4 Easy Ways To Cut Calories

Many factors influence what, when and how much we eat, including our feelings, our environment and even television. Not being aware of these factors can lead to mindless eating and taking in more calories than we need. Here are a few tips to cut calories.

Reaching for that second helping: You will be tempted to eat more when bowls of food are sitting right in front of you. Consider serving from the stove or counter rather than from the table. This will reduce easy access to food even when you’re not as hungry.
Portion distortion: Check the serving size on the nutrition facts label. Keep in mind that a serving of protein is about the size of a deck of cards.  
Eating out of a bag vs. eating out of a bowl: Extra calories can add up if you are eating while doing other activities. Eat snacks such as potato chips out of a bowl. This will give you a portion size to eat versus eating until you are full.

Liquid calories from beverages: Calories add up when you drink too many soft drinks, sports drinks and alcohol. Even if you drink only one soft drink a day, over time those liquid calories will add up. For example, a 12-ounce can of regular cola contains 150 calories. If you had that with a lunch every day, over a year, that would add up to nearly 55,000 empty and unnecessary calories and a weight gain of a little more than 15 pounds. Instead, choose water and add your favorite fruits to it. Flavorful & delicious! sg



Source: http://walgreensdiabetes.com/diabetes-you-spring-2012/#?page=36

NUTRITION LABEL MAKEOVER

“The Obama administration is hoping to make healthy eating easier for Americans by announcing a makeover for all nutrition labels on pre-packaged foods. The new rules, which would go into effect two years after they are finalized, are redesigned to make it clearer for Americans to know how many calories they are consuming. “
The labeling will take into account how some foods are consumed in one sitting. For example, the serving sizes for a bottle of soda will go from 8 ounces to 12 ounces. And the serving size for ice cream will increase from ½ cup to 1 cup. For yogurt, the serving size will be reduced from 8 ounces to 6. Larger packages, such as a pint of ice cream, would also have two columns on the labels  “per serving” and “per package”.
Another addition is the requirement of “added sugars” to the label. FDA is hoping this will decrease Americans’ consumption of sugar added to products. Before consumers only saw total carbohydrates and sugars, now you will be able to see how many grams of sugar or added grams of sugar are in that product. This differentiates between naturally occurring sugars in a product and those that are added to a product.
 
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Source:  http://www.koco.com/news/politics/Nutrition-labels-to-get-makeover/24707280