Are the calories in your favorite coffee the equivalent of the calories in a muffin – or your lunch — for that matter?

Calories and nutritional information for some Starbucks and Dunkin’ Donuts hot coffee drinks:

• Starbucks Caffe Latte, grande (16 oz), 2% milk:  190 calories, 7g fat, 18g carbs, 12g protein

• Starbucks Cappuchino, grande (16 oz), 2% milk:  120 calories, 4g fat, 12g carbs, 8g protein

• Starbucks Peppermint White Chocolate Mocha, grande (16oz), 2% milk, no whipped cream:  440 calories, 10g fat, 75g carbs, 13g protein

• Starbucks Gingerbread Latte, grande (16 oz), 2% milk:  250 calories; 6g fat; 37g carbs; 11g protein
• Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte, grande (16 oz), 2% milk, whipped cream: 380 calories, 13g fat, 52g carbs, 14g protein

• Dunkin’ Donuts Gingerbread Hot Coffee with Cream, medium:  260 calories, 9g fat, 41g carbs, 4g protein
• Dunkin’ Donuts Snickerdoodle Cookie Hot Latte, medium, whole milk, no whipped cream: 340 calories, 9g fat, 52g carbs, 11g protein

Calories and nutritional information for 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

Wow—It Can Add Up

• Say you have three grande (Starbucks)—or large (Dunkin’ Donuts)—coffees a day. Each is 20 ounces or 2.5 times the size of a traditional 8 ounce cup.
• If you add 4 tablespoons of half and half and three teaspoons of sugar to each—which sounds like a lot but is very east to do—that’s 128 calories for what you add and around 5 calories for the coffee for a total of 133 calories for each grande/large cup of coffee.
• If you have three of those daily that’s 399 calories a day or the equivalent of 145,635 calories a year.

What about the calories in some plain coffee or tea?

Hot or cold, you can have plain black coffee for a bargain basement 5 calories.  The trick is controlling the extras to avoid making your coffee just another sneaky calorie bomb.

• Brewed coffee, grande (16 oz), black:  5 calories

• Heavy cream, 1tbs:  52 calories

• Half-and-half, 1 tbs:  20 calories

• Whole milk, 1 tbs:  9 calories

• Fat-free milk. 5 calories

• Table sugar, 1tbs:  49 calories

Have your coffee and save some calories, too:

• Ditch the whipped cream.

• Swap half and half, full fat, or 2% milk for 1% or skim.

• Watch the sugar:  ask for one pump instead of two of 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 latte 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 hot or iced coffee or even a hot or 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 hot or iced brewed coffee with classic syrup:  a 12 ounce cup has 60 calories.

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Most of us spend a lot of hours at work.   That could mean time at the office, at home, in the car, on an airplane, in a hotel, in a retail store, or anywhere else you conduct your business.

All of those long, hard-working hours can mean enormous weight control challenges— especially with ever-present food, a good deal of which is carb and fat loaded – and an environment that can be fast paced, stressful, overwhelming, boring, or downright exhausting.

Do You Use Food To Cope and Procrastinate?

So what do we do? We use food to cope, procrastinate, or push off mind-numbing boredom and fatigue. All too often that means stuffing ourselves with more calories than we need.  And, they’re not usually from nutritionally fantastic sources but from sugary, salty, and fatty nutritionally poor reward foods.

A lot of us don’t even think about how and why we eat, especially while we’re working.  The way we feed ourselves — particularly in the face of stress or overwhelm — becomes a default habit pattern.  In other words, we mindlessly reach for the high calorie comfort food.

10 Food Traps and Way to Deal With Them

1. Work on identifying what you usually do when you’re stressed, tired, or angry.  If your usual action is to grab a cookie or candy bar try to manage your stress without the reward foods. Instead of turning to a high-calorie, high-fat trigger foods to calm your nerves or as a reward, try some healthy, stress-relieving practices like deep breathing and meditation. Drink a glass of water – sometimes you’re thirsty, not hungry – and water fills your stomach.

2. Make a deal with yourself to work some activity into your workday. Instead of using eating as an excuse to take a break, take a walk instead – even if it’s around your office or to another floor, and make it part of your daily routine. The quick walk will get you out of the immediate environment, let you blow off some steam, and burn an extra calorie or two. If you travel, walk in the airport rather than plopping yourself down in the food court or bar.

3. If you eat out or order take out for any of your meals, scout out the local restaurants, delis, salad bars, and your own workplace lunchroom.  Identify the meal choices that are the best for you and make them your “go-tos” so you’re not caught in the trap of being starving or too busy to care. That’s when you’re in danger of ordering – and eating — a whole pizza followed by a piece of chocolate cake. When you’re going out with a group of co-workers, be the one to suggest the restaurant with the healthier food options so you’re not influenced by others’ suggestions and choices.

4. If you plan your route to work to pass your favorite coffee shop with the absolute best blueberry muffins or you find yourself using the rest room on the next floor because you have to walk by the vending machine with peanut M&Ms, think about changing your route — don’t taunt yourself with temptation.

5. Do some thinking and planning.  If you’re going to have a snack, plan for it – and know what you’re going to eat and stick to your choice.  Contemplating your choices in front of a bakery display or vending machine filled with candy or salty treats is a sure fire recipe for caving in.  Don’t deny yourself food – just make it good food.

6. Change your habits.  Ditch the candy dish on your desk. People with candy within an arm’s reach report weighing 15.4 pounds more than people without the candy dish in residence on their desks. Pack your lunch more often, and eat with a friend instead of at your desk. When you through the cafeteria line, pick up a piece of fruit first, which seems to trigger a chain reaction of healthier choices.

7. There’s always a birthday, a holiday, or someone has brought in leftovers from their kid’s party or a recipe that you just have to taste.  Of course, the reason they brought in the leftovers is because they don’t want them hanging around their house tempting them.  Have a strategy for the inevitable food fest of leftover cake, pizza, and bagels.  Perhaps allow yourself a once or twice a week treat.  Just don’t make it part of your routine to visit the snack room to scrounge for the leftover cake.

8. Have your own personal “no dip” policy: the quick hand dip into the candy bowl at the receptionist’s desk, or the jelly beans on your partner’s desk, or into the open box of chocolates or cookies on the counter.  Use whatever reason works for you – maybe think about all of the other hands – and where those hands have been – that are also dipping into the same bowl.

9. Is your desk drawer filled with reward food?  Do you stare at it every time you open the drawer, tempting fate?Clean out your desk.  If your favorite reward food stares at you every time you open your drawer, aren’t you tempting fate?  It’s pretty difficult not to give in to the pop tart or peanut butter cup when you’re struggling to stay awake and finish that long boring project.
10. Prepare for a snack attack. Have a stash of healthy food available to curb your hunger, so you don’t go searching for someone else’s candy or cookies. People tend to get up when they’re hungry, even people with stationary jobs. Instead of walking to the vending machine, walk to the healthy stuff whether it’s in the snack room or down to the newsstand in the lobby.

The Bottom Line:  See it — Eat it

It doesn’t seem to matter if the beckoning food is in your drawer, on someone else’s desk, in the snack room, in the waiting room, or the conference room. When we see food, particularly reward and comfort foods, the thought gets into your head – and it seems like you just have to have it.  Put the virtual blinders on, clean out your desk, take an alternate route, or make a deal with yourself to just have one bite, one piece, a single portion, or small handful.

The post 10 Workplace Food Traps and How To Deal With Them appeared first on Eat Out Eat Well.

if you do, you’re not alone. According to research, snacking, including drinking beverages at times other than during a regular meal,accounts for more than 25% of Americans’ calorie intake everyday. Snacking has turned into “a full eating event,” or a fourth meal, averaging about 580 calories each day.

Eating while you’re doing something else, called secondary eating, has also increased.  Between 2006 and 2008, the amount of time we spend eating breakfast, lunch and dinner stayed at 70 minutes but secondary eating doubled from 15 minutes a day in 2006 to nearly 30 minutes in 2008. There was nearly a 90% jump in the time spent on secondary drinking: from 45 to 85 minutes. (Ever wonder why Starbuck’s is so crowded?)

There’s an increase in snacking across the board, but beverages account for 50% of snack calories. It’s way too easy to forget the calories in drinks. And, we spend about 12% of our total food money at the supermarket on packaged snacks.

What’s A Snack?

A snack shouldn’t be a fourth meal. Most recommendations are that a snack be between 150 and 200 calories and have some protein for both satiety and to help keep your blood sugar level stable. Some fiber in the snack helps keep you full.

Here are some examples – just be aware of portion sizes (for instance, don’t eat half a jar of peanut butter or a huge wedge of cheese):

• Hummus with baby carrots or other vegetables
• ½ cup of low-fat cottage cheese with fruit or whole grain crackers
• An apple, orange, peach, or grapes (or other fruit) with either ¼ cup almonds (or other nuts) or an ounce of cheese or a part skim cheese stick
• Non-fat, unsweetened yogurt with ½ cup of whole grain cereal and/or fruit
• A 12-ounce non-fat latte or cappuccino
• Whole-grain crackers with peanut, nut, or seed butter
• Trail mix with nuts, seeds, raisins, and cereal (cereal can cut down on the calories while increasing the volume – nuts are a high calorie food)
• A whole grain (especially if it’s high fiber) English muffin or slice of toast and low-fat cream cheese or a slice of reduced fat (2%) cheese
• A portion controlled serving of nuts

Smart Snacking Tips

• Make sure your snack is 200 calories or less and has protein and fiber to help keep you full and satisfied.
• 100-calorie snack packages are usually processed and probably are not great for you choices. Check the ingredients, protein, and fiber content.
• Beware of “healthy” or “halo-food” snacks like some sugary cereals, some sweetened, flavored yogurts, some so-called protein bars, yogurt-covered pretzels, and sports drinks.
• Ask yourself if you’re snacking out of boredom, stress, or if you’re really hungry.
• Don’t let yourself get so hungry that it’s impossible to control what and how much you have for a snack.
• There are many choices. Pick snacks that you enjoy and can look forward to eating.
• Keep healthy snacks in your desk drawer, your kitchen cabinet, or in your car so when you’re really hungry you have a good choice readily available. Otherwise it’s way too easy to succumb to the vending machine, newsstand, food truck, or the donut or apple fritter staring at you when you pay for your coffee.

Do you know someone who’s off to college?

Get my book for some easy, doable tips on how to eat well in dining halls and dorm rooms.  Available in print and as an ebook from Amazon and as an ebook from Barnes & Noble.

The post How Big Are Your Snacks? Are They As Big As Lunch or Dinner? appeared first on Eat Out Eat Well.

And, if you’re eating from the bag while you watch TV or work on the computer, it’s likely that as you mindlessly move your hand from bag to mouth you don’t realize how much you’re eating or whether you’re full of not.  So you probably just keep eating until you get to the bottom of the bag – and then eat all of the crumbs, too.

• It’s easier to stay away from chips and cookies if the bag isn’t in your line of sight – out of sight, out of mind.

• If you do buy jumbo size packages because they’re cheaper, put the excess somewhere inconvenient so you’ll have to work to get at it –like the basement, garage, or a high shelf that you need a stepstool to access. If you have to work to get the food it might take some of the desire out of it.

• Don’t eat straight from the package.  Divide up the contents of one large package into several smaller portions. Put your portion in a bowl, on a plate, or even on a napkin. Count out your chips, crackers, and pretzels or only eat from a single portion size bag.

• Who can stop when there’s an open bag of salty, crunchy food right in front of you? It’s amazingly easy to just keep until the bag is empty. A dive to the bottom of a 9 ounce bag of chips (without dip) is 1,260 calories. One serving, about 15 chips, is 140 calories.

• And, leave the broken pieces of cookies or chips in the bag.  Remarkably, pieces of cookies and broken chips have calories, too!

The post Do You Eat Chips and Cookies Straight from the Package? appeared first on Eat Out Eat Well.

Eating out can be a real challenge to your waistband.  It can be pretty hard to make the best choices on the spur of the moment.

There are times to go all out and eat everything – maybe a special meal or celebration.  But for everyday eating, whether it’s at the coffee shop, takeout for lunch at work, or dinner at the local diner — why not resolve to stick to certain personal rules that are the most workable for you.

Here’s a list of some possibilities – all of them pretty doable – some easier that others depending on your preferences.  If you make up your mind to do one thing – and consistently stick to it – that behavior will eventually become your default habit pattern.

Ideas To Try:

1. I will not stick my hand in the breadbasket and eat what comes out.I will only have one piece of bread with dinner instead of two or three (harder breads tend to have fewer calories).
2. I will only have one piece of bread with dinner instead of two or three (harder breads tend to have fewer calories).
3. I will have my bread naked — without butter or olive oil (one teeny pat of butter has 36 calories, a tablespoon has 102, and a tablespoon of oil has 120).I will not use bread to sop up every last bit of sauce or dressing on my plate.
4. I will not use bread to sop up every last bit of sauce or dressing on my plate.
5. I will not eat all of the leftover broken pieces of cookies, brownies, crackers, etc.I will not taste everyone else’s meal at the table and then eat everything I ordered.
6. I will not taste everyone else’s meal at the table and then eat everything I ordered.
7. I believe it’s not necessary to clean my plate in a restaurant because (a) I paid for the meal, (b) it’s really good, or (c) it’s sitting in front of me.I will order pizza without extra cheese and meat.
8. I will order pizza without extra cheese and meat.
9. I will eat only two slices or pizza instead of three or four.I will have a two-scoop ice cream sundae instead of three – or maybe even one scoop.
10. I will have a two-scoop ice cream sundae instead of three – or maybe even one scoop.
11. I will order a single scoop sugar cone instead of a large waffle cone in the ice cream store. Sprinkles (jimmies) are a pretty low calories bonus.I won’t eat the crusts of grilled cheese or pizza off of my kid’s plate.
12. I won’t eat the crusts of grilled cheese or pizza off of my kid’s plate.
13. I won’t help with my kid’s ice cream cone, either – under the pretense of helping to keep it from dripping all over or falling on the sidewalk.I will hold my dinner wine to two glasses (a 5 ounce glass of wine has around 120 calories).
14. I will hold my dinner wine to two glasses (a 5 ounce glass of wine has around 120 calories).
15. I will keep my hand out of the bar snacks:  peanuts, goldfish, chips, etc.I will ask for salad dressing on the side and then use only a couple of spoonsful – not ladles like those commonly used in restaurants or salad bars.
16. I will ask for salad dressing on the side and then use only a couple of spoonsful – not ladles like those commonly used in restaurants or salad bars.
17. I’ll skip the pie a la mode and just have pie.I’ll eat the filling and leave most of the piecrust on the plate (can save around 200 calories).
18. I’ll eat the filling and leave most of the piecrust on the plate (can save around 200 calories).
19. I’ll order the smaller cut of steak in the steakhouse.I’ll ask for mustard instead of mayo on my sandwich (saves about 100 calories).
20. I’ll ask for mustard instead of mayo on my sandwich (saves about 100 calories).
21. I’ll have a cheeseburger instead of a bacon cheeseburger (two strips of bacon are about 100 calories).I’ll have plain coffee or tea instead of a mocha latte or hot chocolate.
22. I’ll have plain coffee or tea instead of a mocha latte or hot chocolate.
23. I’ll ask for veggies instead of mashed potatoes; salad instead of French fries.
24. I’ll have a regular burger or even a regular cheeseburger instead of a big mac, whopper, etc.
25. I’ll skip the mid-morning donut or pastry and have yogurt, fruit, or a small portion of nuts instead.
26. I’ll have grilled chicken or fish instead of fried.
27. I’ll only have one stadium-sized beer instead of two.
28. I won’t buy a candy bar when I stop for gas.
29. I’ll have a giant bagel only one of the weekend days instead of both.
30. I won’t use a road or plane trip as an excuse for non-stop candy and chip indulgence.

What are some of your eating out resolutions?  Post them on Facebook so others can try them, too.

Get more ideas.  Subscribe to EatOutEatWell digital magazine available from the iTunes stores.

The post 30 Easy And Doable Eat Out Resolutions To Try — Pick One! appeared first on Eat Out Eat Well.

My new book — 30 Ways to Eat Your Holiday Favorites and Still Get Into Your Jeans — is available as a free download for your kindle or kindle reader this Saturday, Sunday, and Monday (12/7 – 12/9).

The book is filled with useful and practical tips and info to help you navigate your way through the holiday season with your waistline intact and your belly happy.

Head on over to Amazon to download your free gift — and please share this info with anyone else who might be interested.

I hope you enjoy the book.  I would greatly appreciate it if you would leave a review on Amazon.

Enjoy the holiday season.

The post A Holiday Gift appeared first on Eat Out Eat Well.

How many people do you usually sit with when you’re eating? Not all the people surrounding you in a cafeteria or restaurant, but the number of friends or family at your table?

Amazingly, the number of people you eat with can make a big difference in how much you end up eating. If you have eight people at your table you might end up eating 96% more than if you ate alone!

That’s not to say that you should limit the number of friends you eat with—it should just make you aware that friends, unintentionally, can influence how much and how fast you eat.

How Come?

You tend to eat for a longer amount of time — and eat more — when you’re with people you like compared to when you eat alone.  It could be because you mindlessly nibble while someone else talks, or you’re using the good manners you were taught in fifth grade about not letting someone else eat alone, or maybe you’re just having fun and enjoying your food. Whatever the reason, most of us tend to stay at the table longer when we’re with others –and– the longer you stay at the table, the more you eat.

We also tend to mimic the other people at the table. It’s almost as though how much you eat and how fast you eat is contagious. If your friends eat fast, you eat fast. If they eat a lot, you eat a lot.

Friends and family influence how much we eat, too. Sometimes you get so involved in conversation that all monitoring of what you pop into your mouth goes out the window.  Have you ever looked down at your plate and wondered where all the cookies went or how you managed to work your way through the mile high dish of pasta or the four pieces of pizza?  How many tastes did you take of everyone else’s meal and dessert?  Those tastes aren’t like invisible ink.  Those calories count, too.

How Much More Do We Eat When We’re With Others?

In his book, Mindless Eating, Brian Wansink, PhD reports on a study that shows how strong the tendency is to increase how much you eat when you eat with others.  Compared to eating alone, you eat, on average:

• 35% more if you eat with one other person
• 75% more with four at the table
• 96% more with a group of seven or more

What’s The Reason?

It’s a common pattern for adults to eat more when they’re in larger groups than when they’re eating alone. One reason is a phenomenon called “social facilitation,” or the actions or behaviors that result from the sight and sound of other people doing the same thing that you’re doing. When you’re eating in groups, social facilitation can help override your brain’s normal signals of satiety.

What You Can Do

• Think about who you’re eating with – and why.  If you want to have a blast and don’t care about how much you eat – eat with a big group and chow down.
• If you want to be careful about what and how much you eat, think about eating lunch with your salad (dressing on the side, please) friends rather than the pepperoni pizza group.
• Without even thinking about it, you tend to adjust your eating pace to that of your companions.  So, sit next to the slow eaters rather than the gobblers if you’re trying to control how much goes into your mouth.

Want more tips — especially if you eat in dining halls of any kind?  Get my new book, now available on Amazon — 30 Ways to Survive Dining Hall and Dorm Room Food: Tips to Avoid the Freshman 15.

The post Did You Eat Too Much? Blame Your Buddies At The Table appeared first on Eat Out Eat Well.

1. A chocolate chip cookie—or oatmeal raisin for that matter—should be about the size of the rim of a soda can. Some cookies are four times that size—and with four times the calories and fat content!
2. Don’t be duped by turkey, fish, and veggie burgers and sandwiches. They sound healthier and less caloric than beef, but that might not be the case. At Red Robin a grilled turkey burger has 578 calories, 29g fat. Burger King’s Premium Alaskan Fish sandwich has 530 calories, 28g fat while a Whopper Jr. without mayo has 260 calories, 10g fat. A Sedona Black Bean Burger at TGI Fridays has 870 calories, 49g fat.
3. Bottled water isn’t always just water. Some are just water or water with flavor essence but lots of them are naturally or artificially sweetened, flavored, and colored. Don’t be duped. For instance, many Vitaminwater flavors have 50 calories in a serving (8 ounces), but the bottles are usually 20 ounces which makes the contents around 120 calories and 30+ grams of sugar. There are no-calorie Vitaminwater Zeros, too.
4. Skip the bran muffin for breakfast. We think bran muffins are “healthy” because they have the word bran in their name, but they’re actually made with a lot of sugar and fat. A Dunkin’ Donuts Honey Bran Raisin Muffin has 480 calories with 15 grams of fat and 79 grams of carbs (it does, however, have 5 grams of fiber). In general, a 4 ounce bran muffin has around 350 calories—but, have you seen the size of most muffins—they sure don’t tip the scales at 4 ounces.
5. Cans and boxes that look like single servings may have two or three. They may look small enough to be for one, but that doesn’t mean it’s true. Check out how many servings are in your can of soup or box of mac and cheese.

Want more tips — especially if you eat in dining halls of any kind?  Get my new book, now available on Amazon — 30 Ways to Survive Dining Hall and Dorm Room Food: Tips to Avoid the Freshman 15.

The post 5 Quick And Easy Calorie Saving Tips appeared first on Eat Out Eat Well.

The biggest problem is that we often don’t realize that we’re shoving food into our mouths – either because we’re distracted, we don’t want to know, or we just plain old don’t care.

What Makes Us Do It?

1.  “Cheap” calories: the kind you find at all you can eat restaurants, freebie tastes in markets, the basket of broken cookies in the bakery, and “value and super sized meals.”

2.  Bread and extras like butter, olive oil, and olives on the table or bar peanuts or pretzels.  Way too tempting to pass up – especially if you’re hungry or you’ve walked in with the attitude that you “deserve” it because you’ve had a tough day.

3.  Walking into your kitchen or the snack room at work and having your favorite snacks staring you in the face (see it = eat it).

4.  Procrastinating or avoiding doing what you have to do by having a snack.

5.  Watching TV with a bag of chips or a bowl of candy on your lap.

6.  Parties— especially when you drink — causing you to lose count and control of what you’re grabbing to eat.

7.  Food and coffee shops on every corner that offer lots of food, lots of variety, and are open all the time.

8.  The in(famous) sugar/fat/salt combination in baked goods, fast food, candy, fast food, frozen food, and processed food.

9.  Food that your family or roommates insist must be in the house – or that you think they want in the house.

10.  Feeling tired, stressed, overwhelmed, bored, angry, or “out-of-sorts” and turning to food as a “pick-me-up” or for comfort.

11.  Mindless bites – a piece of candy from the open bowl on a desk, a taste of your partner’s dessert, finishing your child’s food (especially dripping ice cream cones).

12.  Being a member of the clean plate club – which also extends to polishing off leftovers and finishing the last bits left in the pan or serving dishes as you clean up.

The post A Dozen Really Common Reasons We Eat When We’re Not Hungry appeared first on Eat Out Eat Well.

• American men, women, and children eat, on average 46 slices of pizza a year.

• 94% of Americans eat pizza regularly

• 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 vegetables

• 36% order pizza topped with pepperoni

What’s Good, What’s 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:  the amount of fat, calories, and portion size. If your mouth starts to water at the thought of golden brown crust and cheesy goodness — here’s the downer:  that luscious slice of pizza that should be about the size of two dollar bills – not the size of a small frying pan or a quarter of a 12” circle.

7 Ways To Build a Better Slice of Pizza

1. Order thin crust rather than a thick crust or deep dish.
2. Resist the urge to ask for double cheese — better yet, go light on the cheese or use reduced-fat cheese (if they have it).
3. Ask for a pizza without cheese but topped with veggies and a little olive oil. You can always sprinkle on a little grated parmesan for flavor; one tablespoon has only 22 calories.
4. Instead of cheese go for big flavors like onion, garlic, olives but use them somewhat sparingly because of the oil.  And don’t forget anchovies  – a lot of flavor for minimal calories – but you have to like them!
5. 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.
6. Order a side salad (careful with the dressing) and cut down on the amount of pizza.  Salad takes longer to eat, too.
7. 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 with a napkin. Blotting (it’s easy to do this on the kind of hot slice where the oil runs down your arm when you pick it up) can soak up a teaspoon of oil worth 40 calories and 5 grams of fat.

Domino’s:

Check out the difference in calories for the same size slice (1/8^th of a pie) between the classic hand-tossed pizza, the deep dish, and the crunchy thin crust for the same toppings.  Then check out the difference in calories for the toppings.

Domino’s 14 inch large classic hand-tossed pizza

• America’s Favorite (Peperoni, mushroom, sausage, 1/8 of pizza):  390 calories

• Bacon Cheeseburger (Beef, bacon, cheddar cheese), 1/8 of pizza:  420 calories

• Vegi Feast (Green pepper, onion, mushroom, black olive, extra cheese, 1/8 of pizza):  340 calories
  

Domino’s 14 inch large ultimate deep dish pizza

• America’s Favorite (Peperoni, mushroom, sausage), 1/8 of pizza:  400 calories

• Bacon Cheeseburger (Beef, bacon, cheddar cheese), 1/8 of pizza:  430 calories

• Vegi Feast (Green pepper, onion, mushroom, black olive, extra cheese), 1/8 of pizza:  350 calories

Domino’s 14 inch large crunchy thin crust pizza

• America’s Favorite (Peperoni, mushroom, sausage, 1/8 of pizza:  280 calories)

• Bacon Cheeseburger (Beef, bacon, cheddar cheese), 1/8 of pizza:  310 calories

• Vegi Feast (Green pepper, onion, mushroom, black olive, extra cheese), 1/8 of pizza:  230 calories

Mall Pizza:  There’s A Range

• A slice of Sbarro’s Low Carb Cheese Pizza has 310 calories and 14 grams of fat.
• A slice of 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.
• A slice of Costco Food Court Pepperoni Pizza has 620 calories and 30 grams of fat.
• “Stuffed” pizzas are even worse—790 calories minimum and over 33 grams of fat per slice.

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