Eat Out Eat Well

Rudolph Really Does Have A Red Glowing Nose!

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Poor Rudolph  —  he’s had to put up with all of those clown nose jokes over the years.

But wait — it turns out that scientists have determined that reindeer have more abundant blood vessels in their noses than humans. The British Medical Journal reports that a team of scientists and researchers used a hand-held video microscope to observe the nasal capillaries of reindeer as they ran on a treadmill. No joke!

The capillaries in reindeer noses are 25% thicker than those in human noses.  Those capillaries are critical for heating and cooling, delivering oxygen, and humidifying inhaled air so the hardworking reindeer noses don’t freeze. (The research does have potential human application).

The mystery of Rudolph’s red nose is a mystery no longer.  The explanation:  reindeer have a large number of red blood cells that flow through small nasal vessels – which makes reindeer noses glow.

Merry Christmas!

If Santa Claus Walked Instead of Rode In His Sleigh — How Many Calories Would He Burn?

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Even Santa has weight challenges – and he certainly has a lot of carb and calorie temptation with all of the cookies and milk left out for him! He uses a sleigh pulled by reindeer that lands him on the roof of each house he visits – so he doesn’t get much exercise just sliding down the chimney (tough with that belly and bag of presents). Should Santa change to walking for transport and eat healthier snacks?

On Christmas Eve, Santa visits an estimated 92 million households. Walking.about.com figures that if all households were evenly distributed across the earth, Santa would travel 0.78 miles between houses, for a total of 71,760,000 (71.8 million) miles.

Guessing Santa’s weight at 250 pounds and assuming that he’s a pretty fast walker – after all, he does have to get his deliveries done in one night – walking.about.com’s calorie counter estimates that he would burn 13 billion calories.

Would He Burn Off All That Milk And Cookies?

Two small cookies and a cup of skim milk (giving households the benefit of doubt about full fat dairy) clock in at about 200 calories. If Santa snacks at each of the 92 million households, that works out to a payday of 18.4 billion calories.

So, Santa would gain 1,529,350 pounds every Christmas Eve — even if he walked instead of rode in his sleigh. Walking, he’d have to circle the earth 1,183 times to burn off the extras.

What If Santa Snacked On Veggies Instead Of Cookies?

If Santa had a cup of carrot and celery sticks at each house rather than cookies and milk, Walking’s Calorie Calculator shows that he would have just 50 calories at each house — which adds up to 4.6 billion calories. Since he would burn off 13 billion calories by walking, he’d actually lose all of his weight and disappear.

Maybe the best idea for him would be a nice combination of veggies at most households and cookies and low fat milk every few households to keep him in caloric balance!

 

If holiday eating is on your mind, for some hints and tips get my book,  The Sensible Holiday Eating Guide: How To Enjoy Your Favorite Foods Without Gaining Weight, available from Amazon for your kindle or kindle reader.

 

Leftovers Will Defeat The Best Laid Diet Plans

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You open the fridge door right after the holiday party and what do you see?  Leftover pie, cake, stuffing, turkey, ham, potatoes, lasagna, pizza – you name it.

With all of that tempting stuff staring at you, how can you possibly not nibble away?

The best laid plans have been defeated by left over stuffing – or pie – or lasagna (in my house, it’s pastitsio rather than lasagna).

Don’t forget, nibbling during clean up counts as leftovers, too. Broken cookies, pieces of piecrust, and the last spoonfuls of stuffing haven’t magically lost their calories.

The Two Most Effective Things To Do

1.  The first most effective way to handle leftovers:  Get Them Out Of The House through whatever means you choose.  Here are some “getting them out of the house” options:

  • Send them home with your family and friends — right away – as they’re going out the door.  The longer the leftovers are in your kitchen, the greater the chance you’ll eat them.
  • Throw them out.  Some people might consider it a sin to throw food out.  You need to weigh what works best for you and your conscience – whether to keep the food and eat it or to let the garbage man take it away.  You could always feed some animals if you like, too.
  • Bring it to someone in need.  There must be a food pantry or shelter that would welcome some extra food. There are many people who would appreciate a meal that they are unable to provide for themselves and their families.
  • Take it to the office or send it along with someone to take to his or her office.  There always seem to be ravenous people in offices.  Just don’t eat someone else’s leftovers as you try to get rid of yours.

2.  If you just can’t bring yourself to get your leftovers out of the house: Hide The Stuff That Tempts You.  Out of sight, out of mind is really true. We all tend to eat more when it’s right in front of us.  Food we like – especially higher calorie sugary, fatty, and salty foods, which means many holiday foods —  trigger cravings and eating.

  • Keep the veggies in the front of the fridge and the chocolate pudding in the back.
  • If the food hasn’t made its exit immediately, package it up and store put it in the back of the fridge where you can’t see it at first glance (and might forget about it).
  • Freeze it – although freezing alone isn’t enough to deter some leftover hunters (frozen butter cookies still taste great). Shove the food all the way in the back of the freezer behind the frozen peas where you can’t see it and have to move things around to get at it. It will help.
  • If you’ve bought jumbo size packages of anything in anticipation of holiday company and still have some food left in the packages — put that excess away, too.  Put it somewhere inconvenient so you’ll have to work to get at it. Once again: out of sight and, hopefully, out of mind.  Put it far away, too.  We tend to be lazy so if you have to exert energy to get the food it may take some of the desire out of it.  So store the food in the basement or garage — someplace out of the kitchen.

In Case You Keep The Leftovers

Here are guidelines to help you avoid getting sick along with stuffed.

  • Remember:  2 Hours–2 Inches–4 Days
  • Food can stay unrefrigerated for a maximum of 2 hours from the time it is taken out of the oven and then placed in the refrigerator.
  • Refrigerate or freeze leftovers within 2 hours of cooking by any method — otherwise throw the leftover food away.
  • Leftover food should be stored at a maximum of 2 Inches of thickness so it cools quickly.
  • Food should spend a maximum of 4 days in the refrigerator–otherwise freeze it.
  • The exception to 4 days in the fridge: stuffing and gravy should be used within 2 days. Reheat solid leftovers to 165 degrees F and liquid leftovers to a rolling boil. Toss what you don’t finish.
  • Frozen leftover turkey, stuffing, and gravy should be used within one month.
  • To successfully freeze leftovers, package them properly using freezer wrap or freezer containers. Use heavy-duty aluminum foil, freezer paper, or freezer bags for best results and don’t leave any air space. Squeeze the excess air from the freezer bags. Without proper packaging, circulating air in the freezer can create freezer burn – those white dried-out patches on the surface of food that make it tough and tasteless.
  • Leave a one-inch headspace in containers with liquid and half an inch in containers filled with semi-solids.

Those big holiday meals are coming up!  For more hints and tips about holiday eating get my book,  The Sensible Holiday Eating Guide: How To Enjoy Your Favorite Foods Without Gaining Weight, available from Amazon for your kindle or kindle reader.

Can You Deal With One Fantastic Holiday Treat A Day?

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Peppermint candy and holiday chocolates at the receptionist’s desk.  Candy canes at the dry cleaners.  A rotating selection of Christmas cookies on just about everyone’s desk.  Happy holiday food gifts from grateful clients. Your neighbor’s specialty pie. And that doesn’t include the fantastic spreads at holiday parties and family events!

It’s All So Tempting

It‘s incredibly difficult not to nibble your way through the day when you have all of these treats tempting you at every turn. How many times do your senses need to be assaulted by the sight of sparkly cookies and the holiday scent of eggnog or spiced roasted nuts before your hand reaches out and the treat is popped into your mouth?

Be Realistic

It’s the holidays and even though some of these treats are a week’s worth of calories, by depriving yourself of them you’re denying yourself the tradition of celebrating with food.

Make the distinction between mindful indulgence in the spirit of celebration as opposed to mindless indulgence in the spirit of trying to taste everything or to soothe your psyche by eating.  The first is part of the nurturing, sharing, and communal spirit of eating, the latter is an element of emotional and over eating.

Nix The Restrictive Thinking

Creating a restrictive mentality by denying yourself a treat that’s always been part of your holiday celebration means it’s just a matter of time until you start an eating fest that only ends when there’s no more left to taste. Think of this:  what would it be like to swear that you won’t eat a single Christmas cookie when those cookies have been a part of your Christmas since you were a little kid and you baked them with your Mom?

Pick One – And Make It Special

You know that you are going to indulge.  Pick your treat, limit it to one, and enjoy it. To help control the temptation, decide early in the day what your treat will be and stick with your decision. If you wait until later in the day when all the food is right in front of you and you’re hungry and tired, you’ll find that your resolve is not quite as strong!

Just remember that the added treats are added calories – on top of what your body already needs.  And, those treats are often forgotten calories – until you try to snap your jeans.  So remember to figure the treats into the overall scheme of things.

Of course, if you don’t want to indulge on any given day – no one is forcing you.  In the world of caloric checks and balances, that’s money in the band.

Make an informed choice, too.  Being informed doesn’t deprive you of deliciousness, but does arm you with an element of control.  If you know the calorie count of certain foods, you can make the best choice.  For instance, perhaps you enjoy both wine and eggnog.  If you know that one cup of eggnog has around 343 calories and 19 grams of fat and a five ounce glass of red wine has around 125 calories and no fat – which would you choose?

For more hints and tips about holiday eating get my book,  The Sensible Holiday Eating Guide: How To Enjoy Your Favorite Foods Without Gaining Weight, available from Amazon for your kindle or kindle reader.

 

It’s A Celebration: How Many Calories Will You Be Drinking?

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Are you indulging in celebratory cheer? Toasting to the New Year?

Just a heads up: all of those drinks can really pack a caloric punch.  So, just like drinking wisely (and of course, not driving), don’t forget to factor in all those calories.

16% Of Calories?

The CDC released a report showing that adults in the US take in, on average, almost 100 calories a day from alcoholic beverages:  around 150 calories for men and a little over 50 calories for women.

On any given day, 33% of men and 18% of women get some of their calories from alcoholic beverages and of those who drink, almost 20% of men and 6% of women get more than 300 of their calories.  That’s equal to 2 or more 12 ounce beers, more than 2 and 1/2 glasses of wine (12.5 oz), or more than 4 and 1/2 ounces of spirits.

Of the people who drink, on any day they’re drinking they get approximately 16% of their total calories from alcoholic beverages – the same percentage of overall calories that children in the US get from added sugars.

A standard drink is 1.5 ounces of hard liquor, 5 ounces of wine, or 12 ounces of beer.  Think about that when someone pours with a heavy hand.  Odds are that five ounces of wine is far less than what you might pour into your glass and in most cases it’s hard to judge the amount of alcohol in eggnog or punch.

A Sampling Of Calories In Holiday Cheer

Alcohol has 7 calories a gram. Because alcohol doesn’t register as “food” in your GI tract or your brain, it doesn’t fill you up the way food would. Consequently, you can drink a lot and still not feel stuffed (perhaps drunk, but not stuffed). Alcohol also lowers your inhibitions; your resolve to not eat everything in sight often flies right out the window.

  • 12 ounces of beer has 153 calories and 13.9 grams of alcohol
  • 12 ounces of lite beer has 103 calories and 11 grams of alcohol
  • 5 ounces red wine has 125 calories and 15.6 grams of alcohol
  • 5 ounces of white wine has 121 calories and 15.1 grams of alcohol
  • 1 1/2 ounces (a jigger) of 80 proof (40% alcohol) liquor has 97 calories and 14 grams of alcohol
  • Drinking light beer rather than regular saves about 50 calories a bottle
  • A frozen margarita has about 45 calories an ounce
  • A plain martini, no olives or lemon twist, has about 61 calories an ounce
  • An 8 oz white Russian made with light cream has 715 calories
  • An 8 oz cup of eggnog has about 343 calories and 19 grams of fat thanks to alcohol, heavy cream, eggs, and sugar
  • Mulled wine, a combination of red wine, sugar/honey, spices, orange and lemon peel, has about 210 to 300 calories per 5 ounces, depending on how much sweetener is added
  • One cup (8 oz) of apple cider – without any additives – has 115 calories
  • A mixed drink runs about 250 calories.  Watch your mixers — per ounce club soda has no calories, tonic has10, classic coke has 12, Canada Dry ginger ale has 11, orange juice has 15, and cranberry juice has 16
  • One hot buttered rum has 218 calories
  • One Irish coffee has 218 calories
  • One cup of coffee with cream and sugar runs at least 50 calories (more if it’s sweet and light)
  • 1 glass cider or sparkling grape juice has 120 calories
  • Champagne is a comparative caloric bargain at about 19 calories an ounce

For more hints and tips for handling celebrations get my book,  The Sensible Holiday Eating Guide: How To Enjoy Your Favorite Foods Without Gaining Weight, available from Amazon for your kindle or kindle reader.

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