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CNN Live Sunday

Interview With Dietitian Lisa Drayer

Aired May 19, 2002 - 18:22   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JONATHAN KARL, CNN ANCHOR: The blockbuster season is certainly upon us. "Star Wars, Episode II, Attack of the Clones" opened Thursday, grossing $30 million in just one day. It was a new record. "Star Wars" remained unbeatable this weekend. It earned $160 million since it opened, $86.2 million this weekend. "Spider-Man" is in second place with $46 million. "Unfaithful," "About a Boy," and "A New Guy" round out the top five grossing movies.

Between the ticket booth and the theater seats is the snack bar, and we know it's bad. Lisa Drayer a dietitian from dietwatch.com joins us now to tell us just how bad. Well, Lisa, I know first of all these things are overpriced.

LISA DRAYER, DIETITIAN: That's true.

KARL: But just how bad? Just how bad are they?

DRAYER: All right, they are bad. They're very bad and the thing is we tend to think that the more food we get the better, and this may be good for our wallet but certainly not for our waistline and for our health.

For example, take a look at this monster bucket of popcorn. This registers at 1,400 calories. That's close to a day's worth of food or two days' worth of fat, and that's before you get to the Cokes. When you add the Coke it sets the scale at 500. Go ahead.

KARL: Wait a minute. Now wait a minute. The popcorn, you're telling me two days' worth of fat just sitting in that ...

DRAYER: That's right.

KARL: -- one little -- well I guess it's not so little, but in that popcorn?

DRAYER: Right there's 80 grams of fat and that's before you add on the butter. Combine it with the soda and if you were to consume this on a daily basis above what you would need to eat on a daily basis, you would gain four pounds per week just by having this monster bucket of popcorn with this soda. So if you do want to get the value for the money, purchase it but share it with some friends or feed the whole row in the theater.

KARL: We've got some vital stats on some of the other stuff that is truly awful, right? What else do we have next here? The Klondike movie bites?

DRAYER: Right. You know they market these as a movie pack, as if you should eat the whole pack, but the truth is this can add up to a lot of extra calories, so you really want to avoid these snacks and the key is really to avoid going hungry to the theater. Don't plan on the movie theater as being the place to grab a skipped meal. Make sure you eat beforehand.

If you do want to bring a snack, that's fine. You know, take a fruit with you, take some pretzels, but the key is hide it because most movie theaters, the policy is that they will not allow you to bring your own. But if you keep it out of sight, they will not give you trouble, so that is a good idea.

KARL: All right, and we know there's hardly anything that's good at the movie. I mean you can't actually go and buy fruit or carrots at the movie theater, but there are some things that are not as bad as others, right?

DRAYER: That's right.

KARL: Raisenettes (ph)?

DRAYER: I'm not so sure about the Raisenettes, but the hot thing now is this frozen Minute Maid lemonade. This is a great snack. It's only 100 calories per serving and you know the Gummy Bears and the Twizzlers, those don't have any fat.

But the key is to watch your portion, because there are three to four servings per container. So while it may be 150 calories per serving, you need to triple that or quadruple it if you're going to eat the whole box, which I don't recommend.

So again, be sure to share it with the friends that you're with or you know feed others around you. Be generous when it comes to these calories because they can really add up, and if you do overdo it, you know some of us tend to enjoy eating the popcorn at the theater, be sure to do some extra exercise, you know whether it's later that day or the next day.

And on dietwatch.com, we actually have a movie theater counter where you can tell us what you've eaten at the movies, whether it's candy or the popcorn and the soda, whatever it is you've eaten and we will tell you how many minutes of exercise you will need to do in order to burn off the calories in your favorite movie theater foods.

KARL: OK, well let's take you on that. I know you don't have the homepage right in front of you, but that big box or the big bowl of popcorn and then you have the big soda.

DRAYER: Right here.

KARL: If I actually ate all that popcorn and drank all that soda, how much would I have to exercise?

DRAYER: You would have to walk briskly, ready for this, for eight hours. No kidding. But that's really the deal. So the idea is, you want to make sure you're watching those portion sizes and keeping and you will keep your weight in check by doing that.

KARL: All right, well the bottom line is we got to smuggle our own food into the theater if we really want to do what's right.

DRAYER: That's right, just take a fruit with you, hide it and may healthy eating habits be with you at the theater.

KARL: All right. All right. Well hey thanks a lot. We appreciate it.

DRAYER: Thank you.

KARL: Take care, good stuff.

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