Fast Food Nutrition Facts

There is a website, fastfoodnutrition.org that I found that has common fast food places. This website has multiple fast food chains that have a menu with the calories and other nutrition facts on it. I found it to be very knowledgable and easy to share. For example, McDonald's has a lot on the menu and is seperated into various categories, such as desserts, chicken, salads and other. It displays calories, calories from fat, total fat, saturated fat, cholesterol, sodium etc. This website can be very useful when trying to find how much you are eating at an average meal. It is EXTREMELY important to count your calories because if they are exceeded it can lead to weight gain and obesity.

Also, I was researching nutrition and came across a book one can buy called Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2010. Chapter five was eye opening to learn about...

• Many Americans do not eat the right amount of foods with good nutrients

Some key recommendations the chapter gives are.

• Increase vegetable and fruit intake
• Add color to your plate, the more color the better
• Increase the intake of fat-free or low fat dairy products
• Choose a variety of protein foods (lean meats, fish, poultry, eggs)
• Increase seafood intake, it is rich in oils
• Take vitamins

Eat more grains, there are three main types.
Whole grains: the entire grain seed called the kernel. (wild rice, popcorn, breads, crackers, whole wheat)
Refined grains: remove the germ from the grain to give a finer texture and removes iron and some B vitamins
Enriched grains: Most refined grain products are enriched, it is basically adding the vitamins back into the grain
I also learned that one should eat 3 1/2 ounces of seafood a week which is different than shellfish.
Seafood is fish such as salmon, trout, tilapia
Shellfish is oysters, crab, shrimp
Eating more seafood can help lower heart related deaths and can help reduce pre-existing diseases.
Finally, drinking skim milk is better than drinking whole milk because the fat in the whole milk is harder for the human body to break down. Organic food is the best which is natural, non-processed foods, however it does get expenisve.
I hope to be all organic one day, I feel better when I eat organic foods and I do eat a lot of fish which is very beneficial and nutritious to a diet.

Saturated Fats

Saturated fats are found in many different types of food. Saturated fats are the "solid" fats in your diet that are usually seen with the human eye. Some other foods that contain saturated fats include the following : high-fat cheeses, butter, ice cream and whole-fat milk. Most meats unfortunately contain a lot of saturated fat but getting a leaner meat will help. There are some simple guidelines to follow to lower a person's saturated fat intake.

• Trimming visible fats from the meat before cooking
• Remove any skin from chicken or other meat before cooking, extra skin has a lot of saturated fat
• Try to drink low-fat milk such as 1% or skim. This is a very simple guideline that will help tremendously over time.
• All dairy products have a lot of fat, therefore buying lower fat products, such as, low fat cheese or fat free cream cheese will knick the saturated fat for a person
• I am not saying to never eat sweets again, because I could never do that! However, I try to buy low-fat ice cream or 1/2 the fat ice cream to help lower fat intake
• Butter is loaded with saturated fats, therefore, getting "I can't believe it's not butter" butter is great to spray on pasta, butter your grilled cheese, heat a pan or put on a bagel
• If you have any questions just simply ask the store employees. If a person just takes the time to read the food labels and compare the difference, there will be a big difference in his/her diet as well

• Finally, at snack time, a person does not have to feel guilty for snacking. Always ask yourself, " am I really hungry"? It is important because eating a light snack such as pudding or low fat yogurt will decrease your weight dramatically. If one simply eats potato chips as his or her snack the saturated fat is being put into the body. 

I have tried a lot of weight loss programs, such as, weight watchers, nutrisystem, and simply watching my intake of food. I found the best method is support and keeping a food journal.

It is SO important to keep track of what you are eating because as weight watchers always said, "you are what you eat". Yeah, I lost weight on all of those programs but it was just temporary. I have just simply watched my eating habits and exercised regularly. Some other tips I can give for better weight loss include:

1. Exercise between 4-5 times a week.
2. Keep a food journal 
3. Measure yourself at the beginning and every two weeks
4. Drink a glass of water before dinner, so one does not eat as much
5. When a person is out to eat always eat HALF of the portion
6. Drink lots of water and cut out excess soda and sugar drinks
7. Have notes everywhere of inspiration to keep you going :)

I feel that these guidelines have helped me succeed and I always continue to use them. So, just read the nutrition labels, cut back with low-fat or fat-free dairy products. Snack lightly eating low-fat pretzels or yogurt. There is my nutrition advice in a nutshell for saturated fats and the knowledge that I have accumulated over time!


http://www.cdc.gov/nutrition/everyone/basics/fat/saturatedfat.html

Introduction

I am very new to this blogging world, however I have always wanted to create one to look back at it and remember memories. I am happy that this is an assignment because, well, I like to do these kinds of things and create posts and such. I chose nutrition because I feel as if I don't know a lot about nutrition and I want to get a better understanding of the topic. I want to lead a healthy lifestyle and want to be a role model for kids. Therefore, I believe that if I lead a healthy lifestyle people will follow my actions.
The first article I ran across talks about people who love soda that have worse eating habits overall. The article talks about how soda can immediately increase the odds of stroke and high blood pressure. "A blood pressure of 140/90 is considered high". People who drink a lot of sugar-sweetened beverages have less healthy diets. The study this article relates to says the increase of strokes appeared at 187 for those who drank sweetened drinks. This article did not really give a whole lot of information, however I just want to understand the reasoning behind nutrition. I try to not drink soda and sweetened tea's. I do drink Gatorade or Powerade after long runs to help put electrolytes back into my system. If people become aware of these slight differences in diets, we can all live healthy lifestyles. I know that if I buy bad food, I will eat the bad food.

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/217880.php