Think portion control for healthy eating in the new year

Christina Pirello: Healthy Cookbooks to Start Your New Year Off Right
We live in scary times. If you look at the statistics, we are in serious trouble when it comes to our health and the environment. With each new form of Processed Food that is manufactured and marketed to us (25 percent bigger burgers at Wendy's!) we lose a little more of our collective health. We need a dramatic shift in the way we eat if we are to get out of this life alive, so to speak. People are paralyzed with confusion. On one hand, we have experts telling us to stop eating so much meat, ...

Vegan diets becoming more popular, more mainstream
FILE- This Aug. 22, 2007 file photo shows Isa Chandra Moskowitz as she prepares her Vegan chocolate pie recipe at her apartment in the Brooklyn borough of New York. Moskowitz says it's easier being a vegan now because there is more local produce available and more interesting ways of cooking. You've come a long way, vegan. Once mocked as a fringe diet for sandal-wearing health food store workers, Veganism is moving from marginal to mainstream in the United States. The vegan "Skinny Bitch" diet ...

New Years Weight Loss Advice
It’s come to my attention that many people make New Year’s resolutions to lose weight. I didn’t do that in 2010, but I did weigh almost 250 pounds on March 1, 2010 and this morning I weighed 180 pounds which goes to show that it’s possible to lose weight. So I thought this might be an opportune day to share some advice. For me the saga began, appropriately enough, with the decision to pay for a few sessions with a Personal Trainer since I felt I wasn’t really get...

The Best ThingYou'll Read All Day
"I think one of the biggest misconceptions when we talk about Obesity in general is that obese people are obese largely because of their lifestyles and because of the way that they live," Dr. Arya Sharma of the University of Alberta, told CBC News. [Sharma is the chair of Obesity research and management at the University of Alberta and medical director of the Weight Wise program at Edmonton's Royal Alexandra Hospital.] Sharma points to studies where people's eating and activity are carefully mon...

Make Your Body a Calorie-Burning Machine
NEW YORK, Jan. 4, 2011 Like this Story? Share it: (CBS) It's a new year and a lot of people have resolved to lose weight. A healthy diet is one aspect of getting there. Another: exercise. The first thing you should do is think about what you want to achieve and set healthy short-term goals -- goals you can achieve in 30 days, as opposed to visualizing the perfect body at the end of the year. Lots of little steps will lead up to your ultimate goal. Try to envision very short-term goals -- losin...

The Daily News will save your job -- as long as you make a sugary, tasty, high-calorie middle-class consumer treat
I've been flipping through this morning's Daily News -- looking for my paper's crusade to save the jobs of dozens of salt-of-the-earth Philadelphians about to lose their jobs in this era of 10 percent Unemployment, when people without a highly specialized high-tech or knowledge-based skill, or of a certain age (i.e., over 50) may never be able to work ever again. I know some of these folks who work at my nearby Acme -- one of five Acme Supermarkets about to shut down. So it's a minor inconveni...

Brains Hard-Wired to Fail New Year Resolutions
Like this Story? Share it: Psychologist Dr. Jennifer Hartstein and author Gretchen Rubin offer advice on the best ways to make your new year's resolutions stick. Dr. Jennifer Hartstein has tips on how to teach your brain to form new habits to help keep those new year's resolutions. (AP) WASHINGTON - Uh-oh, the New Year's just begun and already you're finding it hard to keep those resolutions to junk the junk food, get off the couch or kick Smoking. There's a biological reason a lot of our bad h...

New Year's resolutions? Brain can sabotage success
Uh-oh, the new year's just begun and already you're finding it hard to keep those resolutions to junk the Junk Food, get off the couch or kick Smoking. There's a biological reason a lot of our bad habits are so hard to break — they get wired into our brains. That's not an excuse to give up. Understanding how unhealthy behaviors become ingrained has scientists learning some tricks that may help good habits replace the bad. "Why are bad habits stronger? You're fighting against the power of a...

New Year's resolutions? Brain can sabotage success
WASHINGTON (AP) - Uh-oh, the new year's just begun and already you're finding it hard to keep those resolutions to junk the Junk Food, get off the couch or kick Smoking. There's a biological reason a lot of our bad habits are so hard to break—they get wired into our brains. That's not an excuse to give up. Understanding how unhealthy behaviors become ingrained has scientists learning some tricks that may help good habits replace the bad. "Why are bad habits stronger? You're fighting again...

New Years resolutions? Brain can sabotage success
WASHINGTON (AP) — Uh-oh, the new year’s just begun and already you’re finding it hard to keep those resolutions to junk the Junk Food, get off the couch or kick Smoking. There’s a biological reason a lot of our bad habits are so hard to break — they get wired into our brains. That’s not an excuse to give up. Understanding how unhealthy behaviors become ingrained has scientists learning some tricks that may help good habits replace the bad. “Why are bad h...

Pedometer can result in more walking
BANNOCKBURN, Ill., Jan. 3 (UPI) -- Using a pedometer can increase physical activity by about 2,000 steps daily that can make all the difference in Weight Loss, a U.S. pedometer maker says. Jill Person, product manager at Omron Healthcare Inc., says the company's pocket pedometer uses dual-accelerometer technology to accurately counts steps when placed horizontally or vertically at the hip, in a pocket, handbag or backpack. The Omron HJ-112 GOsmart Pocket Pedometer not only tracks steps but time...

US packaging shrinks, prices don't as fuel costs soar
A man shops a t Manhattan Grocery Store in 2009. Blaming everything from hi... Blaming everything from high Oil Prices to low temperatures, US manufacturers are shrinking product sizes but not cutting prices, which amounts to a sneaky price hike, a report released Tuesday said. Popular products like Tropicana orange juice, Ivory dishwashing soap and Kraft American cheese slices "are all playing the shrinking package game, and manufacturers are attributing it to rising costs for ingredients and ...

New FDA Food Bill
The majority of contamination is at sloppy factory farms not the family farm and that is quite evident in last September’s egg Salmonella outbreak of over 500 million eggs.  The eggs contained Salmonella poison due to lack of standards, lack of regulations and lack of real inspections.  The United States Department of Agriculture gave Wright County Egg Corporation a clean bill of health in their inspection in April of 2010. The farm was a disgracefully filthy farm full of manure...

You may eat more trans fat than you think
CLEVELAND, Jan. 5 (UPI) -- If a food has .49 grams of trans fat per serving the label can list trans fat as zero but a few servings provide more than you should eat, U.S. researchers say. Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine Student Eric Brandt says the daily recommended amount of trans fat from Processed Foods is 1.11 grams, so one can easily exceed the healthy recommended intake. For example, eating three serving sizes, each with .49 grams of trans fat, totals 1.47 grams -- above...

The inheritance of obesity: Thanks, Dad
THAT a gestating mother’s environment can have a permanent effect on the physiology of her offspring is well established. The Children of Dutch women who were pregnant during the “Hunger Winter” of 1944, for example, suffer much higher rates of Obesity, Diabetes and Cardiovascular Disease than those born a year or two earlier. Similar observations in other famines, together with experiments on rodents, suggest this is an accidental consequence of an evolutionary adaptation to f...

Does 'Psshh' mark the spot for Super Bowl glory? Orlando man hopes so
"Psshh" – pass it on. You might help an Orlando man get his commercial featured during the Super Bowl. Brandy Gill made a commercial called "Zero Calories? Psshh," and it's now one of 10 finalists in the Crash the Super Bowl Challenge. The Psshh spot cost $30 to make. Gill, 36, directed his co-workers over a lunch hour, and co-worker Wes Sumner shot the commercial. "It took about an hour to shoot, and we did the editing in an hour on my Mac," Gill said. "Start to finish, we were done in t...

Study finds what bodybuilders have known for 60 years: Protein key in dieting
How much money must be spent on these studies before researchers start talking to the bodybuilding community that has known these facts for the better part of a century now? From the AP via The Detroit News: Study: Protein key in dieting More turkey, less white bread and mashed potatoes. Just in time for holiday feasting, a large study found that diets higher in protein and lower in Carbohydrates can help overweight adults who have managed to drop some weight keep it off...

We're out of control . . .
Wonder why you have already broken all your New Year's resolutions? Do not blame yourself -- heaven forbid. Enlist modern sophistication, and blame your brain's frontal cortex, affluence, the Internet (the ``collapse of delay between impulse and action'') and ``the democratization of temptation.'' Those phrases are from Daniel Akst, a novelist and essayist whose book We Have Met the Enemy: Self-Control in an Age of Excess notes that the problems of freedom and affluence -- of ``managing desire ...

Lawsuit accuses New Balance of false walking shoe ads
BOSTON | Tue Jan 4, 2011 5:59pm EST BOSTON (Reuters) - A Class Action Lawsuit filed against New Balance accuses the Boston-based sneaker company of false advertising in claiming its toning walking shoes burned more Calories and improved health. The lawsuit, filed Monday in the U.S. District Court in Boston, calls New Balance's marketing claims that the shoes increase muscle activation and calorie burn "false, misleading, and reasonably likely to deceive the public." The Lawsuit was filed on b...

Most Americans Say They Eat Well, But They Don't
Like this Story? Share it: Are you eating right? See the government's guidelines, calculate your body mass index and quiz yourself on healthy food choices. Have you consumed myths about diet and nutrition? Take these quizzes to find out. (CBS) Most people at the Grocery Store like to think they're filling their baskets with healthy choices, reports CBS News correspondent Michelle Miller. "I don't buy a lot of goodies," said one customer. "I keep away from the cake and the chocolate and stuff li...

Make Restaurant Faves at Home, and Healthier
Like this Story? Share it: Searching for a new dish? Get cooking with recipes presented on "The Early Show"! (CBS) You can make dishes you love when you eat out - in - at home, that is - and make them much healthier and relatively simply. As "The Early Show" continued its weeklong "Lose It Early" series on Wednesday, registered dietician Cynthia Sass showed the way. Popular restaurant chains like Applebee's, Outback, Olive Garden and Ruby Tuesday's have delicious food that people crave, but it...

Thinking beyond pilaf _ a chicken Marsala quinoa
This Dec. 12, 2010 photo shows Marsala chicken quinoa casserole in Concord, N.H. Quinoa, a grain with a nutty flavor that has recently been gaining in popularity, contrasts with the sweet flavors in this casserole recipe. Despite quinoa's rise in popularity, most people still are trying to figure out what to do with it. Most recipes call for using it in pilafs and salads. But we wanted to offer up something a little different. Its nutty flavor and grain-like texture are a nice contrast to the e...

For nights when a slow simmer needs to speed up
This Nov. 28, 2010 photo shows black bean and spicy sausage stew over brown rice in Concord, N.H. A simmering pot of stew is just right for a cold winter night and this recipe will heat you up without taking too much time in the kitchen. A nice pot of chili or stew, slowly simmering on the stove is a heartwarming thought. But it's a dinner that requires forethought. What about the wintery day you walk in late from work but still want a meal that will take the chill off? We've got you covered wi...

Lawsuit accuses New Balance of false walking shoe ads
The Lawsuit, filed Monday in the U.S. District Court in Boston, calls New Balance's marketing claims that the shoes increase muscle activation and calorie burn "false, misleading, and reasonably likely to deceive the public." The lawsuit was filed on behalf of plaintiff Bistra Pashamova and others like her who say they have been misled or harmed by the sneakers. Plaintiffs are seeking Class Action certification and more than $5 million in compensation. On the New Balance website, the company sa...

McCartney urges India to declare vegetarian day
Outspoken Vegetarian Paul McCartney is urging India to declare a national Vegetarian Day to celebrate meat-free living and compassion toward animals. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals says McCartney sent a letter to Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh saying such a day could save animals while helping to protect both the environment and people's health. The U.N. food agency in 2003 estimated 42 percent of India's 1.2 billion people are vegetarian, due mostly to financial and religious...