I'm leaving for Germany tomorrow! At home, I exercise daily and eat healthy. Are there any healthy options in German food?

I was there a few years ago ,i just mostley had fish
ut i did try a big german meal one night with all the fixings.Really tastey but very heavy.Enjoy your trip and enjoy the local cusine one night.
With alot of walking you should be ok i always take the stairs which helps .

You can get salads, vegetables, plain boiled potatoes, fish, chicken. You can eat healthy in Germany. The Germans appear to be a healthy bunch of people and they eat their own cooking.

My German sister-in-law lost weight on the "F.D.H" diet - "Friss der Haelfte". (Not sure grammar is right)This translates roughly to "Just eat half of it".

If you self cater, it is easy to choose the right foods, but as Venezia says, it would be a shame not to sample the delicious fare whilst you are there, and you can walk it off. And the Kuchen (cakes) really taste as good as they look.
Schoene Reise!

Ah, the apple strudel with fresh whipped cream... makes it worth walking a few more miles!

One of the hardest places in the world to eat light. Good luck. Stick with salads. Eschew the sausages and potatoes and desserts.

Hi goopy,

Yes, of course.

Every restaurant and cafe will have soup and salads on the menu.

It is asparagus season here, and you may be able to try it in ALL its forms -- made as soup, roasted, boiled, baked, etc. Just scrape off as much of the cheese and sauces as you can, lol!

Also you can always get pizzas, and the crusts here are very thin. Get one loaded with veggies, then eat it with a knife and fork (the way many locals do) and eat mosly the veggies, leaving most of the crust behind.

Have fun!

s

Why would you not be able to eat healthy in Germany?

Germany being a hard place for eating healthy is a myth created by simpletons who miraculously believe that a German diet consists of Pig's knuckles, Kraut and potatoes exclusively. You may find dishes like that on the menus of simple restaurants, predominantly in the South, just as you would find full American breakfasts in restaurants in the US. That does not at all imply that it is the standard daily diet for the locals. All local cuisine being heavy is just utterly uniformed drivel.

Go to proper restaurants and you will get more sophisticated and healthy food including proper local or better regional cuisine, than you are likely to get in many parts of other countries throughout the world.

hsv is spot on.
Saying that you cannot find light dishes in Germany is like saying that you can't get anything but McDonald's or Denny's in the States.

I was born and grew up in Germany and still have to eat my first pig's knuckle - yikes, no way.
Most local cuisines have low-fat options like chicken, turkey, and, of course, fish. And you will find lot of "almost local" ethnic street food which is hardly heavy on your stomach. Döner and falafel are probably more "local" than all that heavy stuff they serve in touristy restaurants.

Nevertheless, a proper Schweinebraten (roast pork, and you can easily cut off the fat) with a dumpling in dark beer sauce plus a cabbage salad is fine once in a while (and it's usually the cheapest main course on any decent inn's menu in the South).

Yes, hsv sums it up perfectly.

The general rule:

The more modern a restaurant looks, the healthier the food.

I keep recommending restaurants with innovative, light cuisine in Germany. More than once, American Fodorites replied that they did not want innovative, light cuisine in Germany but huge portions of fat pork dishes. Sometimes, I believe that tourists are the only ones who eat knuckle of pork. We never do. BTW, Bavaria has the worst and unhealthiest cuisine of all German regions. Maybe that is the reason why it is the tourists' favourite.

Lesson learned: Avoid the restaurants which are recommended by American guidebooks. Ask us.

Thanks for the input, my problem is, maybe because I have German heritage, I love, love, love German food. Of course I would be crazy not to eat at least some of the wonderful dishes they offer, and we definitely do tons of walking and hiking on vacation, but I am hoping not to come home with some unwanted extra pounds.( I have no intentions to eat pig's knuckle.)

"my problem is, maybe because I have German heritage, I love, love, love German food"

Again: Why is this a problem?

Again: Why is this a problem?>>>

Because the poor bugger has to eat oven gloves and wallpaper paste which is what passes for German food.

Anyway. The Germans invented diets. They started with the Diet of Worms.

(I'm quite proud of this joke. Be gentle with it).

"oven gloves and wallpaper paste"

100 kilo calories, max

>Thanks for the input, my problem is, maybe because I have German heritage, I love, love, love German food. Of course I would be crazy not to eat at least some of the wonderful dishes they offer

As hsv, quokka, echnaton, cowboy and others make sufficiently clear: There is a LOT of excellent German food that is not of the fatty variety that you seem to crave. Even more, the stuff you describe as "German food" is hardly consumed by Germans.

>Anyway. The Germans invented diets. They started with the Diet of Worms.

Ve have vays of making you like Vorms!

(a nice town by the way)

"Because the poor bugger has to eat oven gloves and wallpaper paste which is what passes for German food."

Overexposure to mushy peas?

Amazing that someone who regularly feeds on Emulsified High-Fat Offal Tube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OzeDZtx3wUw) and Marmite dares to talk about food.

"At home, I exercise daily and eat healthy. Are there any healthy options in German food? "

I exercise daily at home and on vacation and Germany is no exception. I do not find it difficult personally to stick to my routine.

I do try and book hotels with fitness centers and if that is not possible, I get up and out the door very early and put in a few miles.

At home my diet is rich in lean proteins, vegetables and fruits so I stick to that for the most part when I travel. I also keep track of my daily calorie intake.

We walk a LOT every day and that allows me to treat myself a bit on vacation. The wonderful breads in Germany are where I normally splurge.

I eat very little meat at home but have found the meats in Germany to be superior for the most part. I enjoy venison and choose a lean cut and a simple preparation. One of my best meals ever was a filet of venison, lean and full of flavor. I also discovered tafelspitz last year which is boiled beef in a broth. I enjoyed it quite a bit and it was served with a variety of fresh veggies perfectly cooked in the same broth.

Sushi and sashimi are readily available in larger towns and cities and there are many Asian restaurants with many fresh and healthy offerings.

We have found the food diversity in Germany to be excellent and the wide choice of ethnic restaurants makes dining healthily easy and also fun.