I get a lot of emails from people that know I’m a health writer that stumble upon interesting articles. They shoot me the link, usually with a subject line of “Can you believe this!?” Today I logged in to find an article sent to me called “Serving Size Scams Can Make You Fat” from 
MSNBC.com. Excited to share with you all which foods are “marketed as lower in calories than they really are,” I opened the link.
Fail. This is what I found:
Serving Size Rip-Off: Campbell’s Chunky Microwaveable Soup
Listed calories: 200
Servings per container: 2
Total calories: 400
They then go on to claim it is ludicrous that one single microwavable cup is 2 servings because people will only eat it all in one sitting.
They list Pop Tarts (who only eats just one?) packages of ramen noodles, pot pies and more processed foods that anyone interested in eating healthy wouldn’t touch anyway as shady labeling offenders…because they have more than one serving per package.
Wait, wait, wait. So because most people will devour the food in one sitting, companies should change their serving sizes to one entire package? Valid point if you want to make it, but to say they are “scamming” people is making excuses for those who aren’t informed on how to properly read a nutrition label. All the information on the package is correct and legal- it is not the company’s fault you don’t know how to interpret it.
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Earlier this week, McDonald’s announced they will be cutting the portion of fries that come with a Happy Meal and including a serving of fruit or vegetables with every meal. But McDonald’s isn’t the only company that might see success with a strategy of portion-reduction, as a new report reveals that consumers want smaller portions at restaurants.
In the United States, many restaurants have offered huge servings to convey a sense of value to customers. But a market research company, The NPD Group, found that 57 percent of the people they surveyed want to eat smaller portions when dinning out. The firm surveyed over 5,000 adults. Smaller portions were seen to be the most important to consumers between the ages of 35 and 45, an age when many people find it easy to gain weight.
“We were trying to understand what constitutes healthy eating or a healthy lifestyle in consumers’ minds,” Dori Hickey, NPD’s director of product management, told Nation’s Restaurant News. “What we saw was a difference in where they’ve been and where they aspire to be.”
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Many things come with age. Unfortunately, some of those are narrowed arteries and high cholesterol. These days, being prescribed medication for high cholesterol is almost a given, maybe even a right of passage from middle age to senior citizen-hood. But let’s face it, no one likes to take medication and many people would like to try supplements and lifestyle changes before they jump on the prescription bandwagon.
So first, let’s define a few things. When you get a lipid panel here are things you will see and what your target numbers are:
- HDL=good cholesterol Goal: Greater than 40 mg/dL for men, greater than 50 mg/dL for women
- Total cholesterol = combination of your LDL/HDL and other components Goal: Less than 200 mg/dL
- Triglycerides = Fat that your body stores Goal: Less than 150 mg/dL
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National Ice Cream Day is July 17 and though one of summer’s favorite snacks can be heavy on the sugar, fat and calories it can also be a nutritious way to consume healthy vitamins and minerals.
If you look in the freezer section in your local grocery store you might be overwhelmed by the plethora of ice cream varieties that tout various health benefits for all dietary needs.
If you’re Gluten-Free…
Try Good Karma Organic Rice Divine Chocolate Chip. Made with organic ingredients and rice milk, Good Karma offers nearly a dozen flavors of non-dairy dessert based on rice. Keep it simple with Chocolate Chip but if you like more creative flavors, opt for Key Lime Pie, Coconut Mango or Chocolate Peanut Butter Fudge.
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For those who want to lose weight, but still enjoy some flexibility in your diet, NutriStystem Flex could be the answer for you. This new program from NutriSystem offers you five days of prepackaged meals each week. The other two days are your flexible days, making it the most convenient and lowest price program that NutriSystem offers.
On the days that you eat the prepackaged meals, you will be eating breakfast, lunch, dinner and a dessert. You can select your own meals, or choose to have some of the most popular items sent to you. A lot of the guesswork is eliminated because you will receive a Flex Meal Planner with your food. This planner will tell you what to eat, when to eat and how to balance NutriSystem meals with your own recipes.
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