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Food for Fun and Thought

Do Football And Food Share Equal Footing On Super Bowl Sunday?

January 31, 2019 By Penny Klatell, PhD, RN Leave a Comment

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 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’s 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.  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. (Source: Calorie Control Council). 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. (Source: com).
  • 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%). (Source: American Journal). 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.

Super Bowl Party Calorie Saving Tips

  • Stick with grilled meat, veggies, or baked chips rather than fried. Turkey, baked ham, and grilled chicken are better choices than wings and fried chicken.
  • Plain bread, pitas, or wraps are less caloric than biscuits or cornbread.
  • Go for salsa and skip the guacamole.
  • Minimize calories by dipping chicken wings into hot sauce instead of Buffalo sauce.
  • Try using celery for crunch and as a dipper instead of chips.
  • Go for thin crust rather than thick doughy crust pizza. Choose the slices with vegetables, not pepperoni or meatballs. If you’re not embarrassed, try blotting up the free-floating oil that sits on top of a greasy slice (soaking up even a teaspoon of oil saves you 40 calories and 5 grams of fat).
  • Try fruit for dessert.
  • Alcohol adds calories and plays havoc with your mindful eating. Try alternating water or diet soda with beer or alcohol. That can decrease your alcohol calories (alcohol has 7 calories/gram) by 50%.

For your consideration (and amusement):

According to the DietDetective):

  • Drinking six bottles of Budweiser beer means needing to do “The Wave” 4, 280 times
  • One 16-ounce bowl of beef and bean chili (about 550 calories) with a few tablespoons of sour cream and shredded cheese (another 150 calories) means 73 minutes of cheerleading.
  • Eating ten Lay’s classic potato chips with Kraft French onion dip means you have to dance to Madonna for 134 minutes
  • Four Tostitos Scoops! Tortilla chips with guacamole means 122 end zone touchdown dances because each chip is about 11 calories and each scoop of guacamole is around 25 calories. One KFC extra crispy drumstick and an extra crispy chicken breast means 203 end zone touchdown dances. All of those dances could lead to some very sore quads.
  • Five pigs in blankets (67.5 calories each) means taking over the job of a stadium vendor and selling food for 36 minutes.
  • And the wings. Fifteen Pizza Hut Buffalo Burnin’ Hot Crispy Bone-in Wings with ranch dressing (100 calories per wing and 220 calories for 1.5 ounces of ranch dressing) means you’d have to do the wave 9,461 times.  The only upside is that after all those waves your arms would hurt so much you wouldn’t be able to pick up any more food!

Enjoy the food. Enjoy the game.

Filed Under: Food for Fun and Thought

What’s Your Traditional Food For Good Luck In The New Year?

December 29, 2018 By Penny Klatell, PhD, RN Leave a Comment

What’s your New Year’s tradition? Do you eat fish, beans, cakes with coins, grapes, or pickled herring? Perhaps your family eats pork products, lentils, black-eyed peas, cooked greens or long noodles.

The earliest recorded celebration of the New Year dates back 4,000 years to ancient Babylon. The first new moon following the vernal equinox, or the day in the spring with an equal amount of sunlight and darkness, signaled the start of a new year. Eventually civilizations around the world developed more sophisticated calendars which usually tied the first day of the year to an agricultural or astronomical event.

Food and symbolism played and still play important roles in these New Year celebrations. On special occasions different countries use certain foods — not just to celebrate — but often as a symbol of luck, wealth, and health.

What Not To Eat (Hint: Don’t Look Or Move Back)

Different cultures have foods that are supposed to be eaten at the stroke of midnight or sometime on January 1 to bring luck, fortune, and plenty (both money and food).

But, there are also foods not to eat. Things that move or scratch backwards — like lobsters, chickens, and turkeys — are to be avoided because they symbolize moving backward instead of progressing forward. To avoid any looking back at past struggles or setbacks, only things that move forward should be eaten.

In some cultures, a little food should be left on the table or on your plate to guarantee – or at least to hedge your bet – that you’ll have a well-stocked kitchen during the coming year.

Why Tempt Fate — Some Lucky Foods To Eat

There are many New Year’s foods and traditions — far too numerous to list – that are honored by people all around the world. Wouldn’t you want to consider Filling your plate with some luck on January 1? A little extra insurance can’t hurt!

Some Traditional Good Luck Foods

Round foods shaped like coins, like beans, black eyed peas, and legumes, symbolize financial prosperity, as do greens like cabbage, collard greens, and kale which resemble paper money. Golden colored foods like corn bread also symbolize financial rewards in the New Year. Examples of round good luck foods are: lentils in Italy and Brazil, pancakes in Germany, round fruit in the Philippines, and black-eyed peas in the Southern US. Green leafy vegetables that symbolize paper money are collard greens in the Southern US and kale in Denmark.

Pork symbolizes abundance, plenty of food, and the fat of the land (think pork barrel legislation). It’s a sign of prosperity and the pig symbolizes plentiful food in the New Year. The pig is considered an animal of progress because it moves forward as it roots around for food. Pork products appear in many ways – ham, sausage, ham hocks, pork ribs, and even pig’s knuckles. Years ago, if your family had a pig you were doing well. Some examples of good luck pork products are roast suckling pig with a four leaf clover in its mouth in Hungary; pork sausage with lentils in Italy; and pork with sauerkraut in Germany.In some countries, having food on your table and/or plates at the stroke of midnight is a sign that you’ll have food throughout the year.

Seafood, with the exception of the backward swimming lobster, symbolizes abundance and plenty and is a symbol of good luck. Fish also symbolize fertility because they produce multiple eggs at a time. It’s important that a fish be served whole, with the head and tail intact to symbolize a good beginning and a good end. Examples are herring and carp in Germany, pickled herring in Poland, boiled cod in
Denmark, dried salted cod in Italy, red snapper in Japan, and carp in
Vietnam.

Eating sweet food in order to have a sweet year is common in a number of countries. In Spain, Portugal, Mexico, Cuba, Ecuador, and
Peru 12 sweet grapes, one for each month of the year, are eaten at midnight in hope of having 12 sweet months. The order and sweetness of the grape is important – for instance, if the fifth grape is a bit sour, the month of May might be a bit rocky. In some places the goal is to eat all of the grapes before the last stroke of midnight and some countries eat a 13th grape just for good measure.

Another symbol for good luck involves eating food that’s in a ring shape – like doughnuts or ring shaped cakes. This represents coming full circle to successfully complete the year. Examples are Rosca de Reyes in Mexico and Olie Bollen (doughnuts) in the Netherlands.

Long noodles signify a long life. The Japanese use long Buckwheat Soba noodles – but you shouldn’t cut or break them because that could shorten life.

Sweets are symbolic of a sweet year and/or good luck. Cakes and breads with coins or trinkets baked into them are common in many countries. Greeks have a round cake called Vasilopita – made with a coin baked inside — which is cut after midnight. Whoever gets the coin is supposed to have luck throughout the year. Jews use apples dipped in honey on the Jewish New Year, Norwegians use rice pudding with an almond inside, Koreans use sweet fruits, and Egyptians have candy for children.

Chinese New Year, an all East and Southeast Asia celebration, begins on the first day of the first month in the traditional Chinese lunar calendar. It’s filled with tradition and ritual and usually considered the most important traditional holiday for Asian people. The holiday is celebrated with lucky red envelopes filled with money, lion and dragon dances, drums, fireworks, firecrackers, and feasting on traditional sweet sticky rice cake and round savory dumplings that symbolize never-ending wealth. On New Year’s Eve extended family come together for a meal that includes fish as the last course to symbolize abundance. In the first five days of the New Year people eat long noodles to symbolize long life and on the 15th and final celebratory day, round dumplings shaped like the full moon are shared to represent the family unit and perfection.

So fill your plate with a serving of luck and celebrate with family and friends.

In my family we bake Greek Vasilopita (St. Basil’s New Year’s cake) and each one of us will be hoping we crunch on the piece with the hidden coin.

I wish you a Happy and Healthy 2019.

Filed Under: Food for Fun and Thought, Holidays Tagged With: New Year, New Year luck, New Year's food

Is Santa’s Belt Getting A Little Too Tight?

December 24, 2018 By Penny Klatell, PhD, RN Leave a Comment

Like many of us,  Santa might have some weight challenges. It wouldn’t be too surprising with all of the cookies and milk left out for him on Christmas Eve.  Plus, he uses a sleigh pulled by reindeer so he just slides down the chimney. That might be tough with his jolly belly and a big bag of presents slung over his shoulder — but it doesn’t use up a whole lot of calories!

Although, Santa does travel a lot. On Christmas Eve he visits an estimated 92 million households. Walking.about.com figures that if all the households were evenly distributed across the earth, Santa would travel 0.78 miles between houses — covering a total of 71,760,000 (71.8 million) miles.

What Are Santa’s Stats?

According to NORAD, Santa tips the scale at 260 pounds and he’s 5’7” tall, giving him a BMI of 40.7 — which, unfortunately, classifies him as obese.

Walking.about.com guesses that Santa weighs 250 pounds. They think that he moves pretty quickly because he does have to get his deliveries done in one night, so they estimate that Santa burns 13 billion calories on Christmas Eve.

If Santa climbed stairs delivering his presents, Big12Hoops calculates that he would climb the equivalent of 9.5 billion stairs.   He would burn 0.11 calories for each stair, or 1.045 billion calories. That’s far fewer than 13 billion calories, but it’s still a whole lot of energy expenditure that would leave him mighty thin, maybe so thin that he could slip through a crack on Christmas morning.

Does Santa Need All The Milk and Cookies Left Out For Him?

Two small cookies and a cup of skim milk (no full fat dairy for Santa, he might have cholesterol issues) clock in at about 200 calories. If Santa snacked at each of the 92 million households, he would chow down on 18.4 billion calories.

That would mean he would gain 1,529,350 pounds every Christmas. If he walked instead of rode in his sleigh – Rudolph is probably well-trained enough to take the lead without Santa’s hands on the reins — he’d have to circle the earth 1,183 times to burn off the extra calories from all the milk and cookies.

What If Santa Snacked On Veggies Instead Of Cookies?

If Santa had a cup of carrot and celery sticks rather than cookies and milk at each house, he’d be eating just 50 calories per house visit — which would add up to 4.6 billion calories for the evening. Since he burns off 13 billion calories by walking and maneuvering down chimneys, he’d actually lose so much weight that he’d disappear from sight.

One idea would be for him to have a nice combination of veggies at most households and cookies and low fat milk every thousand or so households. That probably would keep him happy, energetic, and in caloric balance!

But … Santa has been delivering presents and eating cookies for a very long time. He magically reappears every year as jolly as ever. He seems to be doing quite nicely with his usual routine and cookie consumption, don’t you think?

So … Go for it, Santa!

Merry Christmas to all …

and don’t forget to leave out the milk and cookies.

Filed Under: Food for Fun and Thought, Holidays Tagged With: Christmas, Christmas eve, milk and cookies for Santa, Santa Claus

How Long Can Turkey and Stuffing Safely Stay On The Table and In The Fridge?

November 21, 2018 By Penny Klatell, PhD, RN Leave a Comment

 

Will you roast an 18 pound turkey? Maybe you’ll roast two smaller ones so you can have four drumsticks. One thin for sure; most of us will have a whole lot of leftover turkey.

What do you do with that leftover bird? Is it alright to eat it after it’s been sitting out from the time it came out of the oven, through dinner, dessert, and two loads run through the dishwasher?

Once it’s in the fridge, how long can it stay there?

Once Your Bird Is Cooked, Does It Matter How Long You Leave It Out?

Yes, yes, yes! It definitely matters – and the clock starts ticking as soon as the bird comes out of the oven, fryer, or off the grill.

According to the Centers for Disease Control the number of reported cases of food borne illness (food poisoning) increases during the holiday season. Leaving cooked food at room temperature is an invitation for bacteria that can cause food poisoning to multiply and reheating leftovers doesn’t always destroy their toxins or spores.

You shouldn’t leave turkey or any perishable food out for more than two hours. To save turkey leftovers, remove the stuffing from the cavity, cut the turkey off the bone, and refrigerate or freeze all leftovers.

The Basic Rules For Leftovers

According to the USDA the mantra is:

2 Hours–2 Inches–4 Days

  • 2 Hours from oven to refrigerator: Refrigerate or freeze your food within 2 hours of cooking (from when you first take the food off the heat or out of the oven). Throw your leftovers away if they are out longer than that. Think about your buffet table or your holiday dinner table. How long did the bird, stuffing, and accompaniments sit out while everyone ate and then went back for seconds?
  • 2 Inches thick to cool it quick: Store your food at a shallow depth–about 2 inches–to speed chilling. Are you guilty of piling the food high in storage containers or in a big mound covered with tin foil?
  • 4 Days in the refrigerator–otherwise freeze it: Use your leftovers that are stored in the fridge within 4 days. The exceptions are stuffing and gravy. Both should be used within 2 days. Reheat solid leftovers to 165 degrees Fahrenheit and bring liquid leftovers to a rolling boil. Toss what you don’t finish.

How Long Can Leftover Turkey Stay In The Freezer?

Frozen leftover turkey, stuffing, and gravy should be used within one month.

To successfully freeze leftovers:

  • package them properly using freezer wrap or freezer containers. Use heavy-duty aluminum foil, freezer paper, or freezer bags for best results and don’t leave any air space.
  • Squeeze the excess air from the freezer bags and fill rigid freezer containers to the top with dry food. Without proper packaging, circulating air in the freezer can create freezer burn – those white dried-out patches on the surface of food that make it tough and tasteless.
  • Leave a one-inch headspace in containers with liquid and half an inch in containers filled with semi-solids.

 

Filed Under: Food for Fun and Thought, Holidays Tagged With: food safety, leftovers, Thanksgiving, turkey

Halloween Candy and Wine? You Bet!

October 13, 2018 By Penny Klatell, PhD, RN Leave a Comment

Halloween candy isn’t only for kids. Neither are Halloween parties. So, if you’re an adult, why not have some wine with your candy – whether it’s the candy you bought for trick or treaters, what you snag from your kid’s collection, or the inevitable candy filled bowl on just about every counter.

There are all kinds of opinions about what wine goes well with what candy. Experts will tell you that you should consider the wine’s sweetness, acidity, flavor and whether or not it’s sparkling or still. Since most candy is really sweet – especially the Halloween trick or treat kind –“outsweeting” the candy is tough to do!

Ultimately, your choice boils down to what you like, but here’s a synopsis of some of the recommendations.

Some Wine and Candy Pairing Suggestions

Fresher, fruit forward wines are great to pair with fruity candy. Sparkling rosés go really well with Gummy Bears and Worms and Starbursts, especially the pink and yellow ones. The strawberry and cherry notes in the wine mirror some of the red fruit flavors in the candy and the refreshing fizz helps to wash the sugar down. Other Starburst recommended pairings are light reds such as Pinot Noir, St. Laurent, Zweigelt or Gamay or sweet whites such as Reisling, Moscato, Malvasia.

Nerds go best with sparkling wines like champagne, proseco, cava, and sparkling rose.

The high acidity in Chenin Blanc off sets the sweetness in Jollyranchers.

Skittles can also pair well with the sweet whites or dry whites such as white table wine, Sauvignon Blanc, and Pinot Grigio.

The sweet creaminess of the yellow, orange, and white mellow crème kernels of Candy Corn and Pumpkins can pair with sweet whites, and rich whites such as Chardonnay, Marsanne, or Viognier, sparkling wines, and Port. The trick is to pick a Chardonnay or other wine that retains enough vibrant acidity to cut through the super sweet sugary candy. Or you can just keep shoving handfuls of candy corn into your mouth without allowing time to sip!

KitKat and 3 Musketeers are lighter and fluffier and pair well with sparkling wines and medium reds such as red table wine, Sangiovese, Zinfandel, Merlot, and Grenache.

Try a Muscat with sugary Smarties.

Tootsie rolls will always stick to your teeth and pair well with the light reds.

Butterfingers go with the rich whites and the dessert wines such as late harvest ice wines, Sherry, Port, Tawny Port, and Ruby Port.

Twix pairs with dessert wines and with bold reds such as Cabernet Sauvignon, Monastrell, Malbec, and Syrah. The sweetness of ice wines will also likely taste delicious with the caramel, cookies, and chocolate in Twix.

The cherry undertones of Pinot Noir pair nicely with Twizzlers – you could even dunk!

Reese’s pieces, those wonderful bites of peanut butter and chocolate, can go with the light reds, bold reds, and dessert wines. Or try a cool climate California Syrah which will complement the chocolate in the peanut butter cups and with other peanut butter candy bars.

Another recommendation for nutty, chocolate candy is to pair it with wine that balances the sugar and cream from the milk chocolate and the salt from the peanuts and peanut butter. The strong acidic factors in Spanish Sherry make it a great pairing because it cuts through the fat and, depending on the aging, tends to have a nice nutty quality. German Rieslings also pair well.

The strong, sweet, creamy taste of Port pairs quite well with chocolate, caramel, and peanuts like the combo found in Snickers and with classic Caramels.

Heath Bar (one of my all time favorites) goes well with the dessert wines.

M&Ms, while they’re melting in your mouth and not in your hands, can be washed down with the bold and medium reds. Try a red Zinfandel.

For the coconut lovers, the harsh tannins in Cabernet Sauvignon pair well with the dark chocolate and coconut in Mounds.

Sour Patch Kids – maybe aptly named — don’t seem to pair well with anything except a puckering mouth, but you can try a bubbly NV Rosé.

If there are some caramel apples to bite into, the toastiness of caramel and butterscotch might pair well with  Muscat or Gewürztraminer because the acidity of the white wine should stand up well to the sweetness of caramel. If you want to focus on the apple flavor, try ice wine, Sauternes, or a late-harvest Sauvignon Blanc.

And why not pair a Grand Cru Bordeaux with a 100 Grand Bar?

And then there’s chocolate with huge range of strong flavors including sweet, bitter, fruity and even acidic – flavors that don’t pair well with standard dry table wine. After a bite of a rich chocolate it won’t have any flavor. So try a sweet dessert wine instead. Its richness will enhance the flavor of both.

Here are some things to consider for chocolate pairings: think about choosing a wine that’s as sweet as the chocolate or try pairing by color – the darker the chocolate, the darker the wine. consider the bitterness and texture. Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon and dark chocolate are an excellent classic pairing because the bitterness in the chocolate is similar in texture to the tannins in the wine.

Milk chocolate Hershey bars will always be someone’s favorite and they go with most wines, especially the rich and sweet whites and the light and medium reds. With the more bitter Hershey’s Dark chocolate, try a red Syrah.

Have a Happy Halloween!

 

 

Filed Under: Food for Fun and Thought, Holidays Tagged With: Halloween, Halloween candy, pairing candy and wine

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