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.