Health

Healthier snack suggestions for Super Bowl Sunday

Posted: Feb 2, 2013 9:45 PM by Erin Schermele - MTN News

Super Bowl Sunday is one of America's biggest eating "holidays," and all that extra snacking and drinking and certainly add up to lots of extra calories. But you can take steps to reduce those extra calories.

Sandee Cardinal, MSU Extension nutrition educator, said, "Food is definitely the MVP of the Super Bowl and unfortunately our choices in America are pretty fattening - pizza, fried chicken, ribs, potato chips with dip."

She continued, "Chicken wings are huge...Americans are going to consume 1.23 billion chicken wings this weekend, this could have us crying 'fowl' on the calorie count...you could consume a day's worth of saturated fat and calories within in the first 20 minutes of the game."

Cardinal said, "There are a lot of baked wings that are coming out, you don't have to fry them. You can boil or steam them for 10 minutes, cool them down, and then bake them at a high temperature for 20 minutes, around 400 or 450 and then toss them with a sauce."

For something a bit lighter, Cardinal said, "I think a vegetable tray is always a good idea, with a light dip, because people who are watching their weight this time a year, just like to graze on that and don't feel guilty."

Some of the healthier alternatives include a fajita bar, barbeque chicken sliders or vegetable quesadillas.

Click here for some healthy recipe ideas.