Super Bowl can cause super belly

NEW YORK, Jan. 24 (UPI) -- Super Bowl Sunday is the second-biggest food-consumption day of the year among Americans, but a diet book author says you can eat well without overdoing.

Charles Stuart Platkin -- who wrote "The Diet Detective's Countdown" -- urges people to think about "splurgeworthy" foods during, and before, the big game. The book lists 7,500 foods and how much activity is needed to burn calories from each food.

Platkin says he teaches people "how to relate to a calorie."

For example, to burn off two handfuls of potato chips, one must run the length of 45 football fields. Four beers equal 64 minutes of stair-climbing, and you'd have to march for 138 ½ minutes to burn off part of a giant Italian sub.

Big game day is not all doom and gloom, Platkin said.

Light beer means fewer calories, but he says try different varieties before game day to see which taste best. For sub enthusiasts, low fat cheese and skipping the mayo decreases caloric penalties.

Platkin is a nutrition and public health advocate and founder of DietDetective.com.

For the record, Thanksgiving is the biggest day of the year for food consumption.