Eat Out Eat Well

Snacking, Noshing, Tasting

Oreo — The Interactive Cookie That Says Something About You – Turns 100

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What happened the same year that the Titanic sank and the South Pole was discovered?  The cookie that millions have twisted apart and dunked was born!

The Oreo  — sweet sugary creme sandwiched between two decoratively embossed chocolate flavored wafers – celebates its 100th birthday on March 6, 2012.

Some Oreo Trivia

Oh, Oreos!  We must love them because we eat 20.5 million of them a day.

Over 491 billion Oreo cookies have been sold since they were first introduced in 1912, making them the world’s favorite cookie and the best-selling cookie brand of the 21st century.

They were first baked at the National Biscuit Company (Nabisco) factory in an 1890’s building — now called Chelsea Market — that runs from 15th to 16th Street between Ninth and Tenth Avenue in New York City. Just to show how popular Oreos are, West 15th Street between Ninth and Tenth Avenue is now known as Oreo Way.

You can buy Oreos in more than 100 countries.  The most sales ( 2010 data) are in the US followed by China, Venezuela, Canada, Indonesia, Mexico, Spain, Central America and the Caribbean, the UK, and Argentina.

The Original Oreo

One hundred years ago Nabisco’s new idea for a cookie was two chocolate disks with a creme filling in between. Early Oreos looked a lot like today’s Oreo with just a slight difference in the design on the chocolate disks.

Originally they came with either a lemon or vanilla creme filling, cost 25 cents a pound, and were sold in cans with glass tops so customers could see the cookies. The vanilla creme filling turned out to be more popular so the lemon was discontinued in the 1920s.

Today there are a whole bunch of different fillings like mint, chocolate, caramel; double stuffs; chocolate coatings; and colored holiday fillings.

Remember Hydrox, the other sandwich cookie?  Oreos weren’t the first sandwich type cookies on the market. Sunshine introduced Hydrox in 1910 two full years before Oreo’s debut but Hydrox never became as popular as Oreo and production stopped in the mid 1990s.

Oreos: Interactive

An interactive cookie?  Think about it — Oreo’s interactivity is one of the keys to its success. You don’t just eat it — you can dunk it, bite it, or twist it apart.  Oreos hold such fascination that food lovers, psychologists, and food writers have all speculated about whether the way someone eats their Oreo indicates a personality type.

Using the iconic Oreo “twist, lick, dunk” ritual, 50% of all Oreo eaters pull apart their cookies before eating them, with women twisting them open more often than men.

According to a History.com video, in 2004 Kraft (Nabisco is now a Kraft brand) surveyed over 2000 Oreo eaters and found that they are divided into three categories:

  • Dunkers tend to be energetic, adventurous, and extremely social. 87% of dunkers say milk is their liquid of choice for dunking.
  • Twisters — and who hasn’t twisted an Oreo – (I personally think it makes the Oreo last longer ‘cause you get two cookies) – tend to be emotional, sensitive, artistic, and trendy.
  • Biters are easy going, self-confident, and optimistic.

The survey also discovered that more women tend to be dunkers while men tend to be biters.  And, Democrats tend to twist, Republicans tend to dunk!

Some Stats

One 2pack of Oreos (two regular cookies, not double stuffs) has 140 calories, 4g of fat (3g saturated), 14g carbs, and 1g protein.

 

Are You A Fast Eater? Even If You’re Not, Read This

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Slow down when you eat. Moms around the world often say the same thing: slow down and chew your food. (Doesn’t that often go with don’t grab?)

Why?  By slowing down you allow the feeling of fullness to register and it may even mean that you eat fewer calories. You might even have time to really taste and enjoy your food, too – although Mom might say it’s just good manners.

Is It Gone Before You Realize You’ve Eaten It?

Do you wolf your food down so quickly that it’s gone before you realize you’ve eaten it all – and, to boot, you’re still hungry and staring at an empty plate?

According to an article in the New York Times, studies show that people who eat quickly eat more calories than they would if they ate a bit more slowly. The people who ate more slowly also felt fuller.

A study showed that the hormones that give you a feeling of fullness, or satiety, are more pronounced when you eat slowly. People in the study who were given identical servings of ice cream released more of those hormones when they ate the ice cream in 30 minutes instead of 5 minutes.

You Might Eat Less

Eating slowly leads to eating less, too – not just because your plate is cleared before all the food is gone because everyone else is tired of waiting for you to finish.

According to an article published in The Journal of the American Dietetic Association people who ate at a slow pace compared to when they ate very quickly said they were fuller and ended up eating about 10% fewer calories.

An analysis of surveys completed by 3287 adults ages 30-69, found that combining the two behaviors of eating until full and eating quickly can have a significant impact on being overweight

Stroll, Don’t Race

Haven’t you ever said, “I shouldn’t have had that second cookie (or third) as your stomach begins to expand like a balloon?

It can take up to 20 minutes for your body to register that it’s full.   The problem is that during that interval when you’ve really had enough food but don’t necessarily recognize it, a lot of us continue to shovel food into our mouths – and end up feeling absolutely stuffed.

Do what Mom said.  Slow down, take your time eating, and chew. Give your body a chance to figure out if it really needs more food.  Then maybe you won’t have to take a nap – or unbutton your jeans.

 

Do You Know How Many Calories Are In Your Wine Glass?

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Do you love a glass of wine (or two) with dinner – or maybe some champagne at Sunday brunch or at your friend’s wedding?  What about that wonderful, sweet, thick dessert wine to polish off a fantastic meal?

You may have your preferences – most of us do – but whether it’s red, white, dry, sweet, or sparkling, it is really easy to overlook the calories in those long-stemmed glasses.

What Is The Standard Serving Size Of Wine?

A standard portion of table wine (red or white) is 4 ounces.  But, how many ounces are really in the glass of wine that you usually drink?  Probably five to eight!

So, on average, if 4 ounces of red or white table wine has about 100 calories, you are drinking anywhere from 100 to 200 calories of wine – in one glass. Think about how many glasses of wine and in what size wine glass you drink with a meal.

If you have dessert wine after dinner it’s about double the calories per ounce — although the standard serving is less:  usually 2 to 3 ounces.  So add on about another 100 to 150 calories for each glass of that smooth dessert wine.

Calories In Wine

So it’s easier to compare, here are the number of 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

 

Snacks: Are They Your Fourth Meal?

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Why can a day’s worth of snacks be considered a fourth meal?  Because, according to research, snacking accounts for more than 25% of Americans’ calorie intake everyday.

How Many Calories Do We Snack On A Day?

Between 1977 and 2006 Americans averaged about 580 calories each day for their snacks — which basically turned those snacks into “a full eating event,” or a fourth meal.

Maybe we snack on so many calories because eating and drinking while we’re doing something else has also increased.  Between 2006 and 2008, the amount of time we spent eating our main meals – breakfast, lunch and dinner – was about 70 minutes.  Secondary eating, the kind you do when you’re doing things like working on the computer, driving, or walking down the street, doubled from 15 minutes in 2006 to nearly 30 minutes a day in 2008.  There was nearly a 90% jump in the time we spent on secondary drinking:  from 45 to 85 minutes. (Ever wonder why Starbuck’s is so crowded?)

Come On, Be Honest

Haven’t you ever chowed down on a whole bunch of food — maybe the equivalent of a meal — around 5PM and then tried to convince yourself that it’s just a snack?

Although nearly 100% of Americans of all ages snack every day, there isn’t a standard definition  of what a snack is or what motivates us to snack. So, what happens is that it’s left up to each one of us to “self-define” what snacks and snacking mean, leaving plenty of room for us to blur the line between snacks and meals.

How Much Do We Spend On Packaged Snacks?

We spend about 12% of our total food money at the supermarket on packaged snacks. Kids are learning to replace meals with snacks – a lifestyle that is likely to continue when those kids grow up and have their own families.  And food companies are smart – they’re making health claims and highlighting things like fiber and nutrients on the snack packages which often make them sound more appealing and even healthy.  That packaging, with the illusion of health, could even ease the guilt people might have when they reach for a caloric prepackaged snack that may or may not be made of real food.

So, What’s A Snack?

There’s an increase in snacking across the board, but beverages make up 50% of snack calories. those calories in drinks — including the sugar and cream in coffee — can add up to a pretty significant number.

A snack shouldn’t be a fourth meal.  Most recommendations are that an individual snack, like the one so many of us have mid-morning or mid-afternoon, be between 150 and 200 calories and have some protein in it for satiety and to help keep your  blood sugar level stable.

Multi-tasking = Distraction = Mindless Eating

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Do You Work Or Watch TV While You’re Eating?

Where do you have your breakfast?  In the car or train while you’re going to work?  Maybe while you’re walking down the street juggling that plastic topped paper cup of coffee, a muffin, your books and papers, your open jacket flapping in the breeze.

Where do you eat lunch:  at your desk; standing in front of the kitchen sink; in front of the computer – or maybe with your open laptop competing for lap space which then gets blessed with drips and a chunk of tomato that’s oozed out from your sandwich?

A poll of more than 1500 people (Wansink, Mindless Eating), found that:

  • 91% usually watch TV when eating meals at home alone
  • 62% are frequently too busy to sit down and eat
  • 35% eat lunch at their desk
  • 26% often eat while they drive

Distraction Vs. Weight

When you multi-task you’re distracted and distraction is the enemy of weight management (and tasting your food).  Any kind of distraction can lead to:

  • eating too much — a procrastination method used by many
  • forgetting –  or not being aware — of what you’re eating
  • not knowing how much (the quantity) you’re eating;
  • why you’re eating – of even if you’re really hungry.

Mindless Eating

When you’re distracted your focus is not on your food but rather on about a hundred different things.  That’s the classic recipe for mindless eating.

What Can You Do?

Everyone is busy.  Everyone eats.  Putting the two together can lead to mindless eating and creeping weight gain (and maybe indigestion).  How about making your own personal set of eating rules?

In good conscience I can’t really suggest eating without doing other things.  That’s the classic recommendation but I frequently eat while I work.  While that “rule” won’t work for me maybe it will for you.

Create Your Own FoodMAP

If you’re like me, perhaps you can set a rule that you’re going to serve yourself a set portion of food and that’s all you’ll eat. No seconds and no squeezing so much on your plate that you essentially have seconds without getting up for more.

Perhaps you set a snacking rule – one snack only and not before 3PM — or not before you finish whatever project you’re working on.  Just do it mindfully so the whole afternoon doesn’t turn into one long episode of coffee drips and food crumbs all over your keyboard.  Once relieved from unrelenting snacking you may figure out why you haven’t been hungry at dinnertime (which you would eat anyway – while checking your emails — because it’s time for dinner).

Perhaps you want to turn over a new leaf and solely concentrate on your meals.  The choice is yours.  The challenge is to do what is right for you, your body, and your lifestyle.  Create your own FoodMAP.  Just try to make mindful choices that work for you.

What’s your plan?