In the dining room's soft amber glow, dozens of patrons peruse the menu at Rock Creek restaurant in Bethesda, Maryland. From a health standpoint, making a smart choice is easy.



Watch your portion size and inquire about the nutritional content of your meal when you eat out.



Whether it's the slow-cooked salmon with sesame seeds, warm bok choy salad, and miso mustard dressing or the jumbo lump crab cakes with celeriac-apple slaw and lemon-caper aioli, each meal contains 600 or fewer calories -- nearly half the amount found in a typical restaurant entree.



"We offer what you're supposed to eat -- proper portions, great flavor-and we use fresh, local ingredients as much as possible," says co-owner Tom Williams, who, with partner Judith Hammerschmidt, opened Rock Creek two years ago. The pair worked with Cynthia Payne Moore, R.D., a Baltimore, Maryland-based dietitian, to obtain nutritional analyses for every item on the menu, and they adjust recipes to avoid unnecessary fat and determine portion sizes.   "We put the nutritional information in the back of the menu-people who want to look at it do, and those who don't, don't," Hammerschmidt says.   The concept and execution have proved so successful that earlier this year, the pair opened another Rock Creek in Washington, D.C.



Enjoying restaurant food like Rock Creek's -- tasty, good for you, and with a reasonable amount of calories -- was once a difficult order to fill. No longer.   "The idea that eating healthy doesn't mean feeling deprived is something restaurants see as a vehicle for change, as a way to differentiate their offerings from their competitors," says Master Chef Mark Erickson, vice president for continuing education at the Culinary Institute of America.   While some restaurants make it clear they offer more healthful fare -- by using symbols, calorie counts, and the like -- others practice what Erickson calls "stealth health," making some healthful changes on the menu without fanfare. "When restaurants make their menus more healthful, consumers benefit," Erickson says. And, in fact, eating well when dining out is a growing trend.



Healthfulness on the menu



Part of what's driving these positive changes is consumer demand. Nearly three out of four adults say they are trying to make healthier choices when eating out than they did just two years ago, according to the National Restaurant Association.   "It's hard to refute that health is related to diet," Erickson says. "And restaurants are making up more and more of the daily diet -- the average American eats one out of three meals away from home." Increasingly, savvy consumers expect restaurants to have a conscious approach to food preparation similar to the one they use in their own kitchens -- using fruits and vegetables creatively or cooking with less saturated fat or salt. CookingLight.com: Secrets to eating out



Legislative changes are also having an effect. The New York City-initiated ban on trans fats has become far-reaching; at least eight other major metropolitan areas have legislated similar bans, as have restaurants, hotels, theme parks, cruise lines, and many other businesses.   Meanwhile, New York City recently took another stand on upgrading restaurant menus. In a move affecting mostly fast-food restaurants, the city's board of health recently asked food service establishments with standardized preparation methods that already have nutrition analyses to post calorie information on menus so customers can see it when deciding what to order.



Many restaurants purposefully take their offerings to a more healthful level. Since he took over the kitchen at the highly regarded Gramercy Tavern in New York City last October, Executive Chef Michael Anthony has created lighter dishes, many of which feature vegetables rather than meat as the plate's centerpiece. "The goal is to leave consumers feeling invigorated, not lethargic because they've overindulged," Anthony says.



Like Rock Creek, some restaurants are building their business around a more healthful model. Seasons 52, which has five locations in Florida and two in Atlanta, Georgia, takes a lighter approach to dining by
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