Tag Archives: sodium

Your Scale: Best Friend or Worst Enemy?

This guest post was submitted by The Fresh Diet, a Florida-based meal delivery company whose food is based on the 40% carbohydrates, 30% proteins and 30% fats diet concept.

Clearly the easiest way to measure your dieting success is to check the scale. Who doesn’t like to step on a scale when dieting and see that they’ve lost weight!

But, too much reliance on the scale can actually have a negative affect on your diet progress. That’s why we recommend only using the scale once a week.

Why? Throughout any given week your weight will fluctuate. What most dieters don’t realize is that the amount of salt you eat actually regulates the amount of water in your body. And based on changes in salt intake the water level in your body will shift too. (more…)

Posted on September 19, 2023 by GuestBlogger

What Keeps a McDonald’s Burger from Rotting

McDonald's Hamburger

UPDATE [10/15/2024]: McDonald’s released a statement in response to the Happy Meal Project. They argue that the burger didn’t rot from lack of moisture: “If food is/or becomes dry enough, it won’t grow mold or bacteria. In fact, any food purchased from a restaurant or grocery store or prepared at home that lacks moisture would also dehydrate and see similar results if left in the same environment.”

We recently posted an article about photographer Sally Davies’ “Happy Meal Project,” which documents the life of a McDonald’s hamburger and fries as they steadfastly refuse to rot. The project is not the first of its kind, and there are reports of burgers that looked about the same after four and even 12 years after their date of purchase. The idea is this: most healthy food will eventually spoil, so how long a food goes without going bad is an indicator of unhealthy ingredients.

So what’s behind the miraculous preservation? As far as the beef patty is concerned, it’s not from preservatives. According to the ingredients list published by McDonald’s, the patty contains 100 percent Angus beef, prepared with a “grill seasoning” that consists of salt (we wonder how much) and black pepper. The high fat content and the high cooking heat are enough to account for the burger’s resistance to decay. Over time, the moisture in the burger will evaporate and the fat will harden, much like it does in arteries of people suffering from atherosclerosis.

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Posted on September 9, 2023 by Margaret

Don’t Trust Your Scale

If you are a scale junkie, you might not like what I have to say.

If you get on the scale multiple times a day, and let those numbers decide what kind of a day you’re going to have, you are not only driving yourself crazy, you’re also wasting your time.

Your weight fluctuates day to day, hour to hour, three, four, even five pounds at a time. It’s normal, and it has nothing to do with how well you have been dieting or how hard you have been exercising. You can’t control it.

If you are a rational human being, you know that it is impossible to gain five pounds of excess fat in a day unless you entered a pie eating contest. So why would you let that stupid number on the scale rule your life? (more…)

Posted on August 24, 2023 by Kelly

Sneaky Salt: How Sodium Hides in Your Diet

Salt Hidden in the American DietConsuming too much salt is a major factor in high blood pressure, which in turn can lead to heart disease. Nearly 90 percent of adults in the U.S. consume more sodium than is recommended, in part due to the fact that salt can hide in foods that don’t taste salty.

The U.S. Dietary Guidelines have recently cut the daily recommended intake of sodium from 2,300 milligrams to 1,500 milligrams per day. The best way to cut down on salt is to eat fewer processed and restaurant foods. It’s also important to get used to the idea that salt is in foods like cake, soda, bread, and cereal. A 30 grams slice of angel food cake can have 243 milligrams of salt, a 12 ounce can of diet soda has 70 milligrams of sodium and a tuna fish sandwich made with whole grain bread can have as much as 462 milligrams of sodium.

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Posted on August 4, 2023 by Health Buzz

Walnut Week: Google Chef Charlie Ayers Talks Healthy Cooking

All this week, I’m dedicating my blogs to walnuts. If you’ve missed the content so far, be sure to catch up. You can find out what fitness guru Petra Kolber thinks you should do to stay energized this summer, and read about the latest research on the health benefits of walnuts.

This interview is with chef Charlie Ayers, former chef at Google, author of the book “Food 2.0” and member of the California Walnuts Chefs Council, a group working to make restaurant meals healthy and delicious at the same time. Read what he has to say about healthy cooking and check out his healthy recipe using walnuts: Walnutty Egg and Bell Pepper Gratin.

1. As a restaurant chef, what is essential for creating healthier menu options? Whether it is swapping out butter for a healthier oil, or lower fat dairy, etc., how do you keep high-taste intact while still offering healthful options?

It is important to give your guests compelling flavor profiles, so that they are satisfied and not missing the added fats that are normally associated with restaurant foods. We tend to use a lot of ingredients that are versatile and can be either applied to Latin American or Asian cuisines. We make all of our own dressings; our ketchup is made in-house with no high fructose corn syrup, and instead use an organic brown sugar in small amounts as a sweetener. I try not to use added fats when working with product that already has a naturally high fat content, and I try and bring out the flavors of the foods with the combination of using fruit and vegetable juices instead of adding additional fats. (more…)

Posted on June 8, 2023 by Rebecca

The Great Salt Debate

My father used to tease that at my mother’s family gatherings everyone was given their own salt shaker with their flatware. At family gatherings on both sides I have heard suggestions of adding salt to apples, watermelon, cottage cheese, and pumpkin pie. I am not a pumpkin pie fan, but admittedly, it did seem to make it taste more sweet. Thus I wasn’t all that surprised to read this article in the New York Times.

Government health officials, the Institute of Medicine, and Michelle Obama are all urging food companies to greatly reduce their use of salt, in hopes of saving thousands of American lives each year. I should not have been surprised to read that processed foods account for 80 percent of the salt in the American diet.

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Posted on June 2, 2023 by Brooke Randolph

Kick The Salt

This article is brought to you by our Biggest Loser newsletter sponsors – The Biggest Loser Resort at Fitness Ridge.

I have been thinking about salt lately, and the negative health effects of having too much sodium in the diet. A high intake of sodium can raise blood pressure and increase the risk for heart disease and strokes. On the whole, Americans get too much sodium, ingesting an average of 3,500 mg per day instead of the recommended 2,300 mg per day. Interestingly, the majority of our sodium comes not from salt added at the table, but from processed and pre-packaged foods.

I am excited to see that there have been some recent developments relating to cutting sodium intake in the US. Last month, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced its plans to decrease salt in the American diet. They are looking to limit the amount of sodium in restaurant meals and prepared/processed foods, starting with voluntary cutbacks by restaurants and food manufacturers. So far, 16 companies have signed on to start reducing sodium in their products. Companies like Starbucks, Subway, and Boar’s Head have said they will cut sodium by 25 percent in five years. Heinz has said they will decrease the sodium in their ketchup by 15%. And others are following suit.
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Posted on May 25, 2023 by GuestBlogger

Bikini Beach Body Workout for Summer

Well, it’s almost summer again, which means the sometimes dreaded swimsuit season is here. If you have not already stepped up your workouts a little by now, it’s sure time to do so.

Many people often get the misconception that doing hundreds of crunches will get that flat, sexy stomach. Not true. Crunches do, however, work the core endurance and will obviously help. Fat and muscle are two different types of tissue. You need to burn the fat tissue in order achieve the so-called “bikini belly.”

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Posted on May 11, 2023 by Matt

Busting Common Food Myths

With so much information at our fingertips from the news on TV and online, it can be overwhelming to try to distinguish fact from fiction. For example, how many times have you heard or been told that sugars are bad for you? Well, the truth is that not all sugars are bad. But, depending on your source you may have heard a different opinion. Let’s get started and bust six common food myths:

Myth: Eggs cause your cholesterol to rise.

Fact: Our bodies generate and create their own cholesterol, so rarely do we need any help with getting more or less through food and diet. Saturated fat and trans fat are the bad fats that impact our body’s cholesterol levels, leading them to rise above regulated levels. Eggs are rich in vitamins and minerals that are good for you and have a relatively small amount of saturated fat that, when eaten in moderation, should not cause any increase to cholesterol levels. Go ahead and keep eggs in your meals.
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Posted on May 8, 2023 by Amy

Consumer Reports Gives Chicken Nuggets Failing Grades

If you followed along with Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution, you might have seen his experiment on the very first episode with a handful of elementary school children and chicken nuggets. In the experiment, Jamie shows how all the “unused” bits and pieces of chicken are ground up along with all the fat to then be processed into what we all know as the chicken nugget. While the children shrieked during the process, upon completion of cooking these nuggets, Jamie was shocked to learn they were still open to eating them.

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Posted on May 7, 2023 by Amy

FDA to Reduce Salt in Your Food

According to a report by the Washington Post, the Food and Drug Administration is planning to require food manufacturers to reduce the salt levels found in their processed foods. The initiative’s goal is to gradually reduce salt intake over the coming years, which would adjust our palate to a low sodium diet.

While officials have not determined the future salt limits, the Post’s source says that the FDA would analyze the salt in thousands of foods, including spaghetti sauces, breads, and beverages.

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Posted on April 23, 2024 by Jason