Secret Truth About Restauants

I came across with this article on yahoo.com and can't believe the truth about these restaurants. Applebee's graded F, I always thought that there food is supposedly be health - Shocker. Check out the list of your favorite resaurant and see what grade they got. Click here.

Food Encyclopedia

Once again, Prevention.com comes through some great tips and source to keep us healthy. I came along with a email that on their website, a Food Encyclopedia with all the information on food. They have from fruits, nuts, spices meats and veges. Besides they give information what the food is, they give you info on how to store it, when to buy the best time, clean it and nutrition facts. Check it out for yourself.

Healthy and Fattening Foods

Very interesting to know...please watch video

Flaxseeds - Omega-3

The nutty flavor of flaxseeds combined with an abundance of omega-3 fatty acids makes them an increasingly popular addition to the diets of many a health conscious consumer. Whole and ground flaxseeds, as well as flaxseed oil, are available throughout the year.

Flaxseeds are slightly larger than sesame seeds and have a hard shell that is smooth and shiny. Their color ranges from deep amber to reddish brown. While whole flaxseeds feature a soft crunch, the nutrients in ground seeds are more easily absorbed.

I always put ground flaxseeds in my tomato sauce, smoothies, pancakes and even in my homemade muffins. You can't even hardly taste the nutty flavor in your foods. With a dash, tablespoons or a cup of this wonder high fiber seeds, its worth eating. Flaxseeds, also, protect bone health, against heart disease, cancer & diabetes and controls high blood pressure.

So, next time in the store, go to the baking ails or the organic section (wholefood store), and buy flaxseed in a bag, ground or whole. Amazon.com sell them.

Go Greens - Different Nutrition Flavor

I drink a lot of water but after a while the plain taste of water can get boring and bland. Also, there is not vitamins or nutrition in water except water.

I came across of an ad in the Shape Magazine about "Super Fruit & Veggies Mix." Its not bad of taste and its different and good. Here is the website to read more about. They do have different flavors and they have its own nutrition in its own flavor. Check it out for yourself. Click here - ToGoBrands.com

Counting the FAT!

High fat intake also contributes to excess body weight, since a gram of fat has about twice as many calories per gram as carbohydrates and proteins. When loosing weight, lower blood cholesterol levels or simply eat healthier, you'll want to limit total fat intake so, beside of counting calories, you should count your fat grams, too.

A low-fat style of eating is important for maintaining a healthy weight and loosing weight. The dietary reference intake for fat in adults is 20% to 35% of total calories from fat. So lets say, if you eating 1800 calories a day, that is your fat gram should be at 20 grams or less of saturated or hydrogenated fats. To be more specific, here is a website for daily recommended grams of fat and calories. You will need to calulate your BMI first. ( BMI calcultor and Fat Gram Recommend ).

Start eating at a variety of lower-fat foods to get all the nutrients you need. Watch your calorie intake and remember, "low fat" does not always mean "low calorie." Eat plenty of plant-based foods (such as grain products, fruits and vegetables) and a moderate amount of animal-based foods (meat and dairy products) to help control your fat, cholesterol, and calorie intake. Also, increase your physical activity to improve heart health and lose excess body fat.

To keep on a low fat diet, next time you go shopping check the label on the side or on the back of the package and read the Nutrition Label of how many grams of fat per serving. Stay in the product section, your vegetables, greens and fruits, they have less fat all around. When you do find all the low fat foods that you like make a list and take it with you so you don't get distracted from all the other high fat foods. Choose low fat foods like 1% or skim milk, skinless pountry and lean meats, fish and low fat cheese and spreads. You know what is good for you and what foods are bad, be SMART about it.

When preparing foods, trim all visible fat and remove the skin from poultry. Refrigerate soups, gravies, and stews, and remove the hardened fat before eating. Bake, broil, or grill meats on a rack that allows fat to drip from the meat. Avoid frying foods. Sprinkle lemon juice and herbs/spices on cooked vegetables instead of using cheese, butter, or cream-based sauces. Try plain, nonfat, or low-fat yogurt and chives on baked potatoes rather than sour cream. Reduced-fat sour cream still contains fat, so you must limit the amount you use.

When dining out, choose simply prepared foods such as broiled, roasted, or baked fish or chicken. Avoid fried or sautéed foods, casseroles, and foods with heavy sauces and gravies. Request that your food be cooked without added butter, margarine, gravy, or sauces. Request salad with low-fat dressing on the side. Select fruit, angel food cake, nonfat frozen yogurt, sherbet, or sorbet for dessert instead of ice cream, cake, or pie.

Fiber One

WOW! These Fiber One Chewy Bars are good and there is 9 grams of fiber. Plus, they are only 140 - 150 calories. They are great in between snacks during break time. It does make me stay away from the vending machine. The Chewy bars come in Oats & Chocolate, Oats & Peanut Butter and Oats & Caramel. I like the Peanut Butter, fan. Eatbetteramerica.com has a coupon for chewy bar and their cereal with a sign up registration.

They also, have cereal and yogurt which has high fiber. Their cereal has a range of 9 - 14 grams of fiber with flavors of Honey Cluster, Raisin Bran and Carmel Delight. Their yogurt has 5 grams of fiber with flavors of Strawberry, Strawberry/Peach, Vanilla/Peach and Vanilla/Key Lime Pie. Yogurt has only 80 calories, 0 fat and 11 grams of sugar. Not bad at all.

They have great recipes on their website and the benefits of fiber in your diet that can help you in the long run. Check their website.

V8 Juice

Did you have your V8 Juice, today? I did.

I love the V8 Fusion Light Juice. LOVE, LOVE, LOVE. I don't like a lot of vegetables and I know that I don't get all my vegetable requirements in one day. So, having V8 juice just does that. V8 has Vitamins A, C and E for your vision, skin, bones, teeth and protection against cell damage. Also, it has calcium, potassium and magnesium. V8 is low in sodium so its good for your heart.

Another thing, I didn't know that with V8 vegetable juice has recipes. I have not tried it yet, but they sound real good. Check it out on their web. It's a clever way to make your kids eat their vegetable without their knowing it.

Plus, V8 has a diet plan, believe it or not. They have an 8 day plan which is FREE download of pdf to go by. Also, they have Simple Calorie Saver and Calorie Booster (5-6 question) pdfs.

Reasons Why U Should Eat Yogurt

The Power of Protein: Yogurt is an excellent source of protein, averaging about 6-8 grams per 6-ounce container.

Calcium: It's also a great source of calcium, providing about 250 milligrams per serving.

Vitamins: Low-fat and nonfat yogurt are also packed with other vitamins and minerals -- including magnesium, potassium and vitamins B2, B6 and B12.

Get Cultured: Yogurt is indeed cultured. In fact, it is full of live, active cultures (good bacteria that promotes digestive health and stops harmful bacteria in its tracks). Also, it indicates that live and active cultures may even help boost your immune system.

Pudding Treat: Instead of using pudding as a point of reference, they really should have encouraged people to eat more yogurt. It is much better for you than pudding, anyway! But the most important reason to love yogurt is that it tastes great. When it comes to foods that taste good and are good for you, yogurt is in a class by itself.

However, it is important to remember that not all yogurts are created equal. So the next time you are cruising through the yogurt section of your local grocery store, be prepared to do some label reading. Right next to your healthy-option yogurts, you'll find a host of brands laden with fat, sugar and other less than desirable ingredients.

Activia Dannon Yogurt

WOW! This product taste really good. I was at Giant Eagles, yesterday, and they had sample of this product. I tried it and it's GOOD (I went back for seconds). It didn't have that weird tang taste to it like all the other yogurt products have. Also, it's a lot dreamer. The only down fall of this, is the container are small servings in the flavor ones.

It also, helps with your "slow intestinal transit" - what ever that means, it taste good. Basically, if you eat this yogurt one a day, everyday, it can help relulate your digestive system by reducing long intestinal transit time. Here is the website to read more about it and the different flavors they have.

They do have a 14 day challenge but a lot of people say it does help their digestion system and some say that they run to the bathroom a lot. So, be careful of how much you eat.

100 Best Foods to Eat for Women

I found this website on Women's Health about 100 best foods of nutrition for the ladies. We all have to stick together and be healthy and strong for our men and children. Women's Health had sent out a nutritionist and weight-loss expert to find the healthiest package of foods that are good and healthy for us. They have a listing of foods in catagories from breads, meat, soups, desserts and so on... They listed their calories and fat grams, along with a nutrition key with color dots next to the titles of the food of which food promotes for our muscles, bones and other factors. Check it for yourself.

Whole Grains - Attacks the Belly Fat

You do the crunches, the sit-ups and all the core exercise, but you want to loose more, fast, of the belly spare tire fat. Whole grains attack the fat around your stomach, mid-waist area. So, instead of choosing the white bread or the flour pasta, choose the whole grains or wheat. They are now making whole grain/wheat potato chips (its about time).

Here are a few words and foods, you will find on the some packages of foods or on the nutrition labels and ingredients that you should be looking for:

• Whole wheat
• Whole oats/oatmeal
• Whole-grain corn
• Popcorn
• Brown rice
• Whole rye
• Whole-grain barley
• Wild rice
• Buckwheat
• Triticale (wheat and rye)
  
• Bulgur (cracked wheat)
• Brown rice
• Bulgur
• Oatmeal
• Whole-grain corn
• Whole oats
• Whole rye
• Whole wheat
• Wild rice

Chick-fil-a Nutrition Fact

Once again, there are times, you don't have time to cook or prepare your food when you are hungry. I saw an article about Chick-fil-a Restaurant that they are easy on the fat and they have a good selection of great foods.

1. Grilled Chicken Sandwich - 270 calories (Arby's chicken - 578, Wendy's - 320 and KFC Snacker - 290)
2. Medium Waffle Fries - 350 (Arby's Home style Fries - 377 (Curly-397), Wendy's - 420 and McDonald's - 370)
3. Unsweetened Ice Tea (which is freshly made and good) - 0 calories
4. Grilled Chicken Wrap - 410 (which are big and enough; watch for the dressing - choose the mustard, ranch, honey mustard or BBQ sauces or reduced fat)
5. They do have side salad or fruit cup, see if they will replace them, instead of fries. It might cost you an extra .50¢ but it will keep your cholesterol lower (stay away from fried foods).

So, choose their Grilled Chicken and medium Waffle Fries with Unsweetened Tea MEAL for only 620 calories (add an 50 more for lite sauces).

Nutrition Label

It's hard to read the Nutrition Labels on food packages on the back. Half the time, I don't know what I'm looking at...numbers, percents, servings, grams ... oh my. I don't know, if the number it too high or too low of grams per serving or what it the moderate number, which is good for you? Ugh! make it stop.

But we can not stop reading the label. Our society, today, are making foods last longer and not healthy for us. They have weird food matter in ingredients, I can't even pronouns them in English. You need a dictionary to understand what it is what. They even have pesticides in some foods. Yuck.

• Rule #1 - Check the Serving Size and Servings Per Container.
• Rule #2 - Check the Calories. See Image, 1 cup but 2 servings meaning the Calories is double if you have the whole package of food.
• Rule #3 - Check the Total Fat, Cholesterol and Sodium. You definitely want low number of grams. Also, to give you head up on the trans fats, if a product contains 0.5 or less grams of trans fat, the company can claim the product has 0% trans fat. So, if you see at 0%, it still has some trans fat in it. Website on Trans Fat.
• Rule #4 - Check the Sugar.
• Rule #5 - Check the Dietary Fiber and the Vitamins. You want these to be high number.
The quick guide to % Daily Value = 5% or less is low and 20% or more is high.
If you want to read more in detail, you can click on this website (U.S. Food & Drug Administration).

Progressive Soup - 100 Calories

If you live in the northern states like I do (PA) and the cold winter is here, it's very hard to eat chilly salads and cold turkey sandwiches. I saw a commerical last night on tv that Progressive Soup has 100 calorie meals. This is great when you don't have time for lunch or when you are working late in the mid late hours at work and you need want something easy to cook for dinner. They have different varieties of soups like:

Reduced Sodium

• Reduced Sodium Chicken Noodle
• Reduced Sodium Garden Vegetable

Traditional

• Beef & Baked Potato
• Beef & Mushroom
• Chicken & Dumplings
• Chicken & Wild Rice
• Chicken & Barley
• Chicken Noodle
• Chicken Rice with Vegetables
• Carb Monitor Chicken Vegetable
• Carb Monitor Tuscan Style Meatball
• 99% Fat Free Chicken Noodle
• Hearty Chicken & Rotini
• Homestyle Chicken with Vegetables & Pasta
• Manhattan Clam Chowder
• Roasted Chicken Italiano
• Roasted Chicken Rotini
• Roasted Garlic Chicken
• Turkey Noodle

Vegetable Classics

• 99% Fat Free Minestrone
• French Onion
• Garden Vegetable
• Hearty Chicken Broth with Pasta
• Minestrone
• Vegetable
• Vegetable Italiano
• Vegitarian Vegetable with Barley

McDonald's Nutrition Facts

Like me, always on the run, never have time to cook food or stop and prepare dinner - fast food to go is the best solution. Its getting harder everyday to make time to cook. Preparing food takes about 30 mins. and then adding 20 mins. to cook the food equals to about 45 mins to 1 hour to just to make a meal. Time is one of our precious things to take advantage of.

Fast food or restaurants meal are good but be careful of your choices. McDonald's Quarter Pounder with cheese is 510 calories and 23 grams of fat. WOW! Fillet O-Fish is 380 calories and 18 grams of fat. We all know whats is healthy, it just very hard to choose the right foods against the bad foods. Well, snap out of the smell of greasy hamburgers coma and back to reality.

The Grilled Snack Wrap with Honey Mustard or Chipotle BBQ is only 260 calories. Its a perfect snack for on the go until you can go home and eat something proper. If you go the for the 6 piece chicken nugget (250 calories), don't choose the creamy ranch at 200 calorie in a 1.5 oz. pack, try the Honey Mustard, Buffalo or the BBQ which is only 70 calories in a pack. McDonald's do have salad but be careful with the dressings.

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. I say get up early and have a bowl of cereal with fruit rather eating a Sauage Egg McMuffin (450 calories). If you did sleep in and on the go to work, order the English Toast McMuffin (160 calories) no butter with strawberry jam (40 calories) and add on (if you like) Fruit Yogurt w/granolas (160), w/out granolas (130). If you are a sweet tooth order a 1 pkg. Apple Dipper (35 calories, 0 fat) with the low fat caramel dip (70 calories, 5 fat).

Choose wisely, may the force be with you, here is the website for McDonald's Nutrition Information.