When Your Dungeons and Dragon Online Character is Eating Healthier Food Than You

Gamers are known to spend an insane amount of time playing their favorite games. There's really nothing wrong with this kind of behavior unless they neglect the more important things in life like family, hygiene and health. While I really have no control of what gamers do with their lives, I know that at one point, some of them have neglected one or the other. I know because I am a gamer with borderline addiction. While I am in no position to talk about family issues and I believe that personal hygiene is something that should be inherent regardless if you are a gamer or not, then that leaves me to talk about the gamers' eating habits.

Being a gamer means sitting in front of the computer from hours on end adventuring with your online friends, looting virtual money, and slaying mythical creatures. Well, that's how gamers are perceived in general. Then there's the intensely loyal set of gamers who are so into the game that nothing can pry them away from their beloved game, except of course for real emergencies (e.g. house is burning), calamities (e.g. tornadoes, earthquake), or unavoidable circumstances (e.g. game server downtime). This paints quite an unpleasant picture of the whole gamer lifestyle or the lack of it. Little distractions are allowed because some of them are beyond one's control, like a child suddenly tapping the keyboards to get your attention or a wife asking for help. But there is one ultimate distraction that gamers can't resist: Food. Plenty of food.

Food is the fuel that keeps gamers awake for the gaming marathon. Food in itself is not bad, but if you combine it with a sedentary lifestyle, it can spell major problems, one of which starts building up around the waist line. So, people start to assume that if you are a gamer, you weigh at least 200 pounds. While I am not aware of any conclusive studies supporting the assumption, I know that it's very possible on the merit of my own experience. I am not 200 pounds but I have seen how fast 10 pounds take shape in areas you don't want them to be forming in.

As I was trying to find ways to shed the excess poundage, curiosity got the better of me, which led me to ask my online buddies what they eat while they are playing. I asked a total of 30 people from various guilds in the game. While this is not representative of the entire population of the game, it gives us an idea of what kinds of food people eat while playing. The game is called Dungeons and Dragons Online: Stormreach (DDO). DDO is a Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG) which allows people to play in real time and communicate in voice chat.(Oh yes, there are MMORPGS other than World of Warcraft).

The food listed below include some calorie facts taken from CalorieLab . A person needs to have roughly 2,000 calorie intake per day. This number can be more depending on your height, weight, gender, and lifestyle. Since we are talking about a gamer's lifestyle, expect little activity while engaged in roleplaying.
According to How Stuff Works, an accumulation of 3,500 extra calories (over and above the 2,000 daily intake) is stored in the body as 1 pound of fat. Now, that is not something you want inside your body.

WHAT 30 DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS ONLINE PLAYERS ARE EATING

Cookies. Some cookies have higher calories than others. Depending on the kind of cookie, your calorie intake can range from 50 to 500 per cookie or per serving. A chocolate chip cookie is at the 100+ calorie count.

Ramen Noodles. These are the "add hot water variety". They can be beef, chicken, vegetables or seafood flavor. They pack in between 188 to 385 calories per serving or per package.

Potato Chips. Lay's, Ruffles, Pringles, and the list goes on. We already know that once you start munching there's very little chance of stopping until every chip in the bag is consumed. No harm done? Think again. You are looking at 130 to 270 calories per ounce. One package of Classic Lay's Potato Chips is 2 ounces, which means it has a total of 460 calories.

Cheetos. Cheesy snacks are always part of the junk food basket. Calorie count range from 120 to 320 per 1 ounce. Cheetos Puffs (10 oz) has 160 calories per ounce. If you do the math, congratulations, you are 400 calories from reaching your daily calorie intake - and you have not eaten breakfast yet!

Pork Skin/Pork Rinds. I'd like to call this the exotic chips. If you are a fan of crunchy pork skin, then you are probably consuming 174 calories per ounce. Now we know why they are called pork. Oink!

Twinkies. One Twinkie is equal to 150 caloric goodness. Props to you if you can eat just one in a span of four hours. Oh and don't get me started on the Fried Twinkies...

Taco. A bit of a messy food to eat while playing but it adds more meaning to the word "multitasking". Depending on what lurks in your taco, you are looking at 170 to 320 calories. Aye caramba!

Candy/Chocolate/Sweets. They are good sources of energy and I mean major source of energy. Calories start at 34 but can baloon up to 5,567. This is giving me a major energy surge just thinking about it.

Pizza. There are just way too many pizza available in the market. Depending on your preference, you are looking at a calorie intake range of 130 to 2,800 per pie/per serving/per slice. Here's a tip: Stay away from the Deep Dish kind.

Hamburger. As I read the calorie list for McDonald's, Wendy's and Burger King, McDonald's is starting to look like the healthiest of the burger triumvirate. Burger King has 332.8 calories, Wendy's has 464.3, and McDonald is way behind with 279.4. There must be something wrong here, I reckon. Upon further review, I found out that the measure per serving varies:

McDonald's - 105 g (2.66 calories per gram)
Wendy's - 218 g (2.12 calories per gram)
Burger King - 121 g (2.75 calories per gram)

Okay, that needs no further explanation.

Fruits. A 100g of apple has about 47 calories. Banana has 95, Grapes has 60, Kiwi has 49, Orange has 37, Strawberries have 25.7, Pear has 40, and Melon has 24. Even if you consume all these fruits in one sitting, your calorie intake is still lower than when eating 1 package of potato chips. Don't hate! Just stating some facts.

Cereals. There are tons of cereal varieties and listing them all down will take up so much space, so to cut to the chase, you are looking at a possible calorie intake of between 52 to 244 per serving. Here's a tip: the fancier the cereal, the higher the calories.

Peanuts. One cup of peanuts has 854 calories. One cup may be a bit too much, but that can disappear within minutes if you keep popping them in your mouth in between fights. Trust me, it has been done.

Soda. Okay, I don't even need to tell you the bad effects of consuming carbonated drinks, but just so you'd know, Coke has 160 calories per 355ml can, while Pepsi has 100 calories per 240ml. What do you know, Coke has less calorie per ml.

WHAT DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS ONLINE VIRTUAL CHARACTERS ARE EATING

To the uninitiated, the characters in the game also eat and drink to recover their hit points (health) and spell points (for magic). The taverns all over Stormreach offer some tasty treats. Let's see how healthy they are.

Braised Beef Stew. Tender cubes of meat and fresh vegetables help to warm the hands and heart of any old sea dog in Stormreach.
Calories per 3 oz: 220

Cornmeal Porridge. A hot and hearty mix of cornmeal, milk and honey.
Calories per serving: 150 to 226

Grilled Turkey Leg. A barbequed turkey leg, big as your head and slathered with a tangy sauce.
Calories per 100g: 135

Leek and Potato Soup. A refreshing cold soup made from boiled leeks and potatoes.
Calories per 1 cup: 162

Pea Soup. Tepid gruel usually reserved for the crews of sailing vessels
Calories per 8 oz: 68

Poached Sunfish. The catch o'the day, fresh from the waters off Stormreach Harbor
Calories per serving: 158

Roast Boar Shank. Succulent boar hunted in the wilds of Stormreach. So fresh you can almost hear it squeal.
Calories per serving: 210

Smoke-Cured Ham. This slice of aged ham has a salty smoky taste
Calories per 2 oz: 80 to 110

Stale Bread. A day-old hunk of brown bread.
Calories per slice: 70

Tasty Ham. The best ham in stormreach! Enough said.
Calories per 4oz: 90

(Note: Menu description were taken from the game)

From the looks of it, your virtual characters are being given proper food with much lower calorie content. Even if you double the serving, you can burn them off quickly just by killing a kobold or two.

When your online character is eating healthier food and doing more activities to burn those calories off, you know it's time to make some changes in your lifestyle - your gaming lifestyle, at the very least. Take time to choose the right type and amount of food you are eating. Remember that you have little to no activity, so you don't want to pile up calories that you can't burn. This is a call to fellow gamers to watch what they eat and be mindful of the consequences of a bad eating habit. If you can spend so much time taking care of your online characters, why not do the same to yourself? The last time I checked, there are no Raise Dead scrolls in Wal-Mart.