Calorie Tips, Healthy Eating, Food Facts

Iced And Frozen Coffee Drinks: Are They Coffee, Snacks, Or Dessert?

June 26, 2014 By Penny Klatell, PhD, RN Leave a Comment

When the weather heats up, the coffee drinks tend to cool down. Unfortunately, some iced and frozen coffee drinks – whether they’re from a coffee shop or from a can — can really bump up your calories and fat grams.

Calories in Some Iced And Frozen Coffee Drinks

Note: all info (with the exception of Burger King) is for a 16 ounce cup.

Starbucks Mocha Frappuccino with whipped cream, 16 ounces (grande): 400 calories, 15 g fat (9 g saturated), 64g carbohydrates.

Starbucks Mocha Light Frappuccino with nonfat milk, 16 ounces (grande): 130 calories, 0.5g fat, (0 g saturated), 28g carbohydrates.

Iced Caffe Latte with nonfat milk, 16 ounces (grande): 90 calories, 0g fat, 13g carbohydrates.

Dunkin’ Donuts Coffee Coolata made with whole milk, 16 ounces (small): 240 calories, 4 g fat (2.5 g saturated), 50g carbohydrates

Dunkin’ Donuts Vanilla Bean Coolatta, 16 ounces (small): 420 calories, 6g fat (3.5g saturated), 92g carbohydrates
Dunkin’ Donuts Iced Caramel Mocha Latte with milk, (large): 450 calories, 12g fat (7g saturated), 73g carbohydrates

Dunkin’ Donuts Iced Latte made with skim milk, 16 ounces (small): 80 calories, 0g fat, 13g carbohydrates

Baskin Robbins Cappuccino Blast Mocha, 16ounces (small): 400 calories, 13g fat (9g saturated), 65g carbohydrates

McDonald’s McCafé Iced Caramel Mocha, 16 ounces (medium) made with whole milk and whipped cream: 300 calories, 14g fat (8g saturated), 36g carbohydrates

Burger King: Iced Seattle’s Best Coffee Mocha, 22 ounces (medium): 260 calories, 3.5g fat (2.5g saturated), 54g carbohydrates

Calorie Savers:

Ditch the whipped cream.

Swap full fat or 2% milk for 1% or skim.

Watch the sugar: ask for one pump instead of two or sugar free syrup, add non-calorie sweetener instead of sugar, or don’t sweeten at all.

Change the size of the drink that you order: instead of a venti or an extra large, order a grande or large – or drop down to a tall, medium, or even a small-sized drink.

If you have a two a day (or more) habit – like a coolata in the morning and a frappuccino in the afternoon – substitute a plain coffee or iced tea (easy on the milk and sugar), or even a latte with nonfat milk for one of those choices.

Order plain iced coffee or even an iced Americano (almost no calories for 16 ounces) and doctor it with non-caloric sweetener and skim milk. You’d even come out ahead if you use controlled amounts of sugar and a bit of half and half. Or have an iced brewed coffee with classic syrup: a 12 ounce cup has 60 calories.

How Long Can Picnic and Barbecue Food Safely Stay Unrefrigerated?

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

The picnic fixins’ or the take-out food that’s sitting in your car might turn out to be a big problem. Boxed food might be fine in high temperatures, but meat, dairy, cut food like fresh fruit, salads, and prepared foods — not so good.

Perishable food may contain bacteria that can cause food-borne illnesses. Sitting in the temperature danger zone while in your car or at a picnic or campsite can cause those bad guys to multiply dramatically.

Most bacteria don’t go crazy below 40°F or above 140°F. The temperature range in between, known as the “Danger Zone,” is where they multiply rapidly and can reach harmful levels. A single bacterium that divides every half hour can result in 17 million offspring in 12 hours!

The Temperature Rises Quickly Inside A Car

The temperature rises quickly inside a closed car — even when it’s only moderately warm outside.

A study found that at 9AM (in some very hot place!) when the outside temperature was 82 degrees, the temperature inside a closed car was 109 degrees. At 1:30PM, it was 112 degrees outside and 124 degrees inside a closed car.

Cracking the windows helped, but only a little. At 10AM, with four windows cracked, it was 88 degrees outside but 103 degrees inside the car. At 2PM at 110 degrees outside it was 123 degrees inside the car.

Picnic Food and Temperature Control

To prevent bacteria in food from rapidly multiplying — which can lead to food borne illness — food has to be kept within a temperature range.

Don’t let your picnic food stay in the “Danger Zone” (between 40° F and 140° F) for more than 2 hours, or only for one hour if the outdoor temperature is higher than 90° F.

Perishable food can stay safely unrefrigerated for two hours if the air temperature is less than 90 degrees – and only for one hour if the temperature is 90 degrees or higher.

Keep hot foods hot: above 140°F. Keep cold foods cold: below 40°F.

Remember to include preparation, storage, and serving time in determining how long food has been out of the fridge or off the heat.

Transporting, Preparing, And Serving

To prevent food-borne diseases, food safety is crucial both when you transport your food and when you prepare and serve it.

Think about the type of food you’re buying. If you have perishable items do what you have to do to keep hot food hot and cold food cold.

What’s your route and how many errands do you have? Stop to buy beer and paper plates before you pick up the food — not after food shopping while your purchased food bakes in the car.

Keep a cooler, cold packs, or insulated bags in your car for perishable items. Buy a bag of ice if necessary. Make sure the cooler hasn’t turned into a portable oven because it’s been sitting in the car for too long.

Be certain that raw meat and poultry are wrapped securely to prevent their juices from cross-contaminating other foods and from dripping on fruit and veggies that you’ve already washed.

At The Picnic Site

Food spoilage and cross-contamination are major issues when preparing and eating food outdoors in warm weather — especially when you’re at a remote site (like a camp or park) without a kitchen. Cross-contamination during preparation, grilling, and serving food is a prime cause of food-borne illness.

How will you keep things clean – not just the food, but the platters, utensils, and your hands? Is there a source of potable (drinking) water that you can use for cooking and cleaning? You don’t want to use water that’s not safe to drink to wash your food or utensils. If there isn’t, bring water or pack clean, wet cloths, moist towelettes, or paper towels for cleaning your hands and surfaces.

Wash your hands before and after handling food, and don’t use the same platter and utensils for both raw and cooked meat and poultry.

Keep hot food hot and cold food cold the entire picnic. The temperature spikes in direct sunlight so keep coolers in the shade.

Food shouldn’t be out of the cooler or off the grill for more than 2 hours (one hour when the temperature is above 90°F).

Keep perishable food like meat, chicken, and mayonnaise-based salads in the fridge and don’t stock the cooler until right before you leave home. Keep the cooler in the coolest part of the car while you’re traveling.

If you have a long trip consider freezing the food and putting it into the cooler frozen and allowing it to defrost (to a cold temperature, not warm) in transit.

Hot take-out food like ribs or chicken should be eaten within two hours of when it was plucked from the store. If you buy it ahead of time, first chill the food in your refrigerator and then before pack it in an insulated cooler.

Pack beverages in one cooler and perishable foods in another so the perishable foods won’t be repeatedly exposed to warm outdoor air temperatures as people keep opening the cooler for drinks. A full cooler will hold its cold temperature longer than one that’s partly full so pack plenty of extra ice or freezer packs to maintain a constant cold temperature.

Throw out any perishable foods from picnics or barbecues that have been kept out too long or not adequately chilled or heated. “If in doubt, throw it out.”

How Much Water Should You Drink?

June 11, 2014 By Penny Klatell, PhD, RN Leave a Comment

Do you want to take a nap? Maybe you have a kind of niggling but not-quite-full-blown headache?

Try guzzling some water.

Dehydration Can Cause Fatigue

Lots of machines don’t function well when they have low water levels, and neither do you. Even being mildly dehydrated can slow your metabolism, drain your energy, and make you feel tired.

Some Signs of Mild to Moderate Dehydration

In addition to feeling tired, here are some signs of mild to moderate dehydration:

a dry, sticky mouth
feeling thirsty
not urinating as much
having fewer or no tears when you cry
dry skin
headache
constipation
feeling dizzy or lightheaded

Don’t you wish you had a dipstick to measure the water levels in your body – like you measure the level of oil in your car?

About 60% of Your Body Weight Is Water

Water is the main chemical component in your body and accounts for about 60% of your body weight. Every system in your body depends on it.

You need water for the chemical and metabolic processes to take place in your body; for body fluids like tears, sweat, and urine; to flush toxins out of your vital organs; and to carry nutrients to your cells.

How Much Water Should You Drink?

There’s not one definitive answer to the question: “How much water should I drink?” The answer really depends on many things including:

your health
your age
how active you are
where you live

For the average healthy adult who lives in a temperate climate, the Institute of Medicine recommends around 3 liters (about 13 cups) of total water intake a day for men and 2.2 liters (about 9 cups) of total water intake a day for women.

What’s Total Water Intake?

Total water intake isn’t just plain water. It includes the plain water you drink, the water in all of your other beverages, and the water in your food. All fluids count toward your daily total.

On average, food supplies about 20% of your total water intake. Many fruits and vegetables — like watermelon, grapes, lettuce, and tomatoes — are 90% or more water by weight. Food from grains like oatmeal and pasta are also hydrating because they swell up with water when they’re cooked. Even meat is full of water.

Beverages like milk and juice are mostly made of water, too. Even beer, wine and caffeinated beverages — coffee, tea or soda — can contribute, but they shouldn’t be the major portion of your daily total fluid intake. Calorie-free and inexpensive water is your best bet.

7 Ways To Cut Down On Pizza Calories

June 5, 2014 By Penny Klatell, PhD, RN Leave a Comment

Have you had “a slice” recently? If you did, consider it one of the 46 slices that American men, women, and children eat, on average, in a year. Pizza as we know it originated in Italy, but it can be traced to the Greeks who have dressed up bread with oil, herbs, and cheese since the time of Plato. Neopolitans hopped on the Greeks’ idea of using bread and the Romans developed placenta, a sheet of flour they topped with cheese and honey and flavored with bay leaves. Neapolitans then added the tomato into the equation.

We eat a lot of pizza:

94% of Americans eat pizza regularly
Pizzerias represent 17% of all restaurants and pizza accounts for more than 10% of all food service sales
5 billion pizzas are sold worldwide each year; 3 billion pizzas are sold in the US each year
Kids ages 3 to 11 prefer pizza over other food groups for both lunch and dinner
In the US, 61% prefer regular thin crust, 14% prefer deep-dish, and 11% prefer extra thin crust
62% of Americans prefer meat toppings; 38% prefer vegetables36% order pizza topped with pepperoni.

What’s Good, What’s The Not-So-Good?

It’s difficult to estimate the number of calories and fat grams in a slice of pizza because the size and depth of the pies and the amount of cheese, meat, or other toppings vary enormously.

Here’s the good news: pizza can be a healthy food choice filled with complex carbs, B-vitamins, calcium, protein, vitamin A, and vitamin C and calorically okay if you choose wisely and don’t eat more than your fair share.

The not so good news: fat and calories. If your mouth starts to water at the thought of golden brown crust and cheesy goodness — here’s the downer: if you don’t choose wisely, that luscious pizza can be a fat and calorie nightmare.

Mall pizza can be okay — and not okay.

Sbarro’s Low Carb Cheese Pizza has 310 calories and 14 grams of fat.
Sbarro’s Low Carb Sausage/Pepperoni Pizza has 560 calories and 35 grams of fat.
A slice of Sbarro’s Fresh Tomato Pizza clocks in at 450 calories with 14 grams of fat.
Any of Sbarro’s “Gourmet” pizzas have between 610 and 780 calories a slice and more than 20 grams of fat.
“Stuffed” pizzas are even worse—790 calories minimum and over 33 grams of fat per slice.
Most Costcos have a food court that sells pizza, making Costco the 15th largest pizza chain in the US. A single slice of Costco pizza is estimated to have 804 calories, 342 of them from fat.

Build a Better Slice of Pizza

Although we all have our own pizza preferences, the next time you order try some of these tricks to keep your choice on the healthy side:

Order thin crust rather than a thick doughy or deep dish crust.
Resist the urge to ask for double cheese — better yet, go light on the cheese or use reduced-fat cheese (if they have it).
Ask for a pizza without cheese but topped with veggies and a little olive oil. You can always sprinkle on a little grated parmesan – 1 tablespoon has 22 calories — for flavor.
Instead of cheese go for big flavors: onion, garlic, olives (use them somewhat sparingly because of the oil but they’re a whole lot better than meat). And don’t forget anchovies — a lot of flavor for minimal calories – but you have to like them!
Choose vegetable toppings instead of meat (think about the fat content in sausage, pepperoni, and meatballs) and you might shave 100 calories from your meal. Pile on veggies like mushrooms, peppers, olives, tomatoes, onion, broccoli, spinach, and asparagus. Some places have salad pizza – great if it’s not loaded with oil.
Order a salad (careful with the dressing) on the side and cut down on the amount of pizza. Salad takes longer to eat, too.
If you’re willing (and not embarrassed or grossed out), try blotting up the free-floating oil that sits on top of a greasy slice. Blotting (it’s easy to do this on the kind of hot slice where the oil runs down your arm) can soak up a teaspoon of oil worth 40 calories and 5 grams of fat.

If you know someone who is heading off to college, you might want to get this book for him or her. It gives 30 ways to handle college food — plus 30 bonus tips — all easy to incorporate into the college lifestyle. One thing it definitely does not do is tell you not to eat. On the contrary — food is necessary, social, and fun! Get it now from Amazon (available in paperback and as an ebook) or as an ebook from Barnes & Noble.

Do Road Trips Mean Dashboard Dining?

June 3, 2014 By Penny Klatell, PhD, RN Leave a Comment

How many ketchup drips, chocolate smears, coffee stains, and random crumbs do you have in your car (or on your clothes)?

Is your road trip to the shore or mountains or the big game an endless fest of fast food, junk food, and all kinds of snacks with your dashboard or vacant passenger seat as your table?

If you’re nodding your head, you’re a dashboard diner. It’s way too easy to indulge your dashboard dining gremlin with fast food and doughnut shop drive-thrus and gas station mini-marts with canisters of regular, decaf, dark velvet, and hazelnut coffee along with baked goods so your coffee doesn’t get lonely.

What is it about mini-mart and rest stop food? It seems to touch that primal urge to eat sweet and/or salty stuff that’s probably loaded with calories and lacking in nutrition.

The Trap And The Danger

Once you’re inside, there’s an endless stream of high carb, high fat, high calorie, and processed food is just begging you to plunk down your money so you can immediately indulge (watch how many people start eating the food they’ve bought before they even pay) or to take with you.

The real danger – aside from the damage to your waistline – is that high-carb processed foods spike then crash your blood sugar —making you really tired and cranky.

Drowsy drivers are most definitely not safe drivers.
Cranky drivers make life miserable for everyone in the car – not a great tone to set if you’re going on vacation.

Some Mini-Mart And Rest-Stop “Gotchas”

Candy is an impulse purchase; 49 percent of shoppers admit to unplanned purchases of candy. It seems that we want to treat ourselves and candy is an affordable luxury.

Check out the placement of candy the next time you’re in a mini-mart or convenience store — it’s positioned to grab your attention. Vividly colored wrappers reach out to you from high-traffic areas of the store: the checkout area, the aisle that leads to the check out, and on the way to the restrooms.

Know that your senses are going to be assaulted and have a plan for what you will and will not buy. If you’ve decided you want M&Ms go straight to them and don’t get sidetracked by a new kind of chips, or seasonal displays, or the latest and greatest deal on a king-sized package of some kind of candy.

Coffee, unlike candy, coffee isn’t an impulse purchase. Nearly 96% of customers intend to buy a cup of coffee before they walk in. Here’s the impulse buy: stores put candy, baked goods, and chips—near the coffee to entice you to buy them. As a man standing in line at a popular gas station mini-mart muttered, “I stop here for coffee every morning and I’ve gained 20 pounds since they put in the Krispy Kreme donut display between the door and the cash register.”

Some Helpful Tips

Nuts have protein and crunch, won’t cause swings in your blood sugar, and are almost always stocked. Tread a little gently — nuts aren’t low in calories. For a one-ounce serving of nuts you might find at rest stops: 49 shelled pistachios, 162 calories; 23 almonds, 169 calories; 18 cashews, 163 calories; 19 pecans, 201 calories; 10-12 macadamias, 203 calories; 39 peanuts (technically a legume), dry roasted, 170 calories

Some mini-marts have fruit (bonus: oranges and bananas come in their own natural wrapper and don’t have to be washed) and almost all have dried fruit — but balance the higher sugar content of the dried fruit with the fat and protein in the nuts.

Sometimes you can find individual bowls of whole grain cereals, although check labels because some cereals are loaded with sugar. To go with it, grab a small container of low-fat milk or a container of yogurt.

Protein bars can be good, better, and best. Check the labels for higher protein and lower sugar. Some can be the equivalent of a candy bar and are so large (with so many calories) that they are made to be meal replacements. A protein bar for a snack should be around 150 calories. Meal replacement bars have around 300 calories or more. Look for at least 15 grams of protein.

If you’re really hungry, choose a sandwich or burrito over donuts, pastry, and cookies. Check out how fresh it is, though. What’s appealing early in the morning when the shelves are first stocked might not be so appealing at 10PM if it has been sitting around all day and lots of people have picked up the sandwich, squeezed it, and put it back again.

Beef jerky or beef sticks (or nuggets) are good, portable protein snacks. A one-ounce serving usually has around 80 calories and 5 grams of fat or less.

A hard-boiled egg is a good choice, too. Just make sure it’s been refrigerated and hasn’t been sitting around for a couple of days!

If you must go with crunchy stuff, stick with popcorn, pretzels, soy crisps, or baked or popped chips in single-serve bags to keep portions in check. Sometimes bags might look small, but still contain multiple servings. Remember that the salty stuff will make you thirsty so stock up on water. There’s something to be said for snacks that take time to eat one by one when you’re driving.

Remember to drink water. People sometimes confuse thirst with hunger, so you can end up eating extra calories when a glass of water is really all you needed. If plain water doesn’t cut it, try drinking flavored still or sparkling water. We need water for fluids such as tears, sweat, and urine, and to allow chemical processes to take place in the body. Dehydration can cause fatigue and there’s some evidence that even mild dehydration can slow metabolism and drain your energy.