Fried clams. 

Corn dogs. 

Fried dough.

Do you remember when you could eat all of these and still feel great?  Do you remember when you could eat all of these and not gain weight or have it show in all kinds of places you wish it didn’t?

A Staple Of The Standard Western Diet

Fried, fatty food has become a staple of the standard Western diet.

Don’t you see potato chips, French fries, fried chicken, fried mozzarella and fish sticks just about everywhere you turn?  FYI:  in terms of calories – fat, of any kind, has 9 calories per gram compared to protein and carbs at 4 calories per gram.

What Does “Fried” (Food) Mean?

Frying – or cooking food in hot fat over moderate heat –includes sautéing, stir-frying, pan-frying, and deep-fat frying. Sautéing uses the least amount of oil and the oil doesn’t cover the food as it’s being cooked.  Deep-fat frying uses the most oil and the food is submerged as it’s cooked.

Frying is actually called a dry cooking method because it’s done without water. Because of the high temperature and the high heat conduction of oil, food cooks very quickly.

When done properly, deep-frying shouldn’t make food really greasy because the hot oil heats up the moisture inside the food making the food steam from the inside out. If the oil is hot enough and the food isn’t in the oil for too long the oil that penetrates stays around the outer surface of the food and keeps the food’s moisture inside. But, if the food is cooked in the oil for too long, a lot of water is lost and the oil begins to penetrate the food.

The ideal temperature range for deep frying is 350°-375°F. If the temperature is lower than 325° oil will be absorbed into the food. Temperatures much higher than 375° can cause additional oxidation of the oil (which is not healthy) and produce dried out food. A cautionary note:  a number of restaurants reuse their cooking oil over and over which leads to decomposition of the oil and partial and unhealthy oxidation.

What’s The Problem With Eating Fried Food?

Long-term, a fatty diet has been implicated in a number of potentially unhealthy side effects. Short-term, a high fat meal can make you feel not so great.

Fried foods tend to slow down the emptying of the stomach causing you to feel full and bloated – or they move undigested through the intestinal tract too quickly, possibly leading to diarrhea.  They can also cause acid reflux and heartburn. Does the term “indigestion” come to mind?

Fried Foods By Any Other Name

On a menu, fried food is not always just called “fried” or “sautéed.”  Here are some other descriptive terms:

• Pan-fried
• Deep-fried
• French-fried
• Fricassee
• Frizzled
• Sizzled or sizzler
• Browned
• Crisped or crispy
• And frequently, anything battered – which is then fried

Astonishing, But True

While we’re used to fried potatoes and fish and meat, it is astonishing what else has been fried. Incredibly, in 2006 fried Coca Cola won “Most Creative” at the State Fair of Texas.

A few more eyebrow raisers:

• Deep Fried Oreos
• Deep Fried Pickles
• Deep Fried Pizza
• Deep Fried Pop-tarts
• Deep Fried Spam, Deep Fried Mars Bars
• Deep Fried Cupcakes
• Deep Fried Strawberries
• Deep Fried Olives
• Deep Fried Ice Cream
• Deep Fried Jam Sandwiches

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Granola always sounds so healthy, filled with oats, grains and maybe nuts or dried fruit – stuff that can be really good for you – except for when it’s cooked in lots of oil or butter and is sweetened with a whole lot of sugar or some other form of sweetener. It also does not have a lot of protein.

The real kicker can be the serving size.  If you haul out your cereal bowl and just dump in granola you can be in  caloric nightmare land. You really need to check serving sizes with granola – the serving size varies with the brand and can be as small as ¼ cup – which can look paltry even in a teacup. There are lower fat versions of granola – although some low fat versions are not necessarily low in calories.  Some examples of granola nutrition:

• Kellogg’s Low Fat Granola Without Raisins; ½ cup:  209 calories; 2.8g fat; 43.7g carbs; 4.51g protein

• Bear Naked Maple Pecan Granola; ¼ cup: 130 calories; 4g fat; 22g carbs; 3g protein

• Kashi Summer Berry Granola; ½ cup: 210 calories; 6g fat; 37g carbs; 6g protein

I have trouble keeping granola in my house — because I really like it.  I find myself shoveling handfuls of it into my mouth straight from the box when I open the cupboard and it’s there, calling my name.  It does make a great topping for ice cream – in measured amounts — if you’re so inclined.

But, if you love your granola and want it for your cereal, just check the ingredients and the serving size.  Know what you’re getting and what you’re eating.

The post Granola: Read The Label And Pull Out Your Measuring Cup appeared first on Eat Out Eat Well.

Nine Tips

To keep the gauge pointing more toward healthy than unhealthy:

1.   Interpret the menu and look for foods that are:

• Steamed
• Jum (poached)
• Chu (broiled)
• Kow (roasted)
• Shu (barbecued)

2.    Aim for a plate filled with more veggies than meat and ask for them to be lightly stir fried rather than battered or deep fried (crispy means fried) but don’t think that all vegetable dishes are high on the best list. A serving of eggplant in garlic sauce (eggplant soaks up oil)  has 1000 calories; 13g saturated fat; 2000mg sodium.  Mu shu pork (without pancakes) has 1000 calories and 2600 mg sodium  Although there are a lot of veggies, there’s a bunch of fat and sodium. 8 inch pancakes add about 90 calories;  6 inch pancakes add 60 calories. Mu shu chicken is a better choice with about 5g less fat less and 200 fewer calories per serving.

3.    Eat with chopsticks:  it takes longer to eat and you can’t scoop up as much of the sauce or oil as you can with a fork.

4.    Don’t let the fried noodles near your table – or out of the delivery bag – one package has about 180 calories; 8g fat; 420mg sodium.

5.    Soup – like hot and sour, egg drop, or wonton soup is a good lower calorie choice (around 100 calories per cup) to fill you up – but is usually loaded with sodium. One cup of hot and sour soup has 91 cal, 3g fat, 876 sodium.

6.    Be careful with the thick sweet sauces like sweet and sour.  They are often made with flour, cornstarch, sugar, corn syrup.  Better choices are hoison, oyster, and hot mustard.

7.    Beware the rice:  there are around 200 calories in a cup of white or brown rice.  A takeout container often contains two cups.  Basic fried rice – without additions — is about 230 calories per cup — 1 cup of chicken fried rice has 329 calories; 11.96g fat; 598mg sodium.

8.    Lay off the barbecued spare ribs – four can have around 600 calories. One-half slice of fried shrimp toast has 148 calories; 9.27g fat; 447mg sodium.

9.    Try steamed dumplings instead of egg rolls or fried wontons which are both loaded with fat. One egg roll has 220 calories; 11g fat; 412mg sodium. A spring roll, with its thinner wrapper and smaller size, is a better choice at about 100 calories and 300 mg sodium. One meat filled fried wonton has 54 calories; 2.52g fat; 111mg sodium. A steamed dumpling filled with meat, poultry, or seafood is probably the best choice clocking in at 41 calories; 0.98g fat; 161mg sodium.

The post Is Chinese Food Diet Friendly Or A Diet Buster? Nine Tips To Help You Make Good Choices appeared first on Eat Out Eat Well.

In my neck of the woods, barbecue season is right around the corner.

I happen to love hamburgers, but, needless to say, I don’t love the calories and saturated fat in most of them.

Some Hamburger Stats

Most (not all) hamburgers are made with either ground round or ground chuck and are usually six or more ounces.

A broiled burger made with ground round (85% lean meat) has 70 calories in each ounce with 4 grams of fat (2 grams saturated fat).

A broiled burger made with ground chuck (80% lean meat) has 76 calories in each ounce with 5 grams of fat (2 grams saturated).

How about substituting chopped vegetables for some of the meat?  Onions, garlic, peppers, and mushrooms are some possibilities. An ounce of onions is 11 calories with no fat; an ounce of white mushrooms has 6 calories and no fat.

Switching out an ounce or two of meat for veggies can save you 60 to 150 or so calories and 4 to 10 grams of fat and add a whole bunch of flavor.

Try it – you might like it!

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Would a kid want to eat Ernie’s hair or Cookie Monster’s eyes or Elmo’s nose? Maybe yes, maybe no — I guess it would depend on the child’s age and feelings about Sesame Street characters.

And, what about all of the food coloring — and the fat and sugar necessary to mould the shapes of these cupcakes?

Eye appeal — but what about health appeal?

The post Don’t You Wonder What They Taste Like? appeared first on Eat Out Eat Well.

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?

Checking The List Of Ingredients May Or May Not Help

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. That’s why preservatives are usually at the end of the ingredients list.  A ton of chemicals are not necessary to increase shelf life — a little bit will do it.  However, fat, sugar, and grains have more heft and usually are closer to the beginning of the ingredients list.

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

• Reduced calorie on the label means there’s at least 25% fewer calories per serving than in the regular (full calorie) version of the 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, full calorie, version

• Light (calories) means 1/3 fewer calories than the regular, full calorie, version

• Lean (meat, poultry or seafood) means less than 10 grams of fat, 4.5 grams of saturated fat, and 95 mg of cholesterol in a 100 gram serving

• Extra lean (meat, poultry or seafood) means less than 5 grams of fat, 2 grams of saturated fat, and 95 mg of cholesterol in a 100 gram serving

Confused???

Confused by the ins and outs of labeling?  You’re not alone.  Try to be as savvy as possible and do a little investigating. A product sporting a reduced fat label  just means that it contains at least 25% less fat than the original version. Unfortunately, this doesn’t necessarily mean that it ends up being a low fat product. Take a reduced fat muffin. If the fat content in the original full fat muffin is 30g and the fat has been reduced to 15g — a 50% reduction which 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.  Check the calorie count and fat breakdown on the nutrition label for more complete info.  

The post A Primer On Reduced, Low, Light, And Free! appeared first on Eat Out Eat Well.

Our pizza eating habits are amazing.  Whether we buy it fresh or frozen, by the slice or by the pie.  We eat it for takeout or grabbed off of round metal trays plopped on formica tables.  We eat it everywhere and by the ton.

• According to Domino’s, each person in North America eats 23 pounds of pizza a year
• Americans eat the equivalent of about 100 acres of pizza each day, or 350 slices per second
• Men, women, and children in America eat an average of 46 slices of pizza a year
• 93% of Americans eat pizza at least once a month
• Almost 70% of Superbowl watchers eat a slice (or two or three) during the game

So What’s The Problem?

For the most part:  fat and calories.  Sure, you may not like a particular type of pizza, or perhaps you love round pizzas rather than square ones.  But, if your mouth has started to water at the thought of golden brown crust and cheesy goodness — here’s the downer: that luscious pizza can be a fat and calorie nightmare.  Don’t despair.  Here’s the good news: pizza can be a healthy food choice filled with complex carbs, B-vitamins, calcium, protein, vitamin A, and vitamin C and calorically okay if you choose wisely and don’t eat more than your fair share.

It’s difficult to estimate the number of calories and fat grams in a slice of pizza because the size and depth of the pies and the amount of cheese, meat, or other toppings varies so enormously – and, we all have our preferences..

How Many Calories?

The membership warehouse club Costco has 416 domestic locations, and most of them have a food court that sells pizza, making Costco the 15th largest pizza chain in the US. They  serve a whole lot of pizza and a whole lot of calories. A single slice of Costco pizza is estimated to have 804 calories,  342 of them from from fat.

Mall pizza can be okay — and not okay.  For instance, Sbarro’s Low Carb Cheese Pizza has 310 calories and 14 grams of fat. But, its Low Carb Sausage/Pepperoni Pizza has 560 calories and 35 grams of fat. A slice of the Fresh Tomato Pizza clocks in at 450 calories with 14 grams of fat. Any of Sbarro’s “Gourmet” pizzas have between 610 and 780 calories a slice and more than 20 grams of fat. “Stuffed” pizzas are even worse—790 calories minimum and over 33 grams of fat per slice.

Are You Craving Pizza?

Although we all have out own pizza preferences, the next time you order try some of these tricks to keep your choice on the healthy side:

• Order thin crust rather than thick doughy crust.
• Resist the urge to ask for double cheese.
• Pile on veggies like mushrooms, peppers, olives, tomatoes, onion, broccoli, spinach, asparagus. Some places have salad pizza – great if it’s not loaded with oil.
• Ask for your pizza to be cheeseless, made with low fat cheese, or “go light on the cheese, please”  (no guarantee but it’s worth it to try).
• Instead of cheese go for big flavors:  onion, garlic, olives (use them somewhat sparingly because of the oil but they’re a whole lot better than meat).  And Don’t forget anchovies anyone (low in calories)!  A lot of flavor for minimal calories – but you have to like them!
• Avoid meat toppers. Think about the fat content in sausage, pepperoni, and meatballs.
• Try to hold it to two slices of pizza and order a salad on the side.
• If you’re willing (and not embarrassed or grossed out), try blotting the free floating oil that sits on top of a greasy slice. Blotting (it’s easy to do this on the kind of hot slice where the oil runs down your arm)  can soak up a teaspoon of oil worth  40 calories and 5 grams of fat.

The post Did You Eat 23 Pounds Of Pizza Last Year? appeared first on Eat Out Eat Well.

Do you think you are being oh-so-virtuous by grabbing the reduced fat cookies or crackers off of the supermarket shelf?  I hate to disillusion you, but sometimes there isn’t a big difference in calories between the low or fat free version and the regular version of the same food.

In many reduced and fat free foods the fat is replaced with flour, sweeteners, or other starches and fillers which make the reduction in calories very small or, sometimes, nonexistent.

Reduced Fat Snack Food Hits The Supermarket Shelves

When fat free and reduced fat foods – especially snack foods like cookies, crackers, and chips hit the market — they were touted as products to help with the rising tide of obesity. Even things like pretzels, marshmallows, and gummy bears, foods that never contained fat to begin with, had “fat free” plastered all over their labels.

These fat and reduced fat foods certainly were not a panacea and consumers began to realize that they weren’t the magic bullet they were hoping for. Consumers choosing these foods were eating less fat  — but — they were still eating too many calories.

Calories Are Calories

Whether they’re from fat or carbs or protein, a calorie is a calorie.  If you eat more calories than you need you probably will gain weight. Reducing the amount of fat that you eat is one way to limit your overall calorie intake – as long as you don’t replace those fat calories with calories from another source.

Fat Free Is Not Calorie Free

Unfortunately, many people interpret “fat free” as “calorie free.”

Eating reduced or fat free foods isn’t always the answer to losing weight –especially when you eat more of the reduced fat food than you would of the regular one. And, because a lot of fat free foods aren’t very filling, it’s easier to eat a lot of calories and not feel full.

How Many Calories?

Compare the calories in the reduced or fat free versions to the regular version:

• Reduced fat peanut butter, 2 tablespoons:  187 calories;  Regular peanut butter, 2 tablespoons:  191 calories

• 3 reduced fat chocolate chip cookies, (30 g):  118 calories;  3 regular chocolate chip cookies, (30 g): 142 calories

• 2 fat free fig cookies:  102 calories;  2 regular fig cookies:  111 calories

• 1 small (2½ inch) low fat blueberry muffin:  131 calories; 1 small (2 ½ inch) regular blueberry muffing:  138 calories

• 2 tablespoons fat free caramel topping:  103 calories; 2 tablespoons homemade (with butter) caramel topping:  103 calories

• ½ cup fat free vanilla frozen yogurt (<1% fat):  111 calories;  ½ cup whole milk vanilla frozen yogurt (3-4% fat):  133 calories

• Low fat cereal bar: 130 calories;  Regular cereal bar: 140 calories

• 16 Low Fat Wheat Thins:  130 calories;  16 regular wheat thins: 150 calories

• 3 low fat Oreo cookies: 150 calories;  3 original Oreo cookies: 160 calories

The post Do Fat Free Calories Count? appeared first on Eat Out Eat Well.

What does low fat or reduced calorie really mean?

With the holidays rapidly approaching many of us are starting to scan recipes and plan menus – which means grocery shopping.  It also means trying to balance out the excess calories from holiday meals with some “lighter” fare – which also may mean grocery shopping.

Walk down the aisle – just about any aisle – in the supermarket and the labels on packages are plastered with claims of low fat, no fat, low this, low that, and extra lean.

What a dilemma!  Sounds great, all of this reduced fat and light or “lite” food – but what does it really mean?  Does light mean that the butternut squash soup is light as a feather or that it is lighter than the pea soup?  Does reduced calorie mean that the chocolate mousse has half the calories of the “regular” mousse or that it’s ten calories less?

Unfortunately, the answers are not always what they seem to be.  For instance, according to the FDA, a food is allowed to be labeled fat free if a serving contains less than 0.5 grams of fat.  So, something could have 0.4 grams of fat and still be called fat free.

Be Aware Of Definitions – And Check The Nutrition Labels

Definitions of Some Common Terms Used On Food Packages

• Fat-free = less than 0.5 grams of fat per serving, with no added fat or oil.
• Low fat = 3 grams or less of fat per serving.
• Less fat = 25% or less fat than the comparison food.
• Saturated fat free = Less than 0.5 grams of saturated fat and 0.5 grams of trans-fatty acids per serving.
• Cholesterol-free = less than 2 mg of cholesterol per serving and 2 grams or less of saturated fat per serving.
• Low cholesterol = 20 mg or less of cholesterol per serving and 2 grams or less of  saturated fat per serving.
• Reduced calorie = at least 25% fewer calories per serving than the comparison food (the “regular” version of the same food).
• Low calorie = 40 calories or less per serving.
• Extra lean = less than 5 grams of fat, 2 grams of saturated fat, and 95 mg of cholesterol per 100 gram serving of meat, poultry, or seafood.
• Lean = less than 10 grams of fat, 4.5 g of saturated fat, and 95 mg of cholesterol per 100 gram serving of meat, poultry, or seafood.
• Light (fat) = 50% or less of the fat in the comparison food.
• Light (calories) = one-third fewer calories than the comparison food.
• High fiber = 5 grams or more fiber per serving.
• Sugar-free = less than 0.5 grams of sugar per serving.
• Sodium-free (salt-free) = less than 5 mg of sodium per serving.
• Low sodium = 140 mg or less per serving.
• Very low sodium = 35 mg or less per serving.

It’s a good idea to read labels, know what you’re getting,  and choose wisely.

The post What Do You Get When You Buy A Low Calorie Or Reduced Fat Product? appeared first on Eat Out Eat Well.

Valley Of Fatigue

When I was a kid there was a commercial on TV for Welch’s Grape Juice.  The gist of the commercial was that when you hit your 3 or 4PM energy drain – or what they called the “valley of fatigue” — a nice glass of Welch’s grape juice would help you climb right out of the bottom of that valley.

Of course, an 8 oz glass of the purple juice with 170 calories, and 42 grams of carbohydrates (40 of which are sugars), will certainly give you a pop of energy.  However, since it’s all sugar, that immediate blood sugar spike will quickly turn into a dropping blood sugar – leaving you with less energy – and probably crankier – than before.

Here’s A Better Choice

How about a non-fat skim caffe latte instead.  You could be at a mall, in a train station, an airport, sitting at your desk, or walking down the street.  There’s a Starbuck’s or a Dunkin’ Donuts, or a zillion other coffee shops if not right in front of you, then most likely around the next corner or down the road apiece.

Why Is A Non-Fat Skim A Good Idea?

Three reasons — maybe there are more, but here are three good ones:

• Easy to find – coffee shops are everywhere
• It’s a finite size – you ask for a certain size, you get it, you drink it and then it’s gone (unlike the rest of the cookies remaining in the box that will continue to tempt you)
• You get a nice satisfying, long-lasting, and portable hot drink to sip with a good amount of protein and no fat; whether it’s caffeinated or decaffeinated is your choice

Nutritional Stats For a Non-Fat Caffe Latte

Starbucks’ Non-Fat Caffe Latte (espresso and non-fat milk)

• Tall (12 oz):  100 calories, 10 grams of protein
• Grande (16 oz):  130 calories, 13 grams protein
• Venti (20 oz):  170 calories, 16 grams protein

Note:  Try to avoid flavored lattes which add (in sugars) 50 calories to the tall, 70 calories to the grande, and 80 calories to the venti and drops the protein count for each by a gram.

The post Why Not A Non-Fat Caffe Latte? appeared first on Eat Out Eat Well.