Big portions with lots of sugar and fat calories characterize many of the foods traditionally associated with fairs. For many, attending the fair wouldn’t be nearly as much fun without those tasty treats. Some may be once-a-year foods, and people may look forward to (insert your favorite food here) at the fair.
So, how much exercise does it take to walk off those favorite fair foods? On average, it takes 1 mile to burn 100 calories. To visualize how far that is, think approximately 12 city blocks to the mile. While calories per our favorite fair food can vary depending on portion, size, recipe and more, burning off the calories of cotton candy mentioned above could be an 18-block walk.
- Following are the approximate distances we need to walk to burn off the calories of some popular midway foods:
- Caramel apple: 3 miles
-- Funnel cake, 6-inch diameter: 3 miles
-- Corn dog, large: 4.5 miles
-- Soft drink, 32 oz.: 2.5 miles
-- Cotton candy: 1.5 miles
-- Sno-cone: 2.5 miles
-- Fried candy bar on a stick: 4.5 miles
-- Soft pretzel: 3 miles
This doesn’t mean load the picnic basket with celery and carrot sticks before heading to the fair. With a little planning its possible to have many favorite fair foods. Here’s how:
-- Quench thirst with a small soft drink instead of the larger sizes. Better yet, buy or bring along bottled water. Save those fair-day calories for something else.
-- Split food among several people. For example, share a large funnel cake with friends. Everyone gets a taste but no one gets overloaded.
-- Plan times to sit down and eat rather than graze your way from one end of the
fair to the other. It's hard to keep track of how much food one’s consuming when walking, talking and eating at the same time.
-- Limitations on foods also is a good option. Select one treat and choose reasonable servings low in sugar and fat for the rest of your foods.
-- Dress in comfortable shoes to help walk off those calories. Wear a pedometer and see how many steps you can take at the fair. One mile equals about 2,000 steps or around one third of the calories in a typical caramel apple.
-- Check out all the food booths before making any selections. Imagine a "calorie salary." Enjoy the favorite foods with the majority of the "salary."
-- Finally, if monitoring those calories wasn’t very easy at the fair, return to a more balanced way of eating the next day. A day or two of over eating won’t affect weight that much – weeks of it will. Eating 100 extra calories daily can result in a 10 pound weight gain yearly.
SOURCE: Alice Henneman, extension educator
Ann Fenton
University of Nebraska Extension
Pierce County
