Food Swaps for Healthier Super Bowl Sunday

31 Jan Food Swaps for Healthier Super Bowl Sunday

Swap your pizza crust for whole wheat tortilla, from Huff Post Healthy Living

Super Bowl Sunday. A great day to watch the new TV you bought on deep sale this week. A great day to end the cleanse you were on in preparation for the binge. But what if you could gorge with impunity and not experience buyer’s remorse the next day when you step on the scale? I found these helpful hints for food swaps in Huff Post Healthy Living. GO BRONCOS!

“Traditional Super Bowl fare — we’re talking wings, nachos, pizza, beer — isn’t exactly the type of food that would, say, fuel a body to run, throw or tackle.

It’s not just that they lack nutrition, either. We also eat a ton of ’em. Case in point: Americans eat more calories on Super Bowl Sunday than on any other day of the year, except for Thanksgiving. The Super Bowl is cause for our second-biggest gorge-fest of the year, people!

Still, it’s only once a year — and we know if you’re that big a nachos fan, there’s probably little you’ll let come between you and the queso dip. That’s why we asked Angela Ginn-Meadow, RD, LDN, CDE, spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics and Elizabeth Ward, MS, RD, author of My Plate for Moms, How to Feed Yourself & Your Family Better to let us in on a few easy tricks for making your favorite Super Bowl snacks just a little bit lighter. The best news? “Every little bit where you save some calories counts,” says Ward. “Nothing has to be super radical, no one has to sit around celery stick and carrots instead of pizza.” Well, we’re convinced! Read on for a few swaps you can incorporate this weekend and beyond.

Bake your wings instead of frying them.

The worst part of a wing, when it comes to calories, is actually the skin. While baking or broiling can certainly cut down on calories (but still keep ’em crispy), says Ginn-Meadow, you could even take it a step further and opt for a homemade chicken tender or nugget instead, says Ward. She opts for a flavorful, breaded chicken finger like her Coconut Chicken Tenders with Apricot Dijon Mustard sauce. Keep in mind, she says, that when you’re making a food swap, make it a really flavorful one, so you’ll be more satisfied.”

Continue reading here….