weight management

Mayonnaise-Based Salads Can Have Over The Top Calories

June 18, 2013 By Penny Klatell, PhD, RN Leave a Comment

Are you a mayonnaise hater or a mayonnaise lover?

Sometimes the mayonnaise haters love mayonnaise-based salads – so it’s either a “head thing,” being put off by the mouth feel of mayonnaise, or being turned off by the custardy baby food look of plain mayo.

Mayonnaise, a thick and creamy emulsion of oil, egg yolk, and either vinegar or lemon juice, is loaded with calories. Regardless of where you stand on the love it or hate it meter, it’s still the go-to dressing/binder for the staples of summer picnics, barbecues, and parties: potato, egg, tuna, and macaroni salads.

What Is Mayonnaise?

US law requires that commercial mayonnaise contain at least 65% oil by weight (of course reduced-fat and fat-free mayonnaise don’t have to meet the same requirement).

Reduced fat mayonnaise, with a fat content of less than 65%, isn’t actually considered real mayonnaise and usually contains modified food starch, cellulose gel, and other thickeners and emulsifiers. Regular Hellmann’s contains: soybean oil, water, whole eggs, egg yolks,vinegar, salt, sugar, lemon juice, calcium disodium EDTA and natural flavors.

With such a high fat content, it stands to reason that mayonnaise isn’t a low calorie food. One tablespoon (considered a serving) of Hellmann’s mayonnaise has about 90 calories. A tablespoon of Hellmann’s light mayo has 40 calories. A mayonnaise packet (14g) – like you get in fast food places and delis has about 100 calories and 14g of fat.

Mayonnaise-Based Salads:

Add a lot of fat to other ingredients and you have something with a lot of calories. Recipes vary so calorie counts will, too – but here are the estimated calories for one cup of each salad.

Home prepared potato salad: 358 calories

Deli chicken salad: 500-600 calories

Deli tuna salad: around 400 calories

Macaroni salad: 400-500 calories

Calorie Savers:

You could always take just a small potion, but if you’re making the salad you have other options:

Use reduced fat mayo or fat-free mayo instead of the full fat version.

Use half mayo half non-or low fat yogurt for the dressing.

Use oil (sparingly) and vinegar instead of mayo.

Use yogurt-based dressings like Greek tzatziki (a mixture of yogurt, cucumbers, garlic).

Add mustard to lighten up and flavor the mayo or yogurt dressings. Herbs and spices can be used for flavor, too.

Smooth out the curds in cottage cheese (you can use reduced fat cottage cheese) in the blender and add herbs and spices for a lighter dressing.

Mix chopped avocado into the tuna, potatoes, or pasta for some healthy and delicious flavor. Sprinkle the avocado with lemon or lime to keep it from darkening. Adding other vegetables, too, will add volume without a lot of calories.

If you like the flavor and the ingredients use a salad dressing like Miracle Whip which doesn’t contain egg yolks and is generally sweeter than mayonnaise. While a tablespoon of full fat Hellmann’s has 90 calories, a tablespoon of full fat Miracle Whip has 40 calories and comes in “lite” and fat-free versions, too. The ingredients in Miracle Whip are: water, soybean oil, vinegar, HFCS (high fructose corn syrup), modified cornstarch, sugar, eggs, salt, natural flavor, mustard flavor, potassium sorbate, paprika, spice and dried garlic.

Nine Easy Calorie Saving Tips

June 4, 2013 By Penny Klatell, PhD, RN Leave a Comment

Are you worried about gaining weight over vacation or from eating too much at the weddings and parties you’re planning to attend?

Have a plan — It could be your saving grace. Think about how you want to handle yourself in the face of family picnics, barbecues, fresh strawberry shortcake, and ice cream cones with sprinkles.

Your plan doesn’t have to be engraved in stone but if you have an idea about how and when you’re going to eat you’ll be far less likely to nibble and nosh all day and night. You’re in charge of what goes into your mouth.

1. Make simple swaps in the food you prepare and the food you choose at parties, picnics, and restaurants. Reduce the amount of fat and calories by doing things like using skim milk instead of whole milk, applesauce in place of oil, or two-thirds or one-half of the sugar called for in a recipe. Look online for plenty of tips about swaps and substitutions. Make a horse trade or a deal with yourself that might have you avoiding the breadbasket or a pre-dinner drink if you’re going to have dessert or an ice cream cone instead of a muffin.

2. Beware of food landmines. It’s so easy to be fooled by fatty sauces and dressings on innocent looking vegetables. Vegetables are great. Veggies smothered with butter, cheese, croutons, and/or bacon are loaded with calories. Liquid calories really add up, too, and they don’t fill you up. Plan ahead of time about how many drinks you’ll have – and adjust your menu choices accordingly.

3. Let this be your mantra: no seconds. Choose your food, fill your plate, and that’s it. Keep a running account in your head of how many hors d’ oeuvre you’ve eaten or how many cookies. Keep away from food spreads at home, the beach, or at the hotel’s breakfast buffet to help limit nibbling, noshing, and replenishing.

4. Stop eating when before you’re full. If you keep eating until your stomach finally feels full you’ll likely end up feeling stuffed when you do stop eating. It takes a little time (around 20 minutes) for your brain to catch up and realize your stomach is full. A lot of eating is done with your eyes and your eyes love to tell you to try this and to try that.

5. Use a fork and knife instead of your fingers, a teaspoon rather that a tablespoon. Chopsticks slow you down even more. Chew your food instead of wolfing it down. If you have to work at eating your food – cutting with a knife for instance – you’ll eat more mindfully than if you pick food up with your fingers and pop it into your mouth. Before you eat drink some water, a no- or low-calorie beverage, or some clear soup. The liquids fill up your stomach and leave less room for the high calorie stuff. If you know you’re going to eat treats, pick one portion controlled treat to eat each day. Pick it ahead of time and commit to your choice so you don’t find yourself wavering in the face of temptation.

6. Plan ahead, commit to your plan, and don’t go to a party or event feeling ravenous. Before you go eat a small healthy snack that‘s around 150 calories with some protein and fiber: fat free yogurt and fruit, a portion controlled serving of nuts, a small piece of cheese and fruit, or a spoonful of peanut butter with a couple of whole grain crackers. Have a no-cal or low-cal drink like water, tea, or coffee, too. When you get to the party or dinner you won’t be as likely to attack the hors d’oeuvres or the breadbasket.

7. Choose your food wisely. If you can, pick lean proteins like fish, poultry, and the least fatty cuts of pork, beef, and lamb that are grilled or broiled, not fried or sautéed. Consider beans or eggs as your protein source. Load up on vegetables – preferably ones that are not smothered in cheese or dripping with oil. Eat your turkey without the skin. You can save around 200 calories at dessert by leaving the piecrust sitting on the plate. The same thing is true for ice cream toppings like hot fudge sauce and whipped cream.

8. Leave the breadbasket at the other end of the table. If you absolutely must have bread, go easy or without butter or oil. One teeny pat of butter has 36 calories, a tablespoon has 102 and 99% of them is from fat. A tablespoon of oil has about 120 calories. Would you rather have the oil or butter or a cookie for dessert or another glass of wine? Which calories will be more satisfying?

9. Keep the number of drinks under control and watch the mixers. Certain drinks are much higher in calories than others. There’s a couple of hundred calories difference between a glass of wine or beer and a good-sized margarita. Calorie free drinks would be better yet – even if you alternate you’re your alcoholic beverages you still cut your alcohol calories in half. Calories from alcohol do not fill you up.

Slow Down Your Eating And Feel Fuller – Really!

May 29, 2013 By Penny Klatell, PhD, RN Leave a Comment

Do you wolf your food down so quickly that it’s gone before you realize you’ve eaten it all – and you’re left still hungry and staring at an empty plate?

Slow down when you eat!

People who eat quickly eat more calories than they would if they ate a bit more slowly. People who eat more slowly also feel fuller.

Why Does Slow Eating Make A Difference?

A recent study showed that hormones that give you feelings of fullness, or satiety, are more pronounced when people eat slowly. Subjects given identical servings of ice cream released more of these hormones when they ate it in 30 minutes instead of 5 minutes.

It leads to eating less, too. People who ate at a slow pace compared to when they chowed down very quickly said they were fuller and ending up eating about 10 percent fewer calories.

Twenty Minutes Or Less

Americans start and finish their meals — and clear the table — in less than 20 minutes. A study published in the journal Appetite, found that people eating lunch by themselves in a fast food restaurant finish in 11 minutes. They finish in13 minutes in a workplace cafeteria and in 28 minutes at a moderately priced restaurant. Eating with three other people takes about twice as long – which can still end up being a really short chunk of time.

Once again, Moms around the world are right – slow down when you eat. (Doesn’t that often go with don’t grab?) Slowing down allows you and your brain to register a feeling of fullness and may even mean that you eat fewer calories. You might even have time to really taste and enjoy your food, too.

This is the last week of the lose 5 pounds in 5 weeks challenge. How are you doing? Let us know on Facebook — and give Eat Out Eat Well a “like” while you’re there.

7 Ways To Cut Down On Pizza Calories

May 28, 2013 By Penny Klatell, PhD, RN 4 Comments

Have you had “a slice” recently? If you did, consider it one of the 46 slices that American men, women, and children eat, on average, in a year.

We eat a lot of pizza:

94% of Americans eat pizza regularly

Pizzerias represent 17% of all restaurants and pizza accounts for more than 10% of all food service sales

5 billion pizzas are sold worldwide each year; 3 billion pizzas are sold in the US each year

Kids 3 to 11 prefer pizza over other food groups for both lunch and dinner

In the US, 61% prefer regular thin crust, 14% prefer deep-dish, and 11% prefer extra thin crust

62% of Americans prefer meat toppings; 38% prefer vegetables

36% order pizza topped with pepperoni

What’s Good, What’s Not-So-Good?

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 vary enormously.

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.

The not so good news: fat and calories. If your mouth starts 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.

Mall Pizza Can Be Okay — And Not Okay

Sbarro’s Low Carb Cheese Pizza has 310 calories and 14 grams of fat.

Sbarro’s Low Carb Sausage/Pepperoni Pizza has 560 calories and 35 grams of fat.

A slice of Sbarro’s 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.

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 fat.

Build a Better Slice of Pizza

Although we all have our 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 a thick doughy or deep dish crust.
Resist the urge to ask for double cheese — better yet, go light on the cheese or use reduced-fat cheese (if they have it).
Ask for a pizza without cheese but topped with veggies and a little olive oil. You can always sprinkle on a little grated parmesan – 1 tablespoon has 22 calories — for flavor.
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 — a lot of flavor for minimal calories – but you have to like them!
Choose vegetable toppings instead of meat (think about the fat content in sausage, pepperoni, and meatballs) and you might shave 100 calories from your meal. Pile on veggies like mushrooms, peppers, olives, tomatoes, onion, broccoli, spinach, and asparagus. Some places have salad pizza – great if it’s not loaded with oil.
Order a salad (careful with the dressing) on the side and cut down on the amount of pizza. Salad takes longer to eat, too.
If you’re willing (and not embarrassed or grossed out), try blotting up 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.

This is the fifth week of the lose 5 pounds in 5 weeks challenge. How are you doing? Let us know on Facebook — and remember to “Like” Eat Out Eat Well when you’re there! Visit Eat Out Eat Well’s boards on Pinterest, too.

Eat More: Add In Healthy Food To “Crowd Out” The Less Healthy Food

May 24, 2013 By Penny Klatell, PhD, RN Leave a Comment

Eat more food. But make it the healthy kind. Think about adding vegetables, fruit, and some whole grains into your diet rather that focusing on what you shouldn’t eat and what you should take out.

We’ve all had the kind of day when it seems that your stomach is a bottomless pit and you can’t stop eating everything in sight. But the amount of food your body can take in is not infinite. At some point you simply have to stop eating.

When you load up on fruit, veggies, and whole intact grains that are rich in fiber and nutrients you help to displace — or “crowd out” — some of the foods in your diet that are higher in fat, sugar, and calories. And, as a bonus, you get the incredible benefits of all of the antioxidants and phytochemicals in the rainbow of produce that you add, plus the additional fiber to help keep you full.

Some Crowding Out Tips

If you fill your body with healthy, nutrient-dense food, you’ll find that your cravings for unhealthy foods will naturally decrease.

Try drinking a lot of water and eating whole food that’s naturally stocked with nutrients earlier in the day. It will help crowd out potential cravings later on in the day.

Think outside the box, too. You don’t have to focus on adding side dishes of vegetables or fruit salad for dessert. Add veggies into your main dish – plump up burgers, meatloaf, or meatballs with chopped vegetables and/or some whole grains. Add cauliflower to mac and cheese. Mix fruit into your yogurt or oatmeal or use it as a topping for chicken or fish. Get creative!