Takeout, Prepared Food, Junk Food

Seven Ways To Cut Down On Pizza Calories

March 11, 2015 By Penny Klatell, PhD, RN Leave a Comment

If your mouth starts watering at the thought of melted cheese and pepperoni or veggies on some kind of crust, take comfort that you fit the stats:

[Tweet “American men, women, and children eat, on average, 46 slices of pizza a year.”]
94% of Americans eat pizza regularly
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 vegetables
36% order pizza topped with pepperoni.

Is Pizza Junk Food?

Pizza can be a pretty good food – both in calories and nutrition. On the other hand it can be pretty lousy – both in calories and nutrition.

It’s difficult to estimate the number of calories and fat grams in a slice of pizza because the size, the type of crust, 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 can be calorically okay if you choose wisely and don’t eat more than your fair share.

The not so good news: the amount of fat, calories, and portion size. If you have visions of golden brown crust and cheesy goodness dancing in your brain, remember that a slice of pizza should be about the size of two dollar bills — not the size of a small frying pan or a quarter of a 12” circle.

7 Ways To Build a Better Slice of Pizza

Order thin crust rather than a thick crust or deep dish.
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 for flavor; one tablespoon has only 22 calories.
Instead of lots of cheese go for big flavors like onion, garlic, and olives (use them somewhat sparingly because of the oil). 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 off 100 calories. 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 side salad (careful with the dressing) 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 with a napkin. Blotting is easy to do on the kind of hot slice where the oil runs down your arm when you pick it up. Each teaspoon of oil that you soak up is worth 40 calories and 5 grams of fat.

Deep Dish, Hand Tossed, or Thin Crust?

Check out the difference in calories for the same size slice of Domino’s classic hand-tossed, deep dish, and crunchy thin crust pizzas – each with the same toppings. Then check out the number of calories in the various sides.

Domino’s 14 inch classic hand-tossed pizza:

America’s Favorite (Peperoni, mushroom, sausage, 1/8 of pizza): 390 calories
Bacon Cheeseburger (Beef, bacon, cheddar cheese), 1/8 of pizza: 420 calories
Vegi Feast (Green pepper, onion, mushroom, black olive, extra cheese, 1/8 of pizza): 340 calories

Domino’s 14 inch ultimate deep dish pizza:

America’s Favorite (Peperoni, mushroom, sausage), 1/8 of pizza: 400 calories
Bacon Cheeseburger (Beef, bacon, cheddar cheese), 1/8 of pizza: 430 calories
Vegi Feast (Green pepper, onion, mushroom, black olive, extra cheese), 1/8 of pizza: 350 calories

Domino’s 14 Inch crunchy thin crust pizza:

America’s Favorite (Peperoni, mushroom, sausage, 1/8 of pizza: 280 calories)
Bacon Cheeseburger (Beef, bacon, cheddar cheese), 1/8 of pizza: 310 calories
Vegi Feast (Green pepper, onion, mushroom, black olive, extra cheese), 1/8 of pizza: 230 calories

Domino add-ons:

Breadstick, 1 stick, no sauce, 130 calories
Cheesy Bread, 1 stick, no sauce: 140 calories
Cinna Stix, 1 stick, no sauce, 140 calories
Marinara Dipping Sauce, container for 8 sticks, 25 calories
Garlic Dipping Sauce, container for 8 sticks: 440 calories
Sweet Icing Dipping Sauce, container for 8 sticks: 250 calories

Mall Pizza Can Be Okay—And Not Okay

Per slice:

Sbarro’s Low Carb Cheese Pizza: 310 calories, 14g fat
Sbarro’s Low Carb Sausage/Pepperoni Pizza: 560 calories, 35g fat
Sbarro’s Fresh Tomato Pizza: 450 calories, 14g fat
Sbarro’s “Gourmet” pizzas: between 610 and 780 calories, more than 20g fat
Costco Food Court Pepperoni Pizza: 620 calories, 30g fat
“Stuffed” pizzas: 790 calories minimum, over 33g fat

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Girl Scout Cookies: the original recipe and more …

March 4, 2015 By Penny Klatell, PhD, RN Leave a Comment

Thin Mints may account for 25% of Girl Scout cookie sales, but the thin chocolate wafers bear little resemblance (other than being cookies) to the original girl scout cookies.

The first Girl Scout troop was organized over a hundred years ago (March 12, 1912) in Savannah, Georgia. Selling cookies — a way to finance troop activities — began as early as 1917 when they were sold in an Oklahoma high school cafeteria as a service project.

Girl Scout cookies were originally baked in home kitchens with moms as the “technical advisers.” In July 1922, The American Girl Magazine, which was published by Girl Scout national headquarters, printed a cookie recipe that had been distributed to the Council’s 2,000 Girl Scouts. The approximate cost of ingredients for six- to seven-dozen cookies was estimated at 26 to 36 cents; the suggested sale price was 25 or 30 cents for a dozen.

In the 20s and 30s the simple sugar cookies baked by Girl Scouts and their mothers were packaged in waxed paper bags, sealed with stickers, and sold door to door.

The Original Girl Scout Cookie Recipe (circa 1922)

1 cup butter
1 cup sugar
Additional sugar for topping (optional)
2 eggs
2 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder

Cream butter and the cup of sugar; add well-beaten eggs, then milk, vanilla, flour, salt, and baking powder. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour. Roll dough, cut into trefoil shapes, and sprinkle sugar on top, if desired.

Bake in a quick oven (375°) for approximately 8 to 10 minutes or until the edges begin to brown. Makes six- to seven-dozen cookies.

Present Day Girl Scout Cookies

For present day cookie recipes, check out the websites of the two licensed Girl Scout cookie bakers: ABC Bakers and Little Brownie Bakers, and on www.pinterest.com/GSUSA. For a list of specific cookie ingredients go to Meet the Cookies.

If you’ve ever wondered why your cookie may be called Shortbread instead of Trefoil, it’s because the two bakers call them different names. The cookies have a similar look and taste but the name and recipe vary with the baker. Both companies call their chocolate-mint cookie, Thin Mint. I guess you can’t mess with the gold standard!

The cookies, all of which are kosher, are sold by weight, not quantity. The size and number of cookies in the package varies with the baker, but are displayed on every package. The cookies are sold for different prices in different areas of the country with each of the 112 Girl Scout councils setting their own price based on its needs and its familiarity with the local market.

Get 25 easy to use calorie saving tips from the newest issue of my digital magazine. You can download it from iTunes or Google Play.

Will Your Chocolate Bar Keep You Awake?

February 25, 2015 By Penny Klatell, PhD, RN Leave a Comment

Do you hit the chocolate at night, or maybe mid-afternoon? Does your chocolate nibbling follow a chocolate dessert from earlier in the day, or a hot chocolate, or some samples of chocolate candy? And perhaps all of that chocolate indulgence is washed down by a couple (or more) cups of coffee.

It gets to be bedtime and sleep is downright elusive. You wonder why you’re wide awake since you’ve been on the go all day.

Here’s a possibility – your sleeplessness might, in part, be due to all of the caffeine not just in your coffee (or tea) but in your chocolate, too. There isn’t a huge amount of caffeine in chocolate, but perhaps enough – especially if you’re a chocoholic or caffeine sensitive – to help tip the insomnia scales when it’s combined with a day’s worth of other caffeinated food and drinks.

Caffeine and Chocolate

Chocolate – the darker the better – might have some health benefits. But here are a few facts about chocolate that most people don’t know:

Chocolate contains caffeine, not enough to give you a big time boost, but depending on the type of chocolate, enough to register — especially if you’re working your way through some of those oversized bars or you’re stuffing in a bunch of fun-sized bars or chocolate Easter eggs.
Usually, the darker the chocolate, the more caffeine it has. Unsweetened or semi-sweetchocolate has about 5-10mg of caffeine per ounce of chocolate. Milk chocolate generally has 5mg or less of caffeine per ounce.
It would take about 14 regularly sized (1.5 ounce) bars of milk chocolate to give you the same amount of caffeine that you’d get from an 8-ounce cup of coffee. Along with that little caffeine buzz you’d also be shoving in about 3,000 calories and more than 300 grams of sugar. If you’re looking for caffeine, coffee seems like a better bet at about two calories for an 8-ounce cup (black, no sugar).
Dark chocolate has a higher caffeine content than milk chocolate but it would still take four regular sized bars to get the same amount that you’d find in one cup of black coffee.

Something To Think About

If you have trouble sleeping, along with avoiding coffee before bed, you might want to take note of the amount of chocolate you’re eating.

Something else to think about: getting kids (and some adults) to sleep on Halloween, Easter, and other chocolate heavy holidays might have a whole lot to do with both the sugar and the amount of caffeine in all of the chocolate candy.

The Amount of Caffeine in Beverages and Chocolate

Caffeine In Chocolate

Hershey’s Milk Chocolate Bar, 1bar/1.55 ounces: 9 mg caffeine

Hershey’s Special Dark Chocolate Bar, 1 bar/1.45 ounces: 20 mg caffeine

Hershey’s Kisses, 9 pieces: 9 mg caffeine

Hershey’s Special Dark Kisses, 9 pieces: 20 mg caffeine

Scharffen Berger Milk 41% Cacao, ½ bar: 17 mg caffeine

Scharffen Berger Extra Dark 82% Cacao, ½ bar: 42 mg caffeine

Dagoba Milk Chocolate 37% Cacao, ½ bar: 9 mg caffeine

Dagoba Dark Chocolate 73% Cacao, ½ bar: 36 mg caffeine

Caffeine In Coffee

Coffee, generic brewed, 8 ounces: 133 mg caffeine (range: 102-200; 16 ounces, 266 mg caffeine)

Dunkin’ Donuts regular coffee, 16 ounces: 206 mg caffeine

Starbucks Brewed Coffee (Grande), 16 ounces: 320 mg caffeine

Coffee, generic instant, 8 ounces: 93 mg caffeine (range 27-173)

Espresso, generic, 1 ounce: 40 mg caffeine (range 30-90)

Starbucks Espresso, solo, 1 ounce: 75 mg caffeine

Coffee, generic decaffeinated, 8 ounce: 5 mg caffeine (range 3-12)

Caffeine in Non-Coffee Beverages

Tea, brewed, 8 ounces: 40 – 60 mg
Green tea, 8 ounces: 15 mg
Hot cocoa, 8 ounces: 14 mg caffeine
Chocolate Milk, 8 ounces: 5 mg caffeine
Red Bull, 8.2 ounces: 80 mg
Mountain Dew, 12 ounces: 55 mg caffeine
Pepsi-Cola, 12 ounces: 37.5 mg caffeine
Classic Coco Cola, 12 ounces, 34 mg caffeiene
Snapple flavored tea, 12 ounces: 31.5 mg caffeine

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What Will You Eat On Super Bowl Sunday?

January 27, 2015 By Penny Klatell, PhD, RN Leave a Comment

It’s amazing how food has become associated with football — from tailgating to Super Bowl parties to the selection of food sold in stadiums. Where there’s football there also seems to be many opportunities to eat, often mindlessly.

Even when you’re surrounded by a smorgasbord of highly caloric, fatty, salty, and sweet foods there are plenty of opportunities for eating deliciously well if you are a bit more mindful about your choices.

Some common Super Bowl foods:

Tostada with guacamole: 2 pieces (9.3 oz), 360 calories, 23g fat, 32g carbs, 12g protein
Salsa: 1 tablespoon 4 calories, .04g fat, 1g carbs, .2g protein
Nacho flavored tortilla chips, reduced fat: 1 oz, 126 calories, 4g fat, 20g carbs, 2g protein
Regular Nacho flavored tortilla chips: 1oz, 141 calories, 7g fat, 18g carbs, 1g protein
Potato chips: 1oz, 152 calories, 10g fat, 15g carbs, 2g protein
Potato chips, reduced fat: 1 oz, 134 calories, 6g fat, 19g carbs, 2g protein
Raw baby carrots: 1 medium, 4 calories, 0 fat, .8g carbs, 0 protein
Pizza with cheese: 1 slice (1/8 of a 12” pie), 140 calories, 3g fat, 20g carbs, 8g protein
Pizza, pepperoni: 1 slice (1/8 12” pie), 181 calories, 7g fat, 20g carbs, 10g protein
Grilled chicken breast: one 4.2 oz breast, 180 calories, 4g fat, 0 carbs, 35g protein
KFC Fiery hot Buffalo wing: one 1oz wing, 80 calories, 5g fat, g carbs, 4g protein
KFC extra crispy drumstick: one 2oz piece, 150 calories, 6g carbs, 11g protein
Chili (Wendy’s, with saltine crackers): 8 oz, 187 calories, 6g fat, 19g carbs, 14g protein
Wheat bread: 1 slice, .9 oz., 65 calories, 1g fat,, 12g carbs, 2g protein
Italian combo on ciabatta (Panera): 1 sandwich, 1lb. 7 oz, 1050 calories, 47g fat, 94g carbs, 61g protein
Subway 6g of fat or less turkey breast & ham on wheat sandwich: 8.3oz, 296 calories, 4g fat, 48g carbs, 19g protein
Chocolate chip cookie: 2-1/4” from refrigerated dough. 59 calories, 3g fat, 8g carbs, .6g protein
Chocolate ice cream, Cold Stone Creamery: 5oz (like it), 326 calories, 20g fat, 33g carbs, 5g protein
Apple: medium, 95 calories, .4g fat, 25g carbs, .5g protein

If You Want To Save Some Calories …

Stick with grilled meat, veggies, or baked chips rather than fried. Turkey, baked ham, and grilled chicken are better choices than wings and fried chicken.
Plain bread, pitas, or wraps are less caloric than biscuits or cornbread.
Go for salsa and skip the guacamole. Guacamole is made with healthy avocados, but is quite high in calories. You can always alternate guacamole and salsa, too.
Minimize calories by dipping chicken wings into hot sauce instead of Buffalo or Blue Cheese sauce.
Try using celery for crunch and as a dipper instead of chips.

Go for thin crust rather than thick doughy crust pizza. Choose the slices with vegetables, not pepperoni or meatballs. If you’re not embarrassed, try blotting up the free-floating oil that sits on top of a greasy slice (soak up even a teaspoon of oil saves you 40 calories and 5 grams of fat).

Cut your slice of pizza in half. When you go back for seconds, eat the second half. You’ll feel like you’re eating two slices, but you’re eating only one.
Try fruit for dessert – or have just one cookie or a small piece of pie – leave some of the crust on your plate. Home made pie crust has around 150 calories (single crust pie), so leaving some pie crust on your plate can save you some significant calories.

Alcohol adds calories and dulls your mindful eating. Try alternating water or diet soda with beer or alcohol. That can decrease your alcohol calories (alcohol has 7 calories/gram) by 50%.
Put your food on a plate rather than constantly picking, it’s a form of portion control. And step back from the buffet. If you can’t reach out and grab it and you can’t see it, you won’t eat it.

Super Bowl: A Big Game And Lots Of Food

January 25, 2015 By Penny Klatell, PhD, RN Leave a Comment

Even though professional football — as we know it – has been around since 1920, the first Super Bowl, the annual championship of the National Football League (NFL), was held in January 1967.

Although not an official holiday, Super Bowl Sunday certainly has assumed the trappings of a holiday both in the US and in many expat communities. It is the most watched annual television program in the US and ranks second (Thanksgiving is first) as the day for most food consumption. Over 20 million Americans attend Super Bowl parties and half of all Americans say they would rather go to a Super Bowl party than to a New Year’s Eve party.

It’s amazing how food has become associated with football — from tailgating to the food for the game. There are plenty of choices and you can eat well — and even have room for some indulgence — if you have a plan and don’t get sidetracked by the array of very caloric and usually very fatty foods.

Think of all the hand to mouth munching on chips, dips, and wings; a swig or two or three; a cookie here and there. And then there’s the “real food” at halftime – or maybe there was pizza first followed by a selection of subs. By the end of the game do you have a clue about how much – or even what — you have popped into your mouth?

Super Bowl Food Facts

About one in twenty (9 million) Americans watch the game at a restaurant or a bar.
Americans double their average daily consumption of snacks on Super Bowl Sunday, downing more than 33 million pounds in one day.
The average Super Bowl watcher consumes 1,200 calories. Potato chips are the favorite and account for 27 billion calories and 1.8 billion fat grams — the same as 4 million pounds of fat or equal to the weight of 13,000 NFL offensive linemen at 300 pounds each.
Nearly one in eight (13%) Americans order takeout/delivery food for the Super Bowl. The most popular choices are pizza (58%), chicken wings (50%), and subs/sandwiches (20%). Almost 70% of Super Bowl watchers eat a slice (or two or three) during the game.
The amount of chicken wings eaten clocks in at 90 million pounds or 450 million individual wings. It would take 19 chicken breasts to get the same amount of fat that you usually get from a dozen Buffalo wings.
On Super Bowl Sunday Americans eat an estimated 14,500 tons of potato chips, 4000 tons of tortilla chips, and eight million pounds of avocados. Five ounces of nacho cheese Doritos equals around 700 calories. You’d have to run the length of 123 football fields to burn them off. You’d have to eat 175 baby carrots or 700 celery sticks to get the same number of calories.
According to 7-eleven, sales of antacids increase by 20% on the day after Super Bowl.
Pizza restaurants love Super Bowl Sunday – it’s their busiest day of the year, according to the National Restaurant Association. Papa John’s, Pizza Hut, and Domino’s sell twice as many pies as they do on any other day. Domino’s expects to sell 11 million slices.
The Hass Avocado Board predicts that over Super Bowl weekend approximately100 million pounds of guacamole will be eaten – and approximately 14,500 tons of chips are used to scoop it up.
About 2 million cases of beer are sold every year for Super Bowl – which might explain why 6% of Americans call in sick for work the next day.