• White Russian, made of coffee liqueur, vodka, and cream, it has 863 calories!
  
• Mudslide, which is basically a White Russian with the addition of Bailey's Irish Cream and chocolate syrup. No wonder it's 851 calories.
• Hot Buttered Rum Latte exceeds the recommended daily intake of sugar by 36 grams.
• Chocolate Martini is probably the least evil on the list because "chocolate is healthy." It's also 438 calories.
• Admittedly, we had never heard of the Blushin' Russian, and wonder why not because it has delicious Amaretto in it! Oh yeah, maybe because we'd rather take 404 calories as a Big Mac.
• Mulled Wine is bad?!?! We were crushed, but if you make it yourself and cut back on the sugar, you'll do better than the usual 356 calories and 40 grams of carbs.
• Eggnog, surprisingly, is lower than the previous half dozen drinks with only 343 calories, but we think it's evil comes from the fact that you drink at least one every night, everywhere you go, from Thanksgiving to New Year's.
• Brandy Alexander has 297 calories. Oh well. There goes another luscious creamy drink.
  
• At 210 calories, Irish Coffee is the slimmest of the cocktails, but let's not get crazy. It's still 210 calories that you could down in 20 seconds (you'll also burn your mouth, but that's not the point, now is it?)

Although some children will be quick to point out which foods are healthy ones to their parents, not all children have reacted so positively to the recent changes in school lunches. At least, they haven't in the UK. The BBC conducted a survey of secondary schools (middle and high schools) and found that at 60% of them, there had been a drop in the number of students that were opting to buy the school-provided lunch since the switch to a healthier menu. Only 10% of schools had an increase in the number of students taking lunch since the change.

It's too bad that there isn't any US data on this phenomenon after so many schools and school districts have placed restrictions on what types of food are appropriate for kids to have access to during the day, but it seems likely that the problem would be a similar one, especially with older kids who can easily leave campus or go out after school to get the fries and pizzas that they have always had access to at school until now.

The problem is one that will gradually go away over time, as the kids who were used to the "old way" of doing things graduate and the number of students who think that they are entitled to something greasy and unhealthy will decrease compared to he number of children who might actually look forward to a healthier lunch.

Nutritionist Bonnie Minsky carries around a prop with her when she has speaking engagements: a cupcake. You wouldn't think that a dietitian would want to have a treat like this around her, especially since it is the processed, packed-in-plastic type of snack cake, but she uses it to make a point about the dangers of trans fats. You see, the Hostess cupcake that she carries is 25 years old. The plastic packaging didn't hold up too well, nor did the frosting, but the cake itself appears to be relatively undamaged.

The cake was intended to be an experiment from the beginning. She purchased the cake in 1981 and "let it site for a few months" to see what would happen. She also purchased an apple at the same time. Of course, the apple began to decompose in fairly short order, but nothing happened to the cupcake. She attributed the lack of change to the presence of partially hydrogenated oil - a.k.a. trans fats - because "the [other] ingredients in the cupcake are all real."

Minsky thinks that the recent moves in Chicago and New York, as well as other cities and countries around the world, to ban trans fats are a good idea. And after seeing what they can do to a cupcake, even if there is no definitive answer about what they do to your body, it doesn't seem like such a bad idea.

This French toast and bacon sandwich could just be the ultimate breakfast sandwich - assuming that you aren't in the least bit worried about your weight and that you enjoy indulging in the morning, of course. It starts off with two thick slices of bread, soaked in an egg and milk mixture then fried into perfectly cooked french toast. The toast is then topped with a generous amount of lightly crisped bacon, allowing the pieces of overlap and for two layers. Once the bacon is in place, pour on some maple syrup and add the top piece of french toast. Eat with a knife and fork.

The end product is salty, sweet, filling and in no way can be considered health food. Ah well. You can't win them all, right?

Fabe's All Natural Bakery supports healthy living and says that their products are "good for you" because they are free from refined sugar, artificial ingredients and preservatives. While that is certainly an aspect of foods that are "good for you," it seems like they are exaggerating the healthy qualities of their food. After all, a block of organic butter is still not health food, despite being organic.

The most glaring example of this might be their Healthy Dieter Blueberry Muffins. The low-carb muffins are low in sugar, but have 250 calories each (2.5-oz) and 18g fat, including a whopping 41% of the daily maximum intake of saturated fat and 41% of the daily maximum intake of cholesterol. The first ingredient in the muffins is cream cheese - and that doesn't make them sound very muffin-like. The only redeeming feature is that they don't appear to contain any gluten, though the site gives no indication as to whether they are prepared in a gluten-free environment.

Healthy to some? Perhaps, but to say that it is a muffin for more than a handful of "healthy dieters" is an overstatement.

Earlier this week, I mentioned that I was doing some frying at breakfast, since I wanted something sweet that didn't involve using the oven. I ended up making beignets. Beignets are made from a yeasted dough that is deep fried and covered, usually, with powdered sugar (although savory versions exist). They are similar to doughnuts, but are almost always cut into small squares and lack the center hole that practically defines a doughnut. New Orleans is famous for its beignets and making them at home is almost as good as hopping on a plane and heading to Cafe du Monde to pick up some fresh ones, served with a cup of coffee with chicory on the side. You can try the recipe yourself, or stick to your summertime diet and just feast on food porn here.

When we're busy, it can be hard to pull ourselves away from work. Some days it seems to just pile up much faster than we can possibly deal with it. Eating at your desk or in the car can seem like a good way to save a few minutes, but new studies show that working long hours has a negative impact on women's health - especially when it comes to food. And while overworking has an impact on men, it is a greater one on women. Women who work extremely long hours are likely to overeat, craving fatty, sugary, unhealthy snacks more often than any other group, and even stressful events (giving presentations, etc.) can trigger a craving.

But there is an easy solution for anyone, male or female, to controlling emotional eating: think about it. Don't mindlessly reach for another candy bar, but instead take a few minutes to de-stress and evaluate whether you really should eat it.

A survival strategy? Keep a piece (or two or three) of fresh fruit on your desk at all times. That way, even if you give in to the cravings for noshing at your desk, you can polish of a handful or two of grapes before even thinking about heading for the vending machine.

While overeating is something that we can work on, being busy is sometimes a fact of life. Check out our best foods for busy women for a few ideas on how to get through a jam-packed day.

Many news sources are reporting that Canadians are eating an unbalanced diet. All the news is based on a study that says approximately 25% of Canadians are getting more than 35% of their calories from fat and that some people are not eating the appropriate number of servings from different food groups. Of course, the alarm bells are sounding in the eyes of nutritionists and the headlines are calling Canada a "fast food nation."

The problem with the study? In its vagueness, only a few key facts are shared with the reader, leaving out information such as how much (the number of calories) people are actually eating. The way I read the information given, 75% of Canadians are getting less than 35% of their daily calories from fat. And that's a good thing! Not only that, but the study even states that the amount of calories from fat in the average diet has declined since the last time such a study was done, in the 1970s.

So, why blow this all out of proportion when people seem to be improving their diets? The cynic in me says that the study author is trying to build up interest in his work because he plans to release more detailed reports at the end of this year and next. And the cynic is probably right because if it was health, and not publicity, that Didier Garriguet was interested in, he would have released a full account of his findings to begin with.

Nick posted about the launch of this burger at GCS Ballpark, home of the Gateway Grizzlies in March, but I hadn't actully seen what it looked like until now. It is hard to find words for this thing. Baseball's Best Burger is a cheeseburger with two strips of bacon, served on a Krispy Kreme doughnut. It weighs in at about 1000 calories and 45 grams of fat. The Grizzlies say that they sell around 150 of the burgers, a $4.50 each, per game.

A deep fried Snicker's bar may be bad for you, but I think that this burger might just be able to knock it off the list of the worst foods you can eat.

It was probably inevitable that a fourth meal would be added to the day and I am not surprised that a fast food restaurant is the one trying to do it. Taco Bell has recently unveiled their concept of Fourthmeal, the meal between dinner and breakfast. I am not sure what happened to the "midnight snack," but it seems likely that the word "snack" must not have been encouraging people to buy enough late-night tacos. To be honest, I don't think that "fourthmeal" is a very convincing name, nor is its cause helped by the very creepy website that Taco Bell designed for it.

Nabisco makes more than a dozen varieties of Oreo cookies, not including the ones that have their fillings dyed for each holiday, in addition to 4 Oreo ice creams and 8 other Oreo-related products. They do not sell what is rapidly becoming one of the most popular types of Oreo, albeit the unhealthiest: deep fried Oreo's.

A popular fair and carnival food, just like the deep fried Snickers bars, it involves dipping an Oreo into a thick batter and popping it into a sizzling hot pot of oil. When pulled out, hot and crispy, they are topped with powdered sugar and served. According to many,  they are delicious and more easily justifiable than a Snicker's due to their relatively small size. One blogger described them : "The Oreo loses it's hard crunchy texture and becomes a warm chocolately cake delight. The creamy center melts and creates an inner glaze." Should you want to risk the health hazards of deep-fried foods for the delights of one of these treats, you can find instructions both here and here.

[Image the farmers wife] 

Despite the fact that McDonalds has been receiving an extra-large serving of criticism recently, it hasn’t discouraged the company from doing what it does best: making burgers. While some customers turn away, others still look for size and value in their fast food and the new Bigger Big Mac, due to be released soon in the UK, will give them both. The burger is a full 40% larger than the regular Big Mac and, base on that, can be expected to pack at least 700 calories. It is a limited edition burger that is being targeted at football fans, so the release coincides with the 2006 World Cup. Spain and Germany are also likely to see the release of this bigger Mac.

[Image MegaStar]