This KFC Double Down has gotten quite a bit of press recently… and most of it bad. Many have claimed that it’s unhealthy and just a heart attack waiting to happen. Should we be worried? Here is the Double Down’s nutritional information (for brevity, I’m just giving the highlights):

Clearly, the KFC Double Down isn’t going to win any awards for best fat, sodium, and cholesterol choices. However, it should get points for being low carb and high protein (making it friendly for followers of the Atkins’ Diet).

Now let’s look at a couple of other fast foods:

I’d argue that the KFC Crispy Twister w/Crispy Strip is less healthy as it’s essentially replacing the protein with carbs and tacking on more calories. McDonald’s Triple Thick Milkshake isn’t much better considering that it’s just the medium size (there’s a 32oz one with a whopping 1150 calories) and it is just a drink, not a meal. Here you are sacrificing fat and protein for carbs. You save a lot of sodium and cholesterol, but if you are ordering one these you may be likely to ruin those savings with an order of McDonalds fries.

The way I see it, there is some redeeming health value to the Double Downs, especially the grilled one. I think the press is guilty of a knee-jerk reaction to a new concept that they didn’t fully understand.

While this site focuses on health, it’s also import to keep three additional factors in mind: taste, convenience, and cost. In the interest of providing a complete review, I went for a taste test. I figured that most people would opt for the fried version as it would appeal to their taste buds, so that’s what I went with too. It wasn’t bad, but it didn’t knock my socks off either. I think I set my expectations too high. Also the chicken to bacon ratio was overwhelmingly tilted towards the chicken side. My suggestion is that they pound the chicken breasts a little flatter and add another slice of bacon.

In general fast food is pretty convenient – but I realize that KFC isn’t near everyone. My order took about 12 minutes of waiting, but it wasn’t the Double Down’s fault. All the KFC orders at my restaurant were slow on this day… odd because it wasn’t particular busy.

Lastly there’s the cost. At $4.95, it’s more expensive than many fast food sandwich options. For just about the same money, you could get a McDouble every day of the work week. I’m not recommending that, but simply pointing out that fast food prices are competitive and the Double Downs aren’t competing well.

Gluten-Free Living is Easier with an Aisle Like This

One of the first things that can be done to make this transition easier is to become a dedicated label reader. While you would think that only baked goods contained gluten it can be found in many different items. This is particularly true of salad dressings, soy sauces, and other sauces. Celiac sufferers in particular need to do all they can to eliminate gluten from their diet. This means reading through the ingredient listings for practically everything you eat.

Wheat gluten is a popular additive in sauces because it helps everything congeal better. It can even be found in soups, vegetable blends and frozen foods. In order to start living your life gluten-free is necessary to cut all of these items out of your diet. When you first get started it can seem like there is literally nothing left on earth you can eat except fresh vegetables, fruit and meat. However it is possible to live completely gluten-free and still eat plenty of delicious foods.

The first step is to consider whether or not you would like to purchase gluten-free food that is already made or you may want to consider dusting off a cookbook and learning how to make your own gluten-free food. For those with children that need to live gluten free, cooking is a popular option since it will give you the ability to make a greater variety of foods.

There are many stores, both off-line and online that now offer a wide variety of different gluten-free foods. You can even find actual loaves of bread, hamburger buns, and even popular desserts that are all made with gluten-free flour. It can take a little getting used to but after awhile you will become accustomed to the taste of gluten-free foods. It is best to experiment with several different gluten-free brands until you find the one that is right for you.

If you are trying to bake your own gluten-free foods you will need to get an ingredient that will help everything congeal, much like gluten does. Xantham gum is a very popular option for many celiacs. Once again, experimentation is necessary until you find the recipes that are palatable for you. It can actually be somewhat fun to try many different recipes until you come up with the perfect gluten-free bread, desert, or treat. With practice, living gluten free gets much easier and more enjoyable.

You may also want to consider joining a support group for others that are trying to live the gluten-free life. You can pick up some great tips and these groups and learn more about which products are the best.

The Baby Food Diet would make me make this face too

Should You Try The Baby Food Diet To Lose Weight?

One of the most recent fad diets to explode onto the scene is the baby food diet. Many celebrities adhere to this diet and it is quickly making the rounds of the Internet. If you haven’t heard about this new diet craze yet it is actually pretty simple to follow. Instead of eating real food that adults are used to, the diet recommends subsisting on baby food. Let’s take a look at the methodology behind this latest craze to see whether or not it is sound.

First off there are some benefits to eating baby food. Typically it will be free of the harmful chemicals that are present in the food that adults eat and many are organic and naturally made. People who follow the baby food diet point out the fact that these foods are actually quite healthy and many are very pure and full of nutrients. The overall small portion sizes make it easy for people to understand just how much they can eat and there are of course many different flavors.

This diet has also become popular with those that are trying to avoid foods that contain gluten. It is difficult to find foods that are gluten-free and many baby foods do not have this ingredient. This provides those suffering from celiac disease or those looking to avoid gluten an opportunity to have a wider range of food that they can eat.

Perhaps one of the biggest reasons that the baby food diet has become so popular is due to the fact that baby food is very low in fat and is based usually with vegetables and small amounts of protein. It is a lot easier for many people to control what they are eating when all they have in front of them is a very small jar of baby food. For those who struggle with portion control this diet may actually have several benefits.

But there are a few things about the baby food diet that offer some room for concern. If you are subsisting entirely on a diet of baby food your intestines may rebel. Solid food is important for most adults and while there is no real harm in eating a little baby food, long-term use and subsisting entirely on baby food may not be ideal for the adult digestive system. In addition, many people find that baby food is simply rather disgusting (note the picture). The texture is of course very mushy and the taste is just not there for many people.

If you’ve been considering trying the baby food diet it is important to ask your doctor about whether or not this be a good diet for you. There are a few drawbacks and there is very little research as to whether or not this is a long-term solution for those looking to lose weight. While there may be some benefits of replacing harmful snacks with a jar of baby food an entire diet based on this food may not be reasonable for adults.

Photo Credit: Malabooboo

Baked goods can be a part of a diet meal plan-if the person baking them takes care to make a few simple substitutions to lower the fat content and to boost the nutritional value. And, fortunately, these substitutions aren’t difficult to make. Here are three tips bakers can try to lower the calories and carbohydrates and increase the nutrition in baked goods.

Lower the amount of sugar in the recipe

Many baked good recipes, such as those for cookies and cakes, can be made with less sugar and still taste just as good. In fact, most of the time people won’t even notice that the sugar content has been lowered. Lowering the sugar will lower the calories and carbohydrates in the baked good.

So, start with the amount of sugar called for in the recipe, and lower it by ¼. For example, if the recipe calls for 1 cup of sugar, try using ¾ cup of sugar instead. If people still enjoy the taste, make the recipe the next time with 1/3 less of the amount of sugar called for in the original recipe (in this example, you would use 2/3 cup). The third time you make the recipe, you can try using half of the amount of sugar (for this example, the amount would be ½ cup).

Another idea is to substitute the sugar with Splenda, which now has a version of it’s popular sugar substitute for baking.

Substitute the fat in the recipe

Instead of using the butter, margarine, or oil called for in the recipe, try using pureed fruit. You can use applesauce or baby food prunes or any other type of pureed fruit. Experiment with substituting for all of the fat in the recipe-you may only want to substitute for half of the fat, depending upon the recipe.

This substitution decreases the fat content in the recipe and boosts the nutritional value.

Switch out some of the flour

For recipes that call for all-purpose flour, try substituting half of the all-purpose flour for whole wheat flour. This will add whole grains to the baked good, increasing the nutrition. You can substitute more than half, but some people dislike the taste and consistency.

Try all of these with your baked goods and you’ll find that some small changes can go a long way.

Photo Credit: randomrobert

The best kinds of fats are those that are natural and unaltered by human processing. The most beneficial fats are found in nuts, seeds, olives (including cold-pressed olive oil), fish, and avocados. The damage to any good, natural fat comes in how it is altered by humans to make it more palatable, marketable, or for better preservation. Partial hydrogenation is the worst and possibly most common culprit, but there are numerous other processing steps – refining and exposure to high heat, for example – that can ruin its healthfulness. Particularly positive fats to look for are omega-3 and omega-6. These are most commonly found in fish.

Heavy fish consumption, while it has many benefits, must come with a cautionary note. Due to mass polluting of their ecosystems, many kinds of fish now contain toxins and heavy metals (typically mercury). For most types of fish and most healthy adults, these are not present in levels that should be of concern. However, if you are greatly increasing your fish intake to bulk up on positive fats, avoid fish at the top of the food chain like albacore tuna. These will contain not only the metals and toxins that they have absorbed, but also the toxins absorbed by all of the fish they have eaten. There are guidelines published through the US Department of Agriculture that outline the safest types of fish to consume, in what quantities, and who should be especially careful of their fish consumption, like pregnant women.

Contrary to popular opinion, animal fats may not be worse than vegetable fats. The most common reasons for animal fats being so negative has more to do with the ways the livestock is treated and processed. Even butter, when it’s the fresh churned, good old-fashioned kind, contains good fats.

Just as fats transport nutrients around in our bodies, they perform a similar function in livestock. One side effect of this is that antibiotics, steroids, and growth hormones are also known to adhere to the fats in animals. For this reason, non-organically raised meats should be consumed cautiously and not in extremely high quantities. Additionally, any meats that have been fried will contain some of the most harmful fats. This is because when lipids are exposed to extreme temperatures, such as in the frying process, the fats are altered in a harmful way and nutrients are removed.

The next time you make some dinner don’t be so quick to dismiss fats. Like anything, use moderation, and focus on good fats.

Photo Credit: shaletann

Luckily, the answer can be relatively simple – smoothies. Yes, we’ve all heard about fruit smoothies for years now, so people may think that this is old advice. Actually, though, smoothies are not just healthy and nutritious – they are a great way to get picky fruit eaters to incorporate a wider variety of fruits into their daily diets.

Each type of fruit has different nutritional benefits. Blueberries and blackberries, for instance, offer important antioxidants that can help reduce a person’s chances of getting certain cancers. Watermelon has Lycopene, which can aid in the reduction of heart disease. Bananas, kiwis, and cantaloupes are great sources of Potassium. Mangos are an amazing source of Vitamin A. Every fruit contains vitamins and minerals needed by the human body – these are just a few examples.

So, it is evident that everyone should be eating a wide variety of fruits each day in order to reap the benefits of all of that nutrition. But, as mentioned before, many people just will not eat many different fruits. By making smoothies, a person can sneak in more types of fruits and get all of that necessary nutrition.

Of course, it really isn’t sneaking the fruit into the smoothie, because the person making and drinking the smoothie will obviously be aware of the ingredients. But, if done correctly, it will almost seem as if the fruit was snuck in because it will hardly be noticeable.

The best way to do this is to keep to a certain ratio of fruits when making a smoothie. Try using the ratio 3 to 1. For every three parts of a fruit that is liked, add one part of a fruit that is not-so-well-liked. For example, let’s say a person loves strawberries, but not peaches. So, the person would add 1 cup of strawberries (hulled), then 1/3 cup chopped peaches. Follow this ratio for any fruit. Then add the rest of the ingredients (juice, soy milk, honey, vanilla, etc.). The smoothie will taste mostly of the well-liked fruit, thereby sneaking in the disliked fruit.

This truly is a great way to get a person to eat more different fruits—try it and see!

Photo Credit: Wizan

I had no idea that it’s a regional product. I couldn’t find it in any of 7 local grocery stores. When I went back to Boston it wasn’t there either. Finally I found it in the most unlikely of places a Navy base Commissary.

How to Make a Good Easy Chili

I’m not the best chef. If you read about my healthy sauce you know that I improvise. Chili Magic helps me do that. One can of it, some ground beef or turkey, and a can of diced tomatoes and the base of chili is done. You don’t need to do anything else if you don’t want to. Often times that suits me as I am Lazy. Other times, I like to get crazy and add things that many people wouldn’t put in Chili. I add salsa, buffalo wing sauce, corn, mushrooms, peppers, onions, a little cheese (go easy on this), even wheat germ. It really is magic in that I haven’t been able to make a bad one yet.

Why Chili is Important to my Diet

It’s extremely healthy. The beans are a great source of fiber which keeps me full longer. The ground turkey/beef provides a lot of protein. The diced tomatoes and extras give me vegetables that I often lack when I’m making other dishes.

I tried to make chili the conventional way, but have failed to duplicate the success that I get Bush’s Chili Magic. It’s given my diet a kick start.

Have a chili recipe secret? Share it below.

[You'd think Bush paid me for writing so highly of them. I want to stress that is not the case. I really like their product and think that it should have wider distribution. Plus, I'm also extremely excited to find a place where I can finally buy it.]

Today my wife and I make our own tomato sauce. It sounds like it is a lot of work, but it takes me around ten minutes. The key to the sauce is to have a can of regular cheap tomato sauce and a can of diced tomatoes. I generally buy the cheapest, but we recently found that Costco has a very good price on both – and they are organic too.

Much to my wife’s disappointment, I’ve never been one to follow a recipe. I will look at recipes to get an idea of what I’m making, but I’m too Lazy to measure out things to the last ounce – or to measure many things at all. The best part of this recipe is that you don’t need to measure anything.

Here’s how we make our Lazy Man’s healthy tomato sauce:

1. Brown some ground beef or ground turkey on a stove top at high in a pot/skillet, whatever is available. Drain out the excess fat. Skip this step if you are vegetarian or simply want a meatless sauce
2. While browning the meat, open up your cans of tomato sauce and diced tomatoes. Pour them into another pot and put that on the stove at medium heat
3. Add your spices… we like oregano, and basil. Trader Joe’s has frozen concentrate garlic which we love, but you could substitute garlic powder if it suits you. Add a dash of olive oil (or not it’s all up to you!)
4. Have some fun with it. I tried to do a red wine reduction with some $2 Charles Shaw wine from Trader Joe’s. I couldn’t tell the difference in the final sauce, but it was good to try once.
5. Mix the meat into the sauce, give it a couple minutes at medium to low stirring occasionally. Serve

The biggest problem that I have with this sauce is that it’s so good that we want to have it often. What goes with tomato sauce? That’s right – pasta. It’s high carb and not as healthy as I’d like. If we ran marathons that would be different, but we don’t. If anyone has suggestions for what we could have this sauce with, let me know in the comments.

“Aint too proud to beg, Sweet darling..,” – The Temptations

I deemed the title appropriate for today’s topic: peer pressure to eat unhealthily. In my seven years of being in the work force, I have never come across this phenomenon. At my first job, I worked alone and my second job everyone was on a health kick. However, this new job is driving me straight into an obesity statistic. For the past six years I was a dispensing pharmacist, so I was running, jumping and hopping to get the 200 prescriptions done – burning calories along the way. And After work, I went to the gym. Before Lazy Man and I lived together, dinner was a quick chicken breast – whatever I could make quickly.

With this current job as a health care consultant, I work long hours sitting in a cubicle first time. Lazy Man and I eat dinner together. Once you cook dinner for someone else, my simple chicken breast dinner doesn’t seem to cut it. By the time I get home from work, around 6-7pm, the gym just isn’t on the radar.

I think I am doing well controlling my eating at home, eating oatmeal or bran cereal for breakfast, bringing a Lean Cuisine-like lunch , with a piece of fruit. We attempt to find healthy choices for dinner. However it is the hours of 8am to 5pm, that are really frustrating. On numerous occasions, I will get this mass email from a co-worker, “cupcakes in the conference, go have one!”, or “it is Suzie’s birthday, let’s have cake!” If you don’t participate in the food, someone will come around to your cubicle and say “MMMM this cupcake is good, why don’t you want one?” I reply, “I am dieting, watching what I eat, no thanks”, in which the conversation steers to “Oh! Come on! You are so thin! Eat the cupcake! You know you want it!” I think to myself, “Duh, I know I want the cupcake, but my pants that use to be loose are now tight and with my lack of gym time, I don’t need the extra calories”. I say no again to which this co-worker says again, “Oh! Stop it! You want this cupcake, just eat it, come on!” Of course, I end up taking the cupcake. But I wonder…

1) If I was a recovering alcoholic, would these co-workers push a beer on me?
2) If I was an ex-smoker, would they push a cigarette on me?

What happened to the office world where it focused more on actually doing work, rather than when breakfast, lunch, dinner, snack time is?…..

Hopefully over a month or two, I’ll reduce my caffeine intake and my tolerance will drop. I’m looking forward to this – caffeine will there be there for me when I need it, not just a daily ritual.