Snacking, Noshing, Tasting

What To Do When Your Mouth Is On Fire From Red Hot Chili Peppers

May 5, 2015 By Penny Klatell, PhD, RN Leave a Comment

I was in a restaurant that specializes in chili – hot, hotter, and hottest. Four large thirty-something guys were sitting at the table next to mine. One guy ordered, “hottest,” with an “I can handle it, no problem” look on his face.

Shortly after this big, burly guy dug into his chili he was sitting glassy eyed, rivulets of sweat dripping off of his bald head, practically unable to speak. The waitress, obviously having seen this happen before, came running over with a glass of milk with orders to “drink up.”

Have you ever had a similar reaction to very spicy food — maybe even from something from your own kitchen when you got a little too heavy-handed with the chili powder? Or perhaps, like this guy, from being a little too macho and ordering “hottest” – despite warnings from the waitstaff.

What Causes The Burn?

Capsaicin is mostly responsible for the “heat” in chili peppers. The amount in different kinds peppers varies widely. Environmental factors and the maturity of the pepper also affect the “burn” factor.

Chiles grown in hot dry climates tend to be a little hotter and the capsaicin content in a pepper is the highest when peppers reach full maturity. Habanero peppers are always extremely hot because of their high capsaicin content but ancho and paprika chili peppers can be as mild as a bell pepper.

How To Tame The Flame

What do you do when your mouth is sending a five-alarm signal, your face is on fire, and you’re sweating enough to water every plant in the room?

To stop the flames in your mouth you need to neutralize the burning heat from the capsaicin that binds to your taste buds. Remember that you want to neutralize the capsaicin, not just make your mouth feel better — although that’s also an objective.

Solutions

The most common flame relievers are full fat dairy, acid, and sugar – although some people also swear by nut and seed butters (peanut, almond, tahini). They may all have some degree of effectiveness.
Ice and water will feel pretty good, but they’re only a temporary feel-good fix. The burning pain will come roaring back. Capsaicin is soluble in both alcohol and fat so full fat dairy and alcohol are possible solutions.
Neutralizing the capsaicin will be the most effective. How do you do that? The most common things to counteract the heat of chilies are full fat dairy, acids, and sugar. Some people also swear by nut and seed butters (peanut, almond, tahini). They may all have some degree of effectiveness.
Capsaicin is soluble in alcohol and fat, and sometimes beer is suggested as a solution because the alcohol will help to neutralize the capsaicin molecules. Since beer is about 95% water it won’t really neutralize the capsaicin clinging to your tongue. The harder stuff might help but you’d have to drink a lot of it and you’d end up feeling no pain for other reasons.
Acid can cut through the heat so try vinegar, lemon or lime juice, or anything acidic that doesn’t mess with the taste of your food. Now you know why you often see lemon or lime wedges served with spicier food. Gives beer with lime new meaning, doesn’t it?
High fat dairy products like milk, cheese, sour cream, yogurt, and ice cream will coat your mouth and can break the bonds capsaicin forms with the nerve endings – and, since they’re cold, they feel pretty good, too. There’s a reason that spicy Mexican food is often served with sour cream and cheese!
Sugars bind to pain receptors more readily than capsaicin so sweet things might work, too. Sugar, fruit, honey, molasses, even carrots have all been used. Highly sweetened non-carbonated drinks may work. Try some sweet tea. Hoisin may work for Asian dishes or Lassi (sweet and dairy combination) if you’re in an Indian restaurant. Have some fruit for dessert – it’s cold and sweet and the more acidic fruit, like citrus and pineapple, add another layer of potential pain relief.

10 Ways To Tame A Way Too Spicy Dish

April 22, 2015 By Penny Klatell, PhD, RN Leave a Comment

Have you ever gotten a little too overzealous with the chili powder – or with the amount of peppers you’ve added to that fantastic dish you’re cooking? Perhaps you very overly brave and ordered the five alarm chili at your local Tex-Mex place.

It happens — but what do you do? You can burn the heck out of everyone’s mouth, sweat profusely, toss the whole dish into the garbage, feed the compost pile, or maybe somehow salvage what you’ve made.

There are those of you who routinely look for the spiciest food around and are probably thinking – so what’s the problem? But, for those of you – like me – who would prefer not to have your mouth on fire – there are ways to calm down an over-spiced dish. After some research, here’s a bunch of suggestions (in no particular order). Maybe some will work for your dish, or maybe not, but file them in your memory and give one or two a try when you’re staring at a pot of over-spiced food. If you’ve set your mouth on fire in a restaurant, remember to quench it with some dairy!

What To Do and Things To Try

Know your peppers– they vary in the amount of heat they have. You can always decrease the amount you use. Be sure to remove the inner membranes and seeds – that’s where the majority of the heat resides. Capsaicin is the active component in chili peppers and the amount varies according to the variety and maturity of the pepper. Habanero peppers are always extremely hot while ancho and paprika peppers can be as mild as a bell pepper.
To change a three alarm dish to a one alarm, dilute the heat. Make another batch of the recipe and omit the “heat” ingredient. Then combine the non-spiced batch with the over-spiced batch. Now you have a double recipe with diluted heat and you can freeze the extra. You can also add more stock, broth, canned tomatoes, or beans depending on the recipe – just make certain there is no added seasoning.
A can or two of refried beans or mashed canned beans helps dilute the heat, thickens chili, increases the fiber and protein content, and gives you more servings without the higher cost of more meat.
Dairy helps neutralize the spice in a dish and in your mouth. You can use (full fat is best) milk, sour cream, or yogurt. Other suggestions are whipping cream or evaporated milk. If you don’t have the time or inclination to incorporate dairy into the dish, offer sour cream or yogurt on the side.
Serve chili or curry over rice. The rice tones down the spices and adds bulk to the recipe. Bread and other grains also help.
Add some potatoes or another starchy vegetable, like corn. You probably won’t even notice the corn in chili. If you use potatoes, peel and cube a couple and mix them in. Leave them in until they are cooked through, they’ll absorb some of the spice. Remove them (or not, depending on taste) and serve.
Try stirring in a couple tablespoons of peanut butter(you could also use almond or other nut butters or tahini) to cut the heat. Depending on the dish, it won’t really alter the taste but might give a little more depth to the flavor and make chili seem a little creamier. Because it may not be an expected ingredient, be certain that no one has nut or peanut allergies.
Add some lime, lemon, vinegar or something acidic that won’t mess with the other flavors. Acid cuts through heat.
You don’t want to turn your dish into dessert, but sugar goes a long way toward neutralizing the spiciness. So does honey. Add a teaspoon at a time and keep tasting. Some people use sweet or semi-sweet chocolate to mask the spice, but not so much that the dish ends up tasting like chocolate. Sugar combined with an acid like vinegar or lemon or lime juice works particularly well.
Any number of other additions can help tame the heat without radically affecting flavor. Add a can of crushed pineapple to your chili — it will essentially disappear but will also helping to counteract the heat. Other kinds of fruit and carrots may work, too.

Stadium Food: What Do You Eat?

April 15, 2015 By Penny Klatell, PhD, RN Leave a Comment

It is the beginning of baseball season, but more importantly – at least in my family – it’s the beginning of hockey playoffs. To call us True Blue New York Rangers fans might be an understatement.

So what do you eat when you go to a game? Many stadiums now offer “gourmet” and “specialty” food – at Madison Square Garden you can buy both sushi and gluten free sandwiches – but from my observation, most fans at sporting events still opt for burgers and dogs, popcorn and peanuts, soda and beer. Every year, especially at ballparks, there seem to be some new “upscale” additions, but from those I’ve heard advertised this year, the size, calories, and price are almost guaranteed to make your clothing a bit more snug and your wallet a bit lighter.

So what do you choose when there are food vendors about every 20 feet hawking dogs, hot pretzels, fried everything, and mega-sized desserts?

Classic Stadium Food – Make Good Choices

If you’ve got a will of iron you could ignore the food and drinks. But, if you don’t — or don’t want to — you can try to minimize the caloric damage without taking away the fun. If you know you’re going to be having a stadium meal, do some thinking and planning. The best choices aren’t always the obvious ones.

Must you have both peanuts and popcorn? Can you make do with a regular hot dog instead of a foot-long? Can you keep it to one or two beers instead of three? Can you choose the small popcorn instead of the jumbo tub? Can you ditch the soda — or maybe the second one — and replace it with water?

It’s all about choices. Here’s some info about 10 foods that most likely will call your name at one time or another:

Hamburger: A plain 6-ounce burger made of food stand beef (they’re not using extra lean – the more fat, the juicier it is) on a bun has about 490 calories. Cheese and other toppings can significantly up the ante.

6-ounce grilled chicken sandwich: 280 calories – not a bad choice. 6 ounces of chicken tenders clock in at 446 calories. Barbecue dipping sauce adds 30 calories a tablespoon.

Hot Dogs: Most sold-out baseball stadiums can sell 16,000 hot dogs a day. A regular hot dog with mustard has about 290 calories — that’s 180 for the 2-ounce dog, 110 for the bun, zilch for regular yellow mustard. Two tablespoons of sauerkraut adds another 5-10 calories and a punch of flavor, 2 tablespoons of ketchup adds 30, and 2 tablespoons of relish another 40. A Nathan’s hot dog racks up 320 calories; a foot-long Hebrew National 510 calories.

Pizza: Stadium pizza is generally larger than a usual slice, about 1/6 of a 16-inch pie (instead of 1/8) making it about 435 calories a slice – don’t forget that toppings add calories.

French Fries and Nachos: A large serving of French fries has about 500 calories. A serving of Hardee’s chili cheese fries has 700 calories and 350 of them come from fat. A 12-ounce serving of super nachos with cheese: (40 chips, 4 ounces of cheese) has about 1,500 calories! Plain French fries look like a caloric bargain by comparison.

Cracker Jack (officially cracker jack, not jacks): candy coated popcorn with some peanuts. A 3.5-ounce stadium size box has 420 calories but also has 7g of protein and 3.5g of fiber.

Cotton Candy: nothing but heated and artificially colored sugar that’s spun into threads with added air. Cotton candy on a stick or wrapped around a paper cone (about an ounce) has around 105 calories; a 2-ounce bag (common size) has 210. A lot of sugar, but not a lot of calories – albeit empty ones.

Peanuts in the Shell: What would a baseball game be without a bag of peanuts? Stadiums can sell as many as 6,000 bags on game days. An 8-ounce bag has 840 calories; a 12-ounce bag has 1,260. Yes, they have some protein and fiber. But wow on the calories.

Soft Pretzel: One large soft pretzel has 483 calories – giant soft pretzels (7-8 ounces) have about 700 calories.

Ice Cream: Your team’s mini-helmet filled with swirly Carvel, 550-590 calories. A Good Humor Chocolate Éclair has 160 calories, 8g fat, 11g sugar; a Fudgsicle Fudge Bar has 100 calories, 2.5g fat, 13g sugars; a Klondike sandwich, 81g has 250 calories, 17g fat, 18g sugars.

Popcorn: At Yankee Stadium a jumbo-sized souvenir bag has 1,484 calories and a souvenir bucket has 2,473 calories. On average, a 3-ounce bag of all brands (plain/ready-to-eat) has 480 calories and 24g fat.

Candy:

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

Can You Save Calories Eating A Ham And Cheese Sandwich Instead Of A Salad?

April 8, 2015 By Penny Klatell, PhD, RN Leave a Comment

So many of us think a salad, instead of a sandwich, is the way to go if we’re trying to be calorie conscious. Somehow we’ve embraced the idea that salads are always a light and healthy choice. Sometimes they are – but all too often they’re not.

Sometimes a sandwich is the clear winner in terms of calories and fat. A ham and cheese sandwich ranges from 350 to 450 calories depending upon how much ham and cheese there really is, the type of bread, and whether it comes with mustard or mayo (and, of course, without fries or chips).

And sometimes the salad is a better choice — depending on what goes into it. The nutrient rich plant foods that make the base of a salad are high in antioxidants — especially the dark green, orange, and red vegetables. Most of the vegetables are full of fiber – good for your cholesterol, your GI functioning, and as a way to feel fuller for a longer period of time. Salads take a long time to eat – much longer than sandwiches or pizza that you can scarf down far more quickly.

The Green Base For Salads

The green stuff that’s the base for most salads isn’t the problem. Most greens are very low in calories and pretty nutritious.

1 cup shredded Romaine: 8 calories, 1 gram fiber, 1 gram protein, 0 gram fat
1 cup of Arugula: 6 calories, 1 gram fiber, 1 gram protein, 0 gram fat
1 cup raw spinach: 7 calories, 1 gram of fiber, 1 gram protein
1 cup chopped kale: 32 calories, 1 gram of fiber, 2 grams of protein, 0 gram fat

Calorie Savers:

High calorie add-ins and dressings can make salads a “no thank you” choice.

Generally, at least ¼ of a cup (frequently more) of dressing is added to a tossed salad. A ladle of creamy dressing has about 360 calories and 38g of fat (a cheeseburger worth). Vinaigrette dressing, usually 3 parts oil to one part vinegar, adds its own fat blast. For two tablespoons of dressing add:
- Blue cheese: 165 calories, 15g fat
- Italian: 160 calories, 15g fat
- French: 135 calories, 15g fat
- Low calorie Italian, 15 calories, 0g fat
- Oil and vinegar: 100 calories, 8g fat
- 1000 Island: 120 calories, 10g fat
- Vinegar: 4 calories, 0g fat

Tuna, macaroni, egg, and chicken salads, the holy grail of delis and salad bars, are loaded with mayonnaise. On average (for a half cup – which is a pretty small serving):
- chicken salad has around 208 calories, 16g of fat
- tuna salad has 192 calories, 9g fat
- tuna pasta salad has 250 calories, 9g fat
- macaroni salad has 170 calories, 9g fat

Croutons and Crispy Noodles:
- ¼ cup of plain croutons has 31 calories, 0g fat
- 1 serving of McDonald’s Butter Garlic Croutons has 60 calories
- 1g fat; ¼ cup of crispy noodles has 74 calories, 4g fat
Dried cranberries: ¼ cup has 98 calories, 0g fat
Then there’s cheese, for ¼ cup (which is really small):
- feta has 75 calories, 6g fat
- shredded cheddar has 114 calories, 9g fat
- blue cheese has 80 calories, 6g fat

Beans, nuts and seeds:
- ¼ cup sunflower seeds: 210 calories, 19g fat
- chopped walnuts: 193 calories, 18g fat
- kidney beans, ¼ cup: 55 calories, trace fat
- chickpeas, ¼ cup: 40 calories, less than 1g fat
Avocado, ¼ cup: 58 calories, 5g fat
Bacon bits, 1 tablespoon: 25 calories, 2g fat
Proteins:
- chopped egg, 2 tablespoons: 25 calories, 2g fat
- shrimp, 1 ounce: 30 calories, less than 1g fat
- water packed tuna, 1 ounce: 35 calories, less than 1g fat
- turkey, 1 ounce: 35 calories, less than 1g fat
- chopped ham, 1 ounce: 35 calories, 1g fat
Bread (often used to sop up leftover dressing): 1 piece of French bread has 82 calories, 1g fat; 1 dinner roll, 78 calories, 2g fat. Dressing sopped up by the bread or roll: lots of extra fat calories!

Should Salads Go On Your “Do Not Touch” List?

Absolutely not. The healthy stuff in salad tastes great, fills you up, and is good for you. There are plenty of ways to cut down on the fatty and caloric add-ins and still end up with a really tasty salad. There are even good choices in fast food and chain restaurants (and plenty of really, really bad ones).

How Much Easter Candy Can You Eat For 100 and 200 Calories?

April 1, 2015 By Penny Klatell, PhD, RN 2 Comments

Do you need a reason to splurge on a holiday – it is a celebration, after all? But, in case you want to “carefully” indulge on Easter candy, here’s how much of your favorite candy you can gobble down to the tune of 100 calories:

17 Brach’s jellybeans = 102 calories (6 calories each)

5 Peeps = 98 calories (28 calories for one Peep)

6 Cadbury mini eggs = 96 calories (16 calories for one mini egg)

2/3 of a Cadbury Crème egg = 100 calories (one egg is 150 calories)

5 Cadbury mini crème eggs = 100 calories (one Cadbury mini crème egg has 40 calories)

2/3 of a Cadbury caramel egg = 113 calories (one Cadbury caramel egg has 170 calories)

2 Cadbury mini caramel eggs = 90 calories (one Cadbury mini caramel egg has 45 calories)

2/3 Reese’s peanut butter egg = 113 calories (one Reese’s peanut butter egg has 170 calories)

5 Reese’s peanut butter mini eggs = 100 calories (one Reese’s peanut butter mini egg has 40 calories)

5 Hershey’s milk chocolate eggs = 102 calories (one Hershey’s milk chocolate egg has 29 calories)

Over and under the 200 calorie mark:

Higher Calorie Easter Candy (over 200 calories per serving):

5 oz mini bag Cadbury Chocolate Mini Eggs: 210  calories

5 Nestle Butterfinger Easter Nestggs: 210  calories

1/4 cup Pastel Peanut M&M’s: 220  calories

9 Hershey’s Milk Chocolate Pastel Kisses with Almonds: 230  calories

5 Hershey’s Pastel Miniature Chocolates: 230  calories

1 small 2.5 ounce Fannie May Solid Milk Chocolate Rabbit: 420  calories

1 small 7 ounce bag Jelly Belly Jelly Beans: 700 calories

Lower Calorie Easter Candy (under 200 calories per serving):

1 package (5 chicks) Peeps Marshmallow Chicks: 140 calories

1 Cadbury Crème Egg: 150 calories

1 Cadbury Caramel Egg: 170 calories

1/8 cup M&M’s: 105 calories

1 Reese’s Peanut Butter Egg: 180 calories

4 Reese’s Peanut Butter Mini eggs: 160 calories

7 Rolo Pastel Chewy Caramels: 190  calories