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Want Some Calories Saving Tips for the 2nd Biggest Food Day (US) of the Year?

January 28, 2014 By Penny Klatell, PhD, RN Leave a Comment

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. It’s Super Bowl!

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Super Bowl Sunday is the second biggest day for food consumption in the United States (Thanksgiving is first) — and usually the food doesn’t really fall into the healthy choice category.

You may – or may not – be riveted to the TV screen rooting hard for your team, but you may also be going along for the ride – happy to be at a party where there’s plenty of food and shouting and enthusiasm – a classic set-up for mindless and distracted eating. By the end of the game do you have a clue about how much – or even what — you have popped in 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. (Source: Calorie Control Council). 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. (Source: ScottsdaleWeightLoss.com).

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%). (Source: American Journal). 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.

Want Some Calorie Saving Tips?

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.
Minimize calories by dipping chicken wings into hot sauce instead of Buffalo sauce.
Try using celery for crunch and as a dipper instead of chips.
Try fruit for dessert.
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).
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%.

Love Pizza? Here’s 7 Ways To Cut Down On Pizza Calories

January 25, 2014 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:

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 and depth of the pies 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 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 your mouth starts to water at the thought of golden brown crust and cheesy goodness — here’s the downer: that luscious slice of pizza that 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 cheese go for big flavors like onion, garlic, olives but 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 100 calories from your meal. 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 (it’s easy to do this on the kind of hot slice where the oil runs down your arm when you pick it up) can soak up a teaspoon of oil worth 40 calories and 5 grams of fat.

Deep Dish, Hand Tossed, 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 difference in calories fort the various toppings.

Domino’s 14 inch large 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 large 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 large 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

Do You Eat Chips and Cookies Straight from the Package?

January 20, 2014 By Penny Klatell, PhD, RN Leave a Comment

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that the size of the package your food comes in influences how much you’ll eat. The larger the package, the more you tend to eat from it.

And, if you’re eating from the bag while you watch TV or work on the computer, it’s likely that as you mindlessly move your hand from bag to mouth you don’t realize how much you’re eating or whether you’re full of not. So you probably just keep eating until you get to the bottom of the bag – and then eat all of the crumbs, too.

It’s easier to stay away from chips and cookies if the bag isn’t in your line of sight – out of sight, out of mind.

If you do buy jumbo size packages because they’re cheaper, put the excess somewhere inconvenient so you’ll have to work to get at it –like the basement, garage, or a high shelf that you need a stepstool to access. If you have to work to get the food it might take some of the desire out of it.

Don’t eat straight from the package. Divide up the contents of one large package into several smaller portions. Put your portion in a bowl, on a plate, or even on a napkin. Count out your chips, crackers, and pretzels or only eat from a single portion size bag.

Who can stop when there’s an open bag of salty, crunchy food right in front of you? It’s amazingly easy to just keep until the bag is empty. A dive to the bottom of a 9 ounce bag of chips (without dip) is 1,260 calories. One serving, about 15 chips, is 140 calories.

And, leave the broken pieces of cookies or chips in the bag. Remarkably, pieces of cookies and broken chips have calories, too!

How Does Restaurant Decor Affect How Much You Eat?

January 14, 2014 By Penny Klatell, PhD, RN Leave a Comment

In most restaurants, the décor isn’t an accident — it’s intended to keep you seated at the table longer or to get you to eat and run.

Think about how long it takes you to gobble down a Big Mac or a shortstack of pancakes with bacon. The red and gold color schemes, noise levels, and general hustle and bustle in many diners and fast food restaurants encourage you to eat quickly – and allows the restaurant to “turn the tables,” or to get another group of people seated at the table you just vacated pretty quickly so they can serve more food and make more money. The white tablecloths, soft music or hushed sounds of fancier restaurants make it pleasant for you to linger longer — and order another glass of wine, dessert, coffee, and after dinner drink – from which the restaurant makes more money.

Watch your waistline, too. According to Brian Wansink, author of Mindless Eating and director of Cornell’s Food and brand Lab, the atmosphere of a restaurant can get you to overeat in two ways: if it’s really pleasant you want to stay longer — and therefore order and eat more. If it’s very brightly lit and possibly loud and irritating you usually gulp and run, probably overeating before you realize that you’re full.

Know your restaurant and its setting: think about pacing yourself in the speed environment and avoiding the temptation to keep ordering in the relaxed environment.

The Key Thing To Do To Develop A New Habit

January 9, 2014 By Penny Klatell, PhD, RN Leave a Comment

It’s the second week of the New Year. Maybe you’ve decided to work on some new habits – Lose weight (how are you going to do that?), cook at home more (when are you going to do that?), eat less bread, butter, ice cream, candy, you name it (how much less?).

Specificity and baby steps help move you toward your new habit – but something else is key, too: practice. Your brain needs to decide that this new habit, the new behavior, is its default. How does your brain get the message? By you performing – doing – that behavior over and over again.

Remember this: What gets you to Carnegie Hall (or to the podium, or to the awards ceremony)? Practice. Think about this: What makes your new healthy habit stick? Practice.

If you’ve resolved to form new healthy habits, habits you want to keep and that fit in with your lifestyle, you need to keep repeating the new behaviors for that habit over and over again. It’s like learning a language or a new game. You need to keep practicing.

Why? Our brains are lazy. They like to default to what’s easy for them – and usually that’s an old habit (both good ones and bad ones). That default behavior is easy, nice, comfortable, and doesn’t require the extra energy necessary to do something unfamiliar. Doing something that’s very familiar can be done without much thinking or energy — like eating a certain thing everyday at the same time or going for a daily run at the same time and on the same route.

The way to create a new habit and to make it “stick” is to create a new “default” pattern to replace an old one. That requires the repetitive practice of doing the same behavior over and over again – like creating a path through grass or weeds by walking on it day after day.

Some Additional Tips For Forming New Habits

Try one change at a time. Create one new habit and then begin to work on another. Since our brains are, in a sense, kind of lazy, they don’t like too much disruption or change at a time. They’re used to doing something one way, so pick one change at a time and create a habit around it.

Be committed and willing to work on your habit (goal). Decide if you’re really willing to make change(s) in your life. Are you serious or half-hearted about what you want to do? “Kinda,” “sorta” goals give you “kinda,” “sorta” results. Realistic, achievable goals produce realistic results.

Start small and specific. So many of us are guilty of all-or-nothing thinking and overly ambitious goals. Guess what happens? We shoot ourselves in our collective feet and call ourselves failures. Do it often enough and a “no can do” attitude gets solidly embedded. Aim for what you think you can do and keep doing it. That doesn’t mean not trying, it just means scale it to what you think you can accomplish with some effort. If, for example, your aim is to exercise more frequently, schedule three or four days a week at the gym instead of seven. If you would like to eat healthier, try replacing dessert with something else you enjoy, like fruit or yogurt or a very small portion of a favorite indulgence — instead of saying you’re going cold turkey and will never eat a dessert again.

Unhealthy habits develop over time. Working on healthy habits to replace unhealthy ones also requires time. Be patient. And practice.