Superb Super Bowl Spread Hacks

Here’s a glimpse at what Americans consume on Super Bowl Sunday: 

1.3 billion chicken wings

30 million slices of pizza

325 gallons of beer

Over 9,000 tons of chips

 

Noshing is a very big deal for most people on the day of and weekend leading up to the Super Bowl. Not only can that add up to a big calorie load, but a big work load for those hosting. So here are a few tips and things to try to simplify and improve the nutrition of your Super Bowl spread.  

 

I’m always preaching produce, but this time of year can make feeding fresh produce to the crowd at your home a bit pricey.  Think about incorporating some canned produce into your appetizers, sides or other buffet items.  There is a lot of nutrition to be found in canned foods and the convenience and affordability make these tasty options a great way to up the nutrition at your super bowl buffet.  For example, try Kitchen Sink Nachos.

Next, crunchy snackable foods are a must for any game-day spread so consider offering a fun, tasty chip alternative and things can get more complicated when family and friends have all sorts of dietary needs and preferences. Snacks made from chickpeas are a healthful alternative to traditional munchies.

 

Don’t forget the main dish. For easy prep time that allows everyone to customize to their own preferences, sandwiches and sliders are a great go-to, and a deli tray can cut down your work load significantly.  So let’s revisit any prejudices on processed meats.  Prepare yourself for the permission to enjoy them again! “Processed” simply means “prepared.”  Like all meats prepared at home, processed meats are prepared at a plant – simply on a larger scale and truly all meats must be prepared before being eaten. Prepared, low-sodium deli meats like this beef provide a provide a convenient source of protein, vitamins and minerals. They also have highly bioavailable iron and zinc.

 

It’s all about visual balance and moderation.  Keep lots of water handy and visual.  Make sure that those fruit and veggie dishes are visible and handy as that is most of the battle when it comes to food choice. Just a few convenient tweaks can help lighten your load and prevent post-game food coma.  #sponsored

Get to Know the New Nutrition Facts Label

You may or may not have noticed a change creeping onto your supermarket shelves.  During the past 2 years different looking nutrition labels have been showing up in your grocery store.  It has been 20 years since the nutrition labels on food products has been redesigned, so this is a very welcome change.  Most food producers have until January 1, 2020 to completely switch over to the new label, and smaller food producers have until January 1, 2021 to make the change.  

What is new and why do we care?  The changes better reflect current science and research regarding the American diet as well as current diet habits.  For example, you’ll not see Vitamin C and Vitamin A listed, but instead you’ll see Potassium and Vitamin D.  This is because research indicates that these nutrients are more commonly lacking in the American diet.  

Things that will jump out at you will be serving size and calories.  These are now in larger bolder fonts to make them easier to identify at a glance.  Serving sizes will reflect in many cases portions typically consumed.  For example, 20 oz. beverages will now be listed as one serving per container instead of two.   

One of my favorite changes is the addition of added sugars along with a percent daily value.  On the old label, total sugars didn’t tell the whole story.  For example, a cereal such as raisin bran may strike you as a very sugary cereal if you saw only the 10 grams of total sugars.  But with the new label, you’ll see that there are only 5 grams of added sugars.  The rest of the sugars are naturally occurring in the raisins.  The same goes for dairy foods that contain the naturally occurring sugar - lactase.  

One quick tip for using %DV: 5 is low, 20 is high. Keeping that in mind, you can easily make a comparison or judgement call on a food by comparing the %DV of nutrients that are of particular interest.  It makes choosing a lower sugar, higher fiber cereal easier, it makes choosing a lower sodium soup or canned product a bit simpler. 

So while you're waiting in line at the checkout, take a minute to get acquainted with the new Nutrition Facts Label and put this simple but efffective tool to work for you.