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Do Fat Free Calories Count?

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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

What Are You Drinking To Toast The New Year?

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So many of us toast to the New Year with drink in hand – alcoholic or not.

Here’s a quick primer so you can make some informed choices:

  • A standard drink is 1.5 ounces of hard liquor, 5 ounces of wine, or 12 ounces of beer.
  • Nutritionally:
  1. 12 ounces of beer has 153 calories and 13.9 grams of alcohol
  2. 12 ounces of lite beer has 103 calories and 11 grams of alcohol
  3. 5 ounces red wine has 125 calories and 15.6 grams of alcohol
  4. 5 ounces of white wine has 121 calories and 15.1 grams of alcohol
  5. 1 1/2 ounces (a jigger) of 80 proof (40% alcohol) liquor has 97 calories and 14 grams of alcohol
  • Alcohol has 7 calories per gram but doesn’t fill you up the way food does, so you can drink a lot and not feel stuffed.
  • Alcohol lowers your inhibitions and your resolve not to eat everything at the buffet table often flies right out the window.
  • Eating something before drinking can help blunt alcohol’s intoxicating effects.
  • Drinking light beer rather than regular saves about 50 calories a bottle.
  • Mixed drinks and fancy drinks significantly up the calories.   For instance,
  1. A frozen margarita has about 45 calories an ounce
  2. A plain martini, no olives or lemon twist, has about 61 calories an ounce
  3. An 8-ounce white Russian made with light cream has 715 calories.
  4. The alcohol, heavy cream, eggs, and sugar in a cup of eggnog has about 343 calories and 19 grams of fat
  5. Mulled wine, a combination of red wine, sugar/honey, spices, orange and lemon peel has about 210 to 300 calories per 5 ounces, depending on how much sweetener is added.
  • Watch your mixers — per ounce club soda has no calories, tonic has10, classic coke has 12, Canada Dry ginger ale has 11, orange juice has 15, and cranberry juice has 16.
  • And, if you’re toasting to health and happiness in the New Year with champagne – it’s a comparative caloric bargain at about 19 calories an ounce! To your health!

My very best wishes for a very happy and healthy New Year.

I invite you to receive more healthy eating facts, tips, and trivia by signing up for delivery of My foodMAPs directly to your email inbox or RSS feed.  Just enter your email address in the box in the left hand margin (on the MyfoodMAPs home page).  While you’re at it, please sign up for my monthly newsletter, Eat Out, Eat Well.  I look forward to keeping you informed and entertained.

How Much Do Americans Love Sugar? This Much: 475 Extra Calories A Day

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The season of sugar plum fairies, ribbon candy, and sparkly cookies (and even fruit cake)  is upon us.  For about the past ten years we’ve been warned about watching how much sugar we’re eating and we still haven’t really listened.

According to the American Heart Association’s nutrition committee, Americans average 475 calories from added sugars every day.  That’s a lot more than the recommended daily max of 100 calories (six teaspoons) from added sugars for women and 150 calories (nine teaspoons) for men.  Think of it this way, that extra added 475 calories of sugar is the equivalent of 30 teaspoons a day.

A big problem with added sugars is that they both add calories and those “empty” calories displace the other nutritious foods.

Where Do Our Calories Come From?

Added sugars and solid fats account for about 35% of the calories in the average American’s diet. The recommended maximum is 5-15%.

About 36% of the added sugars come from sugary soft drinks — so cutting back on them is a good place to start trimming.

Natural vs. Added Sugars

Natural sugars are found in foods like milk and yogurt (lactose) and in fruit (fructose) as well as in many other foods. Because these sugars are found along with other healthy components in the foods, they’re considered okay.

Unfortunately, nutrition labels don’t differentiate between natural and added sugars.  Look for any form of sugar in the food’s ingredient list.

Look for all forms (typical sugars end in –ose like lactose, glucose, fructose) including brown, raw, or invert sugar and/or “syrup” including corn, high fructose corn, and malt syrup. Also look for honey, molasses, agave nectar, evaporated cane juice, and fruit juice concentrate.  Don’t be fooled by these. They sound healthy but are really just other forms of sugar.

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Examples Of Foods With Added Sugar

A 16 ounce soda has about 11 teaspoons of added sugar. Although most of our extra added sugar comes from soda, sweetened beverages like fruit drinks, sports drinks, and teas; desserts; candy; and breakfast cereals all contribute.

Here are some examples of the added sugar in some common foods. This is just the added sugar, not the natural sugar that might also be in these foods.

  • Cola, 8 oz. 22 grams
  • Cranberry juice cocktail, 8 oz., 20 grams
  • Chocolate Milk, reduced-fat, 8 oz., 14 grams
  • Tea, instant, sugar-sweetened, 8 oz., 21 grams
  • Applesauce, sweetened (1 cup), 16 grams
  • Baked beans, canned (1 cup), 15 grams
  • Oreo-type cookies (3), 12 grams
  • Cranberries, dried (1/3 cup), 25 grams
  • Fruit cocktail in syrup (1 cup), 26 grams
  • Granola bar (1 oz), 12 grams
  • Jellybeans, (1 oz, 10 large), 20 grams
  • Popcorn, caramel-coated (1 oz), 15 grams
  • Fruit yogurt (6 oz container), 19 grams

Is The Sugar In Fruit A “Diet” Buster?

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Fructose:  A Simple Sugar

Fruit sugar, or fructose, is a simple sugar that your body metabolizes quickly and easily. Fructose, has few, if any, advantages over sucrose, the kind of sugar in candy.

Moderate fruit intake is recommended as part of a healthy diet. The simple sugars, like fructose, found in fruit are not a problem for active and healthy people. But, if you have diabetes or prediabetes, too much fruit could throw your blood sugar levels out of whack.

Fruit juice is often made from fruit concentrate with added refined sugar, so too much fruit juice can be a bad thing.  FYI:  there really isn’t a big nutritional difference if your jam is sweetened with “sugar” or “fruit juice sweetener.” They are both sugar.

A Good Idea

Having fruit in your diet is a good idea for a bunch of reasons. It tastes good and most of it has a substantial amount of fiber — which helps to reduce the risk of some diseases. Fruit is also a good source of vitamins and minerals.  A well rounded diet with plenty of fruit, vegetables, and some lean protein is a good bet.

It’s also pretty cool that a lot of fruit comes in it’s own wrapper and single serving package.  Think oranges, clementines, tangerines, apples, pears, and bananas to name a few.  They’re really grab and go.  And berries – so high in antioxidants.  Delicious, too.  Watermelon is 92% water by weight, filled with vitamin C, and a necessary part of so many barbecues and beach parties.

All sugar adds calories but there are certainly a lot of reasons to choose fruit and its sugar over the nutritionally empty sugared sweet stuff like candy and soda.

The fiber and water in fruit help you to feel full.  The fruit is packed with vitamins and minerals.  Because of its fiber, fruit takes longer to digest than processed sweets made with refined sugar.  And, it doesn’t create a spike in your blood sugar —  which is then followed by a steep drop that makes you hungry all over again.

Sugar And Calories In Popular Fruit

Some examples:

One fruit or the portion shown

Calories

Carbs (in grams)

Apple (with the peel)

81

21
Apricot 17 4
Banana 105 27
Blackberries (½ cup) 37 9
Blueberries, fresh (½ cup) 41 10
Cherries (½ cup) 52 12
Grapes (10 medium seedless) 36 9
Grapefruit (1 medium half) 46 12
Mango,  fresh 135 35
Melon:   Canteloupe (1 half) 94 22
Melon:   Honeydew (1 tenth) 46 12
Nectarine (medium) 67 16
Orange 65 16
Peach 37 10
Pear (medium) 98 25
Pineapple,  fresh (½ cup cubed) 39 10
Plum 36 9
Prune (1 dried & pitted) 20 5
Raisins (dried ½ cup) 110 29
Raspberry (½ cup) 31 7
Rhubarb (½ cup cubed) 14 3
Strawberries (½ cup) 23 5
Tangerine 37 9

How Long Can Your Thanksgiving Turkey Safely Stay On The Table — And In The Fridge?

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How Do Turkeys Cross The Road?

Where I live, I often have to stop my car and wait for the wild turkeys to cross the road.  I’m not kidding.  They start climbing over a stone wall from a wooded area one after another.  Gorgeous, they’re not.   And they don’t cross in a timely fashion, either.  They’re sort of in a line but sometimes one shows an independent streak and turns around to look for the others.  Quite a sight – and, quite annoying when I’m in a hurry having seen this parade many times before – although it makes me smile every time!

These are not the turkeys that most of us will find on our dining room tables – but certainly are distant relatives of those eaten by the early New England settlers.

Turkey Is A Very Good Source Of Lean Protein

Turkey is low in fat and high in protein. A 3 1/2-ounce serving is about the size and thickness of a new deck of cards. The fat and calorie content varies because white meat has less fat and fewer calories than dark meat and skin.

Meat Type (from a whole roasted turkey) Calories Total Fat Protein
Breast with skin 194 8 grams 29 grams
Breast w/o skin 161 4 grams 30 grams
Wing w/skin 238 13 grams 27 grams
Leg w/skin 213 11 grams 28 grams
Dark meat w/skin 232 13 grams 27 grams
Dark meat w/o skin 192 8 grams 28 grams
Skin only 482 44 grams 19 grams

Once Your Bird Is Cooked, Does It Matter How Long You Leave It Out?

Ye, yes, yes! According to the Centers for Disease Control the number of reported cases of food borne illness (food poisoning) increases during the holiday season. You shouldn’t leave food out for more than two hours. To save turkey leftovers, remove the stuffing from the cavity, cut the turkey off the bone, and refrigerate or freeze all leftovers.

The Basic Rules For Leftovers

According to the March 2010 edition of the Nutrition Action Healthletter (Center for Science in the Public Interest):

The mantra is:  2 Hours–2 Inches–4 Days

  • 2 Hours from oven to refrigerator: Refrigerate or freeze your leftovers within 2 hours of cooking. Throw them away if they are out longer than that.
  • 2 Inches thick to cool it quick: Store your food at a shallow depth–about 2 inches–to speed chilling.
  • 4 Days in the refrigerator–otherwise freeze it: Use your leftovers that are stored in the fridge within 4 days. The exceptions are stuffing and gravy  which should be used within 2 days. Reheat solid leftovers to 165 degrees F and liquid leftovers to a rolling boil. Toss what you don’t finish.

How Long Can I Keep Leftover Turkey In The Freezer?

Frozen leftover turkey, stuffing, and gravy should be used within one month. To successfully freeze leftovers package them properly using freezer wrap or freezer containers. Use heavy duty aluminum foil, freezer paper, or freezer bags for best results and don’t leave air space. Squeeze the excess air from freezer bags and fill rigid freezer containers to the top with dry food. Without proper packaging, circulating air in the freezer can create freezer burn – those white dried-out patches on the surface of food that make it tough and tasteless. Leave a one inch head space in containers with liquid and half inch in containers filled with semi-solids.

Happy Thanksgiving