Eat Out Eat Well

food for fun and thought

If Santa Walked Instead of Riding In His Sleigh — How Many Calories Would He Burn?

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Clement Clarke Moore, an Episcopal minister, is largely responsible for the image of Santa Claus as a “right jolly old elf” with a portly figure and the supernatural ability to ascend a chimney with a mere nod of his head. In 1822 he wrote a long Christmas poem called “An Account of a Visit from St. Nicholas, ” commonly called ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas, which helped popularize the image of Santa Claus flying from house to house in “a miniature sleigh” led by eight flying reindeer (the legendary Rudolph with his glowing red nose didn’t make his first appearance until 1939).

In 1881 political cartoonist Thomas Nast used Moore’s poem to create our modern image of Santa Claus  showing Santa as a rotund, cheerful man with a full, white beard, holding a sack filled with children’s toys. Nast gave Santa his bright red suit trimmed with white fur, the North Pole workshop, elves, and Mrs. Claus.

How Many Calories Does Santa Burn On His Christmas Rounds?

Even Santa has weight challenges – and most certainly he has a lot of carb and calorie temptation with all of the cookies and milk left out for him! He uses a sleigh pulled by reindeer that lands him on the roof – so he doesn’t get much exercise just sliding down the chimney (tough with that belly and bag of presents. Should Santa change to walking for transport and eat healthier throughout Christmas Eve?

On Christmas Eve, Santa visits an estimated 92 million households. Walking.about.com figures that if all households were evenly distributed across the earth, Santa would travel 0.78 miles between houses, or 71,760,000 (71.8 million) miles.

Guessing Santa’s weight at 250 pounds and that he’s a walking pretty fast walker – he has to be to get his deliveries done in one night – walking.about.com’s calorie counter estimates that he would burn 13 billion calories.

Would He Burn Off All That Milk And Cookies?

Two small cookies and a cup of skim milk (giving households the benefit of doubt about full fat dairy) clock in at about 200 calories. If Santa snacks at each of the 92 million households, that works out to a payday of 18.4 billion calories.

So, Santa would gain 1,529,350 pounds every Christmas Eve — even if he walked instead of rode in his sleigh. Walking, he’d have to circle the Earth 1,183 times to burn off the extras.

What If He Snacked On Veggies Instead Of Cookies?

Maybe Santa is a modern weight conscious man.  If he had a cup of carrot and celery sticks at each house rather than cookies and milk,  he would have just 50 calories at each house which would add up to 4.6 billion calories. Since he would burn off 13 billion calories by walking, he’d actually lose all of his weight and disappear.  Maybe the best idea for him would be a nice combination of veggies at most households and cookies or skim milk every few households to keep him in caloric balance.

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How Many Pounds Of Meat And Cheese Do You Eat In A Year?

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american-average-food-consumption

According to Visual Economics:

  • The average American is 36.6 years old and eats 1,996.3 lbs. of food per year.
  • The average man is 5 feet 9 inches and weighs 190 lbs.
  • The average woman is 5 feet 4 inches and weighs 164 lbs.

Each year Americans eat:

  • 85.5 lbs. of fats and oils
  • 110 lbs. of red meat, including 62.4 lbs. of beef and 46.5 lbs. of pork
  • 73.6 lbs. of poultry, including 60.4 lbs. of chicken
  • 16.1 lbs. of fish and shellfish and 32.7 lbs. of eggs
  • 31.4 lbs. of cheese each year
  • 600.5 lbs. of non-cheese dairy products
  • 181 lbs. of beverage milks
  • 192.3 lbs. of flour and cereal products, including 134.1 lbs. of wheat flour
  • 141.6 lbs. of caloric sweeteners, including 42 lbs. of corn syrup
  • 56 lbs. of corn each year and eat 415.4 lbs. of vegetables
  • 24 lbs. of coffee, cocoa and nuts
  • 273.2 lbs. of fruit

These foods include:

  • 29 lbs. of French fries
  • 23 lbs. of pizza
  • 24 lbs. of ice cream
  • 53 gallons of soda, averaging about one gallon each week
  • 24 lbs. of artificial sweeteners
  • 2.736 lbs. of sodium, which is 47 percent more than recommended
  • 0.2 lbs. of caffeine each year, about 90,700 mg

In total, Americans eat an average of 2,700 calories each day.

Graphic and statistics courtesy of Visual Economics

How About A Parade Before The Feast?

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On Thanksgiving morning, right before the feast of the day (and before football), there’s another long-standing tradition.

The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade

The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City, originally the Macy’s Christmas parade which served as the kick-off for the shopping season, began in 1924 when animals from the Central Park Zoo were recruited by Macy’s employees to march on Thanksgiving Day.

The parade’s helium-filled balloons made their debut in 1927 and early on were released into the city’s skyline holding rewards for their finders.

The parade, first nationally televised in 1947, now has around 44 million viewers with 3 million people lining its 2.5-mile Manhattan route for a first hand glimpse.

Around noontime, Santa on his sleigh accompanied by his elves make their way into Herald Square after their trip along the parade route.  What a wonderful way to set the stage for a great meal with family and friends.

Should You Blame The Turkey For Thanksgiving “Food Coma”?

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The Bird And The Berry

Turkeys and cranberries, part and parcel of our modern Thanksgiving (and Christmas) menus, are both native to the Americas.

About 46 million turkeys landed on US dinner tables last Thanksgiving, around  736 million pounds of turkey meat.  US farmers produce 735 million pounds of cranberries, 1.9 billion pounds of sweet potatoes and 931 million pounds of pumpkins.

Thanksgiving “Food Coma”

Urban myth is to blame the bird for your Thanksgiving “food coma.” Wrong.  You may have post-meal fatigue, but the turkeys are getting a bad rap.  The amount of sleep-inducing tryptophan in most turkey meals isn’t responsible for your coma-like state – blame the number of calories, the booze, and your relaxed state instead.

What Was on the First Thanksgiving Menu?

American Indians, Europeans, and cultures around the world often feasted to celebrate the harvest and to thank the higher powers for sustenance and survival.

We know that the first Thanksgiving dinner in the Plimoth (Plymouth) Colony, in October 1621 in what is now Massachusetts, was attended by about 50 English colonists and 90 Wampanoag American Indian men.

The Wampanoag killed five deer, the colonists shot wild fowl, and maybe some geese, ducks, or turkey. Some form of Indian corn was served and probably supplemented with fish, lobster, clams, nuts, wheat flour, pumpkin, squash, carrots, and peas.  They were true seasonal eaters and it was harvest time.

Was The First Thanksgiving The True Thanksgiving?

Although the 1621 Plimoth Thanksgiving is thought of as the first Thanksgiving, it was really a harvest celebration. The first “real” Thanksgiving didn’t happen until two centuries later. (In the 17th century a day of Thanksgiving was actually a day of fasting.)

What is known about the three day Plimoth gathering comes from a letter written by Edward Winslow, a leader of the Plimoth Colony in 1621.  It had been lost for 200 years and was rediscovered in the 1800s.

In 1841 Alexander Young, a Boston publisher, printed Winslow’s description of the feast and called it the “First Thanksgiving,” which caught on.

In 1863 President Lincoln declared Thanksgiving Day a national holiday. The current date for the observance of Thanksgiving, the fourth Thursday of November, was established in 1941 by President Franklin Roosevelt.

Are You Using The Holidays As An Excuse To (Over)Eat?

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Gotta have the Christmas cookies, the candied yams, the stuffing with pecans, both pumpkin and pecan pies, the peanut brittle, eggnog, and whatever else your particular holiday, culture, and family traditions dictate.

Really???

Ask yourself why.  Are your groaning table and edible holiday delights really because of tradition – or, in part, an excuse to surround yourself with the food you love and want to eat?

There is nothing wrong with tradition and wanting to share your memories and love through food.

Are Holidays An Excuse To (Over)Eat?

The big question to ask yourself is:  am I really sharing/holding to tradition and memories of the season – or am I using the holidays as an excuse to make and eat a whole lot of food that I really would prefer not to eat – or eat in such quantity?

Most people who know me also know that I bake really good Christmas cookies – for a lot of events, not just Christmas.  I baked them for a party for my son’s July wedding (not a Christmas tree in sight) and as I brought them out there was a chorus of “Christmas cookies” from his friends who have eaten them many times before.  Didn’t matter that it was July.  The recipe was the same, they tasted the same, and they came from my kitchen.

What’s my point?  I love baking these cookies, and I love sharing them.  There are a whole host of emotions wrapped around these cookies.

I also know that I love eating them.  Have I ever used an occasion as an excuse to bake them – even though things would have been fine without the cookies?  You bet I have.

Why?  I love those cookies.  I love to eat them.  I love to eat the dough (I’m really not endorsing that – It’s a bad habit and the dough does have raw egg in it).

The bottom line is that I end up eating hundreds of calories – delicious, but not healthy ones – that I certainly don’t need.  And, even though I’m sharing what I consider to be “a little bit of love from my kitchen,” I still, very frequently, use the holiday or the event as an excuse.

Some Helpful Hints

I’m certainly not advocating giving up baking Christmas cookies or whatever your specialty or tradition is.  What I am suggesting is that you ask yourself the reason for doing so.  Recognize and be mindful of your reasons.

  • If you do make your specialty – plan for it.  Make it and then keep it out of sight (out of mind).  Eat it with everyone else – not in a constant stream of tasting and little snatches from the fridge or cupboard.
  • Store your amazing food out of sight and, hopefully, out of mind.  Far away, too.  Usually if we have to work to get food it may take some of the desire out of it.  So store the food in the basement or someplace out of the kitchen.
  • Leftovers?  Send them home with your family and friends.  I’ve fed lots of college dorms and offices with my leftovers.  Freeze them and store them in the back of the freezer where you can’t see them (although I can attest that frozen Christmas cookies are great – my sons once ate a whole container of them out of my downstairs freezer without my knowing about it.  Had to bake another batch before Christmas dinner.)

Traditions are important and food is nurturing.  Traditions, family, and holidays can also be stressful.  Cook away if that’s your pleasure. Just ask yourself if you are using holidays, traditions, guests, and family as excuses to (over)eat.