Eat Out Eat Well

Takeout, Prepared Food, Junk Food

A Healthy Eating Lesson On The Subway

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New York city, uptown #2 train, Saturday night.  Not too crowded, most people are wearing their subway stares – avoiding eye contact, eyes glazed over, ipod earbuds in place, bodies rocking with the motion of the train.  My trip isn’t long enough to pull out something to read, so I start to scan the ads that run above the seats– something I’ve entertained myself with since I was a little kid.

One whole side of the subway car I was in was filled with posters for New York City’s “Are You Pouring On The Pounds” campaign — aimed at teaching people to reduce their sugar intake (and lose or keep off weight) by cutting down on sugary drinks. It also encourages New Yorkers to drink water, seltzer or low-fat milk instead of the sweet stuff.

The posters are filled with liquid pouring out of bottles of soda, “sports” drinks or sweetened iced tea and turning into blobs of fat as it reaches the glass. Large graphics leave you with no doubt about the number of teaspoons or packets of sugar in each drink — or the total amount of liquid sugar that you could drink daily – as shown in the photo above.

For example: a 20 ounce bottle of soda is equivalent to 16 packets of sugar and a 32 ounce gigantic size cup – the kind so popular in movie theaters, gas stations, and arenas — contains the equivalent of 26 packets of sugar.

Do You Forget To Count The Calories You Drink?

It’s hard to overeat without noticing it. But, many people who gain weight — and can’t figure out why — forget to include the calories in what they drink.  Sugary drinks can add hundreds of calories and they don’t even make you feel full.

On average, Americans now consume 200 to 300 more calories each day than 30 years ago, with nearly half of those calories coming from sugar-sweetened drinks. A survey of adult New Yorkers shows that more than 2 million drink at least one sugar sweetened soda or other sweetened beverage each day – often at 250 calories a pop. Teenagers who drink sugary beverages get an average of 360 calories from them each day.  (They’d have to walk 70 city blocks to use up that many calories.)

Some Facts

A teaspoon of sugar weighs about four grams and each gram of sugar has four calories – or about 16 calories per teaspoon of sugar. On average, Americans consume about 22 teaspoons of added sugar a day – the equivalent of around 350 calories.  (Added sugar refers to the extra, empty calorie, added sweeteners, not the sugar that naturally occurs in foods like fruit and milk.)

The quickest way to decrease some of that sugar is to cut down on soda and sweetened drinks.   Sugary drinks, including sweetened tea or sweetened water that claims to be healthy, account for about one-third of added sugars.

Eating large quantities of sugar can lead to obesity and health problems like diabetes and heart disease. The American Heart Association recommends a daily max of six teaspoons of added sugar for women and nine teaspoons for men.  That’s quite a bit less than 22 teaspoons Americans generally average.  Too many spoonfuls of sugar may create the need for medicine rather than making it easily go down!

Are You Eating Fake Blueberries?

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Blueberries have so much going for them.  They’re a gorgeous color and they’re one of the few fruits native to North America.

All blueberries, especially the tiny wild ones, are loaded with antioxidants and phytochemicals that may play a role in reducing risk for some diseases.

Fantastic nutrition, too.  One cup has 84.4 calories, no fat, 21 grams of carbs (4 g fiber, 15g sugars) and 1 g of protein and 24% of the recommended daily value of Vitamin C.

They’re a good tasting, good looking super food. That’s why manufacturers add them to lots of cereal and baked goods (or at least imply that they do).

So, what’s the problem? Here it is: a bunch of food products that have labels or lovely pictures that suggest that they contain real blueberries really contain types of fake blueberries (not plastic, but not whole fruit either).

Blueberry Crunchlets

In an investigation, the nonprofit Consumer Wellness Center found fake “blueberries” that were actually a mix of sugar, corn syrup, starch, hydrogenated oil, artificial flavors and food dyes blue No. 2 and red No. 40 that were made to look like blueberries. Manufacturers like Kellogg’s, Betty Crocker, and General Mills, use them in bagels, cereals, bread, and muffins. Some products mix real blueberries with fakes.

For instance, Kellogg’s Frosted Mini Wheats Blueberry Muffin variety has blueberry flavored “crunchlets,” not blueberries and General Mills’ Total Blueberry Pomegranate cereal contains no blueberries and no pomegranates.

What Are Crunchlets?

Here’s the ingredient list and description, from their website, for Kellogg’s® Frosted Mini-Wheats® Blueberry Muffin:

It is described as “Naturally and artificially flavored lightly sweetened whole grain wheat cereal, blueberry muffin.”

Ingredients:  Whole Grain Wheat, Sugar, Blueberry Flavored Crunchlets (sugar, corn cereal, soybean oil, modified cornstarch, water, natural and artificial flavor, glycerin, corn syrup, red #40 lake, blue #2 lake), Natural and Artificial Blueberry Flavor, Sorbitol, Gelatin, Reduced Iron, Niacinamide, Blue #2 lake, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride (Vitamin B6), Riboflavin (Vitamin B2), Thiamin Hydrochloride (Vitamin B1), Red #40, Folic Acid, Zinc Oxide, Vitamin B12.  To maintain quality, BHT has been added to packaging.

What’s A Consumer To Do?

Your best option is to buy real blueberries and put them on your cereal.

But, what if you crave blueberries in January in the Northeast with multiple feet of snow on the ground and you don’t want to pay a fortune for berries shipped from thousands of miles away?

If you’re thinking of buying cereal or baked goods that claim to have blueberries in them, read the ingredients list on the box to see if the product contains any real fruit.

Items with fake blueberries will have red No. 40, blue No. 2 or other artificial colors listed on the label.  Read carefully, artificial colors and dyes may also be used for components other than blueberries, too.

There are some products with honest to goodness blueberries in them.   Just look carefully.

Did You Eat 23 Pounds Of Pizza Last Year?

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If you did, you’re not alone — actually you’ve got plenty of company!

Our pizza eating habits are amazing.  Whether we buy it fresh or frozen, by the slice or by the pie.  We eat it for takeout or grabbed off of round metal trays plopped on formica tables.  We eat it everywhere and by the ton.

So What’s The Problem?

For the most part:  fat and calories.  Sure, you may not like a particular type of pizza, or perhaps you love round pizzas rather than square ones.  But, if your mouth has started to water at the thought of golden brown crust and cheesy goodness — here’s the downer: that luscious pizza can be a fat and calorie nightmare.  Don’t despair.  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.

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 varies so enormously – and, we all have our preferences..

How Many Calories?

The membership warehouse club Costco has 416 domestic locations, and most of them have a food court that sells pizza, making Costco the 15th largest pizza chain in the US. They  serve a whole lot of pizza and a whole lot of calories. A single slice of Costco pizza is estimated to have 804 calories,  342 of them from from fat.

Mall pizza can be okay — and not okay.  For instance, Sbarro’s Low Carb Cheese Pizza has 310 calories and 14 grams of fat. But, its Low Carb Sausage/Pepperoni Pizza has 560 calories and 35 grams of fat. A slice of the 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.

Are You Craving Pizza?

Although we all have out 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 thick doughy crust.
  • Resist the urge to ask for double cheese.
  • Pile on veggies like mushrooms, peppers, olives, tomatoes, onion, broccoli, spinach, asparagus. Some places have salad pizza – great if it’s not loaded with oil.
  • Ask for your pizza to be cheeseless, made with low fat cheese, or “go light on the cheese, please”  (no guarantee but it’s worth it to try).
  • 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 anyone (low in calories)!  A lot of flavor for minimal calories – but you have to like them!
  • Avoid meat toppers. Think about the fat content in sausage, pepperoni, and meatballs.
  • Try to hold it to two slices of pizza and order a salad on the side.
  • If you’re willing (and not embarrassed or grossed out), try blotting 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.

How Much Do Americans Love Sugar? This Much: 475 Extra Calories A Day

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The season of sugar plum fairies, ribbon candy, and sparkly cookies (and even fruit cake)  is upon us.  For about the past ten years we’ve been warned about watching how much sugar we’re eating and we still haven’t really listened.

According to the American Heart Association’s nutrition committee, Americans average 475 calories from added sugars every day.  That’s a lot more than the recommended daily max of 100 calories (six teaspoons) from added sugars for women and 150 calories (nine teaspoons) for men.  Think of it this way, that extra added 475 calories of sugar is the equivalent of 30 teaspoons a day.

A big problem with added sugars is that they both add calories and those “empty” calories displace the other nutritious foods.

Where Do Our Calories Come From?

Added sugars and solid fats account for about 35% of the calories in the average American’s diet. The recommended maximum is 5-15%.

About 36% of the added sugars come from sugary soft drinks — so cutting back on them is a good place to start trimming.

Natural vs. Added Sugars

Natural sugars are found in foods like milk and yogurt (lactose) and in fruit (fructose) as well as in many other foods. Because these sugars are found along with other healthy components in the foods, they’re considered okay.

Unfortunately, nutrition labels don’t differentiate between natural and added sugars.  Look for any form of sugar in the food’s ingredient list.

Look for all forms (typical sugars end in –ose like lactose, glucose, fructose) including brown, raw, or invert sugar and/or “syrup” including corn, high fructose corn, and malt syrup. Also look for honey, molasses, agave nectar, evaporated cane juice, and fruit juice concentrate.  Don’t be fooled by these. They sound healthy but are really just other forms of sugar.

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Examples Of Foods With Added Sugar

A 16 ounce soda has about 11 teaspoons of added sugar. Although most of our extra added sugar comes from soda, sweetened beverages like fruit drinks, sports drinks, and teas; desserts; candy; and breakfast cereals all contribute.

Here are some examples of the added sugar in some common foods. This is just the added sugar, not the natural sugar that might also be in these foods.

  • Cola, 8 oz. 22 grams
  • Cranberry juice cocktail, 8 oz., 20 grams
  • Chocolate Milk, reduced-fat, 8 oz., 14 grams
  • Tea, instant, sugar-sweetened, 8 oz., 21 grams
  • Applesauce, sweetened (1 cup), 16 grams
  • Baked beans, canned (1 cup), 15 grams
  • Oreo-type cookies (3), 12 grams
  • Cranberries, dried (1/3 cup), 25 grams
  • Fruit cocktail in syrup (1 cup), 26 grams
  • Granola bar (1 oz), 12 grams
  • Jellybeans, (1 oz, 10 large), 20 grams
  • Popcorn, caramel-coated (1 oz), 15 grams
  • Fruit yogurt (6 oz container), 19 grams

Dinner Plates: Size Matters!

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Plates:  Bigger Isn’t Better

The size of our dinner plates might be contributing to our country’s obesity problem.

Since 1960, the surface area of our average dinner plate has increased 36%. Today, the average dinner plate measures 11 to 12 inches across, but a few decades ago they were 7 to 9 inches. By comparison, a European plate averages 9 inches and some of our restaurants use plates that are about 13 inches across.

Supersized Eating

Just as serving sizes in restaurants have been supersized and package sizes in the market have grown, so have the plate, bowl, and glass sizes we use in our homes — by 36% in some cases.

Our ideas about portion sizes and how much we need to eat and drink to feel full have grown along with the size of our dishware.

Six ounces of cooked rice with a little chili looks like a good portion on an 8 inch plate. The same amount on a 12 inch plate would look paltry  and probably cause the typical person to add more rice to the plate — which ends up increasing the portion size and calories.

What To Do

The fact of the matter is that we eat most of what’s on our plate regardless of the size of the plate.

But, when you switch to a smaller plate you eat a smaller serving. According to research done at Cornell, when you switch from a 12 inch plate to a 10 inch plate you eat 22% less.

So, you can control your portion sizes by downsizing the size of your plate. You can switch from a dinner plate to a salad plate or search vintage stores for older plates that are smaller in size.

Go Small – But Not Too Small

It sounds too good to be true, but using smaller dishes can also help you feel full even when you’re eating less. Amazingly, studies show that people are more satisfied with less food when they are served on 8 inch salad plates instead of on 12 inch dinner plates.

Use smaller plates and bowls. It’ll keep the portions smaller and you feeling fuller.

But — be careful not to go too small with your plate.  With too little food you might end up going back for seconds. A plate 2 inches smaller than the one you normally use is probably about right.