Manage Your Weight

Ice Cream and Gelato: A Cheat Sheet

July 8, 2014 By Penny Klatell, PhD, RN Leave a Comment

The cold deliciousness of ice cream and gelato is hard to beat. There are an astounding number of flavors with varying degrees of fat, calorie, sugar, and dairy content. The sad truth is that no matter how innovative food scientists and savvy marketers have become, a three-scoop sundae with hot fudge, whipped cream, and other assorted toppings still isn’t going to rank at the top of the health-o-meter.

The Difference Between Ice Cream And Gelato

In the US, the government regulates what can be called ice cream, but in some other countries ice cream can mean all frozen desserts.

Ice cream and gelato are usually dairy-based but differ in texture, fat and air content, and ingredients. Because gelato is made and stored at a higher temperature than ice cream, it’s softer, smoother, and quicker to melt.

Both are usually made from sugar, milk, eggs, and flavorings — although gelato is often made from fresh fruit. Gelato has less butterfat than ice cream, usually about 4 to 8% compared to ice cream’s 10 to 20%.

Gelato has a higher sugar content than ice cream, and the sugar/water combination acts like anti-freeze, preventing the gelato from freezing solid. Most US commercial ice creams are frozen in an assembly line freezing process while gelato is frozen very quickly in small batches.

Both ice cream and gelato are churned during the freezing process, which incorporates air. Most commercial ice cream contains about 50% air while gelato contains much less, generally 20-35%, producing a denser product with more intense flavor.

Ice cream is sold by weight, not by size, so a pint of cheaper ice cream which is fluffed up with more air than premium or artisanal ice creams will feel lighter than better brands which are pumped up with just enough air to make the ice cream nice and smooth. Compare pints of different levels of quality when they’re fresh out of the freezer. Which one is heavier in your hand? Not surprisingly, the premium brands will also be higher in calories, probably have more intense flavor, and be higher in price.

Ice cream, with its higher fat content, can be stored frozen for months. High-quality artisan gelato, when stored carefully at consistent, low temperatures, only keeps its peak flavor and smooth texture for several days.

How Much Butterfat?

According to US federal standards, a frozen dessert must have a minimum of 10% milk fat to be called ice cream. Economy brands usually have the least amount of fat and super premium brands have more. Milk fat content of less than 10% makes the product ice milk or light ice cream.

Premium ice cream has between 11% and 15% butterfat, which makes it richer, denser, higher in calories.

Regular ice cream – what you usually find in the larger containers in the market — is somewhat less dense and contains 10% to 11% butterfat (perfect for milkshakes).

Economy ice cream, by law, has 10% butterfat.

Light ice cream has either 50% less fat or 33% fewer calories than the producer’s regular ice cream. Here’s the hitch: because of the higher starting point for fat content especially in premium brands, light versions of premium ice cream can have more fat and calories than the regular version of other brands.

Reduced fat ice cream must, by law, have 25% less fat than the regular ice cream produced by the same vendor.

Soft serve ice cream is the same as regular ice cream but is served at a higher temperature.

French Style Ice Cream also called glace, has a custard base that includes eggs, which makes it silky and rich.

Gelato (plural, gelati) has more milk than cream (if any) so its fat content is significantly lower. It doesn’t saturate your taste buds as much as ice cream so the flavor seems more intense. It’s often flavored with fresh fruit, nuts, chocolate, and other natural flavors. Gelato is served at a higher temperature than ice cream making it look more like frozen yogurt or whipped cream than ice cream.

How Many Calories?

There’s a huge variation in nutrition so it’s best to check labels if you’re counting calories, fats, and/or carbs. These are the general caloric ranges for “naked” ice cream and gelato (without sauce, toppings, nuts, and whipped cream):

3.5 ounces of milk-based gelato has between 120 and 160 calories, 4g to 8g of fat, and 30 g to 45g of carbs; milk and soy-based gelato has between 3g and 5g of protein.

3.5 ounces of American ice cream (not churned, light, or reduced fat) averages 240 calories, 15 grams of fat, and 24g carbs.

3.5 ounces of light ice cream can vary between 100 to close to 200 calories depending upon whether it is just light or if it is slow churned light. The flavor and the add-ins can significantly raise the calorie count.

Tip: Order a small serving of ice cream or gelato instead of a medium or large. You’ll probably be just as satisfied. Even if you indulge in your favorite full-fat flavor, you’ll save as many as 550 calories with a 5-ounce size of ice cream instead of a 12-ounce size.

Iced And Frozen Coffee Drinks: Are They Coffee, Snacks, Or Dessert?

June 26, 2014 By Penny Klatell, PhD, RN Leave a Comment

When the weather heats up, the coffee drinks tend to cool down. Unfortunately, some 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.

Calories in Some Iced And Frozen Coffee Drinks

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

Starbucks Mocha Frappuccino with whipped cream, 16 ounces (grande): 400 calories, 15 g fat (9 g saturated), 64g carbohydrates.

Starbucks Mocha Light Frappuccino with nonfat milk, 16 ounces (grande): 130 calories, 0.5g fat, (0 g saturated), 28g carbohydrates.

Iced Caffe Latte with nonfat milk, 16 ounces (grande): 90 calories, 0g fat, 13g carbohydrates.

Dunkin’ Donuts Coffee Coolata made with whole milk, 16 ounces (small): 240 calories, 4 g fat (2.5 g saturated), 50g carbohydrates

Dunkin’ Donuts Vanilla Bean Coolatta, 16 ounces (small): 420 calories, 6g fat (3.5g saturated), 92g carbohydrates
Dunkin’ Donuts Iced Caramel Mocha Latte with milk, (large): 450 calories, 12g fat (7g saturated), 73g carbohydrates

Dunkin’ Donuts Iced Latte made with skim milk, 16 ounces (small): 80 calories, 0g fat, 13g carbohydrates

Baskin Robbins Cappuccino Blast Mocha, 16ounces (small): 400 calories, 13g fat (9g saturated), 65g carbohydrates

McDonald’s McCafé Iced Caramel Mocha, 16 ounces (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 ounces (medium): 260 calories, 3.5g fat (2.5g saturated), 54g carbohydrates

Calorie Savers:

Ditch the whipped cream.

Swap full fat or 2% milk for 1% or skim.

Watch the sugar: ask for one pump instead of two or 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.

Order plain 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.

7 Ways To Cut Down On Pizza Calories

June 5, 2014 By Penny Klatell, PhD, RN Leave a Comment

Have you had “a slice” recently? If you did, consider it one of the 46 slices that American men, women, and children eat, on average, in a year. Pizza as we know it originated in Italy, but it can be traced to the Greeks who have dressed up bread with oil, herbs, and cheese since the time of Plato. Neopolitans hopped on the Greeks’ idea of using bread and the Romans developed placenta, a sheet of flour they topped with cheese and honey and flavored with bay leaves. Neapolitans then added the tomato into the equation.

We eat a lot of pizza:

94% of Americans eat pizza regularly
Pizzerias represent 17% of all restaurants and pizza accounts for more than 10% of all food service sales
5 billion pizzas are sold worldwide each year; 3 billion pizzas are sold in the US each year
Kids ages 3 to 11 prefer pizza over other food groups for both lunch and dinner
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 vegetables36% order pizza topped with pepperoni.

What’s Good, What’s The 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: fat and calories. If your mouth starts to water at the thought of golden brown crust and cheesy goodness — here’s the downer: if you don’t choose wisely, that luscious pizza can be a fat and calorie nightmare.

Mall pizza can be okay — and not okay.

Sbarro’s Low Carb Cheese Pizza has 310 calories and 14 grams of fat.
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.
“Stuffed” pizzas are even worse—790 calories minimum and over 33 grams of fat per slice.
Most Costcos have a food court that sells pizza, making Costco the 15th largest pizza chain in the US. A single slice of Costco pizza is estimated to have 804 calories, 342 of them from fat.

Build a Better Slice of Pizza

Although we all have our own pizza preferences, the next time you order try some of these tricks to keep your choice on the healthy side:

Order thin crust rather than a thick doughy or deep dish crust.
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 – 1 tablespoon has 22 calories — for flavor.
Instead of cheese go for big flavors: onion, garlic, olives (use them somewhat sparingly because of the oil but they’re a whole lot better than meat). 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 salad (careful with the dressing) on the side 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. Blotting (it’s easy to do this on the kind of hot slice where the oil runs down your arm) can soak up a teaspoon of oil worth 40 calories and 5 grams of fat.

If you know someone who is heading off to college, you might want to get this book for him or her. It gives 30 ways to handle college food — plus 30 bonus tips — all easy to incorporate into the college lifestyle. One thing it definitely does not do is tell you not to eat. On the contrary — food is necessary, social, and fun! Get it now from Amazon (available in paperback and as an ebook) or as an ebook from Barnes & Noble.

Do Road Trips Mean Dashboard Dining?

June 3, 2014 By Penny Klatell, PhD, RN Leave a Comment

How many ketchup drips, chocolate smears, coffee stains, and random crumbs do you have in your car (or on your clothes)?

Is your road trip to the shore or mountains or the big game an endless fest of fast food, junk food, and all kinds of snacks with your dashboard or vacant passenger seat as your table?

If you’re nodding your head, you’re a dashboard diner. It’s way too easy to indulge your dashboard dining gremlin with fast food and doughnut shop drive-thrus and gas station mini-marts with canisters of regular, decaf, dark velvet, and hazelnut coffee along with baked goods so your coffee doesn’t get lonely.

What is it about mini-mart and rest stop food? It seems to touch that primal urge to eat sweet and/or salty stuff that’s probably loaded with calories and lacking in nutrition.

The Trap And The Danger

Once you’re inside, there’s an endless stream of high carb, high fat, high calorie, and processed food is just begging you to plunk down your money so you can immediately indulge (watch how many people start eating the food they’ve bought before they even pay) or to take with you.

The real danger – aside from the damage to your waistline – is that high-carb processed foods spike then crash your blood sugar —making you really tired and cranky.

Drowsy drivers are most definitely not safe drivers.
Cranky drivers make life miserable for everyone in the car – not a great tone to set if you’re going on vacation.

Some Mini-Mart And Rest-Stop “Gotchas”

Candy is an impulse purchase; 49 percent of shoppers admit to unplanned purchases of candy. It seems that we want to treat ourselves and candy is an affordable luxury.

Check out the placement of candy the next time you’re in a mini-mart or convenience store — it’s positioned to grab your attention. Vividly colored wrappers reach out to you from high-traffic areas of the store: the checkout area, the aisle that leads to the check out, and on the way to the restrooms.

Know that your senses are going to be assaulted and have a plan for what you will and will not buy. If you’ve decided you want M&Ms go straight to them and don’t get sidetracked by a new kind of chips, or seasonal displays, or the latest and greatest deal on a king-sized package of some kind of candy.

Coffee, unlike candy, coffee isn’t an impulse purchase. Nearly 96% of customers intend to buy a cup of coffee before they walk in. Here’s the impulse buy: stores put candy, baked goods, and chips—near the coffee to entice you to buy them. As a man standing in line at a popular gas station mini-mart muttered, “I stop here for coffee every morning and I’ve gained 20 pounds since they put in the Krispy Kreme donut display between the door and the cash register.”

Some Helpful Tips

Nuts have protein and crunch, won’t cause swings in your blood sugar, and are almost always stocked. Tread a little gently — nuts aren’t low in calories. For a one-ounce serving of nuts you might find at rest stops: 49 shelled pistachios, 162 calories; 23 almonds, 169 calories; 18 cashews, 163 calories; 19 pecans, 201 calories; 10-12 macadamias, 203 calories; 39 peanuts (technically a legume), dry roasted, 170 calories

Some mini-marts have fruit (bonus: oranges and bananas come in their own natural wrapper and don’t have to be washed) and almost all have dried fruit — but balance the higher sugar content of the dried fruit with the fat and protein in the nuts.

Sometimes you can find individual bowls of whole grain cereals, although check labels because some cereals are loaded with sugar. To go with it, grab a small container of low-fat milk or a container of yogurt.

Protein bars can be good, better, and best. Check the labels for higher protein and lower sugar. Some can be the equivalent of a candy bar and are so large (with so many calories) that they are made to be meal replacements. A protein bar for a snack should be around 150 calories. Meal replacement bars have around 300 calories or more. Look for at least 15 grams of protein.

If you’re really hungry, choose a sandwich or burrito over donuts, pastry, and cookies. Check out how fresh it is, though. What’s appealing early in the morning when the shelves are first stocked might not be so appealing at 10PM if it has been sitting around all day and lots of people have picked up the sandwich, squeezed it, and put it back again.

Beef jerky or beef sticks (or nuggets) are good, portable protein snacks. A one-ounce serving usually has around 80 calories and 5 grams of fat or less.

A hard-boiled egg is a good choice, too. Just make sure it’s been refrigerated and hasn’t been sitting around for a couple of days!

If you must go with crunchy stuff, stick with popcorn, pretzels, soy crisps, or baked or popped chips in single-serve bags to keep portions in check. Sometimes bags might look small, but still contain multiple servings. Remember that the salty stuff will make you thirsty so stock up on water. There’s something to be said for snacks that take time to eat one by one when you’re driving.

Remember to drink water. People sometimes confuse thirst with hunger, so you can end up eating extra calories when a glass of water is really all you needed. If plain water doesn’t cut it, try drinking flavored still or sparkling water. We need water for fluids such as tears, sweat, and urine, and to allow chemical processes to take place in the body. Dehydration can cause fatigue and there’s some evidence that even mild dehydration can slow metabolism and drain your energy.

What’s 92% Water and Considered Both a Fruit and Vegetable?

June 1, 2014 By Penny Klatell, PhD, RN Leave a Comment

I’ve been noticing whole and quartered watermelons at my local market. It’s not time for local watermelon where I live, but now it’s pretty easy to watermelon year round – even in colder climates.

Watermelon seems to go hand in hand with warmer weather and certainly with the lazy, hazy days of summer. How much fun is it to sit on some porch steps or on a big rock and spit watermelon seeds — maybe even have a distance contest. Okay – so not everyone gets as much of a kick out of it as I do, but it’s been fun since I was a kid.

Watermelon was – and still is – a treat. Chunks and slices of watermelon have certainly finished off lots of camp meals and family picnics. Finishing off a meal with a platter of watermelon is common in Greece and other Mediterranean countries. How great is sweet, juicy watermelon on a hot day? What about the college special: watermelon infused with vodka – or when money was scarce, grain alcohol? And, how pretty are those intricate carved watermelon baskets filled with watermelon, cantaloupe, and honeydew balls?

A Melon With History

The first recorded watermelon harvest was in Egypt, nearly 5,000 years ago. Now you can find more than 1,200 varieties, which are are grown in 96 countries. Watermelon, 92% water and 6% sugar, considered both a fruit and vegetable, is a cousin of cucumbers, pumpkins, and squash and is the most consumed melon in the US, followed by cantaloupe and honeydew.

Some Watermelon Facts

Because of its water content – it’s 92% water — watermelon is a volume food. It fills you up and quenches your thirst, and is great for weight control.

1 wedge (about 1/16 of a melon, 286 g) has 86 calories, no fat, 22g carbs, 1g fiber, 2g protein.

10 watermelon balls (122g) have 37 calories, 0 fat, 9g carbs, 0g fiber, 1g protein

1 cup of diced watermelon (152g) has 46 calories, 0g fat, 11g carbs, 1g fiber, 1g protein

Two cups of watermelon chunks will supply 25% of your daily vitamin A, 30% of your daily vitamin C, B6 (6%) of B6; 8% potassium, 4% phosphorus, and 8% magnesium as well as beta carotene and lycopene (red flesh melons).

The inner rind is edible and has a bunch of hidden nutrients. The outer rind, also edible, is sometimes used as a stir-fried or stewed vegetable or pickled condiment.

When you buy a watermelon look for one that is firm, symmetrical, and free from bruises, cuts, or dents. It should be heavy for its size and its underside should have a creamy yellow spot from where it sat on the ground while it ripened in the sun.

Whole melons will keep for 7 to 10 days at room temperature but lose flavor and texture if they’re stored too long. They’ll keep for three to four days in the fridge after they’re cut.

A Fantastic Sweet And Salty Combination

Here’s a recipe for a great watermelon, feta, and greens salad that is low in calories and fat. Sweet, salty, crunchy, yumm.

Mediterranean Watermelon Salad

Ingredients: (adapted from watermelon.org)

6 cups torn mixed salad greens

3 cups cubed seeded watermelon

1/2 cup sliced red onion

1/3 cup crumbled feta cheese

1/2 cup watermelon vinaigrette

Freshly ground black pepper

Mint sprigs

Watermelon Vinaigrette:

2 tablespoons honey

1/4 cup pureed watermelon (puree chunks in a food processor)

2 tablespoons white wine vinegar

1/4 teaspoon pepper

1 teaspoon olive oil

Directions:

To make the vinaigrette: whisk together all ithe ngredients; store in refrigerator; shake well before using. Makes about 1/2 cup.

To make the salad: in large bowl, mix all the salad ingredients except the vinaigrette, pepper, and mint. Just before serving, toss the salad mixture with the vinaigrette. Garnish with pepper and mint sprigs.

Makes 6 servings, about 75 calories per serving.