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Walk off fair food, extension agent advisesWhat could be better than a night at your county fair, riding rides and scarfing down hot dogs, pretzels and cotton candy? Can it get any better? "Food is as much a part of the fair as the carnival and exhibits and youth livestock show. But all those tasty treats available on the midway have a downside: lots and lots of calories," says Lisa Gilmore, Garland County agent with the University of Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service. But hey, fairs involve a lot of walking, so we'll probably burn off those extra fair food calories, right? Maybe--if we walk up to 1.5 miles for a bag of cotton candy and 3 miles for a funnel cake. "As a fan of corn dogs, I'll be walking 4.5 miles to burn the calories from that bit of carnival cuisine," Gilmore said. Big portions with lots of sugar and fat calories characterize many of the foods we traditionally associate with fairs, she said. For many of us, attending the fair wouldn't be nearly as much fun without these treats. Some may be once-a-year foods for us, and we look forward to those foods at the fair. If you're asking how much exercise you'll have to do to walk off your favorite foods, the answer is, that it depends on what you eat and how much you eat. On average, you have to walk about 1 mile to burn 100 calories. To visualize how far that is, about 12 city blocks equals a mile. While calories for our favorite fair food can vary depending on portion size, recipe, and more, burning off the calories of that cotton candy mentioned above could be an 18-block walk. Or, if you go by time, at a 3 mph pace, it'll take you 20 minutes to go a mile. Walking at 4 mph, it'll take 15 minutes to go a mile. Gilmore provides this list of distances you need to walk to burn off the calories of some popular midway foods: --Caramel apple: 3 miles; --Corn dog, large: 4.5 miles; --Cotton candy: 1.5 miles; --Fried candy bar on a stick: 4.5 miles; --Funnel cake, 6-inch diameter: 3 miles; --Soft drink, 32 oz.: 2.5 miles; --Sno-cone: 2.5 miles; --Soft pretzel: 3 miles. Before you load a picnic basket with carrots and celery sticks and head to the fair, consider this: With a little planning, it's possible to fit in many favorite fair foods. "Quench your thirst with a small soft drink instead of the larger sizes," advises Gilmore. "Better yet, buy or bring along bottled water. Save your fair-day calories for something else." Split foods among several people. For example, share a large funnel cake with friends. Plan times when you'll sit down and eat, rather than graze your way from one end of the fair to the other. It's hard to keep a handle on how much we're eating when we're walking, talking and eating at the same time. Limit yourself to one treat. Choose reasonable serving sizes of lower sugar and lower fat items for the rest your foods. Gilmore says you're more likely to walk off calories if you wear comfortable shoes. She also advises wearing a pedometer to see how many steps you can take. One mile equals about 2,000 steps, or around one third of the calories in a typical caramel apple. If you do indulge a little too much, remember to return to a more balanced way of eating the next day. For more information on diet and exercise, contact your county extension agent or visit www.uaex.edu and select Health and Nutrition. The Cooperative Extension Service is part of the U of A Division of Agriculture. Date: 10/2/07
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