Calorie Tips, Healthy Eating, Food Facts

The Jack-o’-Lantern: A Devilish And Stingy Tale

October 15, 2013 By Penny Klatell, PhD, RN Leave a Comment

Have you ever wondered where the Jack-o’-lantern comes from?

According to an Irish legend that goes back hundreds of years, a miserable old drunk named Stingy Jack — who liked to play tricks on his family, friends, and even the Devil — tricked the Devil into climbing up an apple tree. Stingy Jack put crosses around the apple tree’s trunk so the Devil couldn’t get down — and told the Devil that if he wouldn’t take his soul when he died Stingy Jack would remove the crosses and let the Devil down.

When Jack died, Saint Peter, at the pearly gates of Heaven, told him that he couldn’t enter Heaven because he was mean, cruel, and had led a miserable and worthless life. Stingy Jack then went down to Hell but the Devil wouldn’t let him in, either. Ultimate payback! Jack was scared and with nowhere to go he had to wander around in the darkness between Heaven and Hell.

Jack-o’-Lanterns, Halloween, and Stingy Jack

Halloween, or the Hallowe’en in Ireland and Scotland, is short for All Hallows’ Eve, or the night before All Hallows. On All Hallows’ Eve the Irish made Jack-o’-lanterns by hollowing out turnips, rutabagas, gourds, potatoes, and beets and then putting lights in them to keep the evil spirits and Stingy Jack away. In the 1800′s when Irish immigrants came to America, they discovered that pumpkins were bigger and easier to carve and the pumpkin became the Jack-o’-lantern.

If You Want To Eat Your Pumpkin . . .

Jumping from legend to fact: pumpkins come from a family of vegetables that includes cucumbers and melons. They’re fat free and can be baked, steamed, or canned.

One cup of pumpkin has about 30 calories, is high in vitamin C, potassium, dietary fiber, and other nutrients like folate, manganese, and omega 3′s. Pumpkin is filled with the anti-oxidant beta-carotene, which gives it its rich orange color. Pumpkin seeds are a good source of iron, copper, and zinc but aren’t low in calories. They have 126 calories in an ounce (about 85 seeds) and 285 calories in a cup.

How Full Is Your Wine Glass? 3 Things Can Make You Pour Up To 12% More

October 7, 2013 By Penny Klatell, PhD, RN Leave a Comment

Do you know how many ounces of wine you pour into your wine glass? Bet you don’t!

A standard serving of wine is 5 ounces (around 125 calories) and probably looks smaller than you think. Wine glasses generally have a much larger capacity — good for savoring the wine, but not good for pouring portion controlled amounts.

Even though we might think we’re in control of how much we’re pouring, visual cues definitely affect how much ends up in the glass.

3 Things That Make A Difference

A new study published in Substance Use and Misuse found that people poured 11.9% more wine into a wide glass than a narrow one. They also poured 12.2% more wine into a glass when the glass was held their hands rather than when they poured into a glass sitting on a table or counter.

Color contrast made a difference, too. People poured 9.2% more white wine into a clear glass than they did red. High contrast between the wine and the glass — for instance red wine in a clear glass — makes it easier to see the level of the wine.

Tip

If you want to be careful about how much wine you’re drinking, go for taller thinner glasses rather that shorter big-bowled ones; stick to red wine – or wine that has color contrast with your glass; and when you pour, put the glass on the table rather that holding it in your hand.

Do Your Kitchen Cabinets, Fridge, And Desk Drawers Need A Cleanse?

September 26, 2013 By Penny Klatell, PhD, RN Leave a Comment

Summer is over. Soon many of us will be stocking our kitchens with Halloween candy and then enough Thanksgiving food to feed hordes of Pilgrims. It might be time to take stock of what’s leftover from the lazy days of summer eating.

Are there leftovers from your Labor Day barbecue, a random piece of birthday cake, ice cream containers with just a little bit left, an open bag of mini chocolate chips in case you decide to bake some cookies? Do you really need the gigantic box of cereal from Costco or the two extra jars of peanut butter that were on sale? Do you have some mini candy bars tucked in the corner of your desk?

Hey, we’re all guilty of storing food in preparation for the next blackout or surprise onslaught of family. The problem is that the extra food is not conducive to managing anyone’s weight. Why? Because usually if it’s there, someone will eventually eat it, whether they’re hungry or not. And, usually the kind of food that’s hanging around isn’t picked fresh from the garden – most likely it’s processed and/or fatty, salty and sweet.

The Kitchen Cleanse

Take a look in your fridge, your cupboards, your desk, and kitchen drawers. What’s in there? Why did you buy it and when? Do you really need it – or does it call your name when you really don’t want to eat but can’t escape the pull of the food that’s all too available.

You might want think about what prompts you to buy large quantities of food that tempts you and that you really don’t need to eat. Knowing why you buy is key to developing some good shopping habits. Doing a “cleanse” of your cupboards, the fridge, and drawers to get rid of what tempts you is a good way to prevent gorging — or even nibbling — on hundreds of excess and probably unhealthy calories. Remember: See It = Eat It.

9 Ways Supermarkets Get You To Spend More Money

September 23, 2013 By Penny Klatell, PhD, RN Leave a Comment

Supermarkets have your shopping experience down to a science. They arrange and display their merchandise in ways that encourage you to buy both more products and the type or brand of product that they want to sell. Here are 9 ways they get you to put more items into your cart which ultimately means more items scanned at the register.

1. Is the product on a high, middle, or low shelf?

Have you ever heard something described as “top shelf”? That usually refers to really good, or “top flight” (expensive) stuff. In supermarkets, the location of where products are placed sends subtle signals that are designed to affect your purchase decisions. The most expensive products generally are on the highest or top shelves. Lower shelves house “destination” products — the ones you need, look for, and will buy regardless of price. The bottom shelf has the least popular or generic products (where’s the flour and sugar in your market?). Eye level shelves, known as “reach,” (reach out your arm) hold high impulse purchases, products that are competitive, or ones that are the most enticing.

2. What does the market want you to buy?

Supermarkets are filled with free-standing bins and shelves and with end caps — the shelves at the very end of aisles in the market. There seem to be so many that you’re in danger of knocking into them with your cart as you try to get from one aisle to another. But, the crowding and the obvious placement means that you’ll usually end up checking them out for specialties or bargains. The products on or in them are either promoted products that have a high profit margin for the store, are marked with a very low price, or carry a manufacturer’s promotion like a coupon or reduced price. “Dump bins” or “offer bins” usually are a jumble of items being closed-out and seem to uniformly signal “cheap price.” Can you easily walk by big bins or specialty displays without at least looking?

3. Do you see a colorful mosaic of fruit and vegetables?

In produce departments, the displays of green vegetables are usually alternated with brightly colored produce. The mosaic of beautifully colored fruits and vegetables is designed to draw your eye. For instance, when you walk into Whole Foods, you’re instantly hit with what they want you to see/buy/eat. Produce is right up front, arranged by shades of color, and artfully displayed in black bins so the produce color really stands out and draws your attention. According to a retail consultant, they’re priming you – giving you the impression that what you see is as fresh as possible – that way you’re prepared to spend more.

4. Why are eggs and milk located in the back of the store?

We all go to the supermarket to buy lots of things – but most frequently the market is a destination for things like milk, eggs, and bread. In many markets those destination purchases are in the farthest corner of the store. The more items you have to walk by to get to your destination purchase – milk, bread, eggs — the more opportunities you have to buy other things you walk by that suddenly you absolutely must have.

5. Why are batteries and magazines near the cash register?

Have you noticed that impulse purchases like magazines, gum, and candy, and even batteries and seasonal items like sunscreen, are near the cash register (even though you can also find them elsewhere in the store)? While you wait to pay, the displayed items or things that are impulsive buys (gee, I might need more AA batteries), may entice you to toss one or two items onto the checkout counter. Of course the low level – or kid in cart-level — displays also entice kids to grab candy from them and more often than not, to avoid a scene, parents give in and that chocolate bar gets rung up, too.

6. Is there a café or coffee bar in the front of the store?

Some markets now have cafes, coffee bars, or places to sit and eat the food you have purchased. In many Whole Foods Markets the eating areas are very near the entrance. A branding design expert says the intent is to get you in the mood for shopping. As soon as you walk in and you see other people enjoying the products that you can buy and then eat, it gives you incentive to purchase and eat them, too.

7. How large is your shopping cart?

How big are some of the shopping carts – especially in the bigger or newer stores where there are nice wide aisles? Or, how about the stores with kid sized carts, too? You end up filling – and buying – an adult sized (perhaps oversized) cart’s worth of groceries and a kid-sized cart of groceries, too. How many adults can tell a child that they aren’t going to buy what the child has put into his or her own cart? A retail consultant’s firm calculated that by increasing the size its shopping baskets a store can boost its revenue by up to 40% — the reason that over the past three years Whole foods has increased the size of its shopping baskets.

8. Do you hear music In the air – and not just through your ear buds?

From a branding design expert: hearing old favorite songs while you shop in a store helps you form a quick emotional bond with the store and you feel that the store “gets you.” In Whole Foods you very likely might hear hits from the ‘80s and ‘90s. Don’t you have a tendency to buy more when you’re relaxed and in a comfortable atmosphere?

9. What color are the price stickers?

The color of the sales stickers on your merchandise, especially in bigger stores, is not just a random choice. Here’s why: yellow and red signs and stickers elicit the biggest consumer response. Heads up – especially when you see a nice red or yellow sale sticker stuck on something – it might be destined to end up in your cart!

Does Alcohol Make You Gain Weight?

September 19, 2013 By Penny Klatell, PhD, RN Leave a Comment

It certainly can. Pure alcohol, gram for gram, has almost twice the number of calories as a gram of carbohydrate or protein. One gram of alcohol has 7 calories compared to the 4 calories for carbohydrate or protein – fat has nine calories a gram. Some research is showing that calories from alcohol may be burned less efficiently, but the calories still pack a punch.

There’s another factor, too. If you drink alcohol along with your other daily food, you’re often adding, not replacing, the calories from other food or drinks. If everything else stays the same, you’ll gain weight. And, alcohol can cause disinhibition — it reduces your ability manage your immediate impulsive response to a situation – in other words, it makes you less focused on how much you’re eating.

However, statistically, drinkers aren’t more likely to be obese than nondrinkers. But a number if factors come into play: the amount and type of alcohol; when, where, and the type of drinking pattern; the way your body processes the alcohol; and various psychological factors.

Gender Differences On Drinking Days

A study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition compared the food and calorie intake of 1,864 people on days when they did and didn’t drink. On drinking days men (including 10% who were heavy drinkers which would skew the numbers higher) averaged 433 extra calories; 363 of them came from alcohol, the rest from extra food and other kinds of beverages. The men also ate more protein, fat, salt, and meat on drinking days.

Women averaged an extra 299 calories on drinking days, almost all of them coming from alcohol. Although they didn’t eat much more than on nondrinking days, they did eat more fat and less healthy foods.

Good News, Bad News

About 35% of American adults don’t drink, 55% are light or moderate drinkers, and 10% drink more than a moderate amount. It’s estimated that alcohol directly or indirectly causes 90,000 deaths a year in the US, including more than 11,000 traffic fatalities.

But drinking has benefits, too It can be part of social, business and family life and regular drinking, even in small amounts, decreases the risk of cardiovascular disease. Alcohol, like aspirin, reduces blood clotting — a transient effect that lasts for about a day. Alcohol can raise HDL (“good”) cholesterol levels over time and moderate intake helps to reduce the risk of other health problems, including type 2 diabetes, gallstones, peripheral artery disease, and perhaps dementia.

The most serious health risks — alcoholism, heart and liver disease, hypertension, certain cancers, osteoporosis, car crashes and other accidents — come mostly from heavy drinking, but moderate drinking can affect your coordination and ability to drive, operate machinery, or swim.

If You’re Going To Drink, Should You Do It Every Day?

It seems that drinking small amounts regularly and with meals (it slows the absorption of the alcohol) is better than occasionally drinking larger amounts. Some research findings suggest that daily (or almost daily) drinking is best for the heart; other studies have found that drinking every other day is enough to get benefits; and still others have found that it only takes half a standard drink a day. (In the US a “drink” is 5 ounces of wine, 12 ounces of beer, or 1.5 ounces of 80-proof liquor, which all contain about 14 grams of pure alcohol.)

What’s Moderate Drinking?

In the US, moderate drinking — as defined in the Dietary Guidelines for Americans — is up to one drink a day for a woman and up to two for a man. (Other countries define moderation and the size of a “standard” drink differently.) The recommended amount is less for women because they tend to be smaller, have proportionately more body fat, and have less body water (alcohol is diluted in body water). Generally, the same amount of alcohol would cause higher blood level of alcohol in women than in men and would also cause more impairment.