I’m always wary of stories with headlines like 7 Foods Under 100 Calories You’ll Love. Normally those lists involve mostly foods I don’t like to eat, such as nuts.
A fun snack, although I don’t find it filling at all given its high water content.
But this list from LoseIt! actually has six things I do like to snack on — six out of seven, not bad. The only loser for me is hard-boiled eggs.
The rest — cherry tomatoes, yogurt, edamame, oranges, popcorn and watermelon, are all items I turn to when I don’t want to eat junk food.
Watch for them on sale at your local supermarket and then try them. Pints of cherry tomatoes and watermelon cups tend to be on sale regularly where I live, for example.
Movie popcorn, loaded with fake butter and salt, was a staple of mine prior to my angioplasty in August 2012. Is it any wonder my arteries clogged? My wife and I tend to see movies every week, and in the past we routinely split a large AMC popcorn while doing so.
A large AMC popcorn has 1,030 calories and 580 mgs of sodium. And that’s before adding the fake butter which accounts for another 20 calories per cup of popcorn, or 320 calories more given that a large popcorn has 16 cups of popcorn. What’s worse is the saturated fat in that bag, about 60 grams before adding toppings. Those were the days my friend…these days I stay away from movie popcorn.
I have not eaten any popcorn at the movies since last August. But this past weekend, when we went to a Regal Theater and got a coupon for a free small popcorn when we purchased our tickets. I couldn’t resist, so we got a bag, put nothing additional on it, and split it. A small bag has roughly 370 calories, 210 mgs of sodium and about 10 grams of saturated fat, or a days worth on my 40 grams of fat a day diet. So technically I could have that half bag.
But that said, I don’t plan to buy it any time soon. That little bit made me long for the topping we did not add, and the flavored salts we once used. So better to stay away entirely. A taste of something is more trouble than it’s worth to me these days.
If you’re facing similar diet restraints, know yourself. If you can have a bite now and then of foods you once loved without going off your diet, enjoy. If you’re like me though and need to go cold turkey on such offerings, by all means do so. John
The No Salt, No Fat, No Sugar Journal 