Eat Out Eat Well

Do You Eat Out As Much As The Average Person In The US?

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The average adult in the US eats 4.8 meals in restaurants each week.

An online survey of 4000 consumers’ behavior found:

  • The most popular restaurant meal is lunch
  • 2.6 lunch meals are eaten out, on average, each week
  • The lunch meals are both take-out and restaurant dining
  • 1.4 sit down dinners each week are in restaurants
  • 0.8 brunch or breakfast meals are eaten out each week

How People Label Their “Eating Out” Preferences

  • Nearly 50% of the people responding to the survey call themselves “meat lovers”
  • 22% have a “sweet tooth”
  • 19% call themselves “fast food junkies”
  • 18% call themselves “health nuts”
  • 5% are self-described “vegetarians or vegans”
  • 35% describe themselves as “experimental eaters”
  • 25% call themselves “foodies”
  • 11% refer to themselves as “locavores,” or lovers of local food

Takeaways

It’s important to remember that this is a survey of 4000 people – done online — which makes it a survey of people who spend time online, who are willing to take a survey, and who eat out quite a bit.

That said – it seems that a lot of people are eating out a lot of the time.  If you are, too, consider building eating out into an overall eating plan so that you can continue to eat out, eat well and healthfully, and still manage your weight.

Hippocrates, Medicine, And Food

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Hippocrates (born c. 460BC, died c. 377BC on the Greek island of Kos) is considered the father of medicine.  He spent his life proving that disease and healing were not acts of the Gods but rather physical phenomena that stem from natural causes — and that are potentially curable through observation, deduction, and treatment.

He took superstition out of healing and out of the hands of the priests and shamans — and put it into the hands of the people.

“Let Food Be Thy Medicine And Medicine Be Thy Food”

Hippocrates emphasized the importance of diet to health and to the body’s ability to restore itself.  He is famous for saying, “Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food,” a philosophy that is as pertinent and important today as it was thousands of years ago.

How Many Teaspoons Of Sugar Are In Raisins?

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Who hasn’t grabbed one of those small red boxes of raisins?  They’re a great portable snack – or are they?

Raisins are dried grapes.  The good news is that raisins are very low in saturated fat, cholesterol and sodium. They’re about 3.5% dietary fiber and 3% protein by weight.

The bad news is that a large portion of the calories in raisins comes from sugars.  By weight raisins range from about 67% to 72% sugars – mostly glucose and fructose.

Nutrition Info

A teeny mini box of raisins (.5 oz) has 42 calories, 0g fat, 11g carbs, and 0g protein.  This is the carb equivalent of about a little under 3 teaspoons of sugar.

A small box (1.5 oz) has 129 calories, 0g fat, 34g carbs, 1g protein.  This is the carb equivalent of around 8 and ½ teaspoons of sugar.

One serving of California raisins is ¼ cup and 130 calories and contains less than 2% of the Recommended Daily Intake (RDI) of Vitamins A and C and traces of thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, pantothenic, Vitamin B6, folate, Vitamin E, Vitamin K, and 81mg of iron.

Think About This

Raisins have a lot of good things going for them – but they’re very high in sugar.

Think of it this way: one teaspoon of granulated sugar equals 4 grams of sugar; 4 teaspoons of granulated sugar is equal to 16 grams of sugar; 8 teaspoons of sugar is equal to about 32 grams of sugar.

If you’re grabbing handfuls of raisins from the container to eat as a snack – or dumping an equally large handful on your cereal — you may be adding a lot more sugar and calories than you realize.

How Many Calories Are You Putting Into Your Coffee?

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How do you like your coffee?  Black, light and sweet, regular?

Coffee Calories Can Sneak Up On You

Black brewed coffee has around two calories in an eight ounce cup. Not a bad deal for a nice, hot beverage.

What a lot of us fail to realize is how many calories are in the stuff we put into our coffee.

Here’s Some Caloric Stats

Half and half; 2 tablespoons (1/8 cup):  40 calories

Whole milk; 2 tablespoons:  18 calories

2% (low fat) milk; 2 tablespoons:  14 calories

Non-fat milk; 2 tablespoons:  11 calories

Sugar; 1 teaspoon:  16 calories

What Do You Put Into Your Coffee?

How much milk or half and half do you put into your coffee?  We all do a freehand pour.  Try measuring how much you pour and you might be surprised.

How much sugar do you add?

How many times a day do you drink coffee?

Add This Up

Say you have three grande (Starbuck’s) – or large (Dunkin donuts) – size coffees a day.  Each is 20 ounces or 2.5 times the size of a traditional 8 ounce cup.

If you add 4 tablespoons of half and half and three teaspoons of sugar to each that’s:

  • 128 calories for the additives and around 5 calories for the coffee for a total of 133 calories for each grande/large cup of coffee.
  • Have three of those and that’s 399 calories a day of coffee your way.
  • Do that every day for a year and that’s the equivalent of 145,635 calories a year or 41.61 pounds (add a little over a tenth of a pound in a leap year)!

Of course not everyone will drink this amount of coffee with this amount of half and half and sugar.  But, it does make you stop and think about how many calories you really are putting into your coffee.

Will It Be Coleslaw Or French Fries With Your Sandwich?

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Everyone loves a “side” with their sandwich.  Here’s some approximate calories counts (portion sizes and contents always vary depending on who makes or serves them).  Which would you choose?

French fries (from frozen);10 pieces of 3½ to 4 inch deep fried strips: 249 calories; 13.38g fat; 29.27g carbs; 2.93g protein

French fries, deep fried; one medium fast food order:  427 calories; 22.8g fat; 50.25g carbs; 5.04g protein

Coleslaw with dressing; 1 cup:  269 calories; 23.64g fat; 14.08g carbs; 2.36g protein