Physical Address
304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124
Do you feel like you’re eating all the right foods, but those stubborn pounds still won’t go away? You might be blindsided by foods with hidden calories.
“People often assume that if a food is healthy, it’s also low in calories,” says Krista Maguire, RD, CSSD. “However, some trendy foods have a health halo that overshadows their true energy content.”
Even if you have the best intentions to eat healthy, you might be eating a lot of high-calorie foods without even knowing it. Here are some common calorie offenders and tips for enjoying them without overdoing it.
1. Smoothies
“Smoothies seem like a great way to add fruit to your diet, but they can be real calorie bombs if you’re not careful,” says Bonnie Taub-Dix, MA, RDN, author of Read it before eating it: you take etiquette to the table. That’s because many of them are enriched with free syrups, sorbets, and even pure table sugar.
Additionally, many store-bought smoothies are far too large (Jamba juice goes up to 28 ounces for a large!), containing the equivalent of four to six servings of fruit. It is more than anyone should eat in session.
Reduce it: Make your own smoothie from 1 cup of each fresh fruit, leafy green vegetablesand unsweetened chocolate or vanilla almond milk.
2. Nut butters
190 calories for 2 tablespoons
While nibbling on a few peanuts or almonds requires some serious chewing. Not so much for a smooth, creamy cream nut butters.
“It takes a lot less time to put a spoonful of nut butter in your mouth than it does to chew a small handful of nuts or peanuts,” says Maguire. “It’s easy to overdo it.”
Think about it: how many times have you actually distributed how many PB do you put on your toast? Many people just apply it until it looks nice.
Reduce it: You don’t have to lose your favorite nut butter, but it helps to measure it. Consider a level tablespoon for smoothies, yogurt or oatmeal and two for sandwiches.
3. Frozen yogurt
It’s possible to find some brands of frozen yogurt that are lower in calories, but other varieties provide almost as many calories as ice cream. Take, for example, most flavors of a popular channel: A cup of froyo can give you up to 400 calories, and that doesn’t include the colorful toppings that most people add.
Reduce it: Make your own frozen dessert like this homemade vanilla frozen yogurt. You will control the ingredients And calories. And if you’re going to a froyo bar to create your own combinations, be careful about the toppings you use. Although the base may be lighter in calories, the chocolate chips and gummy bears can quickly make up the difference.
4. Coffee drinks
When you’re wary of high-calorie foods, it’s easy to forget that drinks can also contribute to your daily calorie intake. Fancy lattes and coffee with cream are good examples.
“If your latte is made with whole milk or coconut milk and syrupy sweeteners, it could contain hundreds “extra hidden calories,” says Taub-Dix. “And that’s before the whipped cream topping!”
Reduce it: Order a skim milk latte and sweeten it with a pinch of cocoa powder or cinnamon. If you prefer plain coffee, try a little 2% milk instead of cream and save a few dozen calories. Or, if you’re trying to avoid dairy, opt for unsweetened almond milk, which is about 10 calories for a quarter cup.
5. Honey
“Sometimes we forget that even though Honey provides natural sugar“It’s still sugar,” Maguire says. In fact, this liquid sweetener has a third more calories than regular table sugar. So you might think you’re going for the healthier option, but in reality it just keeps racking up the numbers.
Reduce it: “The more sugar you eat, the more you tend to crave it,” says Maguire. “Slowly reduce the amount of honey you use, and over time your taste buds will awaken to the natural sweetness of foods.”
You can also use sugar swaps like stevia or monk fruitwhich contain no calories or sugar.
6. Lawyer
Remember when we thought of fatty foods as lawyers made us gain weight? Now we know better. The truth is that a little slowly digested fat can fill you up and help eat less in general.
But the key word here is “little.” Spread a whole avocado on your toast and you’ll almost pile it on 21 grams of fat.
Reduce it: Try a quarter of an avocado for salads and a half for toast. You can prevent leftovers from browning by rub the flesh with lemon juicethen wrap it tightly in plastic wrap before putting it in the refrigerator.
7. Cheese
Whether you put it in your omelette or add it to your sandwich, cheese seems like a smart way to add extra protein. But it’s also a simple way to quickly accumulate a calorie surplus.
Many types of cheese can be high in calories and high in fat, so there’s no need to overdo it, regardless of how it tastes.
Reduce it: Swap a slice or piece of cheese for two tablespoons of grated cheese and significantly reduce calories. Measuring it will help make sure you don’t get too cheesy.
8. Seeds
43 has 52 calories per tablespoon
Whether they are hemp or linen Or sunflowerthe seeds pass for a while. However, if you sprinkle them on top of your already calorie-dense smoothie bowl, you might mindlessly add extra calories, which is easy to do when the seeds are so small!
They may seem harmless, but they can contain a high dose of calories.
Reduce it: “The seeds are just a prop,” says Maguire. “Instead of sprinkling them on your food, portion them out so you know exactly how much you’re using.”
9. Dark chocolate
What’s better than discovering that your favorite treat is GOOD for you? Dark chocolate is full of antioxidants and it often contains less sugar. However, ounce for ounce, it provides about the same amount of calories as milk chocolate. So while this is a healthier option for a sweet treat, that doesn’t mean you can have a second (or third) serving without caloric consequences.
Reduce it: You can still get your dark chocolate fix – just do it in moderation. Avoid eating multiple squares of chocolate by melting one in the microwave and pouring it over fresh berries. Sweet tooth satisfied!
10. Coconut oil
“Everyone goes crazy for coconut without realizing that it adds a plot of fat and calories to your diet,” says Taub-Dix. cooking oils, coconut oil is mostly fatty, providing about 13 grams of fat per tablespoon, making it one of the fattiest and highest-calorie foods.
But unlike other oils, almost all of the fat in coconut oil is saturated. “While there is currently a lot of debate about whether saturated fats are bad for your health, there certainly isn’t a lot of scientific data that says they are good for your health,” says Taub-Dix.
Reduce it: If you really like the flavor of coconut oil, add just a pinch at the end of cooking. Use a little avocado or olive oil to sauté, then add a teaspoon of coconut oil for flavor before serving.
Takeaways
Just because a food is “healthy” doesn’t automatically mean it’s low in calories. If you’re trying to reduce your waistline, pay attention to what foods you actually eat and how much of them.
To avoid overdoing calories, watch out for high-calorie add-ins in foods like smoothies and froyo, and be careful with portion sizes of smaller foods that are easy to overeat, like seeds and cheese.
