Obesity, high blood pressure, prediabetes, high cholesterol. For former New York Times restaurant critic Pete Wells, these health conditions are the price he paid for being employed to sample the best restaurants in New York City.

Wells announced that he would step back from his role as the newspaper’s primary restaurant critic to tend to his health. Over 12 years, he reviewed some 500 restaurants and ate at least three meals at each spot before writing about it.

“When I got to the end of all that eating: I realized I wasn’t hungry. And I’m still not, at least not the way I used to be,” Wells wrote. “I’ve decided to bow out as gracefully as my state of technical obesity will allow.”

Few Americans eat out quite as much as a restaurant critic. But U.S. adults eat about a third of their calories from foods prepared away from home, according to the Food and Drug Administration.

Over time, dining out can take a health toll. How much is too much?

Why Eating Out Is Linked to Poorer Health Outcomes

Restaurant food tends to be crafted to be as delicious as possible. That can mean adding more butter, oil, salt, and sugar than most people would use to make the same dish at home.

“I used to be a restaurant chef working in New York City restaurants, and I know firsthand the amount of butter and the amount of salt that restaurant kitchens put into their food to make it taste really good. It’s very different than the way people cook at home in their own kitchens,” said Julia Wolfson, PhD, an associate professor of human nutrition at Johns Hopkins University.

Fast food tends to be incredibly caloric and low in nutrition, Wolfson said. But so do a lot of restaurant dishes. Portion sizes tend to be bigger at restaurants, and people may eat multiple courses, such as an appetizer, an entrée, and a dessert.

“Not everybody cooks and eats in that volume when they’re preparing meals at home,” she said.

Research shows that eating home-cooked foods is linked to better diet quality. Lower diet quality is a major risk factor in many chronic health conditions, such as type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Even when they eat out occasionally, people who cook frequently tend to have more balanced diets and consume fewer calories, less fat, sodium, and sugar.

When people regularly eat sugary or rich foods, they may start to crave them at each meal, Wolfson said.

In his essay, Wells mentioned the physiological changes experienced by his peer Adam Platt, who was New York Magazine’s restaurant critic for 24 years.

“Your body changes over time,” Platt told Wells. “You have this giant distended belly which wants to be filled. All those weird sensors in your brain that cry out for deliciousness are at DEFCON 1 all day. You become an addict.”

How Often Is It Okay to Dine Out?

A national survey from 2007–2008 showed that Americans cooked dinner at home on average five nights a week and that about half of respondents reported “always” cooking dinner at home.

A decade later, about 55% of U.S. adults 20 years and older reported getting food from restaurants on a given day.

The Dietary Guidelines—the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s recommendations for healthy eating—don’t provide an exact number of times people can eat out to stay healthy.

There are many kinds of establishments that serve food—from fast-food restaurants to healthier fast-casual salad chains to fine-dining restaurants. Because of this variety, it’s impossible to create a strict rule of thumb for how often to dine out.

The location of a meal—at home or in a restaurant—doesn’t matter so much as the quality of the ingredients and the healthiness of the preparation, Wolfson said.

According to a USDA spokesperson, home cooking is often a healthier option because it gives people control over their ingredients. This allows them to balance their food groups and minimize added sugars, fats, and sodium.

“Preparing meals with family and friends also provides an opportunity for greater connection and enjoyment around food, and for those who are parents, guardians, or caregivers, provides an opportunity to teach valuable cooking and meal planning skills and model behaviors that support the adoption of healthy dietary patterns among children and adolescents,” the spokesperson told Verywell in an email.

How to Dine Out More Healthily

It’s not realistic to prepare and eat every meal at home. Nor should it be the goal—eating out can be a fun social activity and a way to explore different foods.

Instead of avoiding all opportunities to dine out, Wolfson said she encourages people to think about their overall dietary pattern. For instance, if you eat at a restaurant, you can make adjustments to the other meals you eat during the week to make sure you’re hitting your major food groups.

She also recommends being intentional about choosing a restaurant with menu items that will help you eat a nourishing meal. Making a plan for what you’re going to order before you arrive can help you stick to a balanced meal.

Since 2018, chain food establishments have been required to publicly share the calories and other nutrition facts for their food items. If you can’t find that information on the menu in the restaurant or feel uncomfortable asking, you can often find it online.

Sometimes, you may be entertaining clients or invited to dinner for a friend’s birthday and lack control over the restaurant.

To keep your portions moderate, you can order an entrée but skip an appetizer and dessert. If you plan to take home leftovers, you may feel less compelled to overeat. Asking for salad dressings and sauces on the side can give you control over how much you use on your dish.

You could also consider ordering two appetizers, as those tend to be more vegetable-forward than entrees that highlight red meat and other heavy animal proteins.

“At a lot of restaurants, the most fun dishes are in their appetizer section,” Wolfson said. “You get an appropriate amount of food, you can get more vegetables, and you’re not spending as much money.”