01:00 PM CDT on Wednesday, July 19, 2006

Moderator: The Lunch Ladies are ready to take your questions now.

Jeff (via e-mail): Enjoyed your light beer review. Could not agree more on the review of these beers however most of us these days cannot afford a six pack of beer that costs $6.00 or more. I would like to see a review of some of the cheaper light beers such as Keystone light, Miller high life light, Lone star light, and Pearl light. I know you say yuck but many of us have grown to like these cheaper beers. I would love to drink these higher priced beers but alas the cost does not reflect my budget. Also it would be good to know which of these brands reduced the amount of alcohol to reduce the amount of calories. The web site listed below shows calories, alcohol content, and carbs for many beers:
www.beer100.com/beercalories.htm
Lunch Lady Gretchen: I know what you mean; I like to buy what is on sale, too. That's a good point about the alcohol content; We'll try to find the information on each of the beers we tried and list them in our next newsletter.
Lunch Lady Kimberly: Sorry Jeff, I haven't been an expert on cheap beers since college. Once I could afford something better than Keystone, I never looked back. I do however, consider myself an expert on cheap wine and could put together a list of my favorites if that interests you.

Lunch Lady Gretchen: Speaking of beer: Where is the best happy hour in Dallas? I like J. Pepe's on Wednesdays for $1 beer and fun live music with Colin Boyd.

Lunch Lady Gretchen: Kimberly, the cheap wine list is a great idea! I like wine, but don't know how to pick it out and am always afraid the cheapest stuff will be the worst.
Lunch Lady Kimberly: I'll put together a list and include it in our next newsletter.

Moderator: Ladies, how did you decide which beers to try this time?
Lunch Lady Kimberly: I picked up the beers at Tom Thumb grocery store in my central Dallas neighorhood. I chose the beers that offered lower calories or lower carbs than regular beer. We also wanted to try light beers by Heineken and Corona but the store didn't stock them. They also didn't stock Skinny Dip but I had a sixer at home.

let's eat: I thought this forum was about healthy eating, not beer drinking and happy hours?
Lunch Lady Gretchen: OK, so let's talk about food. Anybody have suggestions for us? Next on our list is kids' lunch box options, and y'all are going to love the 8-year-old girls who reviewed the food for us. We call them the Junior Lunch Ladies. Then after that we're trying Lean Cuisine and Healthy Choice's new pizzas.

Kaspar: Ozona has a splendid happy hour on wed. i love going there, lots of hot guys!!!!!!!
Lunch Lady Gretchen: I love that place; it has a great patio. Of course, it's too hot these days. As for the hot guys, I'll have to take your word for it.

Moderator: You have been doing non-lunch stuff lately like gelato and now beer. How do you pick what you're going to taste-test?
Lunch Lady Kimberly: We like to pick foods that people eat at work, but branch out to other water-cooler topics like low-calorie beer and the nutritional content of italian ice. Gretchen and I take turns choosing what we are going to review. Sometimes we come up with our own ideas, or we will brainstorm, and we also take suggestions from our readers.

mlt1980: Corona light tastes just as good as corona with far fewer calories. I'm not a big fan of Heineken or Heineken light, however.
Lunch Lady Gretchen: Regular Heineken can be a bit skunky, I think. I imagine the light is probably a lot like it. They have great TV commercials though.

Lunch Lady Gretchen: Has anyone tried the new salad Acapulco Chicken Salad at Jack in the Box? I just saw the commercial for that last night (another great one).

Sheryl (via e-mail): Thanks for your updates. I am a fellow Weight Watchers at work loser who has hit a bump in the road. I really want to thank you for putting the Weight Watchers points on everything and wish you the best of luck on your weight loss. If you guys are ever in Austin I would love for you to do the WW points for some of the locals like Mangia's Pizza and Freebirds. Again thanks for your articles.
Lunch Lady Gretchen: Congrats on being a "loser" Sheryl. (For non-Weight Watchers, that's what we call people who are successful on the plan.) As for Austin restaurants, you should write to the management and ask that they provide nutritional information. The Lunch Ladies have wanted to review Freebirds (which I personally LOVE — I'm also an Aggie and they opened the first Texas restaurant in College Station), but they don't offer nutritional information yet. We'll keep asking them about it. However, I know my favorite burrito has to be outrageous in Points: rice, beans, cheese, sour cream, steak and the Bad Ass BBQ Sauce on every bite!

Lunch Lady Kimberly: Of course, Gretchen being an Aggie, couldn't let Austin get credit for having the first Freebirds in Texas.

readermike: I loved this one! Awesome! I think you need to do a follow-up, too:
Heineken light (yummy)
Aspen edge (more flavor than ultra)
St. Paulie Girl Light (not so good)
And there's gotta be a few others ...
Lunch Lady Kimberly: Thanks! We thought it was a good idea, but we couldn't review them all. We were probably remiss in not reviewing the Heineken light. I'm dying to try it. And, now you have me curious about Aspen Edge.

Moderator: Speaking of cheap beer vs. cheap wine (above) — is there a calorie difference between a glass of beer and a glass of wine? I'm thinking beer would be higher in calories, right?
Lunch Lady Gretchen: Hmmm, let's see. I found this info on iVillage.com: Beer: Non-alcoholic beer actually has the same calories as beer with alcohol: 148 calories in 12 ounces. Drinking light beer, you'll only take in 99 calories per 12 ounces. One six-pack has more than 800 calories (and that's without the chips and dip). Wine: Dry wine contains fewer calories than sweet: 106 calories for 5 ounces of dry wine and a whopping 226 calories for 5 ounces of sweet dessert wine (without the chocolate mousse). If you drink a glass of wine before dinner, another glass with dinner and a sweet wine for dessert, you've added more than 400 calories to your meal.

Moderator: We're going to be wrapping up the chat soon. Send in your last questions now!

mlt1980: I've always been curious what the nutritional content of one of those delicious frozen strawberry margaritas found at most mexican restaurants... Any ideas?
Lunch Lady Gretchen: At Weight Watchers they tell us to be very afraid of any frozen margarita. Tons of sugar and calories.
Lunch Lady Kimberly: I think it's BEST you don't know. If you knew, you would probably never have another one.

Moderator: That's all we have time for today. Thanks for your questions, and thanks to the Lunch Ladies for chatting. See you back here in two weeks!

Lunch Lady Gretchen: It's been fun! You don't have to go home but you can't stay here :) Have a great afternoon and remember to drink responsibly!

Lunch Lady Kimberly: Enjoy a beer every once in a while. Remember, everything in moderation.