Beware Of Movie Theater Foods

Submitted by Loring A. Windblad on February 23, 2010

Tips For Avoiding Eating In Cinema Halls - Keeping Junk Foods At Bay

Everyone enjoys watching movies in theaters and the enjoyment doubles with a large glass of your favorite soda along with a big basket of buttered popcorn. A person’s movie is incomplete without a huge tub of popcorn and the aroma just hits you as soon as you walk through the movie theater doors. However, just one trip to the movie theater is enough to ruin your diet.

Some of the mouth watering snacks that will tempt you to forget your diet are a large bucket of buttered popcorn, hot dogs, nachos with cheese, and gummi bears to name a few. Ideally popcorn is low in calories and high in fiber which constitutes a healthy whole grain snack but this is only when you air pop your own at home.

But the whole thing changes when popcorn is made in movie theaters where it becomes greasy and soaked in oil which is covered in artery clogging butter. The calorie content that these foods contain is tremendous. On an average, one large bucket of popcorn that is equal to 20 cups contains 100 grams of fat which is equal to more than six hamburgers and a whopping 1,300 calories.

Cheese nachos (4 oz) contain a calorie content of 1,100.

Resisting your favorite food at the theater might seem very difficult but it is not impossible. Instead of buying a large popcorn settle for a kid sized serving forgoing the added butter. However, you might be tempted to move to the medium sized popcorn from small as it will barely cost you a few pennies but it will add around 500 calories more.

You can get your snacks from home where most theaters do not give permission for this but every theater has their own policy and some of them even allow you to carry food from outside vendors. Other great alternatives that you can get from home to avoid those calories could be a bottle of water or fruit juice, dry cereal, air popped popcorn, bananas, grapes or other non messy eating fruits.

The best way to avoid movie theater food is to eat a healthy meal beforehand.

Eat a nutritious meal consisting of whole grains, veggies, lean protein and healthy fats that will keep you satisfied for hours. Going for movies is a great social experience where you can freak out and have fun with closed ones and you don’t need to miss out on the fun just because you have to watch your diet.