Eat Out Eat Well

Do You Make 2, 20, Or 200 Food Decisions Every Day?

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Questions and Decisions

How many times a day do you think about food?  How many times a day do you make a food choice? How do your environment and surroundings influence those decisions?

People grossly underestimate how many daily food related decisions they make – not by a little but by an average of more than 221 decisions.

And, most people are either unaware of how their environment influences their decisions — or they’re unwilling to acknowledge it.

Who, What, Where, When, And How Much

In one study The Cornell Food and Brand Lab asked 139 people to estimate how many decisions they make about food and beverages during one day. Then they were specifically asked how many “who, what, where, when, and how much” decisions they made for a typical snack, beverage, and meal – and how many meals, snacks, and beverages they ate during a typical date.

14.4 VS. 226.7 Decisions

The researchers then created an index to help them estimate the number of total decisions made daily. On average, people guessed they made 14.4 food related decisions each day. Amazingly, the researchers estimated that the average person in the study made 226.7 food related decisions each day. Obese people who participated in the study made 100+ more food related decisions than overweight people.

Bowls, Plates, And Packages

Another study of 379 people analyzed the effect of environmental factors like package size, serving bowl size, and plate size on how much they ate. Half of the people were assigned to what was called “exaggerated treatment” – they had larger packages, bowls, and plates than the other half of the people in the study. On average, 73% of the people who received “exaggerated treatment” thought they ate as much as they normally would – except they actually ate 31% more than the people who ate from the regular size packages, plates, and bowls.

When they were told how much more they ate and then were asked why they thought they might have eaten more:

  • 8% admitted they might have eaten more
  • 21% said they didn’t eat more
  • 69% said that if they did eat more it was because they were hungry
  • Only 4% believed they had eaten more because of the larger sizes that acted as environmental cues.

Of the 200+ food related decisions you make each day, how many of them are heavily influenced by environmental factors like the size of food packaging and the bowls and plates you use for your food?

Can you save yourself some calories by paying attention to your food choices and decisions and by “sizing down” your bowls and plates?

Is It Coffee Or Chocolate That’s Keeping You Awake?

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Coffee or chocolate?
Coffee or chocolate?

You’ve finished dinner – perhaps you’re stuffed to the gills – and some chocolate along with the check.  It could be those squares nicely wrapped in shiny foil or it could be some chunks of the really dark stuff artfully arranged on a plate.

Somehow there magically seems to be some room for the chocolate to fit in your already full belly. And, just maybe, this chocolate follows a chocolate dessert that tasted so fantastic that you wanted to lick the bowl. All of that was washed down by a wonderful cup of coffee.

Then you get home and sleep is just downright elusive.  You wonder why you’re wide awake since you’ve been on the go all day.

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

Caffeine And Chocolate

Here are a couple of facts about chocolate and caffeine 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 a little kid stuffing in a bunch of fun-sized bars.

It would take about 14 regularly sized (1.5 oz) 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 more caffeine content than milk chocolate. But it would still take four regularly sized bars to get the same amount that you’d find in one cup of black coffee.

Something To Think About

The next time you find yourself reaching for those foil wrapped chocolate squares after dinner (or the ones placed on your pillow in some hotels) you might consider the caffeine if you want a restful sleep.

It’s also worth it to remember that 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 the chocolate candy.

Caffeine In Chocolate

  • Hershey’s Milk Chocolate Bar, 1bar/1.55 oz:  9 mg caffeine
  • Hershey’s Special Dark Chocolate Bar, 1 bar/1.45 oz:  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 oz: 133 mg caffeine (range: 102-200; 16 oz, 266 mg caffeine)
  • Dunkin’ Donuts regular coffee, 16 oz:  206 mg caffeine
  • Starbucks Brewed Coffee (Grande), 16 oz:  320 mg caffeine
  • Coffee, generic instant, 8 oz:  93 mg caffeine (range 27-173)
  • Espresso, generic, 1 oz:  40 mg caffeine (range 30-90)
  • Starbucks Espresso, solo, 1 oz:  75 mg caffeine
  • Coffee, generic decaffeinated, 8 oz:  5 mg caffeine (range 3-12)

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Jelly Beans: Do You Eat Them By The Handful Or One-By-One?

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Jelly beans: do you think they should they should come with a warning label, “STOP NOW or you’ll keep eating until they’re gone?”

Seriously – it’s pretty darn hard not to love those little nuggets of sweetness that come in multitudes of colors and flavors and get stuck in your teeth!

The Birth Of The Jelly Bean

The gummy insides of the jelly bean might be traced back centuries ago to the treat, Turkish Delight. Their outsides bring to mind the colored hard candy coating, developed in the late 17th century, for the Jordan almond.

The modern jelly bean became popular during the American Civil War when Boston’s William Schraft encouraged sending candy to Union soldiers.

Jelly beans were the first bulk candy.  They became one of the staples of penny candy that was sold by weight in the early 1900s —

first mentioned in an ad in The Chicago Daily News on July 5, 1905 for bulk jelly beans at nine cents a pound.

Around 1930 they became popular as Easter candy because of their egg shape, which represents spring, fertility, and resurrection.

The Many Flavors And Colors Of Jellybeans

Standard jelly beans come in fruit flavors but there’s a huge number of flavors available — some goofy, some sophisticated — like spiced, mint, gourmet, tropical, popcorn, bubble gum, pepper, and cola.  They also come in a sugar free version (seems weird, but true).

Whatever your flavor preference, Americans eat a whole lot of jelly beans – around 16 billion at Easter — enough to circle the globe nearly three times if all the Easter jellybeans were lined up end to end.

Handfuls Or One By One, And What Flavor?

Do you go for handfuls at a time or pick and choose your colors and eat them one by one?

  • 70% of kids ages 6–11 prefer to eat Easter jellybeans one at a time
  • 23% say they eat several at once
  • Boys (29%) are more likely to eat a handful than girls (18%)
  • Kids say their favorite Easter jellybean flavors are cherry (20%), strawberry (12%), grape (10%), lime (7%), and blueberry (6%).

What’s In The Hard Shelled Nugget Of Sweetness?

Jelly beans are primarily made of sugar and also usually contain gelatin (Jelly Bellies don’t), corn syrup, modified food starch, and less than 0.5% of citric acid, sodium citrate, artificial flavors, confectioners glaze, pectin, carnauba wax, white mineral oil, magnesium hydroxide, and artificial colors (takes some of the fun out of them, doesn’t it?).

Even though they may give you Technicolor insides, they are fat free.  On average:

  • 10 small jelly beans (11g) have 41 calories, no fat, no cholesterol, no protein, and 10.3 grams of carbs
  • 10 large jelly beans (1oz or 28g) have 105 calories, no fat, no cholesterol, no protein, and 26.2g carbs
  • Jelly Bellies have 4 calories in each bean, or about 100 calories in a single serving (25 beans)
with approximately 1 gram of carbohydrate per bean and no fat.

Jelly Belly Jelly Beans

  • Jelly Bellies were invented in 1976. They were the first jelly beans to be sold in single flavors and to come with a menu of flavor choices.
  • It takes 7 to 21 days to make a single Jelly Belly jelly bean.
  • Very Cherry was the most popular Jelly Belly flavor for two decades until 1998, when Buttered Popcorn took over. Very Cherry moved back into the top spot by only 8 million beans in 2003.
  • Some jelly beans do contain gelatin, Jelly Bellies don’t and, according to the Jelly Belly website, are suitable for vegetarians although strict vegans may have issues with the beeswax and shellac that used to give them their final buff and polish.
  • Jelly Belly doesn’t use wheat, rye, barley, or oats in the basic recipe for Jelly Belly jelly beans but does use cornstarch as the modified food starch.
  • Jelly Belly beans have been certified kosher for the last two decades by the Kashrut supervision of KO Kosher Service.  Since 2007 all Jelly Belly products have been certified by the Orthodox Union.
  • Also Kosher: Teene Beanee Jelly Beans and Just Born Jelly Beans are Pareve and OU.

Easter Candy Tally

Eating 25 small jelly beans, 5 Peeps, a 1 3/4 ounce hollow chocolate bunny, and 1 Cadbury Creme Egg, which is not an unusual amount of Easter candy, tallies 730 calories.

You’d need to walk 7.3 miles, 11.77 kilometers, or 14600 steps, assuming you cover one mile in 2,000 steps to walk off that number of calories.  Sounds like a lot, but very doable over a few days.


Where’s My PEEPS?

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Do you have a thing for those fluorescent marshmallow bunnies and chicks that were hatched over 50 years ago? They got their name – PEEPS — because they were originally modeled after the yellow chick.  Now they’re made for Christmas, Halloween, and Valentine’s Day, too  — so you can get them in yellow pink, blue, lavender, orange, and green shapes that represent the different holidays. They come chocolate dipped, too.

PEEPS continue to be the subject of lots of design contests (you’d be amazed what you can make out of peeps) and scientific experiments (some claim them to be indestructible). Just Born, the parent company of PEEPS, claims to produce enough PEEPS in one year to circle the Earth twice. Their website even boasts a fan club and a section for recipes.

Do You Like Your PEEPS Soft Or Crunchy?

People have definite PEEPS preferences. Some like them nice and soft, others like to leave them out in the air to age to perfection so they get a little crunchy on the outside.

They’ve been microwaved (careful, they expand and can really make a mess in your microwave), frozen, roasted, used to top hot chocolate, and added to recipes. But they don’t toast well on sticks like regular marshmallows because their outer sugar coating tends to burn.

Millions of Peeps

During the Easter season Americans buy more than 700 million PEEPS that are shaped like chicks, bunnies and eggs although the iconic yellow PEEP is still the most popular choice.

As many as 4.2 million PEEPS can be made daily.  In 1953 it took 27 hours to create a PEEP.  It takes six minutes today.

Newspapers have been known to run contests for best PEEP recipes and best PEEP pictures, and, in a world of contrasts I’ve spotted a blackboards outside of bars in NYC advertising PEEP contests and a kids’ stores using boxes and boxes of PEEPs for window decorations.

What’s In Them?

Send a PEEP for lab analysis and you’ll find sugar, corn syrup, gelatin, less than 0.5% of potassium sorbate, natural flavors, dye, and carnauba wax.  They’re gluten and nut free but are not Kosher.  (No wonder some claim that they’re indestructible!) You can even get sugar free PEEPS that are made with Splenda.

If PEEPS are part of your Easter ritual, even though they’re filled with sugar and all kinds of dyes and chemicals, for a seasonal treat, calorically you could do worse.

Five little chicks (42g, one serving size) will set you back 140 calories; 0g fat; 1g protein; and 36g carbs.

Easter Candy Tally

Eating 25 small jelly beans, 5 Peeps, a 1 3/4 ounce hollow chocolate bunny, and 1 Cadbury Creme Egg, which is not an unusual amount of Easter candy, tallies 730 calories.

You’d need to walk 7.3 miles, 11.77 kilometers, or 14600 steps, assuming you cover one mile in 2,000 steps to walk off that number of calories.  Sounds like a lot, but very doable over a few days.

 

Chocolate Eggs And Bunny Ears

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It’s time for pretty chocolate eggs nesting in baskets, bunnies and ducks in all shades of chocolate, and brightly wrapped candy stuffed in plastic eggs for Easter egg hunts.  Couple that with chocolate smeared over little kids’ faces and indestructible fluorescent peeps molded into weird shapes before they’re popped in your mouth.

It’s Easter candy time.  Admit it – Easter candy is seductive.  How can you not break off the chocolate bunny ears or eat your way through a basket of mini-chocolate Easter eggs?

If you’re going to indulge — and sometimes it’s worth it — you might as well know a little about your chocolate Easter candy.

Ninety million chocolate Easter bunnies are made every year.  76% of Americans think that chocolate bunnies should be eaten ears first, 5% think bunnies should be eaten feet first, and 4% like to eat the tail first. Despite the virtues of dark chocolate, 65% of adults prefer milk chocolate.

Easter Eggs – the Confectionary Type

Chocolate eggs can be found in all sizes and at every price point.  Some are piped with flowers and others are wrapped in foil.  You find them in chain stores, discount stores, and at high-end chocolatiers. Easter is ranked second for holiday for candy purchases in the US (just behind Halloween) and solid, hollow, and filled chocolate Easter eggs are one of the most popular choices.

Although John Cadbury made the first French Eating Chocolate in 1842, Cadbury Easter Eggs didn’t arrive until 1875. They’re a far cry from today’s Cadbury Crème egg (which now also comes with caramel, chocolate, and butterfinger fillings). Cadbury Dairy Milk Chocolate appeared on the market in 1905 and helped boost the sale of chocolate Easter eggs. Today’s chocolate Easter eggs are predominantly solid, hollow, decorated, and filled milk chocolate.

A Cheat Sheet For Popular Chocolate Easter Eggs (and a bunny)

As tough as it may be to admit, chocolate is a high calorie, high fat food.  Hershey says that nearly all of its chocolate products have been certified Kosher by the OU (Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregation). Here’s a cheat sheet for some of the most popular chocolate eggs:

  • Hershey’s Cadbury Chocolate Crème Easter Egg:  1 egg (39g), 180 calories, 8g Fat (5g saturated), 25g carbs, 2g protein
  • Hershey’s Cadbury Crème Egg, original milk chocolate with soft fondant crème center:  1 egg (39g), 170 calories, 6g fat (3.5g saturated), 28g carbs,  2g protein
  • Hershey’s Cadbury Mini Egg:  solid milk chocolate eggs with a crispy sugar shell: 12 eggs (40g), 200 calories, 9g fat(5g saturated), 28g carbs, 2g protein
  • Hershey’s Milk Chocolate Eggs:  7 pieces, 200 calories, 12g fat (7 saturated), 24g carbs, 3g protein
  • Dove Silky Smooth Milk Chocolate Eggs: 6 eggs, 240 calories, 14g fat (8g saturated), 26g carbs, 3g protein
  • Dove Rich Dark Chocolate Eggs:  6 eggs (43g), 220 calories, 14g fat (8 saturated), 26g carbs, 2g protein
  • Reese’s Milk Chocolate and Peanut Butter Eggs:  5 pieces (38g), 190 calories, 12g fat (6 saturated), 21g carbs, 4g protein
  • M & M’s Milk Chocolate Speck-Tacular Eggs: 1/4 cup (12 pieces): 210 calories, 10g fat (6 saturated), 29g carbs, 2g protein
  • Solid Milk Chocolate Easter Bunny:  2.5 oz, calories: average 370

But Isn’t Chocolate Good For Me?

The health benefits in chocolate come from cocoa. Dark chocolate has a greater concentration of cocoa than milk chocolate.  White chocolate, without any cocoa in it, isn’t really chocolate.

Chocolate, especially dark chocolate, can be heart healthy if it replaces an unhealthy, high calorie snack, but there’s still no recommended amount to eat to get the health benefits.

The Bottom Chocolate Line

Chocolate, especially dark chocolate, contains flavonols which have antioxidant qualities and other positive influences on heart health. Just remember that those delicious, pastel wrapped chocolate Easter eggs are caloric and moderately high in fat, one-third of it the type of saturated fat that isn’t heart healthy.

Extra ingredients like crème and caramel fillings can add lots of extra fat and calories. There’s no recommended serving size of chocolate to help gain cardiovascular benefits. If you’re going to choose a sweet treat, chocolate — especially dark chocolate with a high cocoa concentration — might be a healthier choice than other types of sweets.

Easter Candy Tally

Eating 25 small jelly beans, 5 Peeps, a 1 3/4 ounce hollow chocolate bunny, and 1 Cadbury Creme Egg, which is not an unusual amount of Easter candy, tallies 730 calories.

You’d need to walk 7.3 miles, 11.77 kilometers, or 14600 steps, assuming you cover one mile in 2,000 steps to walk off that number of calories.  Sounds like a lot, but very doable over a few days.

Up next: jelly beans and peeps.  What’s your favorite?