Calorie Tips, Healthy Eating, Food Facts

What Will You Eat On Super Bowl Sunday?

January 27, 2015 By Penny Klatell, PhD, RN Leave a Comment

It’s amazing how food has become associated with football — from tailgating to Super Bowl parties to the selection of food sold in stadiums. Where there’s football there also seems to be many opportunities to eat, often mindlessly.

Even when you’re surrounded by a smorgasbord of highly caloric, fatty, salty, and sweet foods there are plenty of opportunities for eating deliciously well if you are a bit more mindful about your choices.

Some common Super Bowl foods:

Tostada with guacamole: 2 pieces (9.3 oz), 360 calories, 23g fat, 32g carbs, 12g protein
Salsa: 1 tablespoon 4 calories, .04g fat, 1g carbs, .2g protein
Nacho flavored tortilla chips, reduced fat: 1 oz, 126 calories, 4g fat, 20g carbs, 2g protein
Regular Nacho flavored tortilla chips: 1oz, 141 calories, 7g fat, 18g carbs, 1g protein
Potato chips: 1oz, 152 calories, 10g fat, 15g carbs, 2g protein
Potato chips, reduced fat: 1 oz, 134 calories, 6g fat, 19g carbs, 2g protein
Raw baby carrots: 1 medium, 4 calories, 0 fat, .8g carbs, 0 protein
Pizza with cheese: 1 slice (1/8 of a 12” pie), 140 calories, 3g fat, 20g carbs, 8g protein
Pizza, pepperoni: 1 slice (1/8 12” pie), 181 calories, 7g fat, 20g carbs, 10g protein
Grilled chicken breast: one 4.2 oz breast, 180 calories, 4g fat, 0 carbs, 35g protein
KFC Fiery hot Buffalo wing: one 1oz wing, 80 calories, 5g fat, g carbs, 4g protein
KFC extra crispy drumstick: one 2oz piece, 150 calories, 6g carbs, 11g protein
Chili (Wendy’s, with saltine crackers): 8 oz, 187 calories, 6g fat, 19g carbs, 14g protein
Wheat bread: 1 slice, .9 oz., 65 calories, 1g fat,, 12g carbs, 2g protein
Italian combo on ciabatta (Panera): 1 sandwich, 1lb. 7 oz, 1050 calories, 47g fat, 94g carbs, 61g protein
Subway 6g of fat or less turkey breast & ham on wheat sandwich: 8.3oz, 296 calories, 4g fat, 48g carbs, 19g protein
Chocolate chip cookie: 2-1/4” from refrigerated dough. 59 calories, 3g fat, 8g carbs, .6g protein
Chocolate ice cream, Cold Stone Creamery: 5oz (like it), 326 calories, 20g fat, 33g carbs, 5g protein
Apple: medium, 95 calories, .4g fat, 25g carbs, .5g protein

If You Want To Save Some Calories …

Stick with grilled meat, veggies, or baked chips rather than fried. Turkey, baked ham, and grilled chicken are better choices than wings and fried chicken.
Plain bread, pitas, or wraps are less caloric than biscuits or cornbread.
Go for salsa and skip the guacamole. Guacamole is made with healthy avocados, but is quite high in calories. You can always alternate guacamole and salsa, too.
Minimize calories by dipping chicken wings into hot sauce instead of Buffalo or Blue Cheese sauce.
Try using celery for crunch and as a dipper instead of chips.

Go for thin crust rather than thick doughy crust pizza. Choose the slices with vegetables, not pepperoni or meatballs. If you’re not embarrassed, try blotting up the free-floating oil that sits on top of a greasy slice (soak up even a teaspoon of oil saves you 40 calories and 5 grams of fat).

Cut your slice of pizza in half. When you go back for seconds, eat the second half. You’ll feel like you’re eating two slices, but you’re eating only one.
Try fruit for dessert – or have just one cookie or a small piece of pie – leave some of the crust on your plate. Home made pie crust has around 150 calories (single crust pie), so leaving some pie crust on your plate can save you some significant calories.

Alcohol adds calories and dulls your mindful eating. Try alternating water or diet soda with beer or alcohol. That can decrease your alcohol calories (alcohol has 7 calories/gram) by 50%.
Put your food on a plate rather than constantly picking, it’s a form of portion control. And step back from the buffet. If you can’t reach out and grab it and you can’t see it, you won’t eat it.

Do You Sit In The Fat Or Skinny Area Of A Restaurant?

January 15, 2015 By Penny Klatell, PhD, RN 7 Comments

Choose your seat carefully. According to Brian Wansink, Director of Cornell’s Food and Brand Lab, where you sit in a restaurant does have an effect on how much you eat!

Scratching your head yet?

After mapping the layout of 27 restaurants across the country and analyzing what and where customers ate, here are some general findings and recommendations from Wansink and his team:

Diners who sit the farthest from the door eat the fewest salads and they are 73% more likely to order dessert.
People who sit at darkly lit tables or in booths eat fattier foods.
Diners who sit within two tables from the bar, drink, on average, three more beers or mixed drinks (based on a table of four) than a group even one table farther away.
Diners order healthier foods when they sit by a window or in a well-lit area. Wansink speculates that seeing sunlight, people, or trees might make you think about how you look which, in turn, might make you think about walking — which could prompt you to order a salad.
People at uncomfortable high-top tables tend to choose salads and order fewer desserts, perhaps because it’s harder to slouch or spread out.
Conspicuous consumption, or eating in an area where other people can see you, seems to cut down on overeating. If it’s darker, Wansink thinks you might feel more “invisible.” Since it’s not too easy to see how much you’re eating, you feel less conspicuous or guilty.
The “fat” table? Try near the TV screen. The closer you sit to the screen, the more fried food you’ll probably eat because you’re distracted and likely to order seconds and refills.

**Some additional findings in Wansink’s book, Slim by Design:**

Skinny people face away from the buffet when they eat.
Thinner people choose smaller plates. It takes less food to fill up the plate causing you to eat smaller portions.
Diners sitting at high-top tables tend to order more fish and salads.
Diners at regular tables order more vegetarian entrees and more vegetable sides.
Diners at tables near the window have fewer drinks and have more side salads.
Diners at tables closer to the TV screen and the bar order more chicken wings and drinks.
Diners in booths order more ribs and desserts.

How Many Calories Do You Eat With Your Movie?

January 7, 2015 By Penny Klatell, PhD, RN Leave a Comment

Have you ever walked into a movie theater and you’re immediately craving popcorn? Why not – we’ve been conditioned that hot, buttery, salty popcorn goes with a movie. And, there’s no escaping the smell of freshly popped (and sometimes not so freshly popped) corn and the (often annoying) sound of people around you scratching around in their popcorn buckets and crunching down on the buttery (oily) kernels.

Your senses are assaulted: start filling the bucket! Doesn’t matter if it’s a coconut oil mix instead of butter sprayed into the bucket or that the naked popcorn (before the oil and salt) tastes like cardboard. The siren call of movie theater popcorn is often too strong to overcome.

I Don’t Care, I’m Going To Have It Anyway

There’s no way I would suggest that you – or I – should avoid movie theater popcorn and candy. But perhaps a compromise?

How about a small bag instead of a big bucket – water instead of a huge soda? Forget the combo deals and the upgrades – is it worth it to you to spend 50 cents more for a larger size and tons more calories? If Raisinets – or Goobers – or Milk Duds are your thing, the same is true – buy the smaller size or split it with a friend.

Some eyeopeners:

The size of popcorn buckets and soda varies significantly between theater chains. One theater’s medium tub of popcorn might hold 10 cups but another’s might hold up to 20. One chain’s medium soda can be 32 ounces but another’s is 44 ounces — one chain’s small soda might be 16 ounces but another’s is 32 ounces.

The average small movie popcorn with “buttery” topping has about 600 calories — about the same as a quarter-pound cheeseburger (550 calories). The average large movie popcorn with “buttery” topping has about 1,270 calories — about the same as two large pieces of fried chicken (800 calories), a cup of mashed potatoes (230), and a 16-ounce soda (200 calories).

A combo with a large soda (48 ounces) and a large popcorn with “buttery” topping has about 1,700 calories.

An average small movie soda (23 ounces) has about 14 teaspoons of sugar and a little over 200 calories. An average large movie soda (47 ounces) has about 30 teaspoons of sugar and around 450 calories.

FYI: Average Calories In Movie Theater Food

(Note the serving sizes, movie theater popcorn bags and buckets and boxes of candy are often huge and may be double or triple the size shown below.)

Popcorn, Nachos, Soft Pretzel

Buttered popcorn, small, 5 cups: 470 calories, 35g fat
Buttered popcorn, large, 20 cups: 1640 calories, 126g fat
Cheese nachos, large (4 oz): 1100 calories, 60g fat
Soft pretzel, large (5 oz): 480 calories, 5g fat

Soda and Lemonade

Coke, 18 ounces: 218 calories, 0g fat
Coke, 44 ounces: 534 calories, 0g fat
Minute Maid Lemonade, 18 ounces: 248 calories, 0g fat
Minute Maid Lemonade, 44 ounces: 605 calories, 0g fat

Candy

Junior Mints, 3-ounce box: 360 calories, 7g fat
Sno Caps, 3.1-ounce box: 300 calories, 15g fat
Milk Duds, 3-ounce box: 370 calories, 12g fat
Raisinets, 3.5-ounce bag: 400 calories, 16g fat
Goobers, 3.5-ounce box: 500 calories, 35g fat
Twizzlers, 6-ounce bag: 570 calories, 4g fat
M&Ms, 5.3-ounce bag: 750 calories, 32g fat
Peanut M&Ms, 5.3-ounce bag: 790 calories, 40g fat
Reese’s Pieces, 8-ounce bag: 1160 calories, 60g fat

Nibbles and Noshes, Cocktails and Cookies: 15 Tips To Keep You and Your Scale Happy

December 18, 2014 By Penny Klatell, PhD, RN Leave a Comment

Putting the “big” meal aside, most extra holiday calories don’t come from the “day of” holiday meal but from unrelenting nibbling over the long holiday season.

Here are 15 workable tips to help you handle holiday food. Choose and use what will work best for you and your lifestyle.

1. You’re the one in charge of choosing what, when, and where you eat. Make the best choice for you — not for someone else. Eat what you want not what you think you should. Give yourself permission to NOT eat something just because it’s tradition.

2. To make good choices you need to inform yourself. If 12 ounces of eggnog has 500 calories and 12 ounces of beer has around 150 and you like them both, which would you choose?

3. Don’t feel obliged to eat what your partner, parent, neighbor, or sibling is having – and don’t let them make you feel guilty if you don’t. What you choose to eat should be what you like, want, and is special to you — not someone else.

4. Say “no thank you” to rolls, mashed potatoes, and ice cream. You can have them any time of the year. Spend your extra calories on something special.

5. Practice portion and plant control. Pile your plate high with lower-calorie vegetables and be stingy with portions of the more calorically dense, fatty, and sugary foods. Eat high volume, lower calorie foods (like vegetables and clear soups) first – they’ll fill you up leaving less room for the other stuff.

6. Be attentive to mindless noshing. For some reason we don’t seem to mentally process the random nibbles and calories from the treats on the receptionist’s desk, the office party hors d’oeuvres, the nibbles off of a child’s plate, or the holiday cake in the snack room. If the food is in front of you it’s hard not to indulge. See it = eat it.

7. Don’t deprive yourself of your favorite holiday foods3. Give yourself permission to eat the holiday treats that you really want – just not the whole platter. A good strategy is to decide on one fantastic treat a day and stick to your decision. Do it ahead of time and commit to your choice so you don’t find yourself wavering in the face of temptation.

8. Let this be your mantra: no seconds. Double-decking the food on your plate isn’t such a great idea, either. Choose your food, fill your plate, and that’s it.

9. Pick the smallest plates, bowls, and glasses you can to help you feel full even when you’re eating less. The smaller the plate, the less food that can go on it. You probably won’t even notice the difference because your eyes and brain are registering “full plate.” The same optical illusion applies to glasses. Choose taller ones instead of shorter fat ones to help cut down on liquid calories.

10. Don’t feel obliged to eat out of courtesy because you don’t want to hurt someone’s feelings. Get over it – the calories are going into your mouth, not someone else’s. Avoid food pushers who insist on trying to get you to eat more. Have some polite excuses ready to use. You’re the one who will be stepping on the scale or zipping up your jeans the next day – not them.

11. Don’t go to a party hungry, thirsty, or tired — it sets you up for overindulging. Our bodies have a tough time differentiating between thirst and hunger and we often make poor decisions when we’re tired. Before going out have a small healthy snack that‘s around 150 calories and has protein and fiber — like fat-free yogurt and fruit, a serving (not a couple of handfuls) of nuts, or a small piece of cheese and fruit. When you get to the party or dinner you won’t be as likely to attack the hors d’oeuvres or the breadbasket.

12. Forget about grazing. Take a plate — or even a napkin for hors d’oeuvres — put food on it and eat it. Lots of little nibbles add up to lots of big calories. Noshing is mindless eating.

13. Sit with your back to a buffet table – and as far away as possible – so temptation isn’t in your line of sight. A lot of “eating” is done with your eyes and your eyes love to tell you to try this and to try that. Try talking to someone, too. It’s hard to shove food in your mouth when you’re talking.

14. A buffet doesn’t have a “stuff your face” sign hanging over it. Pay attention to what you’ll enjoy and really, really want — not how much you can fit on your plate.

15. Keep in mind that a holiday is a day – 24 hours — like any other day, except that you’ll most likely encounter more food challenges. Be selective. Pass on the muffins at breakfast and save your indulgence calories for “the meal.” Before you put anything on your plate survey your options so you can choose what you really want rather than piling on a random assortment of too much food.

Is Your Holiday Eating Starting To Show?

December 12, 2014 By Penny Klatell, PhD, RN Leave a Comment

Is your holiday mindset: lots of food = good time; not so much food = bad time? Can you exude holiday spirit without accompanying gluttony?

You bet you can, but it isn’t always easy. Celebrations are often intertwined with the need or obligation to cook and/or eat — not just because you’re hungry, but for many other reasons, too. There always seems to be that one common denominator: food – and a lot of it.

Since we all have to eat, it can be a very slippery slope to eat well when you’re surrounded by all that food; family and friends; an encyclopedia of cultural, religious, and family traditions; and a whole host of expectations.

Is Food Part Of Your Holiday?

In the grand scheme of things, the actual content of your Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, or Christmas meal matters very little. Consistently overeating a few hundred calories will have its effects over time, but the extra calories from one meal has negligible impact (you may feel totally stuffed, but you can work off the one day’s indulgence pretty easily).

It’s the inevitable mindless eating – those bites and nibbles and calories from the treats on the receptionist’s desk, the gift of peanut brittle, the holiday toasts, the second and third helpings, the holiday cookies in the snack room and everywhere else, that are the culprits. If the food is in front of you it’s hard not to indulge. See it = eat it!

Food Has Meaning

During the holidays we wrap our thoughts around food – after all, Thanksgiving originally was a harvest celebration and many cultures and religions have special foods to signify a special holiday. Aren’t there visions of sugarplums dancing in your head?

Food, its meaning and presentation may be interpreted differently – but with equal importance — by people of varying religions, ethnicities, and cultures. Food also acts like a cloak of comfort – something many of us look for and welcome around the holidays.

But, nowhere is it written that holiday food has to be eaten in tremendous quantity – or that a meal has to include stuffing, two types of potatoes, five desserts, or six types of candy. That idea is self-imposed.
So is the opposite self-imposed idea: trying to diet during the holidays. Restriction and overeating are both difficult – and often equally counterproductive.
Winter holiday eating comes during the cold and dark seasons in many parts of the world. Warm comfort food just seems all the more appealing — whether you’re dieting or not — when it’s somewhat inhospitable outside and celebratory inside.

Do You Plan to Overeat During the Holidays?

Think about it. Unconsciously, or perhaps intentionally, a lot of us actually plan to overeat during the holidays. Be honest: do you know that you’re going to overeat? Do you think it wouldn’t be normal or non-celebratory if you didn’t overindulge and eat three desserts at Christmas and nibble on every Christmas cookie in sight?

During the holidays food is absolutely everywhere. It’s there for the taking — and most of the time it’s free (and in your face) at parties, on receptionist’s desks, and as sample tastes while you shop. How can you pass it up?

Most of it is sugary, fatty, and pretty. How can you not try it? Of course, sugary and fatty (salty, too) means you just crave more and more. Do you really need it? Do you even really want it? If you eat it, will you feel awful later on?

Traditions, Obligations, and Guilt

We all attach varying levels of importance and obligation to traditions and we all come with varying ounces and pounds of guilt. Here’s where that may come into play during the holiday food fest:

Do you gobble down holiday food because of tradition – maybe you’ve been eating the same food at Christmas or Hanukkah since you were a kid? Maybe you don’t even like the food anymore. Perhaps it disagrees with you or gives you acid reflux. So why are you eating it? Who’s forcing you to?
Do you think you won’t have a good time or you’ll be labeled Scrooge, Grinch, a party pooper, or offend your mother-in-law if you don’t eat everything in sight? Get over it. Do you really think you’re Scrooge?

You can still love the holidays and you can still love the food. In the grand scheme of things overeating on one day isn’t such a big deal. Overeating for multiple days that turn into weeks and then months becomes a problem.

Do you really want to overeat? If you do, fine. Enjoy every morsel and then take a nap – although it’s better if you take a walk. Tomorrow is another day. Just know that you don’t have to overeat. You control your fork and the decisions about what goes into your mouth. Make thoughtful choices and enjoy them along with everything else the holiday represents.

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