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Super Bowl: A Big Game And Lots Of Food

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Even though professional football — as we know it – has been around since 1920, the first Super Bowl, the annual championship of the National Football League (NFL), was held in January 1967.

Although not an official holiday, Super Bowl Sunday certainly has assumed the trappings of a holiday both in the US and in many expat communities. It is the most watched annual television program in the US and ranks second (Thanksgiving is first) as the day for most food consumption. Over 20 million Americans attend Super Bowl parties and half of all Americans say they would rather go to a Super Bowl party than to a New Year’s Eve party.

It’s amazing how food has become associated with football — from tailgating to the food for the game.  There are plenty of choices and you can eat well — and even have room for some indulgence — if you have a plan and don’t get sidetracked by the array of very caloric and usually very fatty foods.

Think of all the hand to mouth munching on chips, dips, and wings; a swig or two or three; a cookie here and there.  And then there’s the “real food” at halftime – or maybe there was pizza first followed by a selection of subs. By the end of the game do you have a clue about how much – or even what — you have popped into your mouth?

Super Bowl Food Facts

  • About one in twenty (9 million) Americans watch the game at a restaurant or a bar.
  • Americans double their average daily consumption of snacks on Super Bowl Sunday, downing more than 33 million pounds in one day.
  • The average Super Bowl watcher consumes 1,200 calories. Potato chips are the favorite and account for 27 billion calories and 1.8 billion fat grams — the same as 4 million pounds of fat or equal to the weight of 13,000 NFL offensive linemen at 300 pounds each.
  • Nearly one in eight (13%) Americans order takeout/delivery food for the Super Bowl. The most popular choices are pizza (58%), chicken wings (50%), and subs/sandwiches (20%). Almost 70% of Super Bowl watchers eat a slice (or two or three) during the game.
  • The amount of chicken wings eaten clocks in at 90 million pounds or 450 million individual wings. It would take 19 chicken breasts to get the same amount of fat that you usually get from a dozen Buffalo wings.
  • On Super Bowl Sunday Americans eat an estimated 14,500 tons of potato chips, 4000 tons of tortilla chips, and eight million pounds of avocados. Five ounces of nacho cheese Doritos equals around 700 calories. You’d have to run the length of 123 football fields to burn them off.  You’d have to eat 175 baby carrots or 700 celery sticks to get the same number of calories.
  • According to 7-eleven, sales of antacids increase by 20% on the day after Super Bowl.
  • Pizza restaurants love Super Bowl Sunday – it’s their busiest day of the year, according to the National Restaurant Association. Papa John’s, Pizza Hut, and Domino’s sell twice as many pies as they do on any other day. Domino’s expects to sell 11 million slices.
  • The Hass Avocado Board predicts that over Super Bowl weekend approximately100 million pounds of guacamole will be eaten – and approximately 14,500 tons of chips are used to scoop it up.
  • About 2 million cases of beer are sold every year for Super Bowl – which might explain why 6% of Americans call in sick for work the next day.

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

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Do you sit in the fat or skinny area of a restaurant?

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.

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

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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?

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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.

For more tidbits check out Eat Out Eat Well on Facebook.  And remember to Like the page while you’re there!

 

How Many Calories Will You Be Drinking Over The Holidays?

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A glass or two of celebratory cheer – a toast to the New Year …

Just a heads up: all of those drinks can really pack a caloric punch. So, just like drinking wisely (and of course, not driving), don’t forget to factor in all those calories.

What, Actually, Is A Drink?

Do you know that a standard alcoholic drink (in the US) is a drink that contains the equivalent of 14.0 grams (0.6 ounces) of pure alcohol.

That’s the amount of pure alcohol usually found in:

  • 12 ounces of beer
  • 8 ounces of malt liquor
  • 5 ounces of wine
  • 1.5 ounces or a “shot” of 80-proof distilled spirits or liquor (gin, rum, vodka, or whiskey, etc.)

Will Beer Or Wine Affect You Less Than A Cocktail?

A 12 ounce bottle of beer has about the same amount of alcohol as a 5 ounce glass of wine or a 1.5 ounce shot of liquor. Since it is the amount – not the type — of alcohol in your drink that affects you the most, it is not safer to drink beer or wine rather than liquor if you are drinking the same amount of alcohol.

In other words, whether you have two 5 ounce glasses of wine, two 12 ounce bottles of beer, or two 1.5 ounces of liquor either straight or in a mixed drink — you are drinking the same amount of alcohol.

How Many Calories Are In Alcohol?

Alcohol doesn’t fill you up the way food does because it doesn’t register as “food” in your GI tract or brain.  Even though it doesn’t fill you up, alcohol does have calories — 7 calories a gram – more than carbs and protein, which clock in at 4 calories a gram and fat which has 9.  It may not feel as though you’re putting calories into your body, but the fact is you can drink a lot of calories and still not feel stuffed (perhaps drunk, but not stuffed).

In General:

  • 12 ounces of beer has 153 calories and 13.9 grams of alcohol
  • 12 ounces of lite beer has 103 calories and 11 grams of alcohol
  • 5 ounces red wine has 125 calories and 15.6 grams of alcohol
  • 5 ounces of white wine has 121 calories and 15.1 grams of alcohol
  • 1 1/2 ounces (a jigger) of 80 proof (40% alcohol) liquor has 97 calories and 14 grams of alcohol

Alcohol And Mixers

The higher the alcoholic content (proof), the greater the number of calories:

  • 80-proof vodka (40% alcohol, the most common type) has 64 calories/1oz
  • 86-proof vodka (43% alcohol) has 70 calories/1 ounce
  • 90-proof vodka (45% alcohol) has 73 calories/1 ounce
  • 100-proof vodka (50% alcohol) has 82 calories/1 ounce

When you start adding mixers, the calories in a drink can more than double.

  • club soda has no calories
  • 8 ounces of orange juice has 112 calories
  • 8 ounces of tonic has 83 calories
  • 8 ounces of ginger ale has 83 calories
  • 8 ounces of tomato juice has 41 calories
  • 8 ounces of classic coke has 96 calories
  • 8 ounces of cranberry juice has 128 calories

Mixed drinks and fancy drinks can significantly increase the calorie count.    The following calories are approximate – bartenders, recipes, and the hand that pours all vary.  Use these figures as a guideline.

  • Plain martini (2.5 ounces): 160 calories
  • Mimosa (4 ounces):  75 calories
  • Gin and Tonic (7 ounces):  200 calories
  • Mojito:  (8 ounces):  214 calories
  • Cosmopolitan (4 ounces): 200 calories
  • Skinnygirl margarita (4 ounces): 100 calories
  • Green apple martini (1 ounce each vodka, sour apple, apple juice): 148 calories
  • Bloody Mary (5 ounces): 118 calories
  • Coffee liqueur (3 ounces): 348 calories
  • Godiva chocolate liqueur (3 ounces): 310 calories
  • Vodka and tonic (8 ounces): 200 calories
  • Screwdriver (8 ounces): 190 calories
  • White Russian (2 ounces of vodka, 1.5 ounces of coffee liqueur, 1.5 ounces of cream): 425 calories
  • Rum and Coke (8 ounces): 185 calories
  • Chocolate martini: (2 ounces each of vodka, chocolate liqueur, cream, 1/2 ounce of creme de cacao, chocolate syrup): 438 calories
  • Jumbo and super-sized drinks with double shots and extra mixers could add up to 1,000 calories or more (a single giant glass of TGI Friday’s frozen mudslide has around 1,100 calories)
  • An 8 ounce white Russian made with light cream has 715 calories
  • An 8 ounce cup of eggnog has about 343 calories and 19 grams of fat thanks to alcohol, heavy cream, eggs, and sugar
  • Mulled wine, a combination of red wine, sugar/honey, spices, orange and lemon peel, has about 210 to 300 calories in 5 ounces, depending on how much sweetener is added
  • One cup (8 ounces) of apple cider – without any additives – has 115 calories
  • One hot buttered rum has 218 calories
  • One Irish coffee has 218 calories
  • One cup of coffee with cream and sugar runs at least 50 calories (more if it’s sweet and light)

Approximate Calories in One Ounce Of Various Wines

  • Champagne: 19 calories
  • Red wine (Burgundy, Cabernet):  25 calories
  • Dry white wine (Chablis, Reisling, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc):  24 calories
  • Rose:  20 calories
  • Sweet white wine (Moselle, Sauterne, Zinfandel):  28 calories
  • Port (about 20% alcohol):  46 calories
  • Sweet dessert wine (Tokaji, Muscat):  47 calories

Beer (12-ounce bottle)

  • Sierra Nevada Bigfoot Ale: 330 calories
  • Samuel Adams Boston Lager: 180 calories
  • Guinness Extra Stout: 176 calories
  • Pete’s Wicked Ale: 174 calories
  • Harpoon IPA: 170 calories
  • Heineken: 166 calories
  • Killian’s Irish Red: 163 calories
  • Long Trail: 163 calories
  • Molson Ice: 160 calories
  • Samuel Adams Brown Ale:  160 calories
  • Budweiser:  144 calories
  • Bud Light: 110 calories
  • Corona Light: 105 calories
  • Coors Light: 102 calories
  • Heineken Light: 99 calories
  • Budweiser Select: 99 calories
  • Miller Light: 96 calories
  • Amstel Light: 95 calories
  • Anheuser Busch Natural Light: 95 calories
  • Michelob Ultra: 95 calories
  • Miller MGD 64:  64 calories
  • Beck’s Premier Light: 64 calories

For more holiday eating and drinking tips get my ebook

available on Amazon. holiday-guide