Look for healthful alternatives at this weekend's Super Bowl party.

We admit that we attend Super Bowl parties mostly for the company, and the main bowl that holds our interest contains salty snacks. Thanksgiving is the only day that tops Super Bowl Sunday in American calorie consumption, and that includes four million pounds of fat from potato chips alone.

According to Dawn Jackson Blatner, R.D., L.D.N., spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association and author of The Flexitarian Diet (McGraw-Hill, 2008), an average woman can easily consume more calories than needed for an entire day during a Super Bowl party: To wit, two slices of cheese pizza, a half-cup of nuts, 15 nachos, two bottles of beer and one cookie add up to 1,900 calories. Following are a few of Blatner’s tips for keeping an eye on your calorie count while watching the New Orleans Saints play the Indianapolis Colts during Super Bowl XLIV.

• Go the distance. If you’re hosting the party, keep food off the tables near the television, where mindless grazing tends to occur. Put the spread in the kitchen or dining room, so guests have to get up to get seconds and thirds. Whether attending or hosting, socialize away from the food table. “The farther you are from it, the less you will eat,” Blatner says.
• Don’t nibble straight from the buffet table. “Putting food on a plate helps you take a mental snapshot of what you are eating so you can be more conscious and mindful,” she says.
• Present alternatives to calorie-heavy foods. Order a veggie thin-crust pizza instead of a deep dish pizza loaded with cheese and meat. Instead of serving regular chicken wings, put wing sauce on skinless chicken drumsticks to cut down on fat. Thick, delicious dips can be made with plain lowfat yogurt instead of sour cream or mayonnaise. In addition to chips, offer jimica, carrots and cucumbers cut into chip shapes. Use lean beef in chili, and replace half of the meat with beans. Also serve hot lowfat bean dip instead of melted cheese dip. Beans are filled with fiber and protein, so guests will become full more quickly than when dunking chips into cheese.
• Drink wisely. Twelve ounces of beer contains about 150 calories, and those drinkable calories can really add up, Blatner says. Opt instead for a lite beer with about 100 calories per serving. “Beer also causes people to have the munchies and eat more,” she says. Follow every alcoholic drink with two waters or club sodas to offset alcohol calories.

Below is Blatner’s recipe for a healthful take on chips and dip. For more ideas, check out Blatner’s recipes on her website.

Plantain Chips with Bean Dip
3 plantains (choose black-yellow skins, which are softer and sweeter than green)
Cooking spray
Salt and pepper, to taste
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 clove garlic, minced
1 jalapeño pepper, seeded and minced with garlic press
¼ cup chopped yellow onion
1 can (16 ounces) pinto beans
1 plum tomato, finely chopped

For chips: Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees. Cut plantains on bias to ¼”-½” thick chips. Mist cookie sheet and plantains with cooking spray so they don’t stick and to enhance browning. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Bake for 20 minutes and then finish under broiler for about 8 minutes until golden.

For dip: Sauté oil, garlic, jalapeño and onion for 2 minutes. Add pinto beans (undrained) for additional 5 minutes. Take off heat, stir in tomatoes, and mash ingredients until chunky-smooth. Garnish dip with finely chopped yellow onion and tomato.

Makes 8 servings.

NUTRITION SCORE (per serving)
150 calories
12% fat
Fat 2 g
Carbs 31 g
Protein 4 g
Fiber 4.4 g
Calcium 29 mg
Iron 1.3 mg
Sodium 170 mg

A day of mindless grazing can definitely derail a healthy diet. Do you try to rein in your snacking on Super Bowl Sunday or is this the day you give your inner nutrition referee the day off?

Photo credit: Sean Locke

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