Eat Out Eat Well

Calorie Tips, Healthy Eating, Food Facts

Are You On Sugar Overload?

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Do you have a clue about how much added sugar you eat each day?

Added sugar is the kind that doesn”t occur naturally, like in fruit, but is added during food processing, preparation, or at the table.

Because food labels show only grams or percentages of sugar in a product rather than the number of calories or teaspoons it contains, it’s hard to tell the number of teaspoons of sugar you’re eating. Food labels also don’t list which sugars are natural and which are added.  Sugar does masquerade under many different names and in many forms. You usually are aware that candy, cookies, and soda have sugar in them – although probably not how much.  You know when you are dousing your pancakes with syrup (how many teaspoons?) or dumping packages of sugar into your coffee for a “pick me up.”  But, who thinks of hamburger buns and crackers – or even ice cream or canned fruit — in terms of teaspoons of sugar?

Recommended Amounts of Added Sugar

The American Heart Association recommends that most women limit their sugar intake to 100 calories (25 grams), or around six teaspoons a day — men should limit their intake to 150 calories (37.5 grams), or nine teaspoons.  (Although there were no sugar recommendations for children, a national health survey found that 14 to 18 year olds consume 34 teaspoons of added sugar a day!)

Restricting yourself to the recommended limit might be difficult, since one 12-ounce can of soda has about 130 calories, or eight teaspoons of sugar. Data collected by a national nutrition survey between 2001 and 2004 suggested that, on average, Americans consume 355 calories, or more than 22 teaspoons, of sugar a day, the equivalent of two cans of soda and a chocolate bar.

What’s the big concern about eating too much sugar?

Eating a lot of added sugar is linked to the rise in obesity and is associated with increased risk for high blood pressure, high triglyceride levels, and other markers for heart disease, stroke, and inflammation. 

Because sugar just provides calories with no other nutritional value, for many people eating sugary foods and beverages can displace the more nutritious ones that are part of a healthy diet.

The Biggest Sugar Culprits

According to an article in Circulation, the biggest culprits for added dietary sugar are:

Regular soft drinks:     33%

Sugars and Candy:      16.1%

Cakes, cookies, pies:    12.9%

Fruit drinks (fruit punch and fruitades):  9.7%

Dairy desserts and milk products (ice cream, sweetened yogurt, sweetened milk:  8.6%

Other Grains:  (cinnamon toast and honey-nut waffles):  5.8%

SocialDieter Tip:

Added sugars have no nutritional value other than calories. Many of us can reduce our risk of heart disease by achieving a healthy weight.   There’s pretty strong evidence that decreasing the amount of sugar in your diets can help you achieve that.  You don’t have to eliminate sugar from your diet, just use your allotment wisely. Make trade-offs.  Use more fruit to add sweet flavor to cereals, yogurt, as dessert, and for snacks. Cut back on candy and way back on sweetened sodas, teas, and flavored waters. Help your kids learn that so much sugar is not necessary, train their palates when they’re young to enjoy less sweet food.  And, read labels, know where hidden sugar hangs out. Be aware and smart about what you buy and eat – both in and out of your home.

How Good Is Your Sugar Vocabulary?

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Sugar:  Sweet and Sneaky

Sugar is very sneaky. It appears in all kinds of forms and masquerades under many different names. For example, have you ever read one of those jam labels that says, “All Fruit” or “Spreadable Fruit” on the front? Turn the jar over and read ingredients.  Most likely you’ll find juice concentrates (often as the first ingredient) and maltodextrin — both forms of sugar.

Sugar Vocabulary

According to Environmental Nutrition foods with all of the following names are sugars (these are common sources, there are other sugars not listed):

Dextrose
Corn syrup
High fructose corn syrup
Maltodextrin
Fruit juice concentrates
Malt syrup
Molasses
Invert sugar
Honey
Sorghum
Agave
 Maple syrup
Cane sugar

Be Aware of Disguised and Hidden (and not so hidden) Sugar

SocialDieter Tip: Read food and ingredient labels and look for the names listed above. By choosing fresh foods and produce you are eliminating any added sugar. Of course reducing or eliminating sugar-sweetened drinks – including agave and honey – will decrease sugar content. The same holds true for processed foods like crackers, sweetened cereals, and condiments, sauces, and dressings with added sugar, like ketchup, barbecue sauce, and certain salad dressings. Of course, sweetened beverages, baked goods, jams, ice cream, and candy  are sugar sources as are many fruit sweetened yogurts and canned fruit. You might like to try sweetening cereals and yogurt with fresh fruit, especially sweet fruits like mashed banana or sweet berries, instead of sugar.

When do you toss the leftover Pad Thai (or lasagna) that’s in the fridge?

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You Are Hungry!

You’re standing in front of your open refrigerator. A container here and a container there. Move them around. Wow. A Tupperware all the way in the back. Wonder what’s in it.

Take a peek. Container #1: the leftover take-out Pad Thai from five days ago. Container #2: the rest of your lasagna you brought home last night from a huge restaurant portion. Some of Mom’s really delicious stuffing from last weekend. That’s in the Tupperware.

Big question: Will you end up writhing in pain and spending the next day in the bathroom if you eat any of it?

How Long Can Food Stay Out?

According to the FDA, when you buy hot, cooked food, you should eat it right away and avoid letting it sit out at room temperature. If the food is cold, eat it within two hours of preparing it, store it in the fridge, or freeze it.

Buzz, Buzz: The Food Is Here

When food is delivered, you want to prevent any lurking potentially nasty and harmful bacteria from multiplying, so eat the food within two hours after it arrives. If you aren’t going to eat it within two hours keep it hot in an oven set at or above 200° F (93° C). Side dishes, like that delicious stuffing in the Tupperware, also have to be kept hot in the oven. Cover the food to keep it moist while you’re keeping it warm. Don’t guess at the temperature of the food. Use a food thermometer to check that the food is kept at an internal temperature of 140° F (60° C).

The Danger Zone

The FDA defines the “danger zone” as the range of temperatures at which bacteria can grow. It is usually between 40° and 140° F (4° and 60° C). To keep food safe, it’s important to keep it below or above the “danger zone.”

The 2 Hour Rule

There is a 2 Hour Rule: Throw away any perishable food (the kind that can spoil or become contaminated by bacteria if left unrefrigerated) that has bee left out at room temperature for more than two hours. When the environmental temperature is above 90° F (32° C), throw out the food after one hour.

The Center for Science in the Public Interest’s Nutrition Action Healthletter, expands on the Rules For Leftovers with what they call:

2 hours – 2 inches – 4 days

Think:

2 hours from oven to refrigerator: any leftovers should be

refrigerated or frozen within 2 hours of cooking or they should be thrown away.

2 Inches thick to cool it quick: food should be stored in containers at a shallow depth of about 2 inches or less, to speed the chilling time.

4 days in the refrigerator or freeze it: use refrigerated leftovers within 4 days with the exception of stuffing and gravy which should be used within 2 days. Reheat Solid leftovers should be reheated to 165 degrees F and liquid leftovers to a rolling boil. Whatever you don’t finish, throw out.

Do you still want that Pad Thai? Maybe some lasagna?

A Soda a Day = How Many Calories in a Year?

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How many calories . . . how much sugar?

In a recent post in his blog, Weighty Matters, Dr. Yoni Freedhoff asks an excellent question: “What happens if you drink a can of Coke daily for a year?” His startling answer:  “you’d end up slurping up 32,850 calories along with nearly 40 cups of sugar. Drink a Coke a day for a decade and that’d translate to 94 pounds worth of Coca Cola calories and 400 cups (>200lbs!) of sugar.”

Candy in small pieces

Last week, an article in the Business Section of the New York Times talked about the Hershey Company introducing three new varieties of small piece candy : Almond Joy Pieces, York Pieces and Hershey’s Special Dark Pieces, modeled after Reese’s Pieces.  A Hershey spokeswoman quoted in the article said, “Consumers needed something that was easy to snack on when on the go . . . You can just grab a couple and pop them in your mouth from a bowl or bag.”

A senior analyst at market research firm feels that expanding the Pieces line might appeal to customers who want to control their and their children’s portions. She says in the article: “If you’re trying to watch your weight, or your kid’s sugar intake, a candy bar is a big deal . . . but if you don’t want to overdo sugar in your obese kid’s lunchbox, you can still put a few Almond Joy Pieces in there.”

What do you think?

Does it bother anyone else that an analyst is talking about putting sugar in, her words, “your obese kid’s lunchbox,” or that candy companies preach portion control by making small piece candies when they know that most people will not stop at one pack, or, knowing the consequences, we continue to pour down sugar filled sodas and fight the sugary drink tax being proposed in many municipalities?

Slow down You Eat Too Fast

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Do you wolf your food down so quickly that it’s gone before you realize you’ve eaten it all – and, to boot, you’re still hungry and staring at an empty plate?
Mothers around the world often say the same thing: slow down and chew your food. Then again, my father-in-law, a dentist, used to give the same advice.
Well, what do you know, there’s something to it.
According to an article in the New York Times, studies show that people who eat quickly eat more calories than they would if they ate a bit more slowly. The people who ate more slowly also felt fuller.
A recent study showed that hormones that give you feelings of fullness, or satiety, are more pronounced when people eat slowly. Subjects given identical servings of ice cream released more of these hormones when they ate it in 30 minutes instead of 5 minutes.
It leads to eating less, too. According to an article published in The Journal of the American Dietetic Association people who ate at a slow pace compared to when they chowed down very quickly said they were fuller and ending up eating about 10 percent fewer calories.
An analysis of surveys completed by 3287 adults (1122 men, 2165 women), ages 30-69, concluded that eating until full and eating quickly are associated with being overweight and that these combined behaviors might have a significant impact on being overweight.


SocialDieter Tip: Once again, Moms are right – slow down when you eat. (Doesn’t that often go with don’t grab?) Slowing down allows the feeling of fullness to register and may even mean that you eat fewer calories. You might even have time to really taste and enjoy your food, too.