How Do You Like Your Diet Onion?
Written by Sky Taylor, Diet Bites
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300 Calories 17 Fat Grams OR 30 Calories 0 Fat?
My oh, my. How did my little Vidalia onion get ten times heavier?
Could that smidgen of oil, egg bath and flour really pack that many calories and that much fat onto my recipe?
We're afraid so...
In our recent article, "Want to Lose Weight?" we mentioned that 'quantity of food' and 'type of food' are both very important issues in weight loss.
But 'how your food is cooked' may have the biggest bearing on your diet and your success in achieving your weight loss goal.
Let's use our sweet little Vidalia onion for an example.
10 Rings when deep fat-fried pack a whopping 300 calories but take note that the larger the onion ring, the more calories contained therein.
For example, if you visit your favorite fast food restaurant and the onion rings arrive to your table looking bigger than Dallas, then ten will more likely cost you 500 calories rather than 300.
That's almost double the calories, isn't it - and of course, a whale-load more of those dietary fat grams, specifically saturated fat which needs to be sailing away from your weight loss plan rather than into it.
Take note that some of those Big Daddy restaurant style onion rings can hold 750 or more calories per ring.
Now let's compare the fried onion to our natural, raw onion: ½ cup of chopped or sliced onion that's been saluted in non-calorie spray, or grilled contains only 30 calories. And that's for any variety of onion - purple, white, yellow, hot or sweet.
Does this mean that you should totally give up fried onion rings?
Does this mean that you can never have another onion ring as long as you live? Are you destined to be onion ringless for life? No!
Yes, you can have onion rings. BUT (I know), BUT we must allow for the added calories and fat grams in our diet whenever we indulge. Also, we must be aware that too much fat - as well as the wrong type of fat - isn't healthy - like that mean old saturated fat that we referenced above.
Fried onion rings most likely contain Trans fat along with Mister Saturated; these two are the bad boys of Lipid Land; they form a gang and there are only two of them.
We must also be aware that during weight reduction time we need to stay away from evil, yes I said EVIL fried onion rings.
However, if you're dieting and you find yourself experiencing a Fried Onion Ring Attack on the corner of 5th & Main, then enjoy your 10 onion rings to the fullest!
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After your feast be certain to mark those calories down either mentally or physically with a 'non-invisible' pen.
If you neglect to account for those calories, don't worry because you're hips or waist will do such for you.
So before you fire up that deep fat fryer, or before you tell the waitress you'll have the 'Fried Platter Sampler', consider the healthier, low-calorie, vitamin rich alternative - grilled, saluted in non-calorie spray, boiled, broiled or baked.
If you do surrender to any food which is fried and simply too tempting to resist, place the fried food onto a paper napkin so that any excess grease or cooking oil will be absorbed therein, rather than inside of your ever-shrinking body.
You want that little body of yours to keep shrinking until you reach your recommended goal weight.
While the rings can do bad things in a zing to the bat-wings, and while it's very hard to keep out of the Oil Yard - if you'll opt for foods that aren't fried or heaped with sauces, gravies and cheese - you'll be able to eat more food.
For that 300 to 500 calorie window, you could enjoy all sorts of delicious alternatives.
Let's see what we could put on our meal plate instead, based on the average of 400 calories:
- 1 frozen Mexican dinner with calories left over; the dietary fat is still there but much more minimal
- 4 medium apples or 3 large bananas or 4 large pears or 23.5 apricots or 40 lemons or limes
- 1/2 roasted chicken breast, 1 cup of green beans, 1 slice of whole grain bread, 1/2 cup of zucchini squash
The following recipe for Sky's Acorn Squash is 'to live for'! The next time you feel like fried squash, try this instead. Your heart and hips will kiss you for it. View our Acorn Squash Recipe OR Navigate this article here: Page 1 | Page 2 | Page 3
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