Eat Out Eat Well

Food for Fun and Thought

How Many Calories Are In Different Kinds Of Nuts?

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Nuts are full of healthy fats and protein.  They’re a great snack and can help tide you over until your next meal — but they’re also a high calorie food.

Be careful of portions — a serving size of most nuts is one ounce.

For a one ounce serving:

  • 49 shelled pistachios, 162 calories
  • 23 almonds, 169 calories
  • 21 hazelnuts, 183 calories
  • 18 cashews, 163 calories
  • 19 pecans, 201 calories
  • 14 English walnut halves, 185 calories
  • 10-12 macadamias, 203 calories
  • 39 peanuts (technically a legume), dry roasted, 170 calories

Seven Ways To Cut Down On Pizza Calories

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pizza-pie“Let’s order pizza.”  Have you heard those words recently?  Have you had “a slice” recently?  Take comfort that you fit the stats:

  • 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 (1/8th 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.

Is Frozen Yogurt Healthy? What About Toppings?

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4-fruity-yogurt-conesIs frozen yogurt actually healthy or are you being bamboozled by the name?

What’s In It?

Milk and milk by-products are the main ingredients in frozen yogurt.

Frozen yogurt companies have their own recipes, but most common frozen yogurts contain yogurt cultures, sweetener, corn syrup, milk solids, gelatin, flavoring, and coloring.

Sugar makes up 15-17% of frozen yogurt and adds flavor, body, and thickness. Frozen yogurt, which isn’t regulated by the Food and Drug Administration (but is by some states), might or might not contain live bacterial cultures.

Frozen yogurt is lower in fat than most ice creams because it’s made with milk instead of cream. Most of the nonfat “original” or “plain” flavors are usually the lowest in calories at about 30-35 calories per ounce with about 20g of sugar.

It comes in a multitude of flavors and can be bought in cartons, as frozen bars or cups, or soft-serve. The recipes and quality of ingredients used by different brands create products with varying levels of sweet/tart, fat content, consistency, and flavor.

Some Frozen Yogurt History

Frozen yogurt was invented in Massachusetts in 1970 when a Hood dairy employee put regular yogurt through a soft-serve ice cream machine. The first “frogurt” cone was served by a Harvard Square store on February 3, 1971.

During the health craze of the ’80s frozen yogurt went mainstream and then sort of fizzled. Its popularity rebounded big-time with self-serve stores that allow customers to mix and match flavors, pick from dozens of toppings, and pay by weight.

Self-serve yogurt shops also allow customers to control their portion size, subsequent price, and flavors and toppings.

Frozen yogurt continues to wear a healthy food “halo” but doesn’t always warrant one.  Some varieties are “healthier” than others — depending on the company’s recipe and the quality and quantity of ingredients and added toppings.

Calorie Tips

  • Despite variation in recipes, frozen yogurts are fairly comparable when calories are compared. For instance, a half cup serving of Pinkberry has 116 calories, 0g fat and 20g of sugar; TCBY’s 98% fat free vanilla has 120 calories, 2g fat, and 17g of sugar; and Ben  & Jerry’s vanilla frozen yogurt has 130 calories, 1.5g fat, and 16g of sugar. Tip: DO reverse the order of your cup.
  • Put the self-serve yogurt on top, not under, layered toppings. Make space-filling low calorie fruit like berries or fresh pineapple your first layer. Then add things with crunch and volume, like cereal.  Follow with the yogurt, then perhaps a teaspoon of candy crunch on top.  Starting with yogurt often means putting a lot of yogurt in the cup followed by a lot of toppings. Layering low calorie volume food on the bottom can save you a lot of calories.
  • When you start with a smaller cup rather than a large one, you’re already ahead of the game.  Despite the fact that you swear you won’t fill up a large cup, you almost always do.
  • Try not to mix flavors.  Swirling a couple sounds like fun, but taste buds are funny.  When you pick just one flavor and topping your taste buds are happy and you probably end up feeling more satisfied than if you have a variety of flavors.

Calories in Frozen Yogurt

One cup of low fat frozen yogurt runs about 210 calories. More specifically, for a one cup serving of different varieties of generic frozen yogurt:

  • Frozen yogurt:  Calories: 214; Fat: 2.94g; Carbs: 39.24g; Protein: 9.40g
  • Nonfat frozen yogurt:  Calories: 164; Fat: 0.65g; Carbs: 34.84g; Protein: 5.96g
  • Low fat frozen yogurt:  Calories: 214; Fat: 2.94g; Carbs: 39.24g; Protein: 9.40g
  • Chocolate frozen yogurt (soft serve):  Calories: 230 | Fat: 8.64 | Carbs: 35.86g; Protein: 5.76g
  • Vanilla frozen yogurt (soft serve):  Calories: 234; Fat: 8.06g; Carbs: 34.84g; Protein: 5.76g
  • Frozen yogurt (non-chocolate flavors):  Calories: 210; Fat: 2.70g; Carbs: 38.24g; Protein: 9.14g
  • Chocolate frozen yogurt (not soft serve):  Calories: 226; Fat: 3.90g; Carbs: 43.22g;Protein: 10.48g
  • Frozen flavored yogurt (non-chocolate, not self serve):  Calories: 221; Fat: 6.26g; Carbs: 37.58g; Protein: 5.22g
  • Nonfat chocolate frozen yogurt: Calories: 172; Fat: 1.32g; Carbs: 35.19g; Protein: 8.95g

Calories In Frozen Yogurt Toppings

It’s easy to convince yourself that you’re really doing well (and you might be) by eating frozen yogurt instead of ice cream. But, some toppings can turn frozen yogurt into a caloric nightmare – especially  when you keep piling them on.

Here are the calorie counts are for one ounce of various toppings:

Fruit (fresh and not):

  • Strawberries: 9 calories
  • Blueberries:  16 calories
  • Blackberries:  12 calories
  • Rasberries:  15 calories
  • Pineapple:  17 calories
  • Mango:  17 calories
  • Grated sweetened coconut:  131 calories

Nuts:

  • Slivered almonds:  170 calories
  • Chopped peanuts:  166 calories
  • Chopped walnuts:  184 calories

Cereals:

  • Cap’n Crunch:  114 calories
  • Cinnamon Toast Crunch:  123 calories
  • Froot Loops:  97 calories
  • Granola: 138 calories

Cookies/Pretzels/Candy:

  • Oreo topping:  112 calories
  • Pretzels covered in chocolate swirl:  130 calories
  • Milk chocolate M&Ms:  146 calories (1/4 cup has 210 calories)
  • Gummi bears:  90 calories  (14 pieces have 120 calories)
  • Nestle crunch bar topping: 37 calories
  • Heath bar, crumbled:  170 calories
  • Chocolate sprinkles:  25 calories
  • Rainbow sprinkles:  30 calories

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For more tips get 30 Ways to Have Low-Calorie Fun in the Sun: Your Guide to Guilt-Free Eating at Picnics, Amusement Parks, Barbecues & Parties  available in print and for e-readers from Amazon and Barnes & Noble. 

Is Your Coffee Giving You A Muffin Top?

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calories-in-coffee-graphic

How do you like your coffee?  Black, light and sweet, regular?  Do you stand in front of the sugar and milk adding and pouring until the color and taste are just  right?

Coffee Calories Are Sneaky

There are about two calories in eight ounces of unsweetened black brewed coffee – doesn’t matter if it’s hot or iced. Not a bad deal.

What a lot of us don’t think about is how many calories are in the stuff we put into our coffee.

The Add-Ins

Half and half, 2 tablespoons (1/8 cup):  40 calories

Whole milk, 2 tablespoons:  18 calories

2% (low fat) milk, 2 tablespoons:  14 calories

Non-fat milk, 2 tablespoons:  11 calories

Sugar, 1 teaspoon:  16 calories

What And How Much Do You Put Into Your Coffee?

How much milk or half and half do you put into your coffee?  We all do a freehand pour.  Try measuring how much you pour and you might be surprised.

How much sugar do you add?

How many times a day do you drink coffee?

How’s This For An Eye-Opener?

Say you have 3 grande (Starbuck’s) – or 3 large (Dunkin donuts) – size 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 that’s:

▪   128 calories for the additives and around 5 calories for the coffee for a total of 133 calories for each grande/large cup of coffee.

▪   Have three of those and that’s 399 calories a day of coffee your way.

▪   Do that every day for a year and that’s the equivalent of 145,635 calories, around 41.61 pounds of body fat.   Not everyone drinks that amount of coffee with that amount of half and half and sugar.  But, weight management is a balancing act: If you eat more calories than you burn, you gain weight.  Because 3,500 calories equals about 1 pound (0.45 kilogram) of fat, you need to burn 3,500 calories more than you take in to lose one pound.  The equation isn’t totally clear-cut because you usually lose a combination of fat, lean tissue, and water.  As weight loss changes take place in your body you might need to decrease your calorie intake even more to continue to lose weight.

But, bottom line, it does make you stop and think about how many calories you really are putting into your coffee – or where your (around the middle) muffin top is coming from.

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For more tips get 30 Ways to Have Low-Calorie Fun in the Sun: Your Guide to Guilt-Free Eating at Picnics, Amusement Parks, Barbecues & Parties  available on Amazon.