Best and Worst Movie Theater Foods
For some reason, eating in the dark makes people feel more comfortable about indulging in jumbo movie theater snack boxes and giant sized Slurpees.
Admittedly, people don’t go eat at the movies expecting to adhere to their normal diet rules, but it may shock you to know just how fattening and unhealthy your favorite movie theater snacks actually are.
Kudos to AMC Theaters for offering a healthy snack pack option to calorie conscious movie goers, but shame on Regal Movie Theaters and just about every other American movie theater franchise! According to Everyday Health, a medium popcorn and medium regular soda at Regal Theaters can pack as many as 1,600 calories! (That’s more calories than most healthy women consume in an entire day)
The next time you decide to spend an evening of fun at your local movie theater, check out this list of foods you definitely do not want to eat!
1. Movie Theater Popcorn
Not all popcorn is a diet buster; in fact, plain popcorn can actually be a healthy snack alternative to chips and candy. But add the oil, butter, and fat content to a way-too-large popcorn bin, and you easily have a 1,200 calorie snack that is far too fatty to indulge in during every outing. Of course, one day of cheating isn’t going to completely overhaul your diet, but for those of you who make it a habit to regularly appear at the theater, you just can’t afford to consume the 60 grams of saturated fat and 980 milligrams of sodium that come in your popcorn bag… if you want to stay healthy, that is.
If skipping the bag of popcorn will ruin your movie theater experience, opt for the smallest size of popcorn that is offered, and say NO to the extra topping.
2. Humongous Candy Boxes
You wouldn’t dare eat that much candy from your living room couch, but something about the magic of the theater makes normally healthy individuals give in to their very sweet teeth. Here’s the skinny: CSPI warns that although the serving size on candy boxes is usually a modest 1 ½ ounces, typical movie-theater candy boxes contain 3 to 4 ounces. So if you eat the movie-sized 4-oz box of Reese’s Pieces, you’ll munch away 580 calories, 61 grams of sugar, and 20 grams of saturated fat. Other concession-stand favorites aren’t much better: A 3.1-ounce Sno-Caps box has 400 calories, 53 grams of sugar, and 11 grams of saturated fat, while Milk Duds pack 370 calories, 44 grams of sugar, and 8 grams of saturated fat per 3-ounce box.
A smarter candy option would be Twizzlers or Sour Patch kids–but be sure to watch your portion size! Four pieces of Strawberry Twist Twizzlers have just 133 calories, less than 1 gram of fat, and 95 mg of sodium, while 1.5 ounces of Sour Patch Kids contain 140 calories, no fat, and 30 mg of sodium.
3. Mega Sized Sodas
According to Everyday Health, in the 1950s, an average-size fountain soda was about 7 ounces; today, a small soda from Regal Cinemas is over four times that amount, at 32 ounces, or 4 cups. A large-size soda from the same chain holds nearly 7 cups–that’s 500 calories and 33 teaspoons of sugar.
The solution? Water, coffee (no sugar), or tea.
4. Cheese and More Cheese Nachos
If you’re thinking about having nachos as a night time treat, you’d better think twice. At Cinemark, the standard serving of 3 ounces of chips and 3.5 ounces of cheese sauce adds up to 550 calories, nearly 50 percent of which come from fat. Also, the sodium count is a sky-high 1,060 mg, nearly half the recommended daily limit.
Maureen Namkoong, director of nutrition and fitness for Everyday Health, says that a plain hot dog on a bun is a better option. It contains half the calories (242), and also provides 10 grams of filling protein (it does contain 15 grams of fat, so it’s still not exactly a health food).
