Manage Your Weight

Love Pie? Did You Know There’s A Huge Variation In Calories?

February 16, 2014 By Penny Klatell, PhD, RN 2 Comments

George Washington: “I cannot tell a lie, father, you know I cannot tell a lie! I did cut it [the cherry tree] with my little hatchet.”

It’s President’s Day weekend in the US and in honor of George Washington, cherry trees, cherries, and the pie you can make with cherries – why not take a look at pies. What a segue!

Pies are anytime food – they come sweet and savory – but for many of us, “pie” conjures up sweet filling piled on top of – or in — a crust.

Some Pie History

Pie shells were originally just containers used for baking, storage, and serving — the crust was often too hard to actually eat. The first pies were savory meat pies, called “coffins” or “coffyns,” with tall, straight sides and sealed bottoms and lids. There were also open-crust pies, or “traps,” which served as casseroles for meat and sauce.

Early forms of pies, or galettes (essentially rustic free-form pies), can loosely be traced back to circa 9500 BC Neolithic Egyptians.

The ancient Greeks, who are thought to have been the originators of pie pastry, made a flour-water paste they wrapped around meat to seal in the juices as it cooked. After they conquered Greece, the Romans brought home pie recipes. From there, the idea and practicality of pie spread throughout Europe with different cultures creating pies that suited their customs and local food.

Pie Comes To The Colonies

In the 1600s, the Pilgrims brought English-style, meat-based pies to the colonies. Crusty pie tops helped to both preserve food and to keep fillings fresh and colonists cooked lots of pies, both sweet and savory, using local ingredients along with berries, fruit, cinnamon, pepper, and nutmeg.

As settlers moved westward, more pies with regional flavors and ingredients were developed using fruit, berries but vegetables and game discovered with the help of Indians. Pies were delicious and practical — they required less flour than bread and could be more easily and cheaply baked. Apple trees produced fruit that was easy to dry and store in barrels during the winter, and apple pie became a mainstay: “As American as apple pie.”

What’ll ya have? A cuppa joe and a piece of pie.

Today, no matter where you get your pie: the bakery, the local diner, or straight from your oven, the sweet treat can carry a big caloric punch. There is a huge difference in calories (and nutrition) between different kinds of pie.

To help you “have your pie and eat it, too” shown below are the calories in different kinds of pie. If you want to save a few calories:

choose the type of pie that has fewer calories than another kind.
Be aware of the size of the slice – some are huge, some are slivers
How many crusts, one or two – there are a lot more calories in a two crust pie
How much od the piece are you eating? No one says you have to eat all of a gargantuan piece and no one says you have to eat all of the crust.
What’s in the filling? Some pies have way more calories than others. Recipes vary significantly – the average numbers shown below can give you an idea of good, better, and best pie choices — not in terms of flavor or the artistry of the baker, but for a general comparison of calories. You’re going to be surprised!.

Pie Crust Facts (1/8 of a pie)

Tulip 60 calories
Ginger snaps 60 calories
Graham cracker 100 calories
Ready-made 120 calories
Homemade 149 calories

Average Calories in Popular Pies

Apple, commercially prepared, 1/8 of 9” pie: 296 calories
Apple, prepared from recipe, 1/8 of 9” pie: 411 calories
Banana cream, prepared from recipe, 1/8 of 9″ pie: 387 calories
Blueberry, commercially prepared, 1/8 of 9” pie: 290 calories
Blueberry, prepared from recipe, 1/8 of 9” pie: 360 calories
Cherry, commercially prepared, 1/8 of 9” pie: 325 calories
Cherry, prepared from recipe, 1/8 of 9” pie: 486 calories
Chocolate creme, commercially prepared, 1/6 of 8” pie: 344 calories
Coconut custard, commercially prepared, 1/6 of 8” pie: 270 calories
Lemon meringue, commercially prepared, 1/6 of 8” pie: 303 calories
Lemon meringue, prepared from recipe, 1/8 of 9” pie: 362 calories
Mince, prepared from recipe, 1/8 of 9” pie: 477 calories
Peach, 1/6 of 8” pie: 261 calories
Pecan, commercially prepared, 1/6 of 8” pie: 452 calories
Pecan, prepared from recipe, 1/8 of 9” pie: 503 calories
Pumpkin, commercially prepared, 1/6 of 8” pie: 229 calories
Pumpkin, prepared from recipe, 1/8 of 9” pie: 316
Vanilla cream, prepared from recipe, 1/8 of 9” pie: 350 calories

Love Pizza? Here’s 7 Ways To Cut Down On Pizza Calories

January 25, 2014 By Penny Klatell, PhD, RN Leave a Comment

If your mouth starts watering at the thought of melted cheese and pepperoni or veggies on some kind of crust, 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

Is Pizza Junk Food?

Pizza can be a pretty good food – both in calories and nutrition. On the other hand it can be pretty lousy – both in calories and nutrition.

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

Order thin crust rather than a thick crust or deep dish.
Resist the urge to ask for double cheese — better yet, go light on the cheese or use reduced-fat cheese (if they have it).
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.
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!
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.
Order a side salad (careful with the dressing) and cut down on the amount of pizza. Salad takes longer to eat, too.
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.

Deep Dish, Hand Tossed, Thin Crust?

Check out the difference in calories for the same size slice of Domino’s classic hand-tossed, deep dish, and crunchy thin crust pizzas – each with the same toppings. Then check out the difference in calories fort the various 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

Do You Eat Chips and Cookies Straight from the Package?

January 20, 2014 By Penny Klatell, PhD, RN Leave a Comment

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that the size of the package your food comes in influences how much you’ll eat. The larger the package, the more you tend to eat from it.

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 Key Thing To Do To Develop A New Habit

January 9, 2014 By Penny Klatell, PhD, RN Leave a Comment

It’s the second week of the New Year. Maybe you’ve decided to work on some new habits – Lose weight (how are you going to do that?), cook at home more (when are you going to do that?), eat less bread, butter, ice cream, candy, you name it (how much less?).

Specificity and baby steps help move you toward your new habit – but something else is key, too: practice. Your brain needs to decide that this new habit, the new behavior, is its default. How does your brain get the message? By you performing – doing – that behavior over and over again.

Remember this: What gets you to Carnegie Hall (or to the podium, or to the awards ceremony)? Practice. Think about this: What makes your new healthy habit stick? Practice.

If you’ve resolved to form new healthy habits, habits you want to keep and that fit in with your lifestyle, you need to keep repeating the new behaviors for that habit over and over again. It’s like learning a language or a new game. You need to keep practicing.

Why? Our brains are lazy. They like to default to what’s easy for them – and usually that’s an old habit (both good ones and bad ones). That default behavior is easy, nice, comfortable, and doesn’t require the extra energy necessary to do something unfamiliar. Doing something that’s very familiar can be done without much thinking or energy — like eating a certain thing everyday at the same time or going for a daily run at the same time and on the same route.

The way to create a new habit and to make it “stick” is to create a new “default” pattern to replace an old one. That requires the repetitive practice of doing the same behavior over and over again – like creating a path through grass or weeds by walking on it day after day.

Some Additional Tips For Forming New Habits

Try one change at a time. Create one new habit and then begin to work on another. Since our brains are, in a sense, kind of lazy, they don’t like too much disruption or change at a time. They’re used to doing something one way, so pick one change at a time and create a habit around it.

Be committed and willing to work on your habit (goal). Decide if you’re really willing to make change(s) in your life. Are you serious or half-hearted about what you want to do? “Kinda,” “sorta” goals give you “kinda,” “sorta” results. Realistic, achievable goals produce realistic results.

Start small and specific. So many of us are guilty of all-or-nothing thinking and overly ambitious goals. Guess what happens? We shoot ourselves in our collective feet and call ourselves failures. Do it often enough and a “no can do” attitude gets solidly embedded. Aim for what you think you can do and keep doing it. That doesn’t mean not trying, it just means scale it to what you think you can accomplish with some effort. If, for example, your aim is to exercise more frequently, schedule three or four days a week at the gym instead of seven. If you would like to eat healthier, try replacing dessert with something else you enjoy, like fruit or yogurt or a very small portion of a favorite indulgence — instead of saying you’re going cold turkey and will never eat a dessert again.

Unhealthy habits develop over time. Working on healthy habits to replace unhealthy ones also requires time. Be patient. And practice.

A 13 Step Plan To Create Healthy New Habits

January 6, 2014 By Penny Klatell, PhD, RN Leave a Comment

Are you tired of refusing to go out to eat because you’re on the new popular diet? Are you avoiding eating with your family because you don’t want to have the same tempting food?

What about forming some healthy new habits that will help you steer clear of wacky diets and deprivation? Healthy new habits that will stick around for a while!

How Long Does It Take To Create A New Habit?

There are many factors that can affect the process, but essential for any change is doing a new behavior consistently and repetitively – which is also necessary for creating the neural connections in your brain that underlie the new habit.

We’ve been led to believe that forming a new habit takes between 21 and 28 days. Actually, there’s no solid evidence to support those numbers. The length of time it takes to form a habit is unique for each of us because of the factors that surround and influence our behavior.

In a study of habit formation published in the European Journal of Social Psychology, it took study participants 18 to 254 days, with an average of 66 days, to form their new habit. So, it could take a shorter amount of time – or it could take a lot longer — especially if you’re trying to form a new habit to displace one that’s multifaceted, that’s been around for a long time, or is a replacement for something that you love doing.

Work on one new habit at a time. Trying to create multiple new habits at the same time is confusing, difficult to do, and often ineffective. Your brain prefers simple and familiar rather than confusing and new so try not to overwhelm it with too many new behaviors at once.

The Steps

You’re ready to do what it takes to create a new habit. What do you do and how do you do it? Here’s the process:

Describe, as specifically as possible, what you want to do. Instead of saying “I want to eat less,” identify how many calories or how many meals. Instead of saying “I’ll drink more water,” identify how many glasses you’ll drink a day.
Write your new habit down. The most important thing is not that it’s inscribed but that writing it down reinforces it in your mind.
Visualize the successful end result — like being in shape to run a 5K after creating new eating and workout habits. It might help to visualize yourself doing your new behavior and the results that will come from it.
Enlist as much support and accountability as you can from people you know who will be willing to help – identify the naysayers and saboteurs and ignore or avoid them. Remember, you’re focusing on the positive end result, not on the problems you might encounter getting there.
Buddy up with a friend who already has the habit you want to create. This serves as an accountability check and is also positive motivation. If you go to the gym with a friend who already has a habit of going to the gym it’s quite likely you will continue to go. Going with a friend who moans and whines about the gym and is ready to quit when the slightest breeze blows is not a likely predictor of success.
Set up triggers to help cue the new action for your habit each and every time that you do it. Leave yourself notes, have a coworker remind you, put a rubber band on your wrist, set up roadblocks to temptation or to the vending machine down the hall from your office.
Create a ritual around your new behavior – do the same thing every time and the same way each day so that it becomes second nature (and embedded in your brain’s hard wiring.) Habits are time and energy savers and brains like comfort. Doing the same thing the same way makes it nice and easy for your brain.
Think of potential obstacles, animate or inanimate, and plan on how to deal with them. Make the desirable things easy to do and the “bad” things difficult to do. Remove temptation, i.e. throw out the junk food and don’t walk past the bakery with the tantalizing smells that waft onto the street.
Take baby steps. It’s admirable to say that you want to walk for an hour each day. First work on getting out of bed early enough to fit in the time for exercise. Make it easy and leave your walking clothes in plain sight. Leave your running shoes where you’re likely to trip over them (don’t trip over them just make it hard to ignore them). Get out the door and commit to walking ten minutes each day. Hold yourself to the ten minutes, just do it every day until that part of the habit becomes embedded. Then build on it. Walk for 20 minutes, then thirty.
Make positive choices. Each time you’re at a decision point as to whether or not to carry out the action for your new habit think about why you want to do it. Why is the new habit important, what is the long-term benefit, how great will you feel when you accomplish it? If you’re giving up an old space and time-taker-upper habit you need to replace that behavior with something else. If you’re trying to create a habit of not watching so much television what are you going to do with that time instead?
Keep a visible reminder of your progress, no matter how big or small. Make graphs, use pictures, applaud each time you have fruit instead of cake for dessert, use a pedometer to calculate how many steps you walk each day. Yell hallelujah when your pants zip up without having to suck in your stomach. Positive feedback is essential.
Anticipate imperfection. The road may be bumpy, so have a plan to regroup. If something in your action plan doesn’t work, reevaluate. If you really can’t get out of bed at 5:30 AM to exercise then stopping at the gym on the way home from work might be a better solution (hint: don’t go home first because it requires megamotivation to get back out to the gym). Your interest may start to wane in a couple of weeks or so into the new actions so keep your cues and triggers in place to remind you to stick with it.
Be confident. Believe that you can achieve what you have set out to do. Celebrate all your achievements no matter how big or small.