By Dr. Madelyn Fernstrom
It’s hard to make healthy foods choices when you’re running around, and don’t have time to preplan. In the perfect world, you’d be carrying a fruit, or small protein bar, or a small bag of nuts when you need a snack. In the real world, this is much tougher.
This week, I’m going to focus on four popular destinations for snacking: the mall, the movie theatre, the ballpark, and the airport.
While healthy eating does not require snacking, it’s an eating style that many people enjoy. One or two well-spaced snacks can be a great boost for weight control, as long as you account for those EXTRA calories. A loose definition of a snack is around 125-225 calories (it can be less).
At the mall: If you’re looking for something sweet, try a small soft-serve frozen yogurt or ice milk (think Dairy Queen, McDonald’s, or I Can’t Believe It’s Yogurt). A one-cup serving is about 200 calories. Share with a friend and you’ve cut the calories in half. Skip the toppings to save calories and money. Try a bowl of vegetable or tomato soup, a filling snack at around 150 calories (skip the cream soups). A small order of steamed vegetables (sauce on the side) from an Asian fast-food restaurant is another 100-calorie choice. Adding a small scoop of brown rice to the veggies takes your total snack calories to 200.
At the movies: If you’re a movie snacker, it’s not easy! A surprisingly calorie-controlled choice is a frozen slushy. With half the calories of soda, a slushy is a drink and a frozen treat all together. For around 150 calories, you can indulge guilt-free. And you don’t have to be a kid to choose the kid’s pack. For about 210 calories, you get a fun-size candy bar, and two cups of popcorn. Add a bottled water or a diet soda and you’re all set. Avoid the “movie-sized” (giant!) bags and boxes of candy unless you’re sharing with at least two other people.
What other snacks have you found at the mall and the movies?
While we love movie theater popcorn, it's become too much of a "regular" occurrence every time we go (plus it's expensive!). So we pop our own with some of those special seasonings and bring it with small cans of diet soda or water bottles, and save getting a small popcorn for "special" occasions. It ends up becoming such mindless eating that once the movie starts, you forget you even brought your own.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing your thoughts, sounds like you have a good strategy in place!
Delete