FitSugar

How Much Cheese Is Too Much?

FitSugar — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 09:30:00 PST

I was talking to my grandmother the other day and she asked me what I was making for dinner. When I said, "homemade mac and cheese," she said, "You shouldn't eat cheese. It'll clog your arteries." While she's right that the cholesterol in cheese can be harmful to your heart, that doesn't mean you necessarily have to give it up entirely.

Eating foods high in cholesterol and saturated fats, mainly dairy products, meat, and eggs, can raise the total level of cholesterol in your body, which can lead to heart problems and stroke. When it comes to cholesterol, you want to shoot for:

Total cholesterol level	HDL level (good cholesterol)	LDL level (bad cholesterol)
Less than 200 mg/dL	60 mg/dL or higher	Less than 100 mg/dL

So what does this mean when it comes to your diet (and your cheese consumption)? I'll tell you if you

read more No matter what, after you hit 20 years old, you should get your cholesterol checked every five years. If your total cholesterol is over 200 mg/dL, your HDL level is less than 40 mg/dL, you have other risk factors associated with heart disease and stroke (such as high blood pressure), or you're a man over 45 or a woman over 50, your doctor will probably recommend you get it tested more often. If you get your cholesterol checked, and everything seems healthy, then it's OK to consume about 300 mg of cholesterol a day. If your levels aren't looking too good, then my gram is right - you'll want to cut back on the cheese, meat, eggs, and other dairy products and consume less than 200mg of cholesterol a day. Look for low fat dairy products and lean cuts of meat. Fit's Tips: Another great way to improve your cholesterol, is to get at least 30g of fiber a day, limit your sodium intake to less than 2,300 mg a day, and be sure to exercise regularly. Source

5 Unbelievably Bad Fast-Food Breakfasts

Prevention — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 04:06:39 PST

We are excited to share one of our fave stories from Prevention here on FitSugar!

By Molly Raisch, Prevention

Mom always said, “Breakfast is the most important meal of the day.” And she was right. Morning meals are essential to revving your metabolism and kick-starting your calorie burn, but indulging in a fat- and calorie-laden breakfast from your favorite fast-food chain could easily send you into sugar shock and pack on the pounds. Research shows that people who ate a big morning meal consumed an extra 400 calories per day, setting themselves up for muffin tops and pancake bottoms. Here are six breakfast drive-through disasters and their Prevention-approved healthier, make-at-home options.

Fifty Simple Strategies to Lose 10 Pounds

Starbucks® Zucchini-Walnut Muffin
Muffins are calorie sinkholes - they pack in the calories but somehow still leave your stomach grumbling. This muffin from Starbucks® seems healthy enough, boasting both zucchini and walnuts, but don’t be fooled by its veggie-based name. This morning baked good has close to 500 calories and 28 grams of fat.

Try Instead: Zucchini-Raisin Muffin
These scrumptious zucchini muffins are half the calories and nearly a third of the fat as their coffeehouse counterparts. Tricks of the trade: Load up your bread batter with tons of zucchini shreds and add raisins for a touch of natural sweetness.

Ten Breakfasts For Glowing Skin

McDonald’s Big Breakfast® With Hotcakes
When your breakfast comes off a fast-food menu and has the word “big” in it, your waistline is headed in the same direction. This hearty breakfast has scrambled eggs, sausage, a buttermilk biscuit, hash browns, and two hotcakes piled onto a plate, making it no surprise that one order accounts for over half your day’s calories and over 55 grams of fat. The worst part? This lumberjack breakfast is sky-high in sodium: 2,150 milligrams.

Try Instead: Pancakes With Berries and Cinnamon
Satisfy your hotcake cravings with these light and fluffy low-cal flapjacks. The secret to cutting fat and calories without losing any buttery flavor: bake them in the oven. Top with berries and cinnamon, and you’ve got a mouthwatering, guilt-free pancake breakfast the whole family will love.

Keep reading for more healthy breakfast swaps after the break.

Hilary Duff Gets Ready For Christmas - With Baby Bump Art

Molly Goodson — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 08:15:31 PST

Hilary Duff paints her bump for the holidays

Robert DeNiro and his wife welcome a baby girl

Mel Gibson's ex-wife gets half his estimated $850 million in divorce settlement

Prince Philip hospitalized for a blocked coronary artery

Conan O'Brien gives the gift of Jon Hamm this holiday season

Taylor Swift shares her Christmas obsession

Most Unhealthy Deal Ever: LivingSocial's $13 For 5 Big Macs, 5 Large Fries

Emily Co — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 11:26:10 PST

If you're willing to clog up your arteries, there's a great McDonald's deal going on at LivingSocial today: $13 for five Big Macs and five large fries. That's 50 percent off the normal value of $26.

You can take a bit of time mulling over whether you should purchase it because you still have 15 hours to decide and the deal is capped at one million voucher booklets. The best part about the deal is that there is no expiration date. Even if you eat at McDonald's once a year, you'll still be able to make good use of it as long as you remember to use it. Keep in mind that although this is a really great deal value-wise, it's up to you to decide if the cost to your health is worth it. Are you buying this deal?

Candy Coded: What You Need to Know About Your Favorite Sweets

Fitness Magazine — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 03:09:35 PDT

We are excited to share one of our fave stories from Fitness Magazine here on FitSugar!

It seems like these days there's always a reason for a sweet treat - holidays, baby showers, birthdays, and the list goes on. We could tell you not to eat it, but unless you have the willpower of a saint everyone craves sugar once in a while. To help, we got the dish on the best drugstore treats to nibble on and the ones to completely nix.

1. Don't Be Afraid of the Dark
"If you're craving chocolate, then the darker, the better," says Katie Cavuto Boyle, RD, owner of Healthy Bites. "Dark chocolate has less sugar, is dairy-free, and is rich in antioxidants that have been shown to reduce blood pressure and decrease your risk of cardiovascular disease."

Nibble: Hershey's Miniatures: Special Dark
Serving Size: 5 pieces
200 calories; 13g fat; 7g saturated fat; 25mg sodium; 24g carbs; 18g sugar; 3g protein
Nix: Reese's Peanut Butter Cups Miniatures
Serving Size: 5 pieces
220 calories; 13g fat; 5g saturated fat; 130mg sodium; 26g carbs; 23g sugar; 4g protein

2. Go Nuts!
"Chocolate that contains nuts may be even better for you, because the nuts contain a variety of nutrients and healthy fats that may displace some of the total chocolate, sugar, etc.," says Marie Spano, RD, owner of Marie Spano Nutrition Consulting in Atlanta.

Nibble: Dove Silky Smooth Almond Milk Chocolate Bar
Serving Size: 1 bar
190 calories; 12g fat; 6g saturated fat; 20mg sodium; 18g carbs; 16g sugar; 3g protein
Nix: Twix Caramel Cookie Bars
Serving Size: 2 cookies (1 pack)
250 calories; 12g fat; 9g saturated fat; 100mg sodium; 33g carbs; 24g sugar; 2g protein/li>

More suggestions for making the better candy choice after the break.

Fat Talk: Saturated Fats

FitSugar — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 07:00:06 PDT

My hubby is having an affair, with bacon. He's in love with those crispy, salty strips, so much that he probably eats it every day; with his eggs, on his sandwich, on his dinner salad, heck, he even likes it for dessert. The love affair doesn't end there. He's also having serious relationships with beef, mayo, cheese, and ice cream. Being the health nut and caring wife I am, it's a constant battle with us, as I try to get him to cut back. "It's protein," he argues. "It's saturated fat," I plead.

Saturated fats are "the bad fats." They're often solid at room temperature, like butter, and are in no way essential to your health. Most saturated fats come from animals and are found in meat, eggs, and dairy products. Some are found in vegetable oils such as palm, palm kernel, and coconut oils. The reason they're so unhealthy is because they're hard to digest and full of cholesterol, which clogs your arteries. Clogged arteries increase your risk for high cholesterol, which puts you at risk for heart problems.

The American Heart Association recommends that you limit your saturated fat intake to "less than 7 percent of your total calories." That means, if you're consuming about 2,000 calories a day, eat less than 16 grams of saturated fat.

Since I know a vegetarian diet is out of the question for my meat-loving man, I made up a little chart so he knows how much saturated fat is in the foods he craves. That way, he can still enjoy them without overdoing it. To see the chart

3 Vegetable Myths Busted

Prevention — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 15:32:09 PDT

We are excited to share one of our fave stories from Prevention here on FitSugar!

White potatoes don't make you fat, carrots aren't made of sugar - and other myths about the produce you grew up on, dispelled
By Karen Ansel, RD

If the low-carb diet craze of the early 2000s left you believing that potatoes equal pounds and corn is no better than candy, it's time to wake up and taste the produce. Truth is, even vegetables you may think of as nutritional duds are packed with vitamins, minerals, and phytochemicals, not to mention varied colors, flavors, and textures. If you've been avoiding these "produce outcasts," your diet — and health — are missing out. Here, we debunk the biggest myths about a few unfairly maligned vegetables — and provide easy and healthful ways to eat more of them.

Feed Your Family for $100 a Week

White Potatoes Make You Fat
One medium baked potato has only 161 calories, plus 4 g of filling fiber
Added bonus: Chilled, cooked potato is packed with resistant starch, a fibrous substance that could help you lose weight. (For more information on resistant starch, visit prevention.com/resistantstarch.) "If you keep portion sizes in check — no more than one medium potato in a given meal — and eat the fiber-rich skin, potatoes make a satisfying, low-cal, nutrient-rich side dish," says Michelle Dudash, RD, a Gilbert, AZ-based nutritionist. They also:

Fight disease
When scientists from the USDA's Agricultural Research Service tested more than 100 potato varieties, they discovered 60 different vitamins and phytochemicals. For starters, they found flavonoids (which are credited with improving heart health and protecting against lung and prostate cancers) including quercetin, which may boost immunity.

Help maintain healthy blood pressure
Potatoes are loaded with kukoa-mines, plant chemicals that help lower blood pressure, found the USDA researchers. In addition, one medium baked potato (including the skin) provides 20 percent of your daily potassium, a known hyper-tension fighter.

Try this: To make a fat-burning potato salad, boil new potatoes in water until cooked through. Cut into one 2-inch slices and then quarter. Toss with olive oil, red wine vinegar, Dijon mustard, and chopped fresh parsley, and chill. Or for a hearty meal, skip the sour cream, butter, and cheese, and top a baked russet potato with vegetarian chili.

9 Eating Habits to Naturally Boost Your Health

Learn why you should be eating carrot and celery after the break.

Realities of 5 Common Space Myths

Kelly Schwarze — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 03:16:41 PDT

As science and technology evolve into the future, it's likely many of the truths we know today will be debunked in the years to come. Astronomy is one science that's in constant flux based on new research and findings from satellite image evidence from across the solar system. In the last decade alone, beliefs on Mars, Pluto, and the far reaches of the universe have changed, as new facts and research filters in. Place your bets on which of these space realities will have changed within the next five years.

The larger the planet, the bigger the mass - Accounting for 99 percent of the mass in the solar system, the sun, not any of the big planets like Jupiter, is actually the largest object in our solar system.
Black holes are monsters - Despite what you've seen in movies and cartoons, black holes aren't cosmic vacuums engulfing innocent space matter. Materials that fall into black holes likely collided with another object already orbiting the black hole. The collision alters the original matter's orbit, becoming susceptible to the huge gravity force of a black hole.

No one cares about Pluto - Scientists still love Pluto! One of NASA's fastest spacecrafts called New Horizons is currently en route to the dwarf planet. NASA is eager to study the largely uncharted and presumably icy materials of Pluto, as it's believed there are thousands of similar dwarf planets in the same Kuiper Belt region beyond Neptune. As it travels to its scheduled 2015 rendezvous with Pluto, New Horizons will be in electronic hibernation using less power than a pair of household lightbulbs.
Water flowed on Mars - This one still remains a bit of a mystery. While NASA does report water on Mars is "either held in the soil or takes the form of ice at the planet's north and south poles," recent research may also show another source for the channels carving through Mars's surface. It's likely that some of the river-like beds found on Mars were carved from lava flow, in addition to waterways. A study of one of the planet's main channels found terraced walls and secondary channels branching from the main artery, which are both indicative of lava flow. With consistent new reports being published on the topic, the latest suggesting salt water flows in Mars's warmest months, it may be too early to decisively confirm the background behind the mysteries of Mars's surface; the truth is more complex than first believed.
Asteroid fields are the Minesweeper of space - Han Solo's skilled navigation of an asteroid field in The Empire Strikes Back may not be so impressive after all. Asteroids actually travel roughly one million miles away from one another, making it conceivably simple to dodge them, as long as Imperial spacecraft are not also chasing you.

Source: NASA

Sweet Potato Fries: Are They Healthy?

FitSugar — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 01:58:00 PDT

We are repeatedly reminded to avoid french fries for a wide variety of reasons, and one of those reasons is they make us wider! But what about their more healthy-seeming cousin: sweet potato fries?

Most restaurants use hydrogenated vegetable oil to cook up fries, and that oil is known to clog your arteries, promote heart disease, interrupt metabolic processes, cause belly fat that crowds the organs and strains the heart, and increase cancer risk. Starchy foods subjected to high heat create acrylamides, which a Swedish study found to cause cancer in rats. Things like brain-cell function, hormones, gland function, oxygen transport, cell-wall function, and digestive-tract operation are also negatively affected by hydrogenated oil.

Do you think they have a separate vat of heart-healthy canola oil waiting to fry up your sweet potato fries? No such luck.

While sweet potatoes are considered a great source of vitamin A, I'm sorry to break the news to you, they're still deep-fried. For that reason alone, you're better off ordering a baked potato, or better yet, a side salad, with your meal.

Following food philosopher Michael Pollan's advice, if you're craving junk food, make it yourself. DIY sweet potato fries are easy to bake: cut up a couple of sweet spuds, drizzle with a little olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper, then bake. For a little more guidance, check out this sweet potato french fry recipe.

Flickr User not a hipster

Walk This Way: The Benefits of Walking

FitSugar — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 11:24:37 PDT

Around here, there's no exercise we don't love. Yoga, running, and rock climbing all have a place in our hearts. But we don't discount the most unassuming exercise of all, walking. It's a great no-fuss way to exercise (all you need are comfortable walking shoes!), and a moderately intense pace - 100 steps per minute - is the key to losing weight.

If you're in the mood for taking advantage of the season's long nights with more walks, investing in a pedometer is a good idea. You'll know exactly how many steps you take each day, which can keep you on the right track with your goals. Once you're ready to go, here are some more benefits of walking that you can look forward to!

It's a moderate calorie burner. Walking at a 20-minute-mile pace burns about 103 calories every hour, which is not too shabby. And if you pick up your pace, you can burn a few calories more an hour - a 15-minute-mile pace will burn about 118 calories. Add a few more movements to your walk, and you've got a veritable cardio routine going on.

Check out more benefits of walking after the break!

Food	Amount	Saturated fat (g)
Mayonnaise	1 tablespoon	1.5
Unsalted butter	1 tablespoon	7.3
Sour cream	1 tablespoon	1.6
Cheddar cheese	1 oz slice	5.9
Lowfat milk (2%)	1 cup	3.1
Half and half cream	1 tablespoon	1.1
Egg	1 large	1.5
Bacon	1 medium strip	1.2
Hamburger patty	1/3 pound	8
Filet Mignon steak	6 oz.	6
Hot dog	1 frank	6
Pork sausage	2 oz.	9
Pork spare ribs	3 oz.	9.5
Roasted drumstick (with skin)	1.8 oz.	1.6
Beef pastrami (deli meat)	5 slices	3.8
Ham (deli meat)	5 slices	4.1
French fries	Large (5.4 oz.)	3.5
Pepperoni pizza	1 slice	5.3
Vanilla ice cream	1/2 cup	11
Cheesecake	1 slice (1/12 of 9-inch cake)	16