Is it me or are you confused about how much of each vitamin and mineral you are supposed to get each day? Some of my friends take daily vitamins, and some eat fortified foods like calcium-enriched orange juice. It that necessary, or do we get enough in the foods we eat? The first step in answering that question is to know how much we need to get each day. Here's a chart to make it a little Read more

First the USDA changes the food pyramid and now I'm starting to see RDI instead of RDA. What is the change all about? RDI stands for Reference Daily Intake and represents the daily dietary intake level of a nutrient considered sufficient to meet the requirements of nearly all (97-98%) healthy individuals in each life-stage and gender group. Basically the RDI replaces RDA (Recommended Daily Read more

I am a label reader, there is no doubt about that. I want to know what I am eating and how much of it too. So I look on the back of food packages, let's use yogurt as an example, to see how much of some ingredient it contains, for instance - sugar. A serving size of this new vanilla yogurt I bought was a cup. I looked to see how much sugar there was in one cup and the answer is listed in Read more

If you're wondering how many grams of protein a woman should consume per day, there's no cut and dry answer. It depends on your weight, your activity level, and whether or not you're pregnant. There's an easy way to calculate the number of protein grams that's right for you. Just take your weight in pounds and divide it by 2.2 to figure out your weight in kilograms. Then multiply that number by Read more

Vitamin A — What doesn't it do? It helps with your vision, bone growth, cell growth and repair, and cell division. It helps regulate the immune system, and makes white blood cells, which help to fight off infections. Vitamin A also helps the skin and mucous membranes function as a barrier to bacteria and viruses. It also speeds up healing when you get cut, and prevents your skin from Read more