Don't Fumble Your Diet by Choosing This Snack!

By , SparkPeople Blogger
It's the best time of the year for football fanatics: Super Bowl Sunday! But it's not just about the football (and hilarious commercials)--the festivities also typically include a smorgasbord of salty and fatty snacks galore. You've probably indulged in the common 7-layer Mexican dip and wings with ranch dressing, but have you ever thought about how these snacks compare, nutrition-wise? The 7-layer dip doesn't sound so bad—it's made with a lot of healthy ingredients like beans, olives and guacamole. And how many calories could really be crammed into just 6 tiny wings with ranch dressing?

Between a cup of 7-layer dip (made with beans, cheese, guacamole, black olives, sour cream, and onions and served with baked tortilla chips) and 6 wings with 1 ounce of ranch dressing, which is the lower-calorie game day snack?

The Winner: 7-Layer Dip!

Even though this dip comes out on top, it's certainly not a ''light'' snack—one cup with one serving of baked tortilla chips clocks in at 562 calories, 42 grams of fat and 824 mg of sodium! But the wings are even more shocking—just 6 wings with one ounce of ranch dressing tips the scales at 752 calories, 64 grams of fat and 836 mg sodium. If you were to indulge in both snacks over the course of the game (not including beers or any other nibbles), you would consume 1,314 calories, 106 grams of fat, and 1,660 mg of sodium before the final touchdown!

Intercept your snack attack by choosing some of the game day recipes from the collections below. They're still full of all the traditional flavors you crave, but for a fraction of the calories, fat and sodium.

12 Healthy Game Day Recipes
15 Healthy Snacks for Super Bowl Sunday
Nutritious and Delicious Super Bowl Recipes

And finally, don't forget to work out while you watch the game to help burn off some of those calories!

Do you have any snacking traditions for Super Bowl Sunday?