish and eggs), and when you come somewhere asking something based mostly on vegetables, you get confused look - especially here, in “balkan’s”…
Fran how do you manage to travel around so much? So I don’t really feel too bad for you, I envy you!
Ky- I know, I’m really lucky! I’ve been wanting to travel since I was 19, so this is almost 10 years overdue and years in planning. It’s a working holiday though, I work every day on the blog
and I’ll be back home by Christmas.
I Fran!
i am wondering where can i get the philosophy purity made simple in Montréal? i really want to use it but can’t find it.
thank you
ps=sorry for my english
I buy mine in Canada from Sephora. In Australia I couldn’t find it so I bought it online. Hope this helps.
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