Healthy Movie Snacks

My husband and I went to see Bridesmaid’s on Saturday night (which by the way, was hilarious). We don’t go to the movies that often, but usually when we do, we’re always tempted to buy snacks. There’s something about watching a movie (I don’t know, marketing maybe?), that makes you crave something to chew on. Usually that something is either covered in butter or made of sugar, two things I really enjoy. When I get something, I try to get the “best” or healthiest choice, if there is such thing. I usually get Junior Mints or Sour Patch Kids. I love how on the Sour Patch Kids box, it says it’s a “low fat” food. Well, that makes it healthy right? Just don’t look at the sugar content and you’ll be good!

There are so many other snack options to choose from, here are some movie theatre classics:

• Large Buttered Popcorn– Usually around 1500 calories! Obviously, you don’t have to get a large popcorn. The medium is usually around 900 calories and the small about 450 calories. The small would be the best choice maybe without the butter and salt added.

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• Healthier Choice– Pop your own popcorn and bring it in your purse! It’s probably hard to get around the fat and salt content in movie theatre popcorn even with a small size. Your best bet is to pop your own, maybe butter flavored, and bring it along!

 

• Reese’s Peanut Butter Pieces– Around 1200 calories, yikes! We all know the portion sizes at movie theaters are huge these days so I think that has a great deal to do with the calorie content. I love Reese’s Pieces so this is a sad one for me! I’m seriously salivating over pictures of Reeses’s Pieces.

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• Healthier Choice: Junior Mints. Junior Mints have around 320 calories in a box so they aren’t too bad. Milk Duds are another one that isn’t bad, they have around 340 calories.

• Nachos with Cheese– Around 1,101 calories! These seem kind of obvious…nachos cannot be good for you. That cheese just screams unhealthy! But man, they taste good! Luckily (in this case) I tend to go for sweet over salty.

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• Healthier Choice– Hot dog! Seriously, can you believe a hot dog is “better”? Movie hot dog are around 305 calories. That is only the hot dog and bun, no condiments. Usually, movie theater hot dog’s kind of gross me out. They always look like they’ve been there for about 15 years. I’ve had them before though (I was starving!) and they weren’t too bad.

 

• Large Soda– This is another somewhat obvious one, even if we don’t want to admit it. Soda adds so many extra calories and if you have a few a day, that’s pretty substantial. A large coke (at a movie theatre) is around 350 calories. So, if you got a large coke and candy…that’s a whole lot of extra cals!

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• Healthier Choice– The healthiest choice would be water, obviously. But if you want a “real” drink, try iced tea or water with lemon! I love super lemony water, I drink it all day long. It’s not too good for the acid reflux but it tastes great! 🙂

 

Here are a couple other “homemade” snacks you could bring to the movies next time you go:

• Handful of almonds. Almonds, to me, sound so boring as a movie snack. But, I recently bought some roasted cocoa almonds that are delicious! I think those would satisfy my sweet tooth during a movie without overdoing it on the calories.

• Fruit! On saturday night, I brought a bag of blueberries with me for us to snack on. It was just fine. There was a temporary moment of weakness when I wanted to buy some Sour Patch Kids too, but didn’t. You could also bring grapes, sliced apples, cherries, etc.

• Cereal. I’ve brought a bag full of Kashi cereal to a movie before. It tastes good and definitely keeps my mouth busy!
• Veggies. If you’re really feeling healthy, you could always bring sliced up veggies. I prefer something sweet so I would probably stick to fruit. But baby carrots or sliced up cucumber would be an easy and healthy option.

 

Do you splurge at movies or try to stay healthy? Any good healthy “homemade” snack ideas?

 

Source for nutrition facts.