Are you ready for some football?? That’s right, this Sunday is “The Big Game” (what’s with all this copyright stuff anyway…) and it’s party time! Whether you’re cheering for the Ravens or the 49ers (or you had no idea who was even playing until now) it’s highly likely you’ll be partaking in some sort of football and food festivity. It’s a national holiday and often it turns into a food-filled, drink-laden day that results in feeling less than champion-like the next day.
It’s expected that our great nation will put away 1.23 BILLION pounds of chicken wings (that’s a ‘clucking’ lot of chicken!!) and it’s fairly certain that most of these flappers will be battered, fried in ‘vegetable’ oil and then bathed in blue cheese or ranch dressing. Am I right?? (No worries though – there will likely be a few token celery sticks…) And the wings are just the beginning! Pizza joints are going to ‘win big’ on Sunday – it’s the busiest day of the year for these guys. Now tack on – 11 million pounds of chips, 4 million pounds of pretzels, 69.6 million pounds of avocado, 3.8 million pounds of popcorn, 14 billion burgers, and 49.2 million cases of beer (that’s 1,181 cans/bottles).
Yeah, can you say HANGOVER? And not just from the beer – the food is a major ‘player’ in this game too. It could definitely get ugly by half-time and after that, bring out the stretchers… It’s GAME OVER and unfortunately the only winners are the folks that didn’t go overboard on the Super“bowl” of nachos and the rest of the smorgasbord. Before you ‘tackle’ this ‘Big Game Buffet’ consider how much bacon you’re giving up for those mother cluckin’ wings and other not so ‘Super’ Bowl snacks. And remember, enjoying some of these foods and maybe a few beers is totally acceptable (hello, this paleo thing is NOT a religion!!). Choose your favorites and enjoy them in sane quantities – if you do that, there’s no doubt that you’ll come out a “Super” Bowl Buffet Champion! Game On!
| Food/Drink | Serving Size | Calories | Bacon Equivalent |
| Wings with Sauce (no dressing) | 5 wings | 400 | 8 strips |
| Add Blue Cheese or Ranch Dressing | ¼ cup | 320 | 6.3 strips |
| Pepperoni Pizza | 2 slices (large, thin crust) | 560 | 11.2 strips |
| Tortilla Chips | 14 large chips | 280 | 5.7 strips |
| Got Nacho Cheese?? | ¼ cup | 150 | 3 Strips |
| And Guacamole?? | ¼ cup | 120 | 2.3 strips |
| Popcorn | 3 cups | 240 | 4.75 strips |
| Brownies (Dessert, duh…) | 1 (2” square) | 330 | 6.5 strips |
| Beer (Budweiser or Coors) | 12 ounces | 150 | 3 strips |
| Hard Cider (Crispin) | 12 ounces | 170 | 3.7 strips |
I love the comparisons to bacon. Wow the alcohol really adds up and I thought I was being Paleo eating home made chicken wings but still look at the amount of bacon its equivalent to! Ouch.
You mean baked kale chips isn’t one of the typical superbowl snacks?
Certainly those food quantities can’t be for just today. Do the math!
Whew – that’s a whole lot of bacon! In fact, I didn’t realize how many strips of bacon equals just two slices of pizza. Can you say…overload?
Fortunately, I managed to keep my Super Bowl foods clean for this years big show. No wings or beer for this guy!