Eat Out Eat Well

Food for Fun and Thought

What’s Your Favorite Movie Theater Food?

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Large popcornWhen you go to the movies what do you usually notice first?  After the cost of the ticket, it’s probably is the delicious smell of freshly popped (maybe) popcorn. It’s no accident that the concession stand with it’s popcorn popper and glass cases filled with the candy that reminds you that you were once a carefree kid — is right smack in the middle of the lobby.  It’s there to send your already conditioned eyes, nose, and salivary glands an urgent message:  “Buy some”!

I Don’t Care, I’m Going To Have It Anyway

Even if you make it through the lobby without buckets and boxes in hand, all you have to do is sit down in the theater with someone near you noisily munching away.  Up you go – back to the lobby and the concession stand.

It’s amazing what triggers us to eat. There’s a research study by the Cornell food lab that shows that people overeat when they have large portions — even when they don’t like the food. Moviegoers given stale popcorn in big buckets ate 34% more than people who were given the medium size of the same stale popcorn. People who had large buckets of fresh popcorn ate 45% more than people with the medium size.

If you’re going to eat it, do it mindfully.  Would a small size rather than jumbo do it for you?  How about a regular candy bar instead of a king size?  If the popcorn, pretzels, or nachos are  stale and nasty do you really want them?  Ditch the soda for plain old water or a sugar free drink. You could bring some healthy snacks with you — like a lower calorie protein bar or trail mix (a crunchy apple doesn’t lend itself to quiet eating).

FYI:  Some Popular Movie Theater Snacks – And Their Calorie Counts

(Note the serving sizes, movie theater boxes of candy are often huge and may be double or triple the size shown below and what’s a large popcorn in one theater chain might be a medium in another. The number of cups of popcorn sounds craze – but that’s how much is in the bucket or bag that’s commonly available.)

Popcorn, Nachos, Soft Pretzel

  • Buttered popcorn, small, 5 cups:  470 calories, 35g fat
  • Buttered popcorn, large, 20 cups:  1640 calories, 126g fat
  • Cheese nachos, large (4 oz):  1100 calories, 60g fat
  • Soft pretzel, large (5 oz):  480 calories, 5g fat

Soda and Lemonade

  • Coke, small (18 oz:218 calories, 0g fat
  • Coke, large (44 oz):  534 calories, 0g fat
  • Minute Maid Lemonade (18 oz):  248 calories, 0g fat
  • Minute Maid Lemonade (44 oz):  605 calories, 0g fat

Candy

  • Junior Mints, 3 oz box:  360 calories, 7g fat
  • Sno Caps, 3.1 oz box:  300 calories, 15g fat
  • Milk Duds, 3oz box:  370 calories, 12g fat
  • Raisinets, 3.5 oz bag:  400 calories, 16g fat
  • Goobers, 3.5 oz box:  500 calories, 35g fat
  • Twizzlers, 6 oz bag:  570 calories, 4g fat
  • M&Ms, 5.3 oz bag:  750 calories, 32g fat
  • Peanut M&Ms, 5.3 oz bag:  790 calories, 40g fat
  • Reese’s Pieces, 8oz bag:  1160 calories, 60g fat

Is It Coffee, A Frappuccino, A Coolatta, Or Dessert?

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iced-coffee-signWhen the weather heats up, the coffee drinks cool down.  Unfortunately, some of those delicious iced and frozen coffee drinks – whether they’re from a coffee shop or from a can — can really bump up your calories and fat grams.

Keep in mind that you can always order plain old iced coffee or even an 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 iced brewed coffee with classic syrup:  a 12 ounce cup has 60 calories.

Calories in Some Iced And Frozen Coffee Drinks

Note: all info (with the exception of Burger King) is for a 16 oz cup.

  • Starbucks Mocha Frappuccino with whipped cream, 16 oz. (grande): 400 calories, 15 g fat (9 g saturated), 64g carbohydrates.
  • Starbucks Mocha Light Frappuccino with nonfat milk, 16 oz. (grande): 130 calories, 0.5g fat, (0 g saturated), 28g carbohydrates.
  • Iced Caffe Latte with nonfat milk, 16 oz. (grande):  90 calories, 0g fat, 13g carbohydrates.
  • Dunkin’ Donuts Coffee Coolatta made with whole milk, 16 oz. (small):  240 calories, 4 g fat (2.5 g saturated), 50g carbohydrates
  • Dunkin’ Donuts Vanilla Bean Coolatta, 16 oz. (small): 420 calories, 6g fat (3.5g saturated), 92g carbohydrates
  • Dunkin’ Donuts Iced Latte made with skim milk, 16 oz. (small):  80 calories, 0g fat, 13g carbohydrates
  • Baskin Robbins Cappuchino Blast Mocha, 16oz (small):  400 calories, 13g fat (9g saturated), 65g carbohydrates
  • McDonald’s McCafé Iced Caramel Mocha, 16 oz. (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 oz. (medium):  260 calories, 3.5g fat (2.5g saturated), 54g carbohydrates

Ways To Shave Calories From Iced Coffee Drinks

  • Ditch the whipped cream.
  • Swap full fat or 2% milk for 1% or skim.
  • Watch the sugar:  ask for one pump instead of two, ask for 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 coolata 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.

Are Your Snacks The Equivalent Of Another Meal?

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eat-snacks-graphicWe chow down on a lot of snack food — a quarter of our calories come from them!

Snacks account for more than 25% of Americans’ daily calorie intake; since the 1970s, snacks have accounted for around 580 calories a day — which basically turns them into “a full eating event,” or a fourth meal.

When And Where Do We Snack?

  • Americans average 2.3 snacks per day, snacking most frequently in the afternoon, evening and late at night.
  • Most people snack at home, 12% say they snack at work, 7% eat snacks while they travel from place to place
  • 27% of Americans snack on impulse, 28% snack because they want a treat, and 14% eat snacks when they’re stressed or anxious
  • 57% of people say it’s important that food and beverage snacks be healthy, the food and beverages mentioned the most were chips and soda.

How Many Calories?

Maybe we snack so much because multi-tasking has increased – think about how often you eat and drink while you’re doing something else.

Between 2006 and 2008, it took around 70 minutes to eat breakfast, lunch and dinner.  Secondary eating, the kind you do while you’re working on the computer, driving, or walking down the street, doubled from 15 minutes in 2006 to nearly 30 minutes a day in 2008.

The time spent on secondary drinking jumped nearly 90% — from 45 to 85 minutes — which explains why beverages account for 50% of the calories we take in through snacking. (Ever wonder why Starbuck’s and Dunkin’ Donuts are so crowded?)

Are All Snacks Bad For You?

No.  Research doesn’t support the idea that snacking is the main cause of obesity; for some people — like young children and older adults – snacks can be an important source of nutrients and calories.

Trying to go more than four hours without something to eat can make you so hungry that you’ll eat quantities of just about anything in sight. Eating a small meal or snack every 3 to 4 hours helps keep your metabolism revved up so you burn more calories over the course of a day and will help ward off mid-morning and afternoon slumps.

Thoughtful, planned snacking can keep you from feeling outrageously hungry, really grouchy, and can put the brakes on raiding the refrigerator or going on a buying spree at the nearest bakery.

What’s A Snack?

Almost 100% of Americans snack every day, but there isn’t a standard definition of what a snack is or what motivates us to snack. We “self-define,” leaving plenty of wiggle room to blur the line between what’s a snack and what’s a meal.

A snack shouldn’t be a fourth meal.  An individual snack, like the one so many of us have mid-morning or mid-afternoon, is recommended to be between 150 and 200 calories, have at least 8 grams of protein for satiety and to keep your blood sugar stable, and at least 3 grams of fiber to fill you up. Keep the fat and sugar grams low.

Beware health halo foods – the so-called “healthy” snacks that are really a bunch of sugar and/or fat in disguise.  These include a selection of (but not all) cereals, breakfast and protein bars, yogurt-covered anything (like raisins and pretzels), sports and energy drinks, smoothies, and frozen yogurt. Check labels.  Most baked goods, chips, candy, and sugary drinks are occasional treats and not daily snacks.

If you’re not hungry, don’t snack. Ask yourself if you’re snacking because of hunger, habit, or some other reason – like boredom or anger.

Some Snack Choices

Pick snacks that taste good and you look forward to eating.

Some good choices:

  • Baby carrots (or other vegetables) and hummus.
  • Half a cup of cottage cheese with fruit or whole grain crackers.
  • An apple, orange, pear, peach, or grapes with ¼ cup of almonds or reduced-fat cheese or a low-fat cheese stick.
  • Whole-grain crackers, a slice of whole grain bread, or a banana with peanut butter.
  • Trail mix or a combination of nuts, seeds, raisins, and whole grain cereal. Be careful of portions, though – although they’re healthy, nuts are a higher calorie food.
  • A whole wheat or multi-grain English muffin with a small amount of nut or seed butter.
  • Low-fat or non-fat yogurt with raisins, a banana, or a small amount of whole grain cereal.
  • A 12 ounce skim latte or cappuccino.

This is the first post of week 4 of the lose a pound a week challenge.  How are you doing? Let us know on Facebook.

How Many Calories Do You Drink?

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how-many-drink-caloriesDid you know that because alcohol doesn’t register as “food” in your GI tract or your brain, it doesn’t fill you up the way food does?

But alcohol does have calories — 7 calories a gram – more than carbs and protein which clock in at 4 calories a gram (fat has 9).

So, because you don’t feel as though you’re putting calories into your body, you can drink a lot and still not feel stuffed (perhaps drunk, but not stuffed).

What’s A Standard Drink?

A standard drink is 1.5 ounces of hard liquor, 5 ounces of wine, or 12 ounces of beer.

  • 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

An average shot (1.5 oz) of 80-proof alcohol has around 96 calories; the higher the alcoholic content (proof), the greater the number of calories.

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

When you start adding mixers, the calories can more than double; a mixed drink runs around 250 calories.

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

Mixed drinks and fancy drinks can significantly increase the calorie count.   

  • A frozen margarita has about 45 calories an ounce
  • A plain martini, no olives or lemon twist, has about 61 calories an ounce
  • Sangria has about 19 calories an ounce
  • One Irish coffee has 218 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)
    • And, if you finish with coffee:  one cup with cream and sugar runs at least 50 calories (more if it’s sweet and light)

What’s In Your Wine Glass?

Most standard servings of wine have 125-150 calories, but the calories can double depending on the size of the glass and how far it’s filled up.  Sweet and dessert wines are more caloric than table wine and champagne.

Calories in one ounce of various wines:

  • Champagne: 19 calories
  • Red table wine (burgundy, cabernet): 25 calories
  • Dry white wine (Chablis, hock, reisling): 24 calories
  • Sweet white wine (moselle, sauterne, zinfandel: 28 calories
  • Rose: 20 calories
  • Port (about 20% alcohol): 46 calories
  • Sweet dessert wine: 47 calories

It’s Really True: Shopping When You’re Hungry Means More Calories In Your Cart

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full-shopping-cart-don't-shopYou’ve probably heard this before:  “Don’t shop when you’re hungry.” But is it a myth or a fact?

Two experiments put this to the test. After not eating for 5 hours, 68 men and women were allowed to shop for food on two separate days in a simulated grocery store (a Cornell lab).  Lower-calorie healthy options and higher-calorie junk foods were available to put in their carts.

Half of the participants were given a snack before shopping. Both groups picked a similar number of items, but the people who hadn’t had the snack and were shopping when they were hungry (they hadn’t eaten in at least 5 hours) picked food with the highest calorie counts.

In the second experiment the researchers followed 82 actual shoppers in a grocery store. They found that the people who were shopping at the time of day (4 to 7 PM) when they were most likely to be hungry ended up picking the higher calorie foods.

Science And Common Sense Advice

A cardiologist who wrote an editorial that accompanied the study which was published in JAMA, believes the scientific findings support the common-sense advice of “never go grocery shopping when you are hungry.” She added her personal note “and never with young children.” Both factors can lead to less wise food choices.

This study suggests that how hungry you are impacts the food you choose when you shop. “Hungry shoppers buy more calories.”

Short-term fasting – whether it comes from intentionally skipping a meal, or unintentionally because of a busy schedule, can lead people to make unhealthier food choices.

How To Save Calories

To save calories when you head to the grocery store, grab a snack before you shop, plan in advance, consider ordering online, or let a good old-fashioned shopping list be your guide.

When you’re really hungry, odds are you’re going to go for the high calorie stuff – which often equates to junk – rather than kale and celery.