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Exciting New Kitchen Tools
Raises Awareness of Nutrition and Portion Size
Knowing the basics about nutrition will help you better appreciate the
importance of healthy eating and provide the key to unlock the door to
long term weight management. It is interesting how information can
change one's habits, but you probably don't have the time to get to a
library to read a few chapters of the most current nutrition text or
even take a course in nutrition from the comfort of your own computer.
The more recent weight management programs focus more on the awareness
of the nutritional and caloric value of what to eat than a specific diet
plan. Calorie awareness balances how much I eat with how much my body
needs based on my level of activity. A major key to a nutrition plan is
to learn how much to eat, what to eat, and how to compensate when I am
more active or when I want to eat something special.
How often do you think about calories and nutrients when food moves past
your lips? The food we eat at meals, or grab from the refrigerator
between commercials, all contain nutrients. Whether you eat a bowl of
ice cream or tossed salad, your food is made up of just 3 nutritional
building blocks: carbohydrates, proteins, and fats. These three macro
nutrients make up 100% of the calorie content of food.
Educating yourself about the calorie content of common foods is possibly
the most important skill you can learn when it comes to long-term weight
management. You should make calorie content a basic indicator for
whether a food is worth eating and secondly you should evaluate other
nutrients. By learning to estimate calories and other nutrients, you can
enjoy virtually any food as long as you regulate portion size. The basic
equation for all weight management programs is expending more calories
than you consume.
Since most people eat up to 100 different foods during a given month,
and each food has a different nutrient composition, it is important be
able to accurately calculate calories for the food portions you commonly
eat. Only by creating awareness and evaluating your food choices and
eating pattern will you be able to make gradual modifications and
substitutions that you will accept for a long term solution.
Calorie awareness is an effective component of a dietary strategy
because it promotes a positive change in eating habits. Keeping a food
journal, which takes effort, can positively affect eating behavior by
helping you to become more aware of food choices. Secondly, when the
records are analyzed in relation to dietary goals, they can provide
feedback. However, a potentially large variable lies in the measurement
characteristics of a basic calorie counting book compared to more
comprehensive and accurate instruments. A visual perception for a food
you look up in a book can actually be much different from its actual value.
A new tool that can greatly improve patient dietary awareness by
providing exact calories and nutrients for portion size is the nutrition
scale. Logging food to count calories and track nutrition has never been
simpler and there is no better way to change your style of eating than
to design a healthy approach for yourself using the data that USDA food
data can provide.This tool saves time over searching internet and
provides more accurate information than a handheld PDA or a calorie book.
A nutrition scale is programmed with common foods, so by using it on
your kitchen counter, it will allow you to evaluate food based on
nutrition and health and eat it in modest portions.Just place a portion
of food on the scale, identify the food and it instantly calculates
calorie, carbs and other nutrients. If you are preparing a meal in you
kitchen you can easily place a portion of fruit, vegetables, meats or
breads on the nutrition scale and instantly see the nutrients. This
provides immediate feedback with visualization. You do not need to
measure and count everything you eat for the rest of your life-just do
this long enough to recognize typical serving sizes as they relate to
calories and other important nutrients. The goal of calorie counting is
to develop accurate skills to evaluate your meals and snacks, thus it
can serve as guidance system if problems are arising and will help
ensure success. When individuals "see" results by improving calorie
estimates, they have an increase in confidence, and are inspired to
continue. So starting with an accurate calorie counting method will
train and teach you to become an expert at calorie awareness for long
term weight management.
Depending on your drive, personality and behavioral complexities, some
food diaries could include the stress level, mood or feelings
surrounding eating, activity or location or other environmental or
emotional triggers for eating. The more complex or detailed of a diary
you create, the better analysis and feedback you will see.
In today's society it is almost impossible for most people to keep
highly detailed daily food records over the long-term, therefore,
compliance is often very low with detailed food diaries. However, if you
ask a group of individuals to evaluate their dinner, most of us tend to
underestimate the amount of food we eat and overestimate the amount of
food that constitutes a serving size. Now here's the thing...in order to
consistently achieve that caloric balance and manage our weight, you
must be AWARE of your calorie intake.
With technology advancements, nutrition awareness techniques are
improving to help defeat some of the major barriers to compliance. The
bottom line is that no matter how you do it, calorie recognition should
be an important part of your weight-loss, weight maintenance or healthy
lifestyle change. Then, the next step is to be sure your new-found food
competency translates into positive behavior changes with regards to
diet and exercise.
Things to consider when buying a nutrition scale:
1. Is it easy to understand and use?
2. What foods are programmed into the memory?
3. What nutrients does it calculate?
4. Can you place a full size plate on the platform?
5. What is the weight capacity?
6. Can you remove the platform to clean?
7. Is the LCD display easy to read?
8. Is the scale aesthetically appealing on your counter?
9. Can it calculate food with Nutrition Fact labels and without?
10. Does the scale include educational material for effective use?
Surf the internet under "nutrition Scale" to see what features you like
best or visit eatsmartproducts.com
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