WASHINGTON — Most sports fans don’t associate tailgating with healthy
eating. In fact, most probably don’t want to.
After all, that’s not the point of tailgating — the point is to have
delicious food (and drinks) with your friends that you can eat out of the back
of your car or truck while you socialize before a game.
But if you could get away with serving a slightly healthier spread —
especially during the holiday season — without compromising on taste,
wouldn’t it be worth it? Or, perhaps you could use portion control to help cut
down on calories?
That’s what Dr. Natalie Webb suggests. As a sports fan, though, the real
question is: Can you get away with it without your friends noticing?
With college football’s Championship Weekend upon us and plenty of big games
on TV, WTOP asked Dr. Webb how she would suggest
tailgating more healthily. Then we asked regular tailgaters to respond to her
ideas to see whether they might be on board with her methodology.
WTOP: Have you tried these healthier methods/items out on serious
tailgaters? What has the response been so far?
Dr. Webb: Yeah, absolutely. The key is to have variety. Even when you have
beverage options, for example. So, when I’ve brought water, and I’ve had
portion controlled mini-cans that Coca-Cola has. When we offer variety, as
well as having things like light beer, having the variety was key. So then
people say, “Oh, I can have some light beer, but also have some water as
well.”
Anna Garland, 28, Houston: I’m a huge fan of the mini-Cokes and Sprites. They
are the perfect amount of soft drink, and cost-efficient (not wasteful).
Aaron Falk, 32, NW D.C.: I like variety, but I’m going to maximize my food and
alcohol consumption before I go into the stadium where I have to pay $8 for a
beer and $12 for nachos.
WTOP: I notice most of the food items you suggest seem like relatively
normal tailgating foods. Do you think it’s more effective to go with healthier
versions of traditional tailgating fare, rather than new items that may not
look the part of a tailgate tradition?
Dr. Webb: I think offering some healthier
options to some favorite foods, or keeping our favorite foods the same, but
maybe some smaller portions, would be the way to go.
TailgateSmall
Just as important as what you offer is how much of each item. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)
Anna Garland: I agree with offering healthier versions of traditional
tailgating foods. I think creativity is really important. More people than
before follow gluten-free, vegan and vegetarian diets, and being able to find
creative ways to serve traditional tailgating foods that also tailor to these
diets is great.
Aaron Falk: I eat reasonably healthy, reasonable portions most days. However,
I view the experience of going to a sporting event as a ‘cheat’ day against my
normal diet. I’m also very skeptical of trying new, healthier, sometimes
exotic food before spending 3-4 hours in a stadium with questionable
sanitation.
Danny Cole, 31, Silver Spring, Md.: We customize our menu each week depending
on the opponent. Our focus is to prepare food from the opposing team’s city,
and we delegate side dishes and main courses. The latter is always a protein,
while the former varies from week to week. Often the proteins are prepared in
a slow cooker ahead of time, such as with pulled pork or shredded beef, which
helps reduce some of the excess fat from the meat itself.
WTOP: Do you think it’s easier to sneak the changes in recipe in due to
the nature of tailgating (not sitting down and eating, plenty of drinking and
other distractions, etc.)?
Dr. Webb: When you’re using low-fat items, like low-fat cream cheese, that’s
what flavors our food. So you want to add other things that are going to bump
up the flavor. Your herbs and your seasonings, for example, will help to
replace the flavor that you would have got from fat. So definitely using and
switching your ingredients is a great way to help save on some of those
calories that can typically be packed on when we tailgate.
Aaron Falk: My tri-tip, burgers, dogs, and chili don’t benefit from low-fat
cream cheese. Tailgating is supposed to be fun way to get psyched up before a
game and meet new people. You don’t win friends with salad.
Danny Cole: Any cook worth his apron will talk about the importance of proper
seasoning. However, when it comes to tailgate menus, the very nature of the
cooking often makes up for other deficiencies. People love natural grill
flavor, so the proteins that get cooked already have extra taste. We make
substitutions when possible (light sour cream), but in general we always want
to keep the important flavors and allow people to decide how much they want to
eat.
WTOP: It seems like portion control is a big component to your strategy
as well. Does that actually work, or do people just end up eating a higher
quantity of smaller items?
Dr. Webb: That’s why it’s so important that you don’t fumble through the
buffet; you want to eat off the plate. A lot of times, we are continually
grazing. So yeah, you have a slider that’s a smaller burger, but if you’re
constantly eating them or having more than one or two, the calories can add
up. So you want to put your food on your plate, step away from the buffet
table, and only eat the items that are on the plate. And going back to
thinking about the plate, dividing it up into quarters and only thinking about
a quarter of your plate being covered up by lean protein, and most of your
plate being covered up by plant foods, vegetables and grain sources.
Danny Cole: Portion control is definitely an issue, especially when alcohol is
involved. The longer people hang around, the more likely they are to drink
and, thus, eat as well. We stagger the serving times for each course:
breakfast options beginning at 9, side dishes come out at 10, then main
courses come off the grills around 11. The final benefit of this method is
that people always leave the tailgate satisfied and never need to eat more
inside of the stadium.
Aaron Falk: Way to take all the fun out of tailgating.
So, what’s the upshot here? It seems like our tailgaters are on board with
smaller serving sizes and a variety of options, but traditional fare still
dominates the menu. There is also the economic factor of saving money by not
buying food inside the stadium, which seems to outweigh the benefits of trying
to cut back on consumption.
Nevertheless, healthier recipes can go a long way to cutting down calories as
well, so long as the finished product still tastes good. Check out WTOP Living
Editor Rachel Nania’s look at some healthy tailgate recipes.
Follow @WTOP and @WTOPSports on Twitter and WTOP on Facebook.
