Lighter ship meals are now an option for the diet-conscious

If you think dinner aboard a cruise ship always starts with a martini, sails along with a meaty main dish swimming in heavy sauce and ends with death-by-chocolate cake for dessert, you may not know what you’re missing.

Light, low-calorie cuisine is increasingly appearing on ships. Sure, most major lines still serve all the decadent fare a person could want, and many passengers prefer to indulge at sea and worry about the consequences later. But with a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study showing that 61% of American adults are overweight or obese, and with many of those people trying to shed pounds, cruise lines are receiving requests for lighter food options.

“The majority of lines do offer healthier eating menus,” says Karen Nelson, a spokeswoman for the Cruise Line International Assn., a New York-based trade group.

She says the trend has picked up steam in the last five years. At least 14 cruise lines offer lighter cuisine, according to CLIA. The healthier choices reflect what many passengers are trying to do at home, Nelson says. Other passengers, she says, see a cruise as a low-stress way of trying a new fitness routine or diet.

For health-conscious passengers trying to follow a plan -- Atkins, Weight Watchers or a traditional low-calorie diet, for instance -- detailed nutritional information for each meal is important.

Responding to this need, some cruise lines have begun listing nutritional information on menus. Carnival’s spa menu, for instance, lists calories and fat grams. The roasted quail with herb stuffing has 299 calories and 8 grams of fat; the tropical fruit and berries have 53 calories and 0.4 grams of fat.

Holland America has an In Balance spa menu, created by Jeanne Jones, a La Jolla consultant who created menus for Four Seasons hotels and Canyon Ranch resorts in Arizona and Massachusetts. Her In Balance menu lists calories and fat, as does the Sail Light and vegetarian menus she developed for Windstar.

“Passengers can ask for recipes for any Sail Light or vegetarian fare,” Jones says. Recipes include additional information such as cholesterol, protein, fiber and carbohydrate counts. A passenger can find out that the Asian chicken salad has 256 calories, 9 grams of fat, 49 milligrams of cholesterol, 203 milligrams of sodium, 22 grams of carbs, 25 grams of protein and 3 grams of fiber.

Radisson Seven Seas spokesman Andrew Poulton says passengers on that line can choose from three alternative menus: Wellbeing, which emphasizes lean dishes with minimal fat and calories; Simplicity, which features basic dishes such as boneless chicken breast; and vegetarian, designed for ovo-lacto vegetarians.

What if a passenger wants specific nutritional information, which isn’t listed on the three menus?

“Ask the head waiter or the maitre d’,” Poulton says. Though the request may take time, a staff member will track down the information, he says.

The cruise line association’s website includes a chart of lines that offer lighter cuisine as well as kosher and diabetic options. (Go to www.cruising.org/plan yourcruise and click on “special interest guides,” then “cuisine,” then the “Find” box that appears under the window showing “All Features.”)

Association spokeswoman Nelson says passengers should tell their travel agents about special dietary needs when planning a cruise. Those who book directly with a line should ask reservations agents about options beforehand, she says.

Healthy Traveler appears every other week. Kathleen Doheny can be reached at kathleendoheny@earthlink.net.