Manage Your Weight

How Many Calories Are In Your Favorite Alcoholic and Non-Alcoholic Summer Drinks?

May 29, 2014 By Penny Klatell, PhD, RN 1 Comment

It’s hot. You’re thirsty. You want something cool – or maybe ice cold – to drink.

Check Out The Calories

A lot of cool, refreshing drinks come with a hefty dose of calories. You might be surprised how many are in a drink you’ve been having for years.

According to CSPI (Center for Science in the Public Interest), carbonated soft drinks are the single biggest source of calories in the American diet. It’s easy to forget about the calories in sugared sports drinks, sweetened ice teas, juices, and alcoholic beverages.

Alcohol isn’t a caloric bargain – it has 7 calories per gram (protein and carbs have 4 calories per gram and fat has 9 calories per gram). Add sweetened juices, syrups, or soda to your alcohol, and you could be drinking a significant portion of your suggested daily calorie allowance.

It helps to do some research to figure out what’s your best choice to grab from the deli, the food truck, the coffee shop, or at the bar.

Can you be satisfied with a bottle of beer that has around 100 calories rather than another brand that has around 300 – or water with a hint of flavor instead of a sports drink?

To help you with your choices, here are the calories in some summer favorites:

Water and Sports Drinks

Gatorade, 12 ounces: 80 calories
Gatorade G Orange, 12 ounce bottle: 80 calories
Gatorade G2 Perform Low Calorie Orange, 8 ounces: 20 calories
SoBe Lifewater, 20 ounces: 90 calories
Sobe Lifewater 0 calories Black & Blue Berry, 8 ounces: 0 calories
Glaceau Smart Water, 33.8 ounces: 0 calories
Vitamin Water, 20 ounces: 125 calories
Vitamin Water 10, 20 ounces: 25 calories
Perrier Citron Lemon Lime, 22 ounce bottle: 0 calories
Vitamin Water Focus Kiwi-Strawberry, 20 ounce bottle: 125 calories
Hint Blackberry, 16 ounce bottle: 0 calories
Powerade, Grape, 8 ounces: 50 calories
Propel Kiwi-Strawberry, 8 ounces: 10 calories
Water (as much as you want): 0 calories

Iced Coffee and Tea Drinks

Dunkin’ Donuts Vanilla Bean Coolatta, 16 ounces: 430 calories
Dunkin’ Donuts Sweet Tea, 16 ounces: 120 calories
Starbuck’s Coffee Frappuccino, 16 ounces (grande): 240 calories
Starbuck’s Coffee Frappuccino light, 16 ounces grande: 110 calories
Tazo Unsweetened Shaken Iced Passion Tea: 0 calories
Iced Brewed Coffee with classic syrup, 12 ounces (tall): 60 calories
Red Bull Energy Drink, 8.4 ounces, 110 calories

Soda and Non-Carbonated Drinks

Mountain Dew, 20 ounce bottle: 290 calories
Coke Classic, 20 ounce bottle: 233 calories
Diet coke, 20 ounce bottle: 0 calories
Snapple Orangeade, 16 ounces: 200 calories
San Pelligrino Limonata, 11.15 ounce can: 141 calories
Can of Coke, 12 ounces: 140 calories
Bottle of 7Up, 12 ounces: 150 calories
Root beer float, large, 32 ounces: 640 calories

Beer (12 ounce bottle)

Sierra Nevada Bigfoot Ale: 330 calories
Samuel Adams Boston Lager: 180 calories
Guinness Extra Stout: 176 calories
Pete’s Wicked Ale: 174 calories
Harpoon IPA: 170 calories
Heineken: 166 calories
Killian’s Irish Red: 163 calories
Long Trail: 163 calories
Molson Ice: 160 calories
Samuel Adams Brown Ale: 160 calories
Budweiser: 144 calories
Corona Light: 105 calories
Coors Light: 102 calories
Heineken Light: 99 calories
Budweiser Select: 99 calories
Miller Light: 96 calories
Amstel Light: 95 calories
Anheuser Busch Natural Light: 95 calories
Michelob Ultra: 95 calories
Miller MGD 64: 64 calories
Beck’s Premier Light: 64 calories

Wine

Red Wine, 5 ounces: 129 calories
White Wine, 5 ounces: 120 calories
Sangria, 8 ounces: 176 calories

Alcoholic Drinks

Mojito, 7 ounces: 172 calories
Frozen Magarita, 4 ounces: 180 calories (the average margarita glass holds 12 ounces, 540 calories)
Mimosa: 137 calories
Gin and Tonic: 175 calories

Want more information about low calorie fun in the sun? Get my book from Amazon.

Three Tips To Avoid Overeating At A Barbecue

May 22, 2014 By Penny Klatell, PhD, RN Leave a Comment

It’s the start of the summer barbecue season and the accompanying temptation of a table loaded with delicious food.

Here’s three easy tips to help avoid overeating:

1. If you’re full, stop eating and clear your plate right away. If a plate with food on it sticks around in front of you, you’ll keep picking at what’s on it until there’s nothing left. An exception – a study has found that looking at the “carnage” – the leftover bones from barbecued ribs or even the number of empty beer bottles – can serve as an “environmental cue” to stop eating.

2. Do you really need to stand in front of the picnic table, kitchen table, or barbecue? The further away from the food you are the less likely you are to eat it. Don’t sit or stand where you can see the food that’s calling your name. Keep your back to it if you can’t keep distant. There’s just so much control you can exercise before “see it = eat it.” If staying near the food gets to be too much, go for a walk, a swim, or engage someone in an animated conversation. It’s pretty hard to shove food in your mouth when you’re busy talking.

3. Before you grab some tasty ribs, dogs, burgers or pie — ask yourself if you really want it. Are you hungry? Is it worth the calories? Odds are, the tempting display of food in front of you is visually seductive – and may smell great, too — but you’re reaching out to eat what’s in front of you for reasons not dictated by your stomach but by your eyes. Have you decided that you want to splurge on something specific? Try picking it ahead of time and commit to your choice so you don’t find yourself wavering in the face of temptation.

Ten Tips To Make Your Chinese Takeout A Bit Healthier

May 20, 2014 By Penny Klatell, PhD, RN 1 Comment

Are you planning on ordering some takeout Chinese food? Are you careful to order dishes that are filled with vegetables because they probably have fewer calories and less fat ? Think again.

Chinese takeout can be a friend – or the devil in disguise. Commercial Chinese food – or what you usually get for takeout – can be extremely high in fat (a caloric nightmare) and very high in sodium. Then there’s portion size: those little white boxes hold a lot. How often do you eat right out of the box – or refill your plate because it’s too little to really save – and why throw it away?

Ten Tips

1. Learn how to interpret the menu and look for foods that are:

Steamed
Jum (poached)
Chu (broiled)
Kow (roasted)
Shu (barbecued)

2. Aim for a plate filled with more veggies than meat and ask for them to be lightly stir-fried rather than battered or deep fried (crispy means fried). All vegetable dishes are not on the “good choice” list. A serving of eggplant in garlic sauce (eggplant soaks up oil) has 1000 calories; 13g saturated fat; 2000mg sodium. Mu shu pork (without pancakes) has a lot of vegetables and also has 1000 calories and 2600 mg sodium. An 8-inch pancake adds about 90 calories, a 6-inch pancake adds 60 calories. Mu shu chicken is a better choice with about 5g less fat less and 200 fewer calories per serving.

3. Eat with chopsticks: it takes longer to eat and you can’t scoop up as much of the sauce or oil as you can with a fork.

4. Don’t let the fried noodles near your table – or out of the takeout bag – because one package has about 180 calories; 8g fat; 420mg sodium.

5. Soup – like hot and sour, egg drop, or wonton — is a good lower calorie choice (around 100 calories per cup) to fill you up – but is usually loaded with sodium. One cup of hot and sour soup has 91 calories, 3g fat, 876 sodium.

6. Be careful with the thick sweet sauces like sweet and sour. They are often made with flour, cornstarch, sugar, corn syrup. Better choices are hoison, oyster, and hot mustard.

7. Beware the rice: there are around 200 calories in a cup of white or brown rice. A takeout container often contains two cups. Basic fried rice – without any additions — is about 230 calories per cup — 1 cup of chicken fried rice has 329 calories; 11.96g fat; 598mg sodium.

8. Lay off the barbecued spare ribs – four can have around 600 calories. One-half slice of fried shrimp toast has 148 calories; 9.27g fat; 447mg sodium.

9. Try steamed dumplings instead of the more fatty egg rolls or fried wontons. One egg roll has 220 calories; 11g fat; 412mg sodium. A spring roll, with its thinner wrapper and smaller size, is a better choice at about 100 calories and 300 mg sodium. A meat filled fried wonton has 54 calories; 2.52g fat; 111mg sodium. A steamed dumpling filled with meat, poultry, or seafood is probably the best choice clocking in at 41 calories; 0.98g fat; 161mg sodium.

10. How much are you loading onto your plate – especially out of a takeout container? The amount of food that arrives on your plate in a restaurant, or that’s delivered for your takeout order, is often considerably larger than a standard portion. You could be tallying many more calories than you think. Next time you have Chinese take-out – just to give yourself a guideline — haul out your measuring cup to see how big the portion is that you just plopped on your plate. You might be surprised.

Are You Craving A Smoothie or Milkshake?

May 18, 2014 By Penny Klatell, PhD, RN Leave a Comment

It’s springtime – and visions of milk shakes might be dancing in your head. A thick chocolate milkshake can have around 750 calories for a large (22 ounce) shake. A medium (22 ounce) Burger King strawberry shake has 630 calories with 15 grams of fat and 103 grams of sugar.

You could have a bowl of strawberries instead – one cup of sliced strawberries has 53 calories with no fat, 13 grams of carbs, 3 grams of fiber, and 1 gram of protein. Add a dollop of yogurt on top and your nutrition and calorie intake from the fruit and yogurt is far different than what you would get chugging a milkshake.

Maybe you think smoothies are better alternatives to milkshakes. Sometimes they are – and sometimes they might not be.

Don’t be side swiped by the idea that smoothies are filled with fruit so they must be healthy. They may be made with some fruit and vegetables, but far too frequently they’re loaded with sugar. Unless you have a protein boost added (a whey protein additive at Jamba Juice adds 45 calories and ten grams of protein) or your smoothie is made with yogurt or milk, they have hardly any protein.

Jamba Juice’s small (16 ounce) “Ideal Meal Chunky Strawberry” has 570 calories, 17 grams of fat and 54 grams of sugar. A small (16 ounce) healthy sounding “Berry Topper” has 480 calories, 9 grams of fat, and 55 grams of sugar.

You can make smoothies at home and control the amount of fruit, vegetables, and sugar that goes into them.

How To Save 500 Calories At Lunch

May 13, 2014 By Penny Klatell, PhD, RN Leave a Comment

Here’s your Tuesday tip:

Are you planning on having a sandwich for lunch?

You can substitute mustard for mayo and save 100 calories.
If you leave off the slice of Swiss cheese you save another 133 calories.
Ditch two slices of bacon from your club sandwich or subtract two slices from your BLT to save another 84 calories.
Put your turkey, ham, or roast beef along with lettuce, tomato and onions on a whole grain pita (74 calories) instead of between two slices of rye (180 calories).
When you tally up the calories you’ve saved a total of 423 calories.
If you walk to and from the deli or around the block several times and you’ve easily saved yourself 500 calories.