One of America's favorite foods to eat while watching the Super Bowl are Buffalo wings. Jen Welper, a wellness executive chef with the Mayo Clinic Healthy Living Program, says a few small changes can make wings and dips a little healthier.

Watch: The Mayo Clinic Minute

Journalists: Broadcast-quality video pkg (0:59) is in the downloads at the end of the post. Please "Courtesy: Mayo Clinic News Network." Read the script.

"Usually a lot of heavy frying," Welper says is the biggest problem making party food favorites unhealthy. "The other thing is a lot of heavy dips."

Welper says the first solution to cutting out some calories is using boneless wings with white meat. She also suggests baking them instead of frying.

What about the ever-popular ranch and blue cheese dips that are full of calories?

"Usually, it's like a tub of sour cream or a tub of mayonnaise," Welper says. "And, so, that base right there is kind of a red flag. So what we're going to do is we'll use a nonfat plain Greek yogurt. And then we'll use a little bit of low-fat mayonnaise."

Welper says all you have to do is add a few spices to make a ranch dip, or some low-fat buttermilk and blue cheese crumbles to make blue cheese. Welper says most people won't be able to taste the difference.

Welper says fried Buffalo wings are usually smothered in butter to cut the edge off the heat of the buffalo sauce. She recommends skipping the butter with the healthier baked wings and instead encourage people to dip the wings in the healthier dips to cut the heat and acidity of the sauce.

Get the recipes here:

• Boneless Buffalo wings
• Low-calorie ranch dip

____________________________________________

For the safety of its patients, staff and visitors, Mayo Clinic has strict masking policies in place. Anyone shown without a mask was either recorded prior to COVID-19 or recorded in a nonpatient care area where social distancing and other safety protocols were followed.

Related Articles