Super Bowl food

Want to Burn Off Some Calories From All That Super Bowl Food?

February 5, 2017 By Penny Klatell, PhD, RN Leave a Comment

Will you be watching the big game? Maybe you’re more interested in the food than the game. Either way, according to the Calorie Control Council, the average game watcher chows down on about 1,200 calories worth of food and snacks on game day – Super Bowl Sunday is the second biggest eating day (right behind Thanksgiving).

Here are some exercises (some a little wacky) to burn off the game day food overload. The numbers are just estimates – there’s always a wide variety of calories in foods depending on who makes them and who dishes them out. And, people come in all different sizes, shapes, and metabolisms meaning that everyone burns off calories at a different rate.

The Exercises

Running at a 6 mile per hour pace (10 minute mile) for a little under two hours will burn off about 1200 calories
Pumping it out on an elliptical trainer for two hours – or doing seven hours of Pilates will also burn off around 1200 calories as will swimming or spinning (cycling) for two and a half hours.
Drinking six bottles of Budweiser beer means needing to do “The Wave” 4, 280 times.

One KFC extra crispy drumstick and an extra crispy chicken breast will require 203 end zone touchdown dances.
A serving of Applebee’s chili cheese nachos would mean 159 minutes of playing non-stop professional football.
Eating ten Lay’s classic potato chips with Kraft French onion dip means you have to dance to Madonna for 134 minutes.

You’ll need a full hour of performing in a marching band to burn off a jalapeno popper made with cream cheese, cheddar cheese and bacon.

To eradicate the calories in one deviled egg you’d need 12 continuous minutes of cheerleading.

One pig in a blanket (mini hot dog wrapped in dough) has about 66 calories. To burn off a serving of three you’d need to play catch for 68 minutes.

Enjoy the food. Enjoy the game.

Food and the Super Bowl

February 2, 2017 By Penny Klatell, PhD, RN Leave a Comment

Super Bowl Food Trivia

Super Bowl 51 is this Sunday. Even though professional football — as we know it – has been around since 1920, the first Super Bowl only dates back to January 1967.

Super Bowl Sunday certainly has the trappings of a holiday both in the US and in many expat communities. It’s the most watched annual television program in the US and ranks second (Thanksgiving is first) as the day for most food consumption. Over 20 million Americans attend Super Bowl parties and half of all Americans say they would rather go to a Super Bowl party than to a New Year’s Eve party.

It’s amazing how food has become associated with football — from tailgating to food for the game. Think of all the hand to mouth munching on chips, dips, and wings; a swig or two or three; a cookie here and there. And then there’s the “real food” at halftime – or maybe there’s pizza first followed by a selection of subs. By the end of the game do you have a clue about how much – or even what — you have popped into your mouth?

Super Bowl Food Facts

About one in twenty (9 million) Americans watch the game at a restaurant or a bar.
Americans double their average daily consumption of snacks on Super Bowl Sunday, downing more than 33 million pounds in one day.
The average Super Bowl watcher consumes 1,200 calories. Overall, potato chips are the favorite munchie and, in total, account for 27 billion calories and 1.8 billion fat grams — the same as 4 million pounds of fat or equal to the weight of 13,000 NFL offensive linemen at 300 pounds each.

Nearly one in eight (13%) Americans order takeout/delivery food for the Super Bowl. The most popular choices are pizza (58%), chicken wings (50%), and subs/sandwiches (20%). Almost 70% of Super Bowl watchers eat a slice (or two or three) during the game.
The amount of chicken wings eaten clocks in at 90 million pounds or 450 million individual wings. It would take 19 chicken breasts to get the same amount of fat that you usually get from a dozen Buffalo wings.
On Super Bowl Sunday we eat an estimated 14,500 tons of potato chips, 4000 tons of tortilla chips, and eight million pounds of avocados. Five ounces of nacho cheese Doritos is equal to around 700 calories. You’d have to run the length of 123 football fields to burn them off. You’d have to eat 175 baby carrots or 700 celery sticks to get the same number of calories.
According to 7-eleven, sales of antacids increase by 20% on the day after Super Bowl.
Pizza restaurants love Super Bowl Sunday – it’s their busiest day of the year, according to the National Restaurant Association. Papa John’s, Pizza Hut, and Domino’s sell twice as many pies as they do on any other day. Domino’s expects to sell 11 million slices.

The Hass Avocado Board predicts that over Super Bowl weekend approximately100 million pounds of guacamole will be eaten – and approximately 14,500 tons of chips are used to scoop it up.
About 2 million cases of beer are sold every year for Super Bowl – which might explain why 6% of Americans call in sick for work the next day.

Some Exercise Ideas To Burn Off Super Bowl Party Food Calories

February 6, 2016 By Penny Klatell, PhD, RN Leave a Comment

Exercises to burn off Super Bowl calories

The Exercises

Running at a 6 mile per hour pace (10 minute mile) for a little under two hours will burn off about 1200 calories
Pumping it out on an elliptical trainer for two hours – or doing seven hours of Pilates will also burn off around 1200 calories as will swimming or spinning (cycling) for two and a half hours.
Drinking six bottles of Budweiser beer means needing to do “The Wave” 4, 280 times.

One KFC extra crispy drumstick and an extra crispy chicken breast will require 203 end zone touchdown dances.
A serving of Applebee’s chili cheese nachos would mean 159 minutes of playing non-stop professional football.
Eating ten Lay’s classic potato chips with Kraft French onion dip means you have to dance to Madonna for 134 minutes.

You’ll need a full hour of performing in a marching band to burn off a jalapeno popper made with cream cheese, cheddar cheese and bacon.

To eradicate the calories in one deviled egg you’d need 12 continuous minutes of cheerleading.

One pig in a blanket (mini hot dog wrapped in dough) has about 66 calories. To burn off a serving of three you’d need to play catch for 68 minutes.

Enjoy the game — enjoy the party — enjoy the food!

Super Bowl Food Trivia

February 2, 2016 By Penny Klatell, PhD, RN Leave a Comment

Professional football — as we know it – has been around since 1920, but the first Super Bowl, the annual championship of the National Football League (NFL), only dates back to January 1967.

It’s amazing how food has become associated with football — from tailgating to the food for the game. Think of all the hand to mouth munching on chips, dips, and wings; a swig or two or three; a cookie here and there. And then there’s the “real food” at halftime – or maybe there was pizza first followed by a selection of subs. By the end of the game do you have a clue about how much – or even what — you have popped into your mouth?

Super Bowl Food Facts

About one in twenty (9 million) Americans watch the game at a restaurant or a bar.
Americans double their average daily consumption of snacks on Super Bowl Sunday, downing more than 33 million pounds in one day.
The average Super Bowl watcher consumes 1,200 calories. Potato chips are the favorite munchie and account for 27 billion calories and 1.8 billion fat grams — the same as 4 million pounds of fat or equal to the weight of 13,000 NFL offensive linemen at 300 pounds each.

Nearly one in eight (13%) Americans order takeout/delivery food for the Super Bowl. The most popular choices are pizza (58%), chicken wings (50%), and subs/sandwiches (20%). Almost 70% of Super Bowl watchers eat a slice (or two or three) during the game.
The amount of chicken wings eaten clocks in at 90 million pounds or 450 million individual wings. It would take 19 chicken breasts to get the same amount of fat that you usually get from a dozen Buffalo wings.
On Super Bowl Sunday Americans eat an estimated 14,500 tons of potato chips, 4000 tons of tortilla chips, and eight million pounds of avocados. Five ounces of nacho cheese Doritos is equal to around 700 calories. You’d have to run the length of 123 football fields to burn them off. You’d have to eat 175 baby carrots or 700 celery sticks to get the same number of calories.
According to 7-eleven, sales of antacids increase by 20% on the day after Super Bowl.
Pizza restaurants love Super Bowl Sunday – it’s their busiest day of the year, according to the National Restaurant Association. Papa John’s, Pizza Hut, and Domino’s sell twice as many pies as they do on any other day. Domino’s expects to sell 11 million slices.
The Hass Avocado Board predicts that over Super Bowl weekend approximately100 million pounds of guacamole will be eaten – and approximately 14,500 tons of chips are used to scoop it up.
About 2 million cases of beer are sold every year for Super Bowl – which might explain why 6% of Americans call in sick for work the next day.

Super Bowl and Food: What Will You Be Eating?

January 29, 2016 By Penny Klatell, PhD, RN Leave a Comment

Super Bowl and Food

It’s amazing how food has become associated with football — from tailgating to Super Bowl parties to the selection of food sold in stadiums. Where there’s football there also seems to be many opportunities to eat, often mindlessly.

Even when you’re surrounded by a smorgasbord of highly caloric, fatty, salty, and sweet foods there are plenty of opportunities for eating deliciously well if you are a bit more mindful about your choices.

Some common Super Bowl food

Tostada with guacamole: 2 pieces (9.3 oz), 360 calories, 23g fat, 32g carbs, 12g protein
Salsa: 1 tablespoon 4 calories, .04g fat, 1g carbs, .2g protein
Nacho flavored tortilla chips, reduced fat: 1 oz, 126 calories, 4g fat, 20g carbs, 2g protein
Regular Nacho flavored tortilla chips: 1oz, 141 calories, 7g fat, 18g carbs, 1g protein
Potato chips: 1oz, 152 calories, 10g fat, 15g carbs, 2g protein
Potato chips, reduced fat: 1 oz, 134 calories, 6g fat, 19g carbs, 2g protein
Raw baby carrots: 1 medium, 4 calories, 0 fat, .8g carbs, 0 protein
Pizza with cheese: 1 slice (1/8 of a 12” pie), 140 calories, 3g fat, 20g carbs, 8g protein
Pizza, pepperoni: 1 slice (1/8 12” pie), 181 calories, 7g fat, 20g carbs, 10g protein
Grilled chicken breast: one 4.2 oz breast, 180 calories, 4g fat, 0 carbs, 35g protein
KFC Fiery hot Buffalo wing: one 1oz wing, 80 calories, 5g fat, g carbs, 4g protein
KFC extra crispy drumstick: one 2oz piece, 150 calories, 6g carbs, 11g protein
Chili (Wendy’s, with saltine crackers): 8 oz, 187 calories, 6g fat, 19g carbs, 14g protein
Wheat bread: 1 slice, .9 oz., 65 calories, 1g fat,, 12g carbs, 2g protein
Italian combo on ciabatta (Panera): 1 sandwich, 1lb. 7 oz, 1050 calories, 47g fat, 94g carbs, 61g protein
Subway 6g of fat or less turkey breast & ham on wheat sandwich: 8.3oz, 296 calories, 4g fat, 48g carbs, 19g protein
Chocolate chip cookie: 2-1/4” from refrigerated dough. 59 calories, 3g fat, 8g carbs, .6g protein
Chocolate ice cream, Cold Stone Creamery: 5oz (like it), 326 calories, 20g fat, 33g carbs, 5g protein
Apple: medium, 95 calories, .4g fat, 25g carbs, .5g protein

If You Want To Save Some Calories …

Stick with grilled meat, veggies, or baked chips rather than fried. Turkey, baked ham, and grilled chicken are better choices than wings and fried chicken.
Plain bread, pitas, or wraps are less caloric than biscuits or cornbread.
Go for salsa and skip the guacamole. Guacamole is made with healthy avocados, but is quite high in calories. You can always alternate guacamole and salsa, too.
Minimize calories by dipping chicken wings into hot sauce instead of Buffalo or Blue Cheese sauce.
Try using celery for crunch and as a dipper instead of chips.
Go for thin crust rather than thick doughy crust pizza. Choose the slices with vegetables, not pepperoni or meatballs. If you’re not embarrassed, try blotting up the free-floating oil that sits on top of a greasy slice (soak up even a teaspoon of oil saves you 40 calories and 5 grams of fat).
Cut your slice of pizza in half. When you go back for seconds, eat the second half. You’ll feel like you’re eating two slices, but you’re eating only one.
Try fruit for dessert – or have just one cookie or a small piece of pie – leave some of the crust on your plate. Home made pie crust has around 150 calories (single crust pie), so leaving some pie crust on your plate can save you some significant calories.
Alcohol adds calories and dulls your mindful eating. Try alternating water or diet soda with beer or alcohol. That can decrease your alcohol calories (alcohol has 7 calories/gram) by 50%.
Put your food on a plate rather than constantly picking, it’s a form of portion control. And step back from the buffet. If you can’t reach out and grab it and you can’t see it, you won’t eat it.