Every year, Americans happily gather at parties for Big Game Sunday to eat, drink and watch football history be made. Unfortunately, aside from taking in the big game, they’re also taking in some really big calories. As the game’s viewership has grown over the years, so have the parties surrounding them. In that spirit, the Calorie Control Council (CCC) decided to re-look at a sample food spread from pre-game, all the way to post game analysis time. The results are shocking, and the calorie counts much higher than previous years. Even a relatively modest consumption of game day fare, including pizza, potato chips, beef nachos and sodas adds up to more than 2,000 calories and 81 g of fat — and many football fans eat more than that.
If 111 million Americans watch the game this year, this breaks down to 20.8 million pounds of potato chips and 20.8 million pounds of tortilla chips -and it includes fan favorites like pizza, beer, nachos, dips, sodas, pigs in a blanket and other party staples. That totals to a nationwide consumption of about 64 million pounds of fat, or the equivalent of 214,082 National Football League (NFL) offensive linemen at 300 pounds each.
The CCC recommends pre-planning your game day event and menu to include lower calorie appetizers and beverages. When it comes to recipes, it is possible to cut the calories without cutting the flavor. Thanks to the internet, it is so easy to find many recipes “made over” healthy, that there’s no excuse not to.
The Calorie Control Council recommends the following tips:
Fans can check out the Calorie Control Council’s game day menu ideas to find a list of low-calorie recipes perfect for your party.
(Edited 1/26/2020 — Originally published in 1/24/2014)