Extra calories can sneak in over the holidays and they don’t always come in large portions. They can tiptoe in through tiny tastes throughout the day. Alice Henneman, a retired Extension Educator from Nebraska share the following information a few years ago and it is still relevant today. Let’s look at how the calories in tiny tastes can add up in one day.
· Taste 1 – Eating a cookie that broke while removing it from the baking sheet. I deserve it for getting up early to bake these cookies before heading to work. (Approximate calories = 30)
· Taste 2 - Someone brought holiday candy to work today! “I’ll just have one small piece of the peanut brittle. (Approximate calories = 80)
· Taste 3 – Need to stop at the grocery store over the noon hour. Great – they are offering cheese and cracker samples. That will tide me over until I can swing through a fast-food place. (Approximate calories = 40)
· Taste 4 – The fast-food place is giving out ¼ cup samples of its special flavored holiday coffee. (Approximate calories = 20)
· Taste 5 – Chocolate covered cherries in the break room! It’s still a few hours before the dinner party tonight. Chocolate’s good for you – right? And I’m just eating one! (Approximate calories = 60)
· Taste 6 – The party is great – but maybe I shouldn’t stand near the snack table. I’m dipping my third chip. (Approximate calories = 75)
· Taste 7 – Who can pass up old-fashioned style eggnog? I’ll have just a half cup. (Approximate calories = 200)
· Taste 8 – There are just a couple of tablespoons of candied sweet potatoes left. Someone should enjoy them so they don’t go to waste – it might as well be me! (Approximate calories = 60)
· Taste 9 – Helping dish up dessert lets me take a little “preview” taste. One heaping tablespoon of candy cane ice cream coming right up! (Approximate calories = 70)
If you add the nine taste bites you will have consumed an extra 635 calories for the day. If such “tiny tastes” are continued through the holidays, you might gain a pound a week. Consuming an additional 3,500 calories above your body’s needs and expenditures can lead to gaining that pound a week.
Maybe those “tiny tastes” aren’t so tiny after all! What “tiny tastes” are totaling big calories for you?
Donna Krug is the District Director and Family and Consumer Science Agent with K-State Research and Extension – Cottonwood District. You may reach her at: (620)793-1910 or [email protected] K-State Research and Extension is an equal opportunity provider and employer.