FitSugar

You Asked: 5 Ideas For Quick, Healthy Breakfasts

FitSugar — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 06:00:00 -0700

Dear FitSugar,
In my effort to be healthier and lose a bit of weight, I have decided to add breakfast to my daily meal plan rather than skipping it out of laziness and lack of time. Should I focus on protein or fiber in the morning? Can you give me some ideas for quick and easy balanced breakfasts?
- New Early Morn' Eater

I applaud your efforts to eat breakfast! I really do believe it is the most important meal of the day. It stokes your metabolism, provides sustained energy throughout your morning, and can help you from over snacking in the afternoon. Ideally, your first meal of the day should have both fiber and protein since both help keep you feeling full. Here are five breakfast ideas, to help you cover your nutritional needs.

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Is Trans Fat Sneaking Into Your Diet?

FitSugar — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 10:00:00 -0800

Sneaky trans fat. You could be consuming it without even knowing that it's lurking in your food choices. We can do our best to keep an eye on products that likely contain trans fat, like cake mixes, chips and crackers, fast food, and packaged cookies and candy, but the printed nutritional data doesn't always tell the whole story.

When a package pronounces that something is trans-fat-free, it does not mean there's zero trans fat - it means the product contains less than .5 grams per serving. Because these are the sneaky facts, it's important to look beneath the nutritional data to the list of ingredients. You can assume that food contains trans fat if the ingredients include any of the following: shortening, partially hydrogenated vegetable oil, or hydrogenated vegetable oil. Be mindful of how much you're eating of foods containing these ingredients, because those smaller amounts of trans fat can add up.

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Downloadable Nutritional Charts

FitSugar — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 11:00:00 -0800

The government (and your mother) wants you to eat more veggies. In an effort to encourage retail stores that sell raw fruits, vegetables, and fish to participate in the voluntary point-of-purchase nutrition information program, the FDA has created downloadable posters for printing. It's hoping that you will see what is good for you and buy lots of fruits, veggies, and fish.

These posters show nutrition information for the 20 most frequently consumed raw fruits, vegetables, and fish in the United States. I think it's interesting to see what the most consumed foods are, but you can also download these charts for your own personal use. They're pretty handy and good to check out so download them by clicking the links below:

Odwalla Nourishing Food Bar: Peanut Crunch

FitSugar — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 11:00:00 -0700

It can be pretty overwhelming when you see the rows of energy bars at the grocery store, but I just found an awesome one made by Odwalla that I think you'd like too. I bought a box of the Peanut Crunch flavor, which are the same as the single bars you can buy, but they're half the size. That means they're only 120 calories instead of 240, so they're perfect for a light snack before or after a workout. I love how these are called "nourishing food bars" instead of "energy bars." That's because they're made with actual food like rolled oats, peanut butter, date and plum puree, and organic soy nuts.

OK, so they're made with healthy and whole ingredients, but do they taste good? Yes! So good! I love "nourishing food bars" that are chewy and these Odwalla Bars fit the bill. The oats, peanut butter and date and plum puree give these bars a wonderful consistency, like a homemade cookie. You can actually see the whole oats too, which is always a plus. They have a very strong "peanutty" flavor and I felt satisfied after eating one bar.

Want to know see the nutritional info on the Peanut Crunch Bars? Then read more

Serving Size	1 bar
Calories	120
Total Fat	3.5g
Saturated Fat	.5g
Cholesterol	0mg
Sodium	105mg
Carbs	19g
Fiber	2g
Sugar	7g
Protein	4g

If you want to see how Odwalla bars compare to other energy bars, then check out this post called Energy Bar Breakdown.

Have any of you tried any of the other Odwalla bar flavors? I'd be curious to know what you thought, so tell me below.

Would You Like Nutritional Info Printed on Your Food?

FitSugar — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 11:45:00 -0700

Thanks to Giggle for this one...

Apparently there is a lot of buzz about a cookie that has the nutritional information printed right there on the frosting for everyone to see while you chow down. Would this stop you from overeating? Would you enjoy buying food with the nutritional information printed directly on the food? I'm curious what you think, Cookies with nutritional information printed in the frosting -- Cool or not?

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Don't Blow Your Healthy Habits at the Movies This Weekend

FitSugar — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 14:00:53 -0800

It's a big movie weekend, for sure. With New Moon finally out, I've already committed myself to spend an afternoon at the theater - the only complication is that I'm not so fond of the movie-theater fare. It's an admittedly challenging place to stick to healthy food choices, since there usually aren't any to begin with. Just in case you don't believe me, recent research is revealing just how unhealthy movie popcorn can be - and it's probably a lot worse than you think.

An article from WebMd highlights the Center for Science in the Public Interest's findings on the state of popcorn, which claims movie theater popcorn is just about as bad for you as "a pound of baby back ribs and a scoop of Haagen-Dazs ice cream or maybe two Big Macs" - and that's before you even add the butter. For the study, researchers sent samples of popcorn and toppings from three different movie theater chains and compared their findings to the chains' own nutritional information. What they found is likely to make you rethink how you view your movie treat.

The study's results show that the calorie count of movie theater popcorn ranges from just about 400 to 1,200 calories, and contains an alarming serving of saturated fat that's equivalent to three days worth of your daily recommended portion, and anywhere from 200 (in the smallest 6-cup size serving) to 1,500 milligrams of sodium. Additionally, the study revealed that both AMC and Regal theaters pop their popcorn in coconut oil, which has a saturated fat content of a whopping 90 percent. Cinemark theaters, which pops their popcorn in canola oil, earns the rep as the healthiest chain, with a significantly lower saturated fat content - ranging from 2 grams in the 420-calorie small size to 5 grams in the 910-calorie large popcorn bucket. But, keep in mind that popcorn is usually just a part of the order - add a soda or your choice of candy, and your order is easily nearing 1,700 calories.

To learn about healthier options at the movies read more.

To avoid a serious caloric overload on your movie outing, the solutions are simple. Opt to share a small, unbuttered popcorn, and request that it be popped without salt (according to the article, these chains will happily oblige), or knosh on something healthy before you head out. If you can, bring a small bag of almonds or a piece of fruit along. Be smart about your choices, and don't let one afternoon at the movies spoil your healthy habits. It's totally fine to indulge every now and then, but a 1,200-calorie serving of popcorn that packs more saturated fat than you need in three days is hardly a treat for your bod or health.

Nutritional Information Printed on Receipt: Cool or Not?

FitSugar — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 03:30:00 -0800

Nutricate, a new company, has developed technology that prints the nutritional information of your purchased meal right on the receipt. The way I see it, it could go two ways: the new receipts may make some of us feel horrible that we just purchased a meal that has 1,000 calories while others can feel overjoyed with how many calories they are saving by simply saying, "Hold the mayo." I could see this becoming a problem when folks get their receipt and want to change their order completely after they've realized they've just purchased a heart attack on a plate.

What do you guys think - is nutritional information printed on the receipts of food you ordered cool or not?

FDA Rethinks "Smart Choice" Food Labels

FitSugar — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 03:00:51 -0700

When the concept behind the "Smart Choice" food labels was introduced, it sounded like a good idea. The goal was to provide easy to digest nutritional information on the front of food packages and the products bearing the label were to meet health guidelines - low calorie count, low in sugar. But when the green check mark made its debut this August, it seemed rather fishy that the cereal Fruit Loops, which lists sugar as its first ingredient, could score the "Smart Choice" badge of approval.

The FDA is cracking down on the use of the label and many large food corporations, like Pepsi-Co and Kellogg's, are suspending their use of the symbol while the FDA creates guidelines for nutritional labels used on the front of food packages. Although no time line was given, the FDA has plans to design a standardized food labeling system, to replace the many voluntary nutritional labels that have been created by the food industry, supermarkets, and nutritionists. The FDA will be working with food manufacturers as well as nutritionists to create a label that helps shoppers select healthy foods. My suggestion: don't rely on the front or the back, read the ingredients and the nutritional panel. Or shop for whole foods and forgo products with labels entirely.

Learn to Love: Spinach

FitSugar — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 10:30:26 -0700

When it comes to stereotypical foods that kids hate, spinach tops the list, along with brussels sprouts and broccoli, all of which I've learned to love. Seriously, when it comes to bang for your buck nutrition-wise, it's hard to beat spinach.

Spinach is an awesome vegetarian source of iron. Consider that an adult woman needs 18 mg of iron per day, and one cup of cooked spinach provides 6.4 mg of that!

Eat this leafy green raw, and one cup packs in 56 percent of the recommended daily value of Vitamin A; cook it and eat a cup, and you've got a whopping 377 percent of your daily value.

It's also very high in Vitamin C and lutein, which is good for your eyes and lowers your risk of cataracts. No wonder it's one of the foods women should eat every day.

Try serving fish or meat on a bed of cooked spinach, use it to make a light Mediterranean salad, or saute it with onions and spices for a yummy side dish.

Looking to Move? Try Burlington, VT

FitSugar — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 09:00:13 -0700

After looking at the 100 largest metropolitan areas in America, Burlington, VT, came out on top as Self magazine's "fittest, healthiest, and happiest" city to live in for women. The magazine studied almost 8,000 different pieces of data in 50 categories and consulted a panel of experts to come up with its rankings. Information factored into the creation of this list includes rates of diseases, air quality, unemployment statistics, and health habits such as exercise and smoking.

The New England city boasts some of the lowest rates of cervical and ovarian cancer deaths in the country, and healthy habits prevail: women walk to work regularly and don't smoke. Where Burlington really shines is in nutrition and food - the city has six times as many food co-ops than the national average, and its farmers markets accept food stamps.

What to see how your hometown fared? Check out the entire ranking here.