Potatoes

When is a potato not just a potato? When it is deep fried!

We just conducted a few casual experiments for a science fair project using teenage boys' and their appetites. Come after school and eat as much as you want until you feel full. Well it was a little more specific than that. There was one feature food each time. Here are the results:

Mashed potatoes - 1.5 cups - 196 calories

McDonald's French Fries - 2.5 cups - 750 calories

Apples - 1 - 77 calories

McDonald's Apple Pie - 2 - 500 calories

Whole Wheat Cereal (cooked) 1/2 cup - 165 calories

Big bagel - 1 - 280 calories

This is not exactly new news - there have been many studies on calorie density and satiety by researchers Barbara Rolls, PhD and SusannaHolt, PhD. But it was fun to see "live" with teenage boys who have ravenous appetites particularly after school. This is not going to be published anywhere (except my son's science class) and it was probably not "controlled lab accurate" - the kids did eat whatever they wanted during their school day - but we figured the "same time every day after school" was pretty exact for our purposes. Everyone knows that kids are ravenous after school! And there is still time to spare before dinner for better things to eat.

Here is a chart showing the results of what was eaten ad libitum in calories and the calorie density of each food (calories per pound). Note how the more calorie dense a food is, the more calories you need to eat to feel full.

and the sodium, fat and sugar in these foods:

These were statistically significant as calculated here:

And here are a few fun shots to illustrate more lessons:

The calories in 3 apples are equal to this apple pie - about 77-80 calories per apple and 250 calories for one apple pie.

And 1/4 cup of cooked Whole Cream of Wheat cereal has just 165 calories and the grocery store bagel has 250 calories. Keep in mind that if you are ordering a bagel out from Starbucks or Einstein's or Duncan Donuts it will be over 400 calories WITHOUT cream cheese.

We were surprised when we measured the French Fries:

2 servings of LARGE fries was only 3 cups. Did you know that one serving (1.5 cups) is 500 calories? It really is easy to eat them quickly.

Look at the calories in the corn and soda - they are the same! Most people don't eat 3 ears of corn but they can take in a can of soda without blinking! It would take the sugar of approximately 10 ears of corn to make one can of soda.

See more fun games on food and nutrients here.

Healthy Shopping List and NEW items here.