Holiday Meals: How to Stay in Control and Feel Full on Fewer Calories

October 13, 2000

University Park, Pa. --- The fall and winter "Eating Season," the hardest time of year to stay in control and avoid overeating, is fast approaching.

Dr. Barbara Rolls, who holds the Guthrie Chair in Nutrition in Penn State’s College of Health and Human Development, has suggestions how to stay in control when faced with the temptations offered by Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Chanukah, Kwaanza and New Year’s celebrations.

Co-author of the best selling book, "Volumetrics," Dr. Rolls has shown in her research that foods high in water, such as broth-based soups or foods rich in fruits and vegetables, as well as foods puffed-up with air, can aid weight management. In addition, her research results can help you learn how to stop eating when you’re no longer hungry, make smart choices during social meals and eat normal portions.

Her research has shown that feeling full depends on eating a satisfying amount of food. Tiny portions just don’t do it. The energy density of food, or the ratio of calories to the weight of food is what matters. Foods with a high energy density have lots of calories in a small serving and are typically lower in water or air content. Broth-based soups, for example, are high in water content and low in fat. So, you can have a larger serving with the same number of calories as a tiny portion of a cream-based soup.

Fruits and vegetables can also help to bulk up meals — deliciously–so that you can feel full on fewer calories. For example, top cereal, pancakes and waffles with fruits such as peaches, blueberries, strawberries or raspberries. Add extra veggies to stir-fry dishes, fajitas, soups and stews. Or, simply snack on fresh fruit rather than dried fruit, baked or fried foods.

To add more air to foods and thereby reduce their calorie content, pick whipped foods such as low-fat frozen desserts or blender drinks. Another trick at the buffet table: pick foods with irregular shapes which also produce a bigger volume in a given portion because they don’t pack down.

**bah**

Contacts:

Barbara Hale (814) 865-9481 (o)/ (814) 238-0997 (h)

Vicki Fong (814) 865-9481 (o)/ (814) 238-1221 (h)

EDITORS: Dr. Rolls is at (814) 863-8482 or email