Reading the nutrition labels is one of the little things involved in choosing foods to eat or not to eat and could mean the difference between being overweight or not.
Two thirds of American adults fall into the category of overweight or obese.
In 1962 only 13% fell into the category.
Today's number represents an alarming fact that points to inadequate physical activity and a diet filled with an overdose of calories.
Reading nutritional labels is a small task that can be very helpful in helping people lose weight and hopefully reverse the trend.
A typical male adult of 40 years old in good physical shape and active needs about 1800 calories daily to maintain a healthy lifestyle.
Now consider what many 40 year old males eat on a daily basis.
Fast food "jumbo" burgers and fries are going to account for 1400 calories alone, when its "super sized" the numbers go up another 400 calories.
When he sits down for dinner and eats a 16 ounce steak, and a baked potato with butter and sour cream, the daily calorie intake is over 3000 calories and we did not add breakfast and any snacks for the day.
If the person eating this much calories daily and he is not active it is pretty easy to understand where the weight gain is coming from.
The sad part is that this represents most adult males.
Part of this dietingt problem comes about from failure to read or fully understand nutrition labels.
By reading the labels a person can easily get an idea of what they should or should not be eating.
Reading the nutrition labels is not an option, it is a must if we are going to eat healthy.
Once you start the habit it won't take long and you will know easily what to avoid.
But even then a person may have good intentions and thinks he/she is eating good by just glancing at the calorie count on the label, but in reality they are not.
Blame this one on the food industries somewhat deceitful tactics.
For example take a well known national brand of chicken pot pie that many people will eat one of each per person, after all it's not that big, you glance at the calorie count and see 600 calories, okay not bad for dinner.
If you were to notice that the serving size is a half of a pot pie and the calories are per serving you would then now know that you just doubled the calories for dinner by eating the whole thing.
And to be honest with you, who eats only half of a pot pie anyways? There are muffins that list a serving size as a half of a muffin, ice cream is a half of a cup.
This is just some of the examples of thousands that exist in your local grocery store and it can be somewhat amusing to see what serving sizes these companies come up with to make their product look attractive to the person just glancing at the calorie count.
Check them out the next time you are in the store and most importantly buy based on what you read on the labels.
Eat right today for a thinner tomorrow.
Two thirds of American adults fall into the category of overweight or obese.
In 1962 only 13% fell into the category.
Today's number represents an alarming fact that points to inadequate physical activity and a diet filled with an overdose of calories.
Reading nutritional labels is a small task that can be very helpful in helping people lose weight and hopefully reverse the trend.
A typical male adult of 40 years old in good physical shape and active needs about 1800 calories daily to maintain a healthy lifestyle.
Now consider what many 40 year old males eat on a daily basis.
Fast food "jumbo" burgers and fries are going to account for 1400 calories alone, when its "super sized" the numbers go up another 400 calories.
When he sits down for dinner and eats a 16 ounce steak, and a baked potato with butter and sour cream, the daily calorie intake is over 3000 calories and we did not add breakfast and any snacks for the day.
If the person eating this much calories daily and he is not active it is pretty easy to understand where the weight gain is coming from.
The sad part is that this represents most adult males.
Part of this dietingt problem comes about from failure to read or fully understand nutrition labels.
By reading the labels a person can easily get an idea of what they should or should not be eating.
Reading the nutrition labels is not an option, it is a must if we are going to eat healthy.
Once you start the habit it won't take long and you will know easily what to avoid.
But even then a person may have good intentions and thinks he/she is eating good by just glancing at the calorie count on the label, but in reality they are not.
Blame this one on the food industries somewhat deceitful tactics.
For example take a well known national brand of chicken pot pie that many people will eat one of each per person, after all it's not that big, you glance at the calorie count and see 600 calories, okay not bad for dinner.
If you were to notice that the serving size is a half of a pot pie and the calories are per serving you would then now know that you just doubled the calories for dinner by eating the whole thing.
And to be honest with you, who eats only half of a pot pie anyways? There are muffins that list a serving size as a half of a muffin, ice cream is a half of a cup.
This is just some of the examples of thousands that exist in your local grocery store and it can be somewhat amusing to see what serving sizes these companies come up with to make their product look attractive to the person just glancing at the calorie count.
Check them out the next time you are in the store and most importantly buy based on what you read on the labels.
Eat right today for a thinner tomorrow.