Preventing The Super Bowl Pounds
By: Caroline Tucker
Updated: February 2, 2013
On Super Bowl Sunday, Americans will feast on snacks and beer.
According to the Calorie Control Council, football fans will scarf down 30 million pounds of snacks.
That breaks down to 11.2 million potato chips, which would in turn stretch 293,000 miles.
Also, 8.2 million pounds of tortilla chips and 4.3 million pounds of pretzels will be eaten.
That's just the food. It's estimated that people will drink enough beer to fill roughly 490 Olympic-sized swimming pools.
Steven Crespo and his two friends are hosting their first Super Bowl party, and we caught up with them shopping for supplies at the supermarket.
"Let's
get some cream cheese, some cheddar cheese...lots of dips, and pizzas and
wings," he said
The
college students don't seem to mind how healthy it is, or isn't.
"I
kind of treat it like Thanksgiving; eat what you want and then work it off the
next day," said Brian Adams.
By the
time you fill your cart with Super Bowl snacks, it's hard to imagine just how
many calories you are actually packing in.
"You
can imagine in that one sitting people can easily consume 2 to 3,000 calories
pretty rapidly," said
Registered
Dietician Carol Plotkin. She knows that Super Bowl Sunday can be tough.
"When we are in social gatherings and social settings we will eat
more."
The
eating usually comes in the form of high fat and high salt.
But she
says you can have your snacks and stay healthy too.
"Put
our healthy snacks with the TV, so [people] nosh on healthier snacks, have
other food where they have to get up. Have smaller plates available," said
Plotkin.
It's not
just food but drinks too.
"A
margarita has many more calories than a 12 ounce bottle of beer but if you like
stout, which my family enjoys, that is a more caloric beverage, so you might
want to drink out of a smaller glass," said Plotkin.
Plotkin says
another good tip is not to throw out the chicken wing bones or beer cans after
you have consumed them. She says if you see what you eat and drink, you are
more likely to not overindulge.


