candy

What Do You Eat With Your Movie?

August 6, 2010 By Penny Klatell, PhD, RN Leave a Comment

I went to the movies Saturday night. It was a long, long day and I was tired – so my guard was down. As I walked into the theater the first thing that hit me was the wafting and delicious smell of freshly popped (and it was freshly popped in this theater) popcorn. I could have had a label plastered across my forehead: sucker coming around the corner, start filling the popcorn bag! Elbow in my husband’s ribs: buy some!

It was the first time I’ve had movie theater popcorn in about two years. Not that I don’t love it – I do. I also know a little bit about it. Thing is, after writing another post about popcorn I even asked the guy behind the concession stand several months ago what they pop their popcorn in. “Oh, I think it’s some combination of coconut oil and other stuff.” Fat gram numbers spiraled and multiplied in my head. Yet, the siren call of freshly popped popcorn was too strong to overcome.

I Don’t Care, I’m Going To Have It Anyway

I had set myself up for a “I don’t care, I’m going to have it anyway” caloric splurge. Why? I was hungry, tired, and it was the tail end of a very busy week. And, two other important factors: our friends had already bought their popcorn (ever sit next to someone who is eating something you really like and that smells delicious?) and I really love popcorn.

SocialDieter Tip:

I’m not suggesting that you – or I – should never have movie theater popcorn. What I am suggesting is that If you are going to have popcorn it should be figured into your overall caloric balance. Popcorn today – lots of fruit and veggies the next day – or maybe earlier in the day. The same thing is true if your weakness is that box of Raisinets – or Goobers – or Milk Duds.

Not the greatest foods in the world, but if you are going to have them as an occasional splurge build the splurge into your day – or weekly – food plan. If you’re going to eat the stuff, at least do it mindfully. Oh – you could also not eat anything during the movie, it is only about two hours – or, you could bring some healthy snacks like a lower calorie protein bar or trail mix with you (a crunchy apple doesn’t lend itself to quiet eating). And ditch the soda for plain old water.

FYI: Some Popular Movie Theater Snacks – And Their Calorie Counts

(Note the serving sizes, movie theater boxes of candy are often huge and may be double or triple the size shown below.)

Popcorn, Nachos, Soft Pretzel

Buttered popcorn, small, 5 cups: 470 calories, 35g fat
Buttered popcorn, large, 20 cups: 1640 calories, 126g fat
Cheese nachos, large (4 oz): 1100 calories, 60g fat
Soft pretzel, large (5 oz): 480 calories, 5g fat

Soda and Lemonade

Coke, small (18 oz:218 calories, 0g fat
Coke, large (44 oz): 534 calories, 0g fat
Minute Maid Lemonade (18 oz): 248 calories, 0g fat
Minute Maid Lemonade (44 oz): 605 calories, 0g fat

Candy

Junior Mints, 3 0z box: 360 calories, 7g fat
Sno Caps, 3.1 oz box: 300 calories, 15g fat
Milk Duds, 3oz box: 370 calories, 12g fat
Raisinets, 3.5 oz bag: 400 calories, 16g fat
Goobers, 3.5 oz box: 500 calories, 35g fat
Twizzlers, 6oz bag: 570 calories, 4g fat
M&Ms, 5.3oz bag: 750 calories, 32g fat
Peanut M&Ms, 5.3 oz bag: 790 calories, 40g fat
Reese’s Pieces, 8oz bag: 1160 calories, 60g fat

Calorie Saving Ice Cream Toppings

June 8, 2010 By Penny Klatell, PhD, RN Leave a Comment

I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream For Ice Cream

Sometimes there’s nothing better than a good old ice cream sundae.

As far as I’m concerned – and I’m far from an ice cream purist – my favorite thing is the stuff you can put on top of ice cream. The mixture of the topping and the ice cream – or frozen yogurt – is what makes it!

So Many Toppings

You can put just about anything on ice cream. I’m not suggesting broccoli or smoked salmon, but my guess is that some inventive person, somewhere in the world, has incorporated flavors or put flavors on top of ice cream that we normally wouldn’t even dream of.

Toppings Can Add A Mountain Of Calories

The standard fare: hot fudge, whipped cream, peanuts, walnuts in syrup, crushed heath bar, caramel sauce – can all add hundreds of calories to your sundae. For instance:

Smucker’s Spoonable Hot Fudge Topping: 2tbsp, 39g, 140 calories, 4g fat, 24g carbs, 2g protein

Smucker’s Spoonable Ice Cream Topping Pecans in Syrup Topping: 1tbsp, 36g, 170 calories, 10g fat, 20g carbs, 1g protein

Regular Redi Whip: 2tbsp, 20 calories, 2g fat, 1g carbs

Cool Whip, extra creamy: 2tbsp, 32 calories

Regular m&m’s: 10 pieces, 20g, 103 calories, 5.2g fat, 12.1g carbs, 1.9g protein

Peanut m&m’s: about 16 pieces, 38.8g, 200 calorie, 10.15g fat, 23.48g carbs, 3.72g protein

Peanuts (1oz): 160 calories, 14g fat, 5g carbs, 7g protein

Some Stand-bys Are Lower In Calories

Some favorites are lower (not necessarily low) in calories, like:

Rainbow Sprinkles (Mr. Sprinkles): Serving Size: 1 tsp (4g); Calories: 20, Total Fat: 0.5g, Carbs: 3g, Protein: 0g

Chocolate Sprinkles (jimmies): Serving Size: 1 tbsp.; Calories: 35, Total Fat: 0g, Carbs: 6g, Protein: 0g

Smucker’s Spoonable Ice Cream Topping Light Hot Fudge, Fat Free: 2 tablespoons (39g), 90 calories, 23g carbs, 2g protein

10 mini marshmallows: 22 calories, 0 fat, 5.7g carbs, .1g protein

18 gummi bears (40g): 140 calories, 0 fat, 43.5g carbs, 0 protein

Think Outside The Box For Lower Calorie Choices

The world is your oyster in terms of toppings. Why not fruit, cereal, or an already counted for you, crushed up 100 calorie pack of anything? Here are some other suggestions:

Smucker’s Spoonable Pineapple Topping: 2 tbsp, 40g, 100 calories, 0g fat

Regular Redi Whip: 2tbsp, 20 calories, 2g fat, 1g carbs

Fat Free Redi Whip: 2 tbsp, 5g, 5 calories, 0g fat, 1g carbs

Cool whip, light: 2tbsp, 16 calories

Cool Whip, fat-free: 2tbsp, 15 calories, 43.5g carbs, 0 protein

1 mini box of raisins (.5 oz): 42 calories, 0.1g fat, 11.1g carbs, 0.4g protein

One medium banana: 105 calories, 0 fat, 27g carbs, 1g protein

One cup strawberry halves: 49 calories, o.5g fat, 11.7g carbs, 1g protein

Sugar-free Jello puddings: 60 calories

One cup of Froot Loops: 118 calories, o.6g fat, 26.7g carbs, 1.4g protein

One cup of blueberries: 83 calories, 0.5g fat, 21g carbs, 1.1g protein

Crushed pretzel sticks, 1 oz: 110 calories, 1g fat, 23g carbs, 3g protein

SocialDieter Tip:

Get creative with your toppings. You can have taste, nutrition, and caloric bargains if you think beyond the standard toppings (although sprinkles are a lot of bang for the caloric buck but low on the nutritional scale). The other important thing is to watch the portion size of the ice cream or frozen yogurt under the wonderful topping(s) – and try low fat, sugar free, fat free, slow churned ice creams and frozen yogurts and the many wonderful flavors of sorbet.

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

June 4, 2010 By Penny Klatell, PhD, RN Leave a Comment

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

What’s In Your Easter Basket?

March 30, 2010 By Penny Klatell, PhD, RN Leave a Comment

Peeps, Jelly Beans, Chocolate Bunnies and Candy Easter Eggs

Easter candy nesting in baskets on beds of paper straw. Brightly wrapped candy stuffed in plastic eggs for Easter egg hunts. Chocolate smeared over little kids’ faces and indestructible peeps molded into weird shapes before being popped in the mouth.

It’s Easter candy time. Face it – admit it – Easter candy is seductive. I dare you to eat one jelly bean or unwrap and savor just one brightly colored mini-chocolate Easter egg.

If you are going to indulge — and sometimes a celebratory treat is worth it — you might as well know a little about your Easter candy sweet treats so you can factor their caloric punch into your eating plan.

Jelly Beans

Oh, those little nuggests of sweetness that come in multitudes of colors and flavors. Primarily made of sugar, jelly beans also usually contain gelatin, 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).

The gummy inside of the jelly bean may have originated centuries ago from the treat, Turkish Delight. The outside of the jelly bean is basically the same as the colored hard candy coating, developed in the late 17^th century, for the Jordan almond. The modern jelly bean appeared during the American Civil War when Boston’s William Schraft encouraged sending candy to Union soldiers. Around 1930, jelly beans, with a shape resembling Easter eggs, became popular as an Easter candy.

Although standard jelly beans come in fruit flavors, there are also spiced, mint, gourmet, tropical, and novelty flavors (popcorn, bubble gum, pepper, cola, etc,) available. They also now come in a sugar free version (seems weird, but true – wonder how many chemicals are in those).

Jelly beans may give you Technicolor insides, but 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. Ten large jelly beans (1 oz or 28g) have 105 calories, no fat, no cholesterol, no protein, and 26.2g carbs.

Marshmallow PEEPS

These vividly colored marshmallow bunnies and chicks were hatched over 50 years ago. They are called PEEPS because the original candy was the yellow chick. Now produced for many holidays – in seasonal colors and shapes, of course — they continue to be the subject of numerous 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, on their website, to produce enough PEEPS in one year to circle the Earth twice.

For more than a decade, PEEPS have been the number one non-chocolate Easter candy in the U.S. Although yellow is America’s favorite color for PEEPS chicks and bunnies, they also come in pink, lavender, blue, orange and green. Made of sugar, corn syrup, gelatin, and less than 0.5% of potassium sorbate, natural flavors, dye, and carnauba wax, they are gluten and nut free. You can even get sugar free PEEPS made with Splenda. Five little chicks (42g, listed as one serving size) has 140 calories, 0g fat, 1g protein, and 36g carbs.

People have definite PEEPS preferences. Some like them nice and soft, others 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 make quite a mess), frozen, roasted, used to top hot chocolate, and added to recipes. They don’t toast well on sticks like regular marshmallows – the sugar coating tends to burn. Newspapers have been known to run contests for best PEEP recipes and best PEEP pictures.

SocialDieter Tip:

Many of us have emotional and traditional ties to certain foods – especially ones connected to holidays. If Easter candy means a lot to you, have some, in moderation. Just add it into your caloric consumption for the day – or balanced out over the course of several days. The trouble lies with eating handfuls of jelly beans, whole Easter bunnies, crates of chocolate eggs, and barnyards of marshmallow peeps – and then continuing to eat them until the supply runs out. Make up your mind that you’ll eat a certain amount, commit to only that amount, enjoy it, savor it, and then stop. Give the extras away, get them out of sight and out of mind. Dispatch them to where they are not calling your name and they are not within easy reach (the kitchen cabinet is too easily accessible).

My next post will give you the low down on chocolate Easter eggs.

Are You On Sugar Overload?

March 23, 2010 By Penny Klatell, PhD, RN Leave a Comment

Do you have a clue about how much added sugar you eat each day?

Added sugar is the kind that doesn”t occur naturally, like in fruit, but is added during food processing, preparation, or at the table.

Because food labels show only grams or percentages of sugar in a product rather than the number of calories or teaspoons it contains, it’s hard to tell the number of teaspoons of sugar you’re eating. Food labels also don’t list which sugars are natural and which are added. Sugar does masquerade under many different names and in many forms. You usually are aware that candy, cookies, and soda have sugar in them – although probably not how much. You know when you are dousing your pancakes with syrup (how many teaspoons?) or dumping packages of sugar into your coffee for a “pick me up.” But, who thinks of hamburger buns and crackers – or even ice cream or canned fruit — in terms of teaspoons of sugar?

Recommended Amounts of Added Sugar

The American Heart Association recommends that most women limit their sugar intake to 100 calories (25 grams), or around six teaspoons a day — men should limit their intake to 150 calories (37.5 grams), or nine teaspoons. (Although there were no sugar recommendations for children, a national health survey found that 14 to 18 year olds consume 34 teaspoons of added sugar a day!)

Restricting yourself to the recommended limit might be difficult, since one 12-ounce can of soda has about 130 calories, or eight teaspoons of sugar. Data collected by a national nutrition survey between 2001 and 2004 suggested that, on average, Americans consume 355 calories, or more than 22 teaspoons, of sugar a day, the equivalent of two cans of soda and a chocolate bar.

What’s the big concern about eating too much sugar?

Eating a lot of added sugar is linked to the rise in obesity and is associated with increased risk for high blood pressure, high triglyceride levels, and other markers for heart disease, stroke, and inflammation.   Because sugar just provides calories with no other nutritional value, for many people eating sugary foods and beverages can displace the more nutritious ones that are part of a healthy diet.

The Biggest Sugar Culprits

According to an article in Circulation, the biggest culprits for added dietary sugar are:

Regular soft drinks: 33%

Sugars and Candy: 16.1%

Cakes, cookies, pies: 12.9%

Fruit drinks (fruit punch and fruitades): 9.7%

Dairy desserts and milk products (ice cream, sweetened yogurt, sweetened milk: 8.6%

Other Grains: (cinnamon toast and honey-nut waffles): 5.8%

SocialDieter Tip:

Added sugars have no nutritional value other than calories. Many of us can reduce our risk of heart disease by achieving a healthy weight. There’s pretty strong evidence that decreasing the amount of sugar in your diets can help you achieve that. You don’t have to eliminate sugar from your diet, just use your allotment wisely. Make trade-offs. Use more fruit to add sweet flavor to cereals, yogurt, as dessert, and for snacks. Cut back on candy and way back on sweetened sodas, teas, and flavored waters. Help your kids learn that so much sugar is not necessary, train their palates when they’re young to enjoy less sweet food. And, read labels, know where hidden sugar hangs out. Be aware and smart about what you buy and eat – both in and out of your home.