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calories

Is Your Salad A Nightmare?

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A Healthy Meal Or A Caloric Fat Fest?

It’s time for lunch or perhaps to pick up a bite for dinner on your way home.  It’s Monday after a weekend of a bit of overeating.  Time for something light and healthy.

How about a salad?  Here’s a chance for plenty of vegetables, other healthy stuff, and a chance to save some calories, too.  Yeah, right!!!  Think again and read on.

Wonderful Reasons To Have A Salad

There are a whole bunch of good reasons to chow down on a nice big salad.

  • It’s easy to make your own from the salad bar at the local market, to order one for delivery, or to rip open a bag of lettuce and plop a piece of grilled chicken on top.
  • The nutrient rich plant foods that make the base of a salad are high in antioxidants — especially the dark green and orange vegetables, and legumes.
  • Most of the vegetables are full of fiber – good for your cholesterol, your GI functioning, and as a way to feel fuller for a longer period of time.
  • Salads take a long time to eat – much longer than sandwiches or pizza that you can scarf down far more quickly.
  • Salads can look really appetizing and can cost very little (they can cost a lot, too, depending upon the add-ons).
  • Salads are a great way to recycle leftovers – just toss them in the mix.

Where’s The Nightmare?

Answer:  Hidden in the fatty and sneaky high caloric add-ons and dressing.

  • Generally, at least ¼ of a cup (frequently more) of dressing is added to a tossed salad. A ladle of creamy dressing has about 360 calories and 38g of fat (a cheeseburger’s worth).  Vinaigrette dressing, usually 3 parts oil to one part vinegar, adds its own fat blast.
  • Tuna, macaroni, and chicken salads, the holy grail of delis and salad bars, are loaded with mayonnaise, which of course, is loaded with fat.  On average (for a half cup):  chicken salad has 208 calories, 16g of fat; tuna salad  has 192 calories, 9g fat; tuna pasta salad has 397 calories, 9g fat; macaroni salad has 170 calories, 9g fat.
  • Cheese, please – or maybe not. For a 1/4 cup serving:  Shredded cheddar has 114 calories, 9g fat;  blue cheese has 80 calories, 6g fat;  feta has 75 calories, 6g fat.
  • Portions:  The calorie counts above are for ½ cup of salad, ¼ cup of cheese.  Those are pretty small portions.  Do you have that kind of restraint?
  • Croutons and Crispy Noodles: ¼ cup of plain croutons has 31 calories, 0g fat; 1 serving of  McDonald’s Butter Garlic Croutons  has 60 calories, 1g fat;  ¼ cup of crispy noodles has 74 calories, 4g fat
  • Dried cranberries: ¼ cup has 98 calories, 0g fat
  • Nuts and Seeds (1/4 cup): Sunflower seeds have 210 calories, 19g fat; chopped walnuts:  193 calories, 18g fat
  • Avocado (1/4 cup) have 58 calories, 5g fat
  • Bacon: 1 tablespoon of bacon bits has 25 calories, 2g fat
  • Bread (often used to sop up leftover dressing):  1 piece of French bread has  82 calories, 1g fat; 1 dinner roll has 78 calories, 2g fat
  • Dressing sopped up by the bread or roll:  lots of extra fat calories!

Should Salads Go On Your “Do Not Touch” List?

No way, absolutely not. The healthy stuff in salad tastes great, fills you up, and is good for you.  There are plenty of ways to cut down on the fatty and caloric add-ons and still end up with a really tasty meal.  There are even good choices in fast food and chain restaurants (and plenty of really, really bad ones).

SocialDieter Tip: don’t stop eating salad, just be aware of what add-ons and dressing can do.  Check my next post for some very helpful info on choosing and making salads and for the low down on a few fast and chain food “good” and “don’t even think about it” choices.

Can You Guess How Many Calories You Consume In A Day?

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How Many Calories Do You Eat In A Day?

If you don’t have a clue, you’re not alone.  A lot of us don’t know how to estimate the number of calories in a meal – and on top of that, according to a Cornell study, almost everyone consistently underestimates calories as the meal size gets larger.  Accuracy in estimating the number of calories we’ve eaten is determined by meal size, not the size of the person eating it.  The smaller the meal, the more accurate the estimation, the larger the meal and the more people eat, the less accurate they are in estimating the number of calories. To add insult to injury, Brian Wansink, author of the book, Mindless Eating, says, “When people are eating in a restaurant that they think is healthy, people grossly underestimate how much they eat by about 50 percent.” Ouch!!!

Posted Calorie Counts Go Big Time

The health care reform act (Public Law 111-148) contains a mandate for chain restaurants to list calorie counts on their menu boards and for calorie counts to be posted next to food sold in vending machines and in retail stores. Places with 20 or more nationwide locations have to post calorie counts “in a clear and conspicuous manner,” with “a succinct statement concerning suggested daily caloric intake.” The Nutrition Labeling and Education Act of 1990 required the nutrition labels that you are used to seeing on food packages purchased in markets. That law exempted restaurants, the new law doesn’t. Some cities and states already have local laws requiring posted calorie counts. New York City was the first to require chain restaurants with more than 15 outlets to post calorie counts on their menu boards.

What Will The Labeling Law Do (or hope to do)?

Perhaps the new law will make us aware of what we’re eating and the food providers aware of what they’re serving. Improved food choices and better portion control – and menu offerings – will go along way toward healthy eating and weight management.  Associating a calorie count with a portion size and meal type (big, greasy sandwiches do have lots of calories) will help educate both adults and kids.  Then, perhaps, consumers will put pressure on food vendors to offer healthier choices.

Is Calorie Counting Hard To Do?

With the right tools, calorie counting isn’t difficult — although accuracy can be a challenge.  There are all kinds of tools, too.  There’s an array of books listing calorie counts and nutrients.  There are tons of websites and phone apps that can do it for you with a minimum of effort.  All packaged foods are required to have food labels and many prepared foods do as well.  Posted calorie counts will be a big help.  The biggest challenge is guesstimating the calories in restaurant and prepared food that doesn’t come under the calorie posting requirement.  This requires guessing portion sizes – or pulling out scales and measures in a restaurant – and also guessing about a dish’s ingredients and how heavy the hand is of the person pouring the oil and greasing the griddle in the kitchen.  The key is to accurately and completely write or log the accurate amount of food when you eat– not at the end of the day when it’s tough to remember the random handful of bar nuts or the snagged candy from someone’s desk.

SocialDieter Tip:

In his blog, Weighty Matters, Dr. Yoni Freedhoff calls calories “the currency of weight.” Calories are the most important factor regardless of whether you want to maintain, gain, or lose weight.  You can’t see calories, or touch them, or feel them. A dish of food doesn’t sit there and say I have 549 calories in me. Instead, calories can be downright elusive. Counting calories is work – but work that can take a minimum of effort once you get the hang of it and in the habit of doing it.  We don’t eat all that many different kinds of food.  By measuring and learning portion sizes, then looking up calorie counts, you soon will be able to reel off the calorie counts of the food you eat all of the time. There are plenty of visual aids to help with portion eyeballing – eventually you get pretty good at it.  Like so many other things, habits play a big role in what you eat, where you eat it, and how much of it you eat.  Your brain is on your side, however – it likes habits – they make life easier.  So, create some healthy new ones around evaluating the caloric content of what you eat.

Honestly, Do You Know What A Calorie Is?

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What the heck is a calorie?

Technically, it’s the amount of energy required to raise the temperature of one gram of water by one degree Celsius (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit) at one atmosphere of pressure.  (Aren’t you happy you now know that?)  When we talk about the Calories in food we’re actually talking about kilocalories (1,000 calories = 1 kilocalorie).  It gets kind of confusing because food labels and diet plans rely on the word calorie.  Calorie with a capital C means kilocalories (sometimes you see kcal for kilocalories) but it frequently appears in the lower case form.

What’s The Purpose of Measuring Calories?

Humans get the energy necessary to survive from food — which powers us like gasoline for a car.  Food is made up of different nutritional components, or building blocks, each with a different amount of energy. These components, sometimes called macronutrients, are carbohydrates, protein, and fat.  A gram of carbohydrate contains 4 Calories, a gram of protein has 4 Calories, and a gram of fat has 9 Calories. (FYI, alcohol has 7 Calories per gram.)  So if you know how much carbohydrate, fat, and protein is in a food, you can figure out how many Calories, or how much energy, is in it.

How Many Calories Are In A Pound?

There are 3500 Calories in a pound.  If you take in 3,500 extra Calories your body stores it as a pound of fat – its way of saving energy for the next theoretical lurking famine. Your body needs a certain number of Calories to sustain itself  — for the energy used for metabolism and physiological activity.  If your body uses  3,500 calories more than you take in and use, you lose a pound.

Energy In And Energy Out

To keep in your body in balance and not lose or gain any weight, the magic formula is: energy in = energy out. If you take in (eat) the same number of calories that you burn (through activity and physiological processes) you maintain your weight.  If you eat more than you burn you gain weight, if you eat less than you burn, you lose weight.

Does The Type Of Calorie Make Any Difference?

SocialDieter Tip:  The short answer is NO.  When Calories are used as an energy source, it doesn’t matter whether they come from carbs, protein, fat, or alcohol.  When consumed they are converted to energy. If they’re not used for energy, they’re stored as fat. Understanding your body’s energy requirements can help you figure out your food choices. Your caloric needs are a product of your age, weight, gender, and amount of physical activity. (Any physical activity burns calories.  The average person (155 pounds) burns about 100 to 105 calories for every 2000 steps.)

Double Down: KFC Not Blackjack

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KFC’s One-Of-A-Kind Bunless Sandwich

D-Day:  April 12th, the premier day for KFC’s Double Down one-of-a-kind sandwich.  What is it?  A bunless sandwich made of two boneless white meat chicken filets stacked around two pieces of bacon, two melted slices of Monterey Jack and pepper jack cheese, and Colonel’s Sauce (mayonnaise based). As KFC says in its promo:  “this product is so meaty, there’s no room for a bun!”

Double Down, Two Ways

There are two versions of the Double Down: Original Recipe® or Grilled. According to KFC’s nutritional information:

Sandwich Calories Fat (g) Sodium (mg)
KFC Original Recipe® Double Down 540 32 1380
KFC Grilled Double Down 460 23 1430

Is This Accurate Nutritional Information?

Aside from raising the hair on the back of the necks of  health conscious eaters, the accuracy of the caloric listed count is being disputed. KFC says that the Double Down has 1,380 milligrams of salt and ten grams of saturated fat — already 60 per cent and 50 per cent, respectively, of the U.S. government’s recommended daily allowance. An analysis done by the Vancouver Sun estimates that the sandwich logs in at 1,228 calories and more than an entire day’s worth of the recommended allowance for fat, cholesterol, sodium, and protein. It is, what Kelly Brownell, director at Yale University’s Rudd Center For Food Policy And Obesity, calls a salt bomb. Men’s Health Food and Nutrition editor and co-author of “Eat This, Not That: Best and Worst Foods in America, says that “independent labs are estimating that it has around 1,200 calories and over 50 fat grams, based on what’s in the other KFC sandwiches.”

What Does This Nutritional Gamble Cost?

The Double Down costs $5 or $6.99 as a meal deal with fries and a soda.  In a marketing move — maybe to show community commitment, KFC says that all the buns that would have been used if Double Down was not bunless will be donated to help feed America’s homeless.  It is interesting that KFC, previously called Kentucky Fried Chicken, trying for a healthier image, changed their official name to KFC, taking out the prominent “fried” and offering grilled choices. What, then, is this fatty and salty menu item?

SocialDieter Tip:

Double down is high in fat, a good deal of it saturated, and a pillar of salt.  It may also be a caloric nightmare depending on which analysis is accurate.  It certainly is a cardiologist’s nightmare.  Who knows what additives there are in the preformed chicken filets, the processed cheese, bacon, and sauce?  There are other healthier options on the menu at KFC:

Grillled chicken:  190 cal, 6g fat, 1.5g sat fat, 550mg sodium

Tender Roast Sandwich (no sauce):  300 cal, 4g fat, 1.5g sat fat, 660mg sodium

Tender Roast (with sauce):  410 cal, 15g fat, 3g sat fat, 790mg sodium

Grilled Chicken Ceasar Salad (without dressing and croutons):  200 cal, 6g fat, 3g sat fat, 570mg sodium

KFC Creamy Parmesan Caesar dressing (1 pkg):  260 cal, 26g fat, 5g sat fat, 540mg sodium

Parmesan Garlic Croutons (1 pouch):  70 cal, 3g fat, 0g sat fat, 140mg sodium

A Chicken Coop – or a Basket – of Chocolate Easter Eggs

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Easter Eggs – the Confectionary Type

They’re everywhere 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 the second ranked holiday for candy purchases in the United States (just behind Halloween) and solid, hollow, and filled chocolate Easter eggs are one of the most popular choices of Easter candy.

Hollow and Solid Chocolate Easter Eggs

Today’s Easter eggs are mostly sweet chocolate made from cocoa solids, fat, sugar, and some form of milk. The first chocolate eggs were solid and made of a paste of ground roasted cacao beans. Hollow eggs didn’t come on the scene until sometime later when a type of “eating chocolate” was developed.  By the turn of the 19th century the improved process of making chocolate and newer manufacturing methods made chocolate Easter eggs an Easter gift of choice.

Decorated with Flowers and Wrapped in Shiny Foil

John Cadbury make the first French Eating Chocolate in 1842 but the first Cadbury Easter Eggs didn’t arrive until 1875 and were a far cry from today’s Cadbury Crème egg (which now also comes with caramel, chocolate, and butterfinger filling). Early Cadbury eggs were smooth surfaced dark chocolate filled with dragees.  Early decorated eggs were plain shells piped with chocolate and marzipan flowers. Cadbury Dairy Milk Chocolate appeared on the market in 1905 and helped to boost the sale of chocolate Easter eggs. Today’s chocolate Easter eggs are predominantly milk chocolate and include solid, hollow, decorated, and filled eggs.

Calories in Popular Types of Chocolate Easter Eggs

Chocolate is a high calorie, high fat food.  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), Calories: 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, is not really chocolate. In a recent study, German scientists followed 19,357 people for at least 10 years and found that those who ate the most chocolate, (average 7.5 grams a day or .26 oz), had lower blood pressure and a 39% lower risk of having a heart attack or stroke than people who ate the smallest amount (1.7 grams or .06 oz a day). Chocolate, especially dark chocolate, can be heart healthy if it replaces an unhealthy, high calorie snack, but there is still no recommendation for the amount to be consumed to produce health benefits.

SocialDieter Tip:

Chocolate, especially dark chocolate, contains flavonols which have antioxidant qualities and other positive influences on heart health. However, those delicious, pastel wrapped chocolate Easter eggs are caloric and moderately high in fat, one-third of it the type of saturated fat that is not heart healthy. Extra ingredients like crème and caramel fillings can add lots of extra fat and calories. There is no recommended serving size of chocolate to help gain cardiovascular benefits. If you are 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. As with most foods, especially treats –particularly treats associated with a holiday or celebration when we often tend to give ourselves license to indulge – if you are going to enjoy your chocolate, plan on how much you are going to eat, build it into your caloric allowance, stick to your plan, eat in moderation, and enjoy every bit of it.