Three Foods to Skip this Spring and

Summer

Of course at this time of year we’re in luck; there is a lot of fresh and local produce available right in our own back yard. Fruits salads and grilled veggie kabobs abound at many barbecues.  However spring parties and summer barbecues are also rife with foods loaded with calories from sugar and fat. Here are a few foods to avoid, or at least limit, at your next warm weather get together.
 
1. Chips
Skip the chips. Potato, tortilla, cheddar; all these snack foods are really just adding refined carbohydrates, fat and salt to your meal. Skip the chip is the tip here because as the ad says, it really is hard to eat just one. Have you ever looked at the serving size recommended on the back of the bag of chips?  The serving is often one ounce, which is really hard to eyeball. Another factor that makes it hard to know what an appropriate size is, is that at warm weather parties like BBQs and cook-outs, chips are served in an over-sized bowl. Taking helpings from a very large bowl has been proven to increase serving size.
 
2.Ice Cream
Ice cream every now and again (fewer than once per week) is a great summertime treat. It’s fun, social and tasty. However, noshing on this dessert every day will catch up with you very quickly. Ice cream is made from heavy cream, sugar and flavoring. We already know that sugar is a source of empty calories and is surely a “sometimes” food, but cream is should most definitely be on the “sometimes list”. Heavy cream is full of calories, mostly from fat, a lot of them, saturated. Saturated fat is one biggest contributors to heart disease development.  The American Heart Association recommends consuming, at most, 7% of calories from saturated fat. This means that for those on a 2000 calorie diet, no more than 15.5 grams should come from saturated fat. One cup of plain vanilla ice cream has 8 grams, more than half of what you need for the day.
 
3. Sugary Cocktails
With a regular beer coming in at about 150 calories in a bottle, you can be sure that the fancier warm weather drinks will be packing quite the caloric wallop.  Here’s an idea of how many calories are in some favorite summer drinks: Margarita, 370 calories in eight ounces; Mojito, 340 calories in eight ounces and a Pina colada with 440 calories in 8 ounces and (4 grams of saturated fat).  The best bet is stopping at one drink, or not starting at all when it comes to these liquid calories.