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Take Me Out To The Ballgame . . . And Let Me Eat For Nine Innings

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Batter Up

Baseball season is in full swing. If you’re going to be at a game – major league, minor league, or little league – it’s become almost a habit to chow down on the food being hawked by vendors or purchased from the food court.

Listed below are examples of some snacks and drinks common to baseball games.  You might be surprised at the calories in some of your favorites.

SocialDieter Tip:

To avoid the caloric onslaught you can:

  • Choose your food wisely
  • Avoid eating every inning
  • Bring some of your own snacks with you
  • Drink water or non-caloric drinks
  • Eat and/or drink “lite” versions (just be aware that some reduced or fat free foods have just as many calories as full fat varieties – fat has been replaced with sugars

Game Time Food and Drinks

Beer

Bottle of Budweiser:  144 calories, 12.8 carbs, 4.7% alcohol

Can of Bud Lite:  110 calories, 6.6 carbs, 4.2% alcohol

Bottle of Miller Lite:  96 calories, 3.2 carbs, 4.2% alcohol

Bottle of Miller MGD 64:  64 calories, 2.4 carbs, 2.8% alcohol

Non-alcoholic Drinks

Snapple Orangeade (16 oz):  200 calories, 52g sugars

San Pelligrino Limonata (11.15 fl oz can):  1

41 calories, 32g sugars

Perrier Citron Lemon Lime (22 oz bottle):  0 calories

Vitamin Water Focus Kiwi-Strawberry (20 oz bottle):  125 calories, 32.5g sugars

Hint Blackberry (16 oz bottle):  0 calories

Can of Coke (12 oz):  140 calories, 39g sugars

Bottle of 7Up (12 oz):  150 calories, 38g sugars

Gatorade G Orange (12 oz bottle):  80 calories, 21g sugars

Root beef float (large, 32 oz):  640 calories, 10g fat

Water (as much as you want):  0 calories

Snack Food

Fritos (28g, about 32 chips): 160 calories, 10g fat

Ruffles potato chips (28g, 12 chips):  160 calories, 10g fat

Rold Gold Pretzel sticks (28g, 48 pretzels):  100 calories, 0g fat

Smartfood White Cheddar Popcorn (28g, 1 ¾ cups):  160 calories, 10g fat

Cracker Jack (28g, ½ cup):  120 calories, 2g fat, 15g sugars

Curly fries (7 oz)  620 calories, 30g fat

Kettle corn (31/2 cups):  245 calories, 6g fat

Candy

Raisinets (1/4 cup):  190 calories, 8g fat, 27g sugars

Peanut m&m’s (about ¼ cup):  220 calories, 11g fat, 22g sugars

Snickers (1bar, 59g):  280 calories, 14g fat, 30g sugars

Large cotton candy:  170 calories, 0 fat

Ice Cream

Good Humor Chocolate Éclair (1 bar, 59g):  160 calories, 8g fat, 11g sugars

Fudgsicle Fudge Bar (1 bar, 64g):  100 calories, 2.5g fat, 13g sugars

Klondike The Original (1 sandwich, 81g):  250 calories, 17g fat, 18g sugars

Planter’s Dry Roasted Peanuts (1oz):  170 calories, 14g fat, 2g sugars

Blue Diamond Almonds (1oz):  170 calories, 14g fat 0 sugars

Planter’s Nut & Chocolate Trail Mix (1oz):  160 calories, 10g fat, 13g sugars

If It’s Low In Fat Does It Mean It’s Low in Calories?

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Does Low Fat = Low Calorie?

No, No, and No!


What Does Low Fat and Low Calorie Mean?

Here’s the FDA definitions:

  • Low Fat – 3 grams fat or less per serving
  • Reduced or Less Fat — at least 25% less fat per serving than the “regular” full-fat food
  • Fat Free – Less than 0.5 gram of fat per serving
  • Low Calorie – Less than 40 calories per serving
  • Calorie Free – Less than 5 calories per serving
  • Light — At least 50% less fat or 1/3 fewer calories per serving than the “regular” full-fat version

Check The Serving Size, The Fat Grams, And the Calories

Remember to check the serving size listed on the Nutrition Facts panel of your food. If the food comes without a label there are tons of online resources to check portion sizes and the nutrition facts. Here’s a muffin example:  the  package label on a box of muffins lists the fat content – for one muffin – as 20 grams.  If the fat content per muffin is reduced to 15 grams per muffin, the muffin can be called reduced fat but it is still has five times more fat (in grams) than the 3g per serving that fits the guidelines for low fat.

When The Fat Comes Out – What Goes In?

Mostly sugar. In a lot of low fat and fat free foods, sugar, flour, and other full calorie ingredients, replace the fat.  Consequently, there’s very little, if any, reduction in calories.

Check these out:


Peanut Butter, 2 tablespoons:

  • Regular: 190 calories, 16g fat
  • Reduced fat: 190 calories, 12g fat

Wheat Thins (16 crackers):

  • Regular:  150 calories, 6g fat
  • Low Fat Wheat Thins:  130 calories; 4g fat

Oreos (3 cookies):

  • Original:  160 calories, 7g fat
  • Low Fat Oreos: 150 calories, 4.5g fat

Fig Newtons (2 cookies):

  • Regular:  110, 2g fat
  • Fat free:  100 calories, 0g fat

Granola (1/2 cup):

  • Regular:  210 calories, 6g fat
  • Low fat granola:  160 calories, 2.2g fat

Tortilla Chips (1 oz.):

  • Regular:   141 calories, 7.3g fat
  • Light tortilla chips:  132 calories, 4.3g fat

SocialDieter Tip:

Just because a product says it’s low fat or fat free don’t go hog wild and eat it with no concern.  There often isn’t much of a caloric difference between a low or fat free version of a food and the regular version because the fat that’s taken out is usually replaced with some full calorie combination of sugar and starch.

Olive Oil Or Butter On Your Bread?

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Shiny Foil Packets Of Butter

It used to be only butter on bread – big slabs, small pots, or foil wrapped rectangles.  You can still find all of these – what would a diner be without those sometimes rock hard, sometimes soft and squishy, gold or silver foil wrapped butter packets?

Butter or Oil?

Butter has stiff competition from olive oil for bread sopping and dipping – as opposed to butter spreading.  Olive oil arrives green or golden, plain, herbed or spiced.  It can be just plopped down on your table, or poured with flourish from a dark tinted bottle.  Some restaurants offer a selection for dipping – and attempt to educate you about the variation in flavors depending upon the olives’ country of origin.

Hidden cameras in Italian restaurants showed that people who put olive oil on a piece of bread eat more fat and calories than if they use butter on their bread. But, the olive oil users end up eating fewer pieces of bread.

For the study, 341 restaurant goers were randomly given olive oil or blocks of butter with their bread. Following dinner, researchers calculated the amount of olive oil or butter and the amount of bread that was consumed.

How Much Butter, How Much Oil, How Much Bread?

Adult diners given olive oil for their bread used 26% more oil on each piece of bread compared to those who were given block butter, but they ended up eating 23% less bread in total.

The researchers found:

  • Olive oil users used 26% more olive oil on each slice of bread compared to block butter users (40 vs. 33 calories)
  • Olive oil users ate 23% less bread over the course of a meal than the people who used butter

The olive oil users had a heavier hand than the butter users – for individual slices of bread.  However, over the course of the meal when the total amount of bread and either oil or butter was accounted for, the olive oil users used more per slice, but, overall they ate less bread and oil over the course of the meal. They also took in 17% fewer bread calories:  264 calories (oil eaters) vs. 319 calories (butter eaters).

SocialDieter Tip:

Butter, oil, and bread all add significant calories to a meal. A tablespoon of olive oil has 119 calories, a tablespoon of butter has 102 calories, one pat of butter has around 36 calories.  Butter and oil are all fat; olive oil is loaded with heart healthy monounsaturated fat, butter is filled with heart unhealthy saturated fat.  Bread varies significantly in calories depending on the type of bread and the size of the piece.  Most white bread and French bread averages around 90 to 100 calories a slice. Most dinner rolls average 70 to 75 calories each. The bread and butter or olive oil pre-dinner (and maybe during dinner) ritual can be a real caloric bump for a meal, without much nutritional value.  So many of us chow down mindlessly on bread and butter or oil before a meal – because we’re hungry – or, because it’s there for easy nibbling.  Choose to eat it or don’t let the bread basket land on your table.  The choice is yours – just be mindful of the calories.

What The Heck Is The Difference Between Low Fat And Reduced Fat . . . and light, lean, and extra lean?

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The Signs Are Everywhere

How much time do you spend in the supermarket aisle confused by the labels on mayo — or yogurt — or milk?  Reduced fat, low fat, light, fat free, low in calories.  You need a spread sheet to sort out the calories and the nutritional stats.

The same thing is true on menus, in deli cases, and the little labels perched next to the choices in salad bars.  Are the calories in the low calorie tuna salad less than the calories in the reduced calorie?  Can you even believe those calligraphied labels behind the glass cases?

Check The List Of Ingredients

Most packaged food labels list ingredients in descending order by weight, not amount. The first ingredient listed has the greatest amount by weight, the last ingredient is the one with the least amount by weight.

Fatty Labels

Labels have to include the total amount of fat, saturated fat and unsaturated fat.  This carves the way for the low, reduced, and fat free categories.

  • Low fat means 3 grams of fat or less per serving (or per 100 grams of food)
  • Reduced fat means the food product contains 50% (or less) of the fat found in the regular version
  • Less fat means 25% or less fat than the comparison food
  • Fat free means the product has less than 0.5 grams of fat per serving, with no added fat or oil

Salty Labels

  • Reduced sodium means at least 75% less sodium
  • Low sodium means 140 milligrams of sodium or less per serving
  • Very low sodium means 35 milligrams of sodium or less per serving
  • Sodium free (salt free) means there is less than 5 milligrams of sodium per serving

Sweet Labels

  • Sugar free means there is less than 0.5 gram of sugar per serving
  • No sugar added means there’s no table sugar added but there may be other forms of sugar like dextrose, fructose, glucose, sucrose, maltose, or corn syrup

The Low down On Low, Light (Lite), Lean, and Reduced

  • A label that screams reduced calorie means there’s at least 25% fewer calories per serving than in the regular product
  • Low calorie means 40 calories or less per serving and less than 0.4 calories per gram of food
  • Light (fat) means 50% or less of the fat than in the regular version
  • Light (calories) means 1/3 fewer calories than the regular version
  • Lean means less than 10 grams of fat, 4.5 grams of saturated fat, and 95 mg of cholesterol in a 100 gram serving of meat, poultry or seafood
  • Extra lean means less than 5 grams of fat, 2 grams of saturated fat, and 95 mg of cholesterol in a 100 gram serving of meat, poultry or seafood

SocialDieter Tip:

Confused by the ins and outs of labeling?  Why shouldn’t you be – it’s downright confusing.  Try to be as savvy as possible. For instance, take the reduced fat label, which means a product contains at least 25% less fat than the original version. Unfortunately, this doesn’t mean that the reduced fat version is low fat. For instance, you buy what is labeled as a reduced fat muffin. If the fat content in the original full fat muffin is 30g, and the fat has been reduced to 15g, which, with a 50% reduction allows it to say it is reduced fat, the reduced fat muffin still has a fat content five times higher than the 3g of fat per serving that officially qualifies as low fat. The trick is to look carefully at the calorie count and fat breakdown on the nutrition label and note the numbers for each.  A check of the ingredients label will also give valuable information. Remember, these regulations are for packaged food, not prepared food like you find in salad bars and deli cases. Those foods may be labeled, but you are putting your trust in the preparer of the food to be approximately accurate (and truthful).  In New York City and other municipalities, fast and chain food outlets of a certain size must give caloric breakdowns.  The new Health Care Reform Act will require this nationwide for restaurants with more than 20 outlets.

Turn Your Nightmare Salad Into A Delicious Daydream

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If It Says Salad Does It Mean It’s Healthy?

Short answer:  No.  Maybe your salad is healthy and delicious, or maybe it’s just delicious and far from a healthy meal.

This is something I see all of the time:  You are in line at a buffet or waiting to order your meal in a cafeteria.  The person in front of you hems and haws over his or her choice – mumbling about trying to “be careful about calories.”  He or she then goes on to say, “Oh, I guess I’ll have a salad,” like it’s the best choice of “diet food” even though it’s not really what the belly and mind seem to be craving.

In the pursuit of cutting calories, the salad might be a far worse choice than, for example, a turkey or ham sandwich with mustard and veggies, or grilled chicken with veggies.

There are some very nice choices of healthy salads and there are some pretty bad choices, too.  In many cases you can do well or horribly in the same restaurant, depending on what you select to eat.

Here are some examples of fast/chain food salads — but remember that each is just one menu item.  In each restaurant you have plenty of other options.

Calorically Good To Reasonable Choices:

  • Panera Bread’s BBQ Chopped Chicken Salad, with mild BBQ sauce, no dressing (350 calories, 10g fat)
  • Wendy’s Chicken Caesar Salad with Grilled Chicken Fillet, with home-style garlic croutons (490 calories, 32g fat)
  • McDonald’s Premium Southwest Salad with Grilled Chicken, without Creamy Southwest dressing (320 calories)
  • Burger King’s Tendergrill Chicken Garden Salad with Ken’s Ranch Dressing (490 calories, 30g fat)

Then there’s the:  “how many calories, you’ve got to be kidding” salads.

  • Outback Queensland Salad with Bleu Cheese Dressing (1075.8 calories, 81.6g fat)
  • Cosi Signature Salad (130 calories, 45g fat)
  • Ruby Tuesday’s Southwestern Beef Salad (1139 calories, 81g fat)
  • Wendy’s Southwest Taco Salad (680 calories, 39g fat)
  • Olive Garden’s Grilled Chicken Caesar Salad, without Caesar dressing (850 calories, 64g fat)

SocialDieter Tips:

If you are putting together your own salad at a salad bar – or making your own at home – here are some tips to keep your salad healthy and delicious.

  • Dressings are not just decorative – they can be disastrous. If you have enough flavorful stuff in your salad, you may not even need dressing.  If you do, the creamy stuff usually is more caloric (you can always dilute it with vinegar).  Most vinegar has almost no calories so pour it on.  There are many choices of light or calorie free dressings.  Most places glop on dressing – you’d be surprised how little you need for taste. A dieter’s trick is to ask for dressing on the side and dip your fork into the dressing before you snare a mouthful of salad.
  • Mayonnaise has around 90 calories a tablespoon.  Think about how much goes into chicken or tuna salad.  Use light mayo, mustard, or low fat yogurt instead.
  • Go for reduced fat or fat free cheese instead of liberally sprinkling on the full fat stuff. ¼ cup of reduced fat (2%) shredded cheddar has 80 calories, 6g fat, 7g protein; fat free feta has  40 calories, 0g fat, 7g protein.
  • If you are going out to order a salad order from a place that has low fat dressing choices and lean proteins (grilled chicken, tuna without mayo).  You can always use only half a package of salad dressing instead of a whole one.
  • Lay off the croutons and wontons.  Sure, they’re crunchy, but you’re not getting anything nutritious from them.  Get your crunch from carrots, cucumbers, or a very light sprinkling of sunflower seeds or nuts (caloric but healthy).
  • Salads with dark green lettuce and colorful vegetables add more vitamins, minerals, and phytochemicals.
  • Make your salad more of a meal by adding lean proteins: poultry (grilled), seafood, a hardboiled egg, or beans. Add whole grains like brown rice or quinoa, without dressing, to really beef it up. Leftover lean proteins and veggies can be chopped up and added to salad the next day. Keep a supply of canned tuna, anchovies, and beans for quick calorie sparing protein additions.
  • Certain extras pile on calories.  You could have fries and a bacon cheeseburger for the same calories as a salad loaded with creamy dressing, shredded or crumbled cheese, bacon, avocado, mayonnaise salads, meat, nuts, and croutons. Instead, heap on tomatoes, asparagus, carrots, cabbage, broccoli, scallions, onions, mushrooms, peppers, cucumbers, arugula, spinach, and herbs. Olives add about 4 calories apiece – but, add an enormous amount of flavor and may help you forego dressing.
  • Check out the nutritional info before you order – and remember to add in the totals for dressing, croutons, and other “extras.”  Some municipalities currently require calorie counts to be posted in fast/chain food restaurants.  The new health care bill will require posting in fast/chain food restaurants with more than 20 outlets. Almost all chain restaurants list their nutritional stats online.