Eat Out Eat Well

What Will You Eat On Super Bowl Sunday?

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What will you eat during theSuper Bowl?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

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SuperbowlGamedayFoodFacts

 

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.

Do You Sit In The Fat Or Skinny Area Of A Restaurant?

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Do you sit in the fat or skinny area of a restaurant?

Choose your seat carefully. According to Brian Wansink, Director of Cornell’s Food and Brand Lab, where you sit in a restaurant does have an effect on how much you eat!

Scratching your head yet?

After mapping the layout of 27 restaurants across the country and analyzing what and where customers ate, here are some general findings and recommendations from Wansink and his team:

  • Diners who sit the farthest from the door eat the fewest salads and they are 73% more likely to order dessert.
  • People who sit at darkly lit tables or in booths eat fattier foods.
  • Diners who sit within two tables from the bar, drink, on average, three more beers or mixed drinks (based on a table of four) than a group even one table farther away.
  • Diners order healthier foods when they sit by a window or in a well-lit area. Wansink speculates that seeing sunlight, people, or trees might make you think about how you look which, in turn, might make you think about walking — which could prompt you to order a salad.
  • People at uncomfortable high-top tables tend to choose salads and order fewer desserts, perhaps because it’s harder to slouch or spread out.
  • Conspicuous consumption, or eating in an area where other people can see you, seems to cut down on overeating. If it’s darker, Wansink thinks you might feel more “invisible.”  Since it’s not too easy to see how much you’re eating, you feel less conspicuous or guilty.
  • The “fat” table? Try near the TV screen. The closer you sit to the screen, the more fried food you’ll probably eat because you’re distracted and likely to order seconds and refills.

Some additional findings in Wansink’s book, Slim by Design:

  • Skinny people face away from the buffet when they eat.
  • Thinner people choose smaller plates.  It takes less food to fill up the plate causing you to eat smaller portions.
  • Diners sitting at high-top tables tend to order more fish and salads.
  • Diners at regular tables order more vegetarian entrees and more vegetable sides.
  • Diners at tables near the window have fewer drinks and have more side salads.
  • Diners at tables closer to the TV screen and the bar order more chicken wings and drinks.
  • Diners in booths order more ribs and desserts.

How Many Calories Do You Eat With Your Movie?

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Movie Calories

Have you ever walked into a movie theater and you’re immediately craving popcorn? Why not – we’ve been conditioned that hot, buttery, salty popcorn goes with a movie. And, there’s no escaping the smell of freshly popped (and sometimes not so freshly popped) corn and the (often annoying) sound of people around you scratching around in their popcorn buckets and crunching down on the buttery (oily) kernels.

Your senses are assaulted: start filling the bucket!  Doesn’t matter if it’s a coconut oil mix instead of butter sprayed into the bucket or that the naked popcorn (before the oil and salt) tastes like cardboard. The siren call of movie theater popcorn is often too strong to overcome.

I Don’t Care, I’m Going To Have It Anyway

There’s no way I would suggest that you – or I – should avoid movie theater popcorn and candy. But perhaps a compromise?

How about a small bag instead of a big bucket – water instead of a huge soda? Forget the combo deals and the upgrades – is it worth it to you to spend 50 cents more for a larger size and tons more calories? If Raisinets – or Goobers – or Milk Duds are your thing, the same is true – buy the smaller size or split it with a friend.

Some eyeopeners:

  • The size of popcorn buckets and soda varies significantly between theater chains. One theater’s medium tub of popcorn might hold 10 cups but another’s might hold up to 20. One chain’s medium soda can be 32 ounces but another’s is 44 ounces — one chain’s small soda might be 16 ounces but another’s is 32 ounces.
  • The average small movie popcorn with “buttery” topping has about 600 calories — about the same as a quarter-pound cheeseburger (550 calories). The average large movie popcorn with “buttery” topping has about 1,270 calories — about the same as two large pieces of fried chicken (800 calories), a cup of mashed potatoes (230), and a 16-ounce soda (200 calories).
  • A combo with a large soda (48 ounces) and a large popcorn with “buttery” topping has about 1,700 calories.
  • An average small movie soda (23 ounces) has about 14 teaspoons of sugar and a little over 200 calories. An average large movie soda (47 ounces) has about 30 teaspoons of sugar and around 450 calories.

FYI: Average Calories In Movie Theater Food

(Note the serving sizes, movie theater popcorn bags and buckets and boxes of candy are often huge and may be double or triple the size shown below.)

Popcorn, Nachos, Soft Pretzel

  • Buttered popcorn, small, 5 cups:  470 calories, 35g fat
  • Buttered popcorn, large, 20 cups:  1640 calories, 126g fat
  • Cheese nachos, large (4 oz):  1100 calories, 60g fat
  • Soft pretzel, large (5 oz):  480 calories, 5g fat

Soda and Lemonade

  • Coke, 18 ounces: 218 calories, 0g fat
  • Coke, 44 ounces:  534 calories, 0g fat
  • Minute Maid Lemonade, 18 ounces:  248 calories, 0g fat
  • Minute Maid Lemonade, 44 ounces:  605 calories, 0g 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