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Get the Most Nutrition For Your Dollar

FitSugar — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 11:15:08 -0700

It can be hard to find healthy foods that don't break the bank - as I've mentioned before, nutrition often comes with a high price tag. A new tool may be what consumers need to find the biggest health bang for their buck.

The Affordable Nutrition Index (ANI) is a rating system that evaluates food based on its health and price value, and over 300 foods were evaluated and given a nutrition-value-per-dollar score. Basically the ANI is a list that lets consumers know what items are the most nutritious while also having the smallest price tag.

The food scores were based on the levels of nine essential nutrients - protein, fiber, iron, calcium, potassium, magnesium, and vitamins A, C, and E - and what to avoid - saturated fat, added sugars, and sodium.

To see which foods ranked high on the ANI, read more.

Though the complete list has not been released, highlights of it were introduced at the American Dietetic Association's Food and Nutrition Conference and Expo:

Carrots, sweet potatoes, and broccoli are at the top of the ANI scale. Other veggies that rank high are peas, string beans, squash, and lettuce.
Oranges and bananas are the top fruits, while raspberries, blackberries, strawberries, grapes, nectarines, and apples also rank high.
Vegetable soups especially of the low-sodium variety are also seen as being good values.

Foods With the Most Nutrition For the Price Per Portion

FitSugar — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 14:30:00 -0700

The majority of you haven't felt the recession in terms of gaining weight - you've figured out that just because you might be feeling a financial pinch, you don't have to resort to junk food that adds inches to your waistline. Because we're all concerned about balancing our diet while keeping balanced checkbooks, Dr. Adam Drewnowski, who directs the University of Washington Center For Public Health Nutrition, took it upon himself to research
which foods provide the best nutrition for the buck.

Dr. Drewnowski used federal statistics to compare average national prices per portion with the nutritional value of different foods, per 100 calories. He compared the two rankings to find the best buys, which he defined as the "middle ground between most nutritious yet expensive and the not-so-healthy in each food group." His list favors carrots over peppers and apples over strawberries for their longer-lasting qualities, and lean hamburger over pricier salmon and cheap bacon. For other foods singled out, read more.

Low-fat dairy (milk, yogurt, cheddar, American, or mozzarella cheese)
Lean ground beef, chicken, canned fish
Whole eggs
Beans
Peanut butter, sunflower seeds, almonds
Bread (enriched or made with whole wheat), tortillas, rice
Bananas, apples, frozen orange juice concentrate, 100 percent fruit juice or fruit-vegetable blends
Potatoes, iceberg lettuce, canned corn, canned tomatoes

I'm surprised that iceberg lettuce passed the nutrition component of Dr. Drewnowski's research. Do any of the foods stand out as surprising to you?

Cool Healthy Gadget: Nutritional Food Scale

FitSugar — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 11:00:00 -0700

I am always looking for easy ways to keep on track with my eating. This may be a bit neurotic, though control freaks do well at weight loss, but a food scale is a great way to keep track of what you're eating.

The Salter Nutri-Weigh Nutritional Food Scale ($99.99) is a computerized food scale that allows you to record daily food intake and set dietary goals plus review your progress. The scale analyzes the nutritional content of food by portion size by calculating calories, protein, carbohydrates, total sugars, total fat, fiber, sodium, cholesterol, net carbohydrates and the glycemic index of your food. The database stores nutritional values for over 1,440 foods and liquids and memorizes an additional 100 food/recipes of your choice. The scale has a two-user memory, plus an add and weigh feature, so you and your husband (or roomie) can track your food together. All you have to do is weigh the food. Pretty cool, eh? Buy it online at Bed Bath and Beyond.

Food Review: Forze GPS Shakes and Bars

FitSugar — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 11:00:46 -0800

I'm typically wary of fitness drinks with gold packaging; they remind me of the weird muscle-building brands I see at the gym. But when I read the label on Forze GPS shakes and bars, I was intrigued.

This line of snacks, including chocolate and vanilla shakes and four flavors of energy bar, is described as a "weight management tool designed specifically for athletes." They promise to activate your appetite control signals, so they can be used as a between-meal or pre- or post-workout snack. Hear what I thought about their taste and the results.

Learn to Love: Persimmons

FitSugar — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 08:00:01 -0800

Now that berry season is long gone, I'm expanding my breakfast fruit horizons. Celebrate the cold weather with pomegranate seeds in your oatmeal, or slice pears or persimmons and serve them with nut butter on toast or whole-grain waffles.

You probably know how to pick and slice a pear, but persimmons have a steeper learning curve. They're worth learning to love, so read more.

Persimmons come in two varieties: hachiya, which are orange-red and shaped like acorns, and fuyu, which sort of look like yellow-orange tomatoes. The hachiyas are bitter and astringent when they're not ripe, but when ripened, they have a soft, jelly-like texture. Fuyu persimmons are a bit firmer like a pear when ripe and can be sliced up like apples.

This fruit is an excellent source of antioxidants and chock-full of vitamins. One persimmon packs 55 percent of your daily allowance of Vitamin A and 21 percent of your recommended Vitamin C, plus six grams of fiber. In addition to having persimmon for breakfast or a snack, you can slice them up and serve them in a pretty Fall salad.

Have you tried persimmons? Tell me how you like to eat them in the comments.

Feel the DailyBurn

FitSugar — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 03:00:43 -0700

I'm becoming a big fan of DailyBurn - a website that lets its users track workout, diet, and health goals in easy-to-read charts and graphs. There's a ton of great health and fitness information on the site and it has a social side that lets users interact with other members.

If you're not very tech savvy, don't be afraid. The site is easy to use and is laid out in a friendly and intuitive way. There are three main areas to DailyBurn - nutrition, exercise, and social networking. To find out how they work, read more.

Nutrition: This is basically an online food journal on steroids. Its food database contains the details of close to 200,000 foods, which makes it easy to track your diet and calorie intake and get a complete nutritional breakdown of what you're eating. There's also a pretty good database of healthy recipes, too.

Exercise: In this area you can design a fitness program for yourself or use one of the 80,000+ existing programs already on the site. If you don't understand an exercise, it's OK, because DailyBurn has tons of videos detailing the exercises. The exercise tracking tool is awesome - you can track your stats for weight loss, muscle gain, strength, and endurance. If you need better improvement in a certain area, it's really easy to adjust your fitness program.

Social Networking: This is where DailyBurn really sets itself apart from other sites. Use this section to find online workout partners and confidants who end up being your biggest cheering section while you reach your goals. And if you like a little healthy competition, you can go up against one another in fitness challenges much like The Biggest Loser. There are also groups members can join depending on their interest.

The basic tools on DailyBurn are free but paid members get access to advanced options like meal planning. The site is a great tool for burning fat and gaining muscle, as well as helping make smarter food choices. I like that I don't need to spend a lot of time inputting information onto DailyBurn because everything I need is already in its databases and navigation tools.

Find Good-For-You Food With GoodGuide

FitSugar — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 10:00:00 -0700

Just in time for National Nutrition Month, one very good website is getting even better. The GoodGuide, a directory of healthy and eco-friendly products I first read about on lilsugar, has expanded its reach to include food ratings.

With a database of more than 5,000 food products - including fresh produce and packaged goods - GoodGuide helps you make buying decisions based on a product's environmental impact, healthfulness, and social responsibility, including workplace issues. In each of the three categories, GoodGuide ranks products on a scale of one to 10, 10 being the best. You can browse by category, such as yogurt, to see the rankings from best to worst, then click on each brand to get a detailed explanation of its score.

I could spend hours clicking through this site, so check it out and tell me what you think. It would make a great supplement to your pocket-size produce and pesticide guide.

Your Political Leanings May Determine What's on Your Plate

YumSugar — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 10:20:37 -0800

Everyone says that you are what you eat. But could your political party affiliation be the driver of what goes on your plate, too? That's what food trend analyst Phil Lempert (of koodie fame) is arguing. Examining 2009 data from Hunch, he found conservatives opt for "mainstream, comfort food staples," while liberals are likely to gravitate toward "international and exotic cuisines."

According to Lempert, conservatives correlated with foods like pizza, macaroni and cheese, and peanut butter and jelly for lunch, plus fried chicken, meatloaf, and steak for dinner, with Italian food being the cuisine of choice.

Liberals, on the other hand, preferred Asian: Thai and Indian for lunch, and veggie burgers and green curry for supper. His findings indicate they also tend to make more nutritionally sound choices, such as eating vegetables more often and fast food less frequently, and making dishes from scratch.

Those looking to toe the bipartisan line should stick to mutually-loved foods such as hot dogs, bacon double cheeseburgers, ice cream sans sprinkles, romaine lettuce, and salt on a margarita glass. Do these findings line up correctly with your political leanings?

Source: Flickr User thebittenword.com

Geek Tip: Avoid Extra Holiday Pounds With Lose It

GeekSugar — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 13:50:45 -0800

For me, part of gearing up for the holiday season is the realization that I'm going to overindulge in holiday goodies from time to time. While this time of year isn't the best for trying to shed extra pounds, there's still benefit in watching what I'm eating - even if I allow myself a few "cheat" days here and there. Lose It! is an iPhone app that tracks caloric and nutritional intake as well as calories burned by exercise, giving you a calorie budget for the day.

First, enter your starting weight, your goal weight (if you want to lose, that is), height, and birth date, and the app figures how many calories you need to lose a few pounds or maintain your current weight. Then, enter exactly what you've eaten that day (you can search by meal, favorite foods, previous meals, even brand name foods from supermarkets and restaurants) and any exercise you've done. The app tracks your daily, weekly, and monthly caloric intake, factoring any exercise into the equation.

I'm certainly not shooting for any serious weight loss before January (hello pumpkin pie!), but it will be nice to know how many calories I'm consuming during non"cheat" days.

Can You Scale the Food Pyramid?

FitSugar — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 07:00:40 -0800

The old food pyramid you remember from grade school got an upgrade in 2005, but the basic sentiment remains the same. The government guidelines advise eaters to choose a variety of foods from the different food groups in order to eat a balanced diet. How much do you know about the food pyramid? Take my quiz and see how you measure up.

Take the quiz