"calorie" news and stories

Somewhere around 25% of coffee drinkers in the US now prefer their coffee with a flavor, such as hazelnut or vanilla, and at least that many use calorie-free sweeteners in place of sugar on a regular basis. Splenda's new Flavor Blends for Coffee combine those concepts. They are packets of sweetener flavored to taste like French Vanilla, Hazelnut and Mocha, allowing consumers to "customize hot beverages at home or on the go with no calories."

The Flavor Blends only launched this week, so they might not be in stores in your area yet, but for fans of Splenda, they sound very promising. They will be ideal for using at the office, rather than going out to Starbucks for a high-calorie (and relatively high-cost) mocha. Their small size also allows them be tucked into a purse or coat pocket when traveling, but they will work well for regular home use, too.

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The fat and calorie content of some pies is enough to make nutritionists cringe, but let's face it: pizza tastes good. Really good. The Miami Herald says that 93% of Americans have pizza at least once per month. Very few people are willing to swear of pizza for more than a brief period of time, even during a diet, let alone for any substantial length of time. Can you make pizza a healthier part of your diet? Sure. There are quite a few ways to cut down on the worst parts of pizza and still enjoy it.

The first option is to limit yourself to one slice of pizza. Good luck with that - though it is a good idea to pair a pizza with something lighter, like soup or salad, to prevent yourself from reaching for that last slice.

The second option is to eat low fat, low calorie pies. This is actually a great way to get your fix without blowing your diet or your top button. The taste is the same or similar to regular pies, especially if you sprinkle on some of your own toppings, like a bit of parmesan cheese or red pepper flakes.

 

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Diet is definitely a word with a capital "D". It strikes fear into the hearts, stomachs and mouths of many who associate the word with dry, flavorless rice cakes and endless bowls of cabbage soup. But fear not: there are more than a few dieting blogs to help get you through the new year without any new pounds.

• On Slashfood, we ran a Healthy New Year series of posts with tips to get you through your day: breakfast, bringing a lunch to work, eating lunch out, snacking, tasty dinners and worry-free desserts.
• Hungry Girl offers advice, diet tips and tricks and a few of her own recipes to help you lose any lingering holiday pounds.
• Calorie Lab has a calorie counter, BMI calculator and an up-to-the-minute health news section.
• I Ate a Pie reviews any and all "healthy" diet foods, from low-carb to fat-free.
• Diet-Blog tracks down any and all diet trends, truths and lies. It's a great source for diet-related news.
• Kalyn's Kitchen is the blog of a dedicated low-carber, who puts together lots of easy to follow recipes with great photos.
• Baking Low Fat has - you guessed it - a collection of low-fat baked goods, from breads to brownies.

These are not even a small percentage of all the blogs and websites that regularly or occasionally cover dieting and healthy eating, but they're a good place to start. If you want to start with a few recipes of your own, check out the Low Carb and Healthy Living sections of Allrecipes, for inspiration.

 
SWAMP is short for Studies of Work Atmospheres and Mass Production. The group's stated goal is "to find creative expression within elements of culture that are inherently counter-creative." Of the many darlings of consumer culture that the group touches on again and again is fast food. One of their most outlandish and amazing projects, the Meat Helmet, came in response to McDonald's recent "adult happy meal" that came with a pedometer. SWAMP's Meat Helmet hooks the user up to a series of pneumatic 'air muscles' that force the wearer to make chewing motions. Based on the amount of calories entered into the helmet's CPU (say, 560 for a Big Mac), the 'muscles' pump the appropriate amount of chewing to work off the meal. They estimate that chewing burns roughly 70 calories per hour, so a solid eight-hour jaw flappin' workout should work off that Big Mac. The SWAMP site contains more pictures and a pretty slick video presentation, too.

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