Nutritional pitfalls: High in saturated fat and sodium
Nutritional potential: Chicken is a lean protein; you can load up on celery and carrot sticks
Nothing says football like Buffalo wings, but those delectable, meaty snacks are a big, fat dietary no-no: the deep-fried skin is full of saturated fat, and the vinegary, spicy
... sauce is teeming with sodium. Just one serving of wings from Domino's Pizza has 690 mg of sodium — that's nearly one-third of the DGA's recommended 2,300 mg daily limit. And considering that a serving size is just two wings, it's easy to imagine chowing down on three servings in a single sitting. Add an assist in saturated fat from the blue-cheese dressing, and we're talking a major artery-clogging snack.
But it doesn't have to be that way. Why not make baked Tandoori chicken poppers instead? Rather than frying your wings and smothering them in sauce, try putting a Tandoori spice rub on the raw wings and then throw them in the oven to bake. Instead of blue cheese, make a creamy dip out of low-fat Greek yogurt, cucumber and dill.
And don't forget to pile on extra carrots and celery sticks. The new DGA recommends filling half your plate with fruits and veggies. MORE
