The Skinny on Halloween Candy

I had a dentist appointment today, and my teeth are bright and shiny. "Perfect teeth" is the feedback I got - go me! :) But it did get me wondering about all the candy I've been indulging on the past few weeks. I have to say I was a little worried about cavities... not to mention my waistline. Luckily, my weight hasn't really changed, and my teeth are looking good. I guess a few extra pieces a week wasn't enough to cause any huge issues, but we all know it's not healthy.

So my random question of the day is:

How bad is Halloween candy really for you?

Let's start with our wallets. First and foremost candy is not cheap. It was estimated in 2013 that Americans spent over 2 billion dollars on Halloween candy (Forbes.com). According to the Census, there were around 133 million households last year. Do the math, and that means the average household spent about $15 on Halloween candy last year. I have a cauldron full of Snickers bars that I spent $13.50 on, and I bought them on sale with a coupon! Now that might not seem like that much money for some people, but that candy increased my grocery bill by 20%. I'm just glad it was a one-time purchase.

Now since candy is super high in sugar, let's talk about how candy affects our teeth. I have good news, people! According to the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry, "candy is no more likely to cause cavities than most other foods". However, they do go on to say that frequent snacking, no matter what you choose, increases your chances of getting a cavity (AAPD.org). So if you keep going back to your kids' candy stash, you might end up needing a filling down the road. I eat all day, and my teeth are "perfect". Sorry, I am very proud of my dental health lol, but it's all because of my home dental care. I just love brushing my teeth!

I did read some interesting articles, though, that stated that some candies are worse on your teeth than others. The sticky ones and the acidic ones appear to be the worst along with ones that stay in your mouth longer because you have to suck on them. So if have a history of cavities, some candies to avoid would be lollipops, hard candies, anything with caramel, and jawbreakers (harvard.edu).

In all honesty, though, as a dietitian, my first worries about candy are the Calories, sugar, and fat. Most candy is not low in Calories, and they're empty meaning they provide energy but no nutrients like vitamins and minerals. Here is a rundown of the nutrition information on the 5 most popular Halloween candies in the US: Reese's, M&M's, Snickers, Hershey's, and Kit Kats (usatoday.com). The article didn't say which kind of M&M's, so I looked up the regular and the peanut.

Fun Size Candy	Calories in 1 piece	Saturated Fat	Sugar	Sodium	Source
Reese’s	105	11 %DV	10 g	75 mg	Hersheys.com
M&M’s	73	8 %DV	10 g	10 mg	M&Ms.com
Peanut M&M’s	90	9 %DV	9 g	10 mg	M&Ms.com
Snickers	80	7 %DV	8 g	42 mg	Snickers.com
Hershey’s	63	12 %DV	7 g	10 mg	cvs.com
Kit Kat	70	6 %DV	7 g	10 mg	Hersheys.com

What I found the most surprising is that the most popular Halloween candy, Reese's cups, is also the least healthiest from the list. It has the highest amount of Calories, the 2nd highest amount of saturated (bad) fat, the highest amount of sugar, and the highest amount of sodium.....and that's just one Reese's cup there. 

I really thought that the plain Hershey's bar would stand out as healthier since it doesn't have all the bells and whistles, but it really wasn't all that different, and it had the highest amount of saturated fat. I would say out of all of those the Kit Kat would probably have my vote as the safest choice, but then again, I am biased. Kit Kats are my favorite Halloween candy (That's why I bought Snickers to hand out, so I wouldn't be as tempted to keep some for myself lol).
 
I also found it interesting that most of the companies considered a serving to equal 2-3 pieces. Now that makes me both happy and unhappy. I'm happy because most serving sizes are super small, but I don't like that they are encouraging me to eat 3 pieces. I have a hard enough time with self control. I don't need the nutrition label to tell me I can eat more.

Now, one piece of candy is not going to make you gain weight. However, those Calories really do add up.  If I were to eat 1 Reese's cup per day for a whole month, I could possibly gain 1 pound if I didn't reduce my intake somewhere else or increase my physical activity. That's where these habits really start to reek havoc on our health. Once a week turns into a few which turns into every day, and before we know it, it is part of our routine.

But all in all, I wouldn't stress too much about the Halloween candy. A few pieces here and there is totally fine. Actually, if you don't have any candy on Halloween, I'm going to be very disappointed in you. The holidays are supposed to be enjoyed. As long as we don't go overboard, these traditions can be celebrated without emptying our pockets, clogging our arteries, or increasing our waistlines. 

Fancy Feasting? Let's Keep It Simple

Lately, it seems like every "health" article I come across describes foods and dishes I'm not accustomed to and/or foods that I straight up can't pronounce.

I see recipes for kale, flax, and kefir smoothies and toasted quinoa (pronounced keenwa) with pine nuts and figs. I've even come across a suggestion to bring "charcuterie" with "Aux Délices des Bois’s hot soppressata" to my upcoming cookouts.  (No I did not look it up; I refused to google what that dish is out of straight principle). My students always say that if you can't pronounce it, then it's probably not healthy. Now they're talking about additives and processed foods, but I can't help but make a small connection here.

So I guess my random question of the day is:

When did eating healthy become so complicated?

I think that a lot of people are over-thinking the concept of healthy eating, especially on the internet.   Many websites make me feel like every meal has to be this incredible experience that challenges my cooking skills as well as my palate.

Or they tell me that I'm a conformist because I eat grains and cheese. There are so many conflicting ideas that I imagine quite a few people just throw in the towel and eat junk just because they don't know what to do.  Maybe that's why fast food and convenience foods are so alluring. Not only are they quick and relatively cheap, but they're simple.  You know exactly what you're getting.

Don't get me wrong. I love to cook and I love trying new recipes, but when time and energy are low, I like to keep my meal planning simple. I stick to foods that I know taste good to me and I keep the basic food groups in mind. I save recipes that I know work, and I try to make eating healthy as easy as possible for myself.  Maybe we're so overwhelmed with trying to be chefs and "foodies" that we're missing the big picture. 

A quick judge to tell if a food is healthy is to try to fit it into a food group. If you have to stretch it, then it's not healthy. For instance, you can't say ice cream is healthy just because it has dairy in it. Keeping to that little rule can really help to put things into perspective. I really think the key to eating healthy is finding foods we like to eat that happen to fit nicely into the major food groups.  But then again, that sounds too simple to really work, doesn't it? ;)

Garcinia Cambogia - Another "Miracle" from Dr. Oz

If you watch Dr. Oz, you may have been exposed to a multitude of "health" products.   He frequently advertises supplements and do-dads supposed to help you detox, get more energy, feel better, and/or lose weight.  One specific product he has talked about that keeps coming up in my class is Garcinia cambogia, a supplement that is supposed to help with weight loss.  Since I keep getting questions about it and I'm not an expert in it, I think it's time to take a look.

So my random questions of the day are:

What is Garcinia cambogia?  Does it work, and is it safe?

Garcinia cambogia is a tropical fruit native to India.  To me, it kind of looks like a cross between a melon and a gourd.  Within this fruit is a chemical called hydroxycitric acid (HCA) which is supposed to help with weight loss by inhibiting appetite and reducing fat synthesis.  Let's look at the research to see if it really does what Dr. Oz says it does.

When it comes to supplements and medications, it is important to look at the research.  While a product may work, it often times is contingent on certain criteria such as age and health status of the users, diet, how much they take, how long they take it for, other products being taken, etc.  With this product it looks like there is a lot contradicting information when it comes to dosage, duration, and efficacy.

For instance, in a small study, at 1200 mg per day, HCA did not appear to be helping reduce appetite or increase weight loss. (Mattes and Bormann, 2000).  A different small study showed that 1500 mg per day of HCA helped patients lose almost 3 pounds more than the placebo in 12 weeks (Mattes and Bormann, 2000).  And another small study showed that 1000 mg of HCA per day was effective at reducing visceral (tummy) fat (Hayamizu et al., 2003).  Those are some confusing results.

Luckily, I was able to find a good meta-analysis study that sums up all of the research on this stuff up until 2010.  The dosage and duration of the studies seem to be all over the place, ranging from 1000-2800 mg per day for anywhere between 2 and 12 weeks.  According to this article, some studies say it works, and other studies say it doesn't.  Unfortunately, almost all of the research published on HCA has "systematic issues" like small sample sizes that weren't statistically checked and/or non-compliant participants that weren't accounted for properly.   Also, some side effects were reported - headache, nausea, GI issues, and/or respiratory problems.(Onakpoya et al., 2010)

Because all of the research seems to be done in poorly designed, small studies and the results are somewhat conflicting, neither the American Society of Clinical Nutrition nor the American Academy of Family Physicians recommend taking HCA for weight loss.

Furthermore, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) only approves one over-the-counter supplement for weight loss - Alli.  That means all of the other supplements either do not work or are not safe.  For instance, Hydroxycut (which contained HCA by the way) has very strong warnings from the FDA.  They say to immediately stop using Hydroxycut products due to serious health effects related to liver injury (Warning on Hydroxycut Products, 2009).  In my opinion, the FDA is not really all that strict, so if they don't like it, I definitely don't like it.

Honestly, I'm not surprised with what I found.  Most research on supplements are inconclusive.  That's why they're supplements and not patented medications.  If a product is proven to work, it is probably going to be a medication, not a supplement.  Also, if Dr. Oz advertises it, I don't trust it.  How do you think it got on his show?  - $$$$$.  In my opinion, every product on that show has an immediate conflict of interest.  He drives me nuts, and I'm not afraid to admit it :)

What's the Healthiest Girl Scout Cookie?

It's that time again!  Girl Scout cookies are out on the market.  Since they hold a special place in my heart, I thought it wouldn't be a bad idea to see which ones are the best and which ones are the worst.  Honestly, they're all cookies, so it's safe to assume they are not healthy.  Regardless, I am curious to see what the nutrition information is.

So the random question of the day is:

What's the Healthiest Girl Scout Cookie?

I went to the official Girl Scout Cookie website, and here's what I found:

 

 

When I compare labels, I typically like to look at:

• Serving size
• Calories
• Saturated fat
• Sodium
• Fiber
• Sugar
• Vitamins and minerals

Serving size:

• Normally, I like to break down nutrition information to make the serving sizes match.  Since all of these look pretty close even though the serving size varies between 2 and 5 cookies, I’m going to leave the comparison in terms of suggested serving size.  It wouldn’t really work to compare them using 1 cookie since they all are different sizes.

Calories:

• The cookie with the smallest amount of Calories is Thank You Berry Much – 120 
• The cookies that tied for the highest are Thin Mints, Trefoils, Do-si-dos, and Dulce de Leche – 160 Calories per serving

Saturated fat: 

I like to look at saturated fat instead of total fat.  Total fat includes the healthy and the unhealthy kinds.
Saturated fat is considered the “bad” fat, so I don’t even usually bother with total.

• The cookie with the least amount of saturated fat is the Cranberry Citrus Crisp coming in at 0.
• Samaos have the most saturated fat.  At 30% DV, this is high in saturated fat, and I’m assuming it’s giving you close to 1/3 of the recommended amount because of the coconut.  Although delicious, coconut is one of the few plant sources that’s high in saturated fat.  Another contender that is super high in saturated fat, palm oil, happens to be a staple in Girl Scout cookies – exciting.

Sodium 

What I thought was interesting is that all of these cookies are low in sodium, meaning they are 140 mg or less.

• Samoas have the least amount of sodium – 60 mg 
• The cookies that tied for the highest are Savannah Smiles and Thin Mints – 125 mg

Fiber:

• Honestly, these all suck lol.  None of these cookies has more than 1 gram of fiber, so I’m not going to nitpick this.  Moving on…
  

Sugar:

• The cookies with the smallest amount of sugar are the Trefoils and Thank You Berry Much – 7 grams per serving 
• The cookies that tied for the highest are Somoas, Do-si-dos, and Thanks A Lot – 11 grams

Vitamins and minerals:

• All of these cookies are low in vitamin A, vitamin C, calcium, and iron.  I’m not even going to compare them since they are all low (0-5% DV)

After considering all of these criteria, the winner for the healthiest Girl Scout cookie is:

Tagalongs!

Just kidding, but they are my favorite.

The actual winner is the Thank You Berry Much cookie.  Granted, it’s still a cookie, but it is the lesser of 12 evils.  The problem I have with this cookie is that I’ve never actually seen it.  Now it may not even be an option in my region, but my eyes go straight towards my favorites: the Samoas (which are probably the worst), the Tagalongs, and my husband’s favorite, the Savannah Smiles.  So I’m willing to bet most people don’t even know that Thank You Berry Much is an option let alone the healthiest.

After it’s all said and done, though, I have to point out that most people do not eat the suggested serving size.  My brain actually has a frequent battle with my belly, insisting that 1 row = 1 serving, which we all know is not what the manufacturer suggests.  So it doesn’t really matter which one is the healthiest and which one is the worst if we can’t practice self-control with either of them.   It’s pretty hard to keep your waistline low and your healthy high while eating an entire box of cookies.