A trip to the movie theater usually includes expensive tickets and even more expensive movie theater food. In a report filed on WebMD, the snacking situation on movie theaters isn’t the best in the world. Popcorn is loaded with sodium even if you don’t get the artificial butter flavor slathered onto it. Some higher-class movie theaters are now offering full meals in addition to a movie if you want to get more expensive and get better food. This article will focus on movie theater snack food that you can find just about anywhere and what healthy alternatives there might be.
Pretzels
Fit Sugar has a nice chart of some movie theater calorie counts. Movie theaters, unlike restaurants and food manufacturers, are not required to post the nutrition information of the food they serve. On the whole, pretzels are decently nutritious coming in at 483 calories.
Since they are made of bread and heated there is not much deep frying going on and not necessarily an overload of sugar or salt. On average there is only around five grams of fat in a pretzel as well.
Nachos
Nachos in and of themselves are a low calorie snack that can be full of sodium. When you add things to nachos like chili, cheese, or peppers then that’s when calories can get out of hand. If you order nachos as a snack at the movie make sure they have no added anything to them.
Nachos with cheese can be a whopping 1,100 calories with a ton of fat because of the cheese spread which is often just made of fillers and not real cheese. Don’t pile on the toppings of your nachos and you’ll be fine.
Candy
When you get boxed candy there are different classes of those as well. Usually the bags are large and you may not want to snarf down an entire bag of Skittles in one setting.
If you get candy, stick with smaller portions instead of eating the whole thing. Skittles and Starburst actually have Vitamin C in them despite being loaded with sugar. The fruit candies are lower in fat than chocolate bars. If you can find just plain peanuts they would be ideal for a snack in a movie theater.
Hot Dogs
Just one hot dog with a bun is a decent snack at a movie theater. One frankfurter is around 300 calories and has less fat than one of those ooey gooey king-sized chocolate candy bars.
While a hot dog isn’t the best meal to have, and it will not be a good way to get just a mid-afternoon snack, a hot dog is actually one of the best things you can get at the movie theater in terms of overall nutrition. The frankfurter is meat and the bun is a carb. If you add ketchup there will be some sodium added so for a better hot dog skip the condiments or just use on little packet.
Solutions
The best way to get snacks at a movie theater is to simply eat at home. Avoid the movie theater food experience altogether and just eat before or after the movie based upon your preference and normal eating times.
If you want to be even more risqué about your movie theater snacks then you can smuggle food in with your purse. Bottle water, plain peanuts, and granola bars are just a purse away from being movie food if you can find room for an entire family’s worth of food in your Swiss Army handbag.
