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How Many Teaspoons Of Sugar Are In Raisins?

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Who hasn’t grabbed one of those small red boxes of raisins?  They’re a great portable snack – or are they?

Raisins are dried grapes.  The good news is that raisins are very low in saturated fat, cholesterol and sodium. They’re about 3.5% dietary fiber and 3% protein by weight.

The bad news is that a large portion of the calories in raisins comes from sugars.  By weight raisins range from about 67% to 72% sugars – mostly glucose and fructose.

Nutrition Info

A teeny mini box of raisins (.5 oz) has 42 calories, 0g fat, 11g carbs, and 0g protein.  This is the carb equivalent of about a little under 3 teaspoons of sugar.

A small box (1.5 oz) has 129 calories, 0g fat, 34g carbs, 1g protein.  This is the carb equivalent of around 8 and ½ teaspoons of sugar.

One serving of California raisins is ¼ cup and 130 calories and contains less than 2% of the Recommended Daily Intake (RDI) of Vitamins A and C and traces of thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, pantothenic, Vitamin B6, folate, Vitamin E, Vitamin K, and 81mg of iron.

Think About This

Raisins have a lot of good things going for them – but they’re very high in sugar.

Think of it this way: one teaspoon of granulated sugar equals 4 grams of sugar; 4 teaspoons of granulated sugar is equal to 16 grams of sugar; 8 teaspoons of sugar is equal to about 32 grams of sugar.

If you’re grabbing handfuls of raisins from the container to eat as a snack – or dumping an equally large handful on your cereal — you may be adding a lot more sugar and calories than you realize.

How Many Calories Are You Putting Into Your Coffee?

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How do you like your coffee?  Black, light and sweet, regular?

Coffee Calories Can Sneak Up On You

Black brewed coffee has around two calories in an eight ounce cup. Not a bad deal for a nice, hot beverage.

What a lot of us fail to realize is how many calories are in the stuff we put into our coffee.

Here’s Some Caloric Stats

Half and half; 2 tablespoons (1/8 cup):  40 calories

Whole milk; 2 tablespoons:  18 calories

2% (low fat) milk; 2 tablespoons:  14 calories

Non-fat milk; 2 tablespoons:  11 calories

Sugar; 1 teaspoon:  16 calories

What Do You Put Into Your Coffee?

How much milk or half and half do you put into your coffee?  We all do a freehand pour.  Try measuring how much you pour and you might be surprised.

How much sugar do you add?

How many times a day do you drink coffee?

Add This Up

Say you have three grande (Starbuck’s) – or large (Dunkin donuts) – size coffees a day.  Each is 20 ounces or 2.5 times the size of a traditional 8 ounce cup.

If you add 4 tablespoons of half and half and three teaspoons of sugar to each that’s:

  • 128 calories for the additives and around 5 calories for the coffee for a total of 133 calories for each grande/large cup of coffee.
  • Have three of those and that’s 399 calories a day of coffee your way.
  • Do that every day for a year and that’s the equivalent of 145,635 calories a year or 41.61 pounds (add a little over a tenth of a pound in a leap year)!

Of course not everyone will drink this amount of coffee with this amount of half and half and sugar.  But, it does make you stop and think about how many calories you really are putting into your coffee.

Frosted Flakes: Do They Really Put A Tiger In Your Tank?

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I was having breakfast with a five year old who insisted on taking an individual box of Frosted Flakes from a display. Of course she would, the little box is designed to appeal to a child.

I’m not a cold cereal lover, but I have been known to grab a handful or two of those sugar coated flakes when they are sitting in front of me (without milk – it destroys the crunch).

Because I haven’t had a box of Frosted Flakes in front of me for a long time and I like to think of myself as an informed adult, I picked up the cute little royal blue box with Tony the Tiger on the front to read the nutrition and ingredients labels.

What a shocker.  I knew that Kellogg’s Sugar Frosted Flakes of Corn was not nutritionally stellar – but what a shock to read the front of the box hype and then to look at the labels.

Sugar Frosted Flakes

The cereal, first introduced in 1952 as Sugar Frosted Flakes, is described as sweet and crunchy and “packed with 10 essential vitamins and good-for-you grains that give you the great-tasting energy you need.”  The tagline reads: “It’s what fuels you up so you can play, prep and be your very best.”

Take a peek at the nutrition label.  Notice the amount of protein and fiber (or, essentially, lack of).  How much sugar is there? Look at the ingredients label.What are the first five ingredients?

My youngest son once ate an astonishing double digit number of little boxes of Frosted Flakes, without milk, at summer sleep-away camp – a story first told to me by his brothers and validated by the counselors.  Can you imagine what his behavior must have been like that day on a massive sugar overload from breakfast cereal? No wonder the camp changed its breakfast policy – and its breakfast foods!

Is it time to change your breakfast?

Road Trip? Why Not Roadmap Your Miles And Your Meals?

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Planning a road trip?  You know that you’re going to have to stop for a snack or a meal along the way.  Do you leave your food choices to chance?

I drive a lot.  I have three long road trips coming up in the next month. I know that I’m going to stop for a snack or meal —  either because I need gas; I’m bored, stiff, and tired; I’m hungry – or any combination of the above; and, quite frankly, because I love rest stops and truck stops.

The lure of a rest stop can be hard to pass up when you’ve been sitting in the car for hours on end. You walk in and you’re assaulted by an array of vending machines, candy racks, fast food, donuts, coffee, and every bottled drink under the sun. You’re a captive consumer (there’s probably no other place around that you know of to stop other than the roadside rest stop, truck stop, or gas station) – and, you crave something to:

  • Keep you energized and awake
  • Ease the boredom
  • Reward you for endless hours of driving (especially of you have complaining or fighting kids with you)
  • Bring back memories of summer road trip food you had when you were a kid (as a parent I can admit that you often give in and buy all kinds of stuff for your kids because they’re driving you crazy)

The Trap And The Danger

An endless stream of high carb, high fat, high calorie, and processed food is just begging you to plunk down your money so you can immediately indulge (watch how many people start eating the food they’ve bought before they even pay) or to take with you (in case there’s a pending famine).

The real danger – aside from the damage to your waistline – is that the high carb processed foods spike then crash your blood sugar — which ends up making you really tired and cranky.  Drowsy drivers are most definitely not safe drivers.

Cranky drivers make life miserable for everyone in the car – not a great tone to set if you’re going on vacation.

Some Ideas

  • It may take away some of the road trip spontaneity, but when you pack up your car pack some food, too.  Fill a cooler with water, fruit, yogurt, sandwiches, whatever you think you will eat and that will keep you alert and energized (aim for some complex carbs and protein).  Why not throw in some portion sized bags of nuts and popcorn, too?  Planning ahead means you’re not at the mercy of the vending machines and racks and racks of candy, chips, and baked goods.
  • Use an app or your GPS to find nearby restaurants as you drive through various communities. A little searching can help you find places with healthier options than you might find at a rest stop. This can be really helpful for anyone with allergies or special dietary requirements.
  • If you haven’t done either of the above and just want to play it by ear – or pit stop – at least have your own mental list of some good, better, and best choices of food to buy.  The danger is that the candy, chips, fries, and donuts call your name the minute you walk in the door.  If you know that you’re going to head straight for the nuts, or popcorn, or even a burger, that’s great, as long as the giant chocolate chip cookie and the bargain 32 ounce soda for 99 cents doesn’t grab you first. Try to decide what you’re going to buy (hopefully, a good choice) before you go in – and then stick to your decision.

Enjoy your road trips.

Don’t You Wonder What They Taste Like?

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I spotted these at a bakery in Chelsea Market in New York City.

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?