Healthblogging
Conversations with Jeff and Rina today have made me remember that I didn't post that second link! So here it is:
http://www.nutritiondata.com
I love this website. It was made for a nerdy engineer like me. Seriously.
The best thing about this site is its ability to put together recipes (in what it calls the "Pantry") so that you can get actual nutrition information on things you cook for yourself! Sometimes it can be hard to estimate just how much of a green pepper you ate... but usually you know how much you put in in total. Throw everything together to create the Recipe, and then estimate your serving size (1/6? 1/4? all?) and you're good!
The Pantry can be used to create actual recipes ("Chicken Stir Fry" however you make it), combinations of foods that create meals (see how much you eat for Breakfast or Lunch), or an overall list of one entire day. It all depends on what you include when you tell it to evaluate.
ND gives you not only a calorie count, but the relevant nutrition data for whatever you are evaluating. This is excellent when looking at a meal in particular or at a day as a whole. How the hell do I know if I'm getting enough fiber, really? Or calcium? This is one good way to figure it out. For people (like me) with assorted health problems that need to make sure they are eating healthy and not just less, this can be invaluable.
Another good thing is that you can break down what comes from where in your recipe. For example, if you look at the ingredients, it might tell you that 25% of your calories and 35% of your fat are coming from that cheese! It helps you make healthier recipes that way.
One of the things I try and use it for is to determine an actual portion size. I know nowadays portion sizes have gotten out of control and one of the easiest ways to watch what you eat is to control your own portion size, but how? If you've got the entire recipe in your Pantry, you can then choose an esstimated serving (say, "1/4") and the website will tell you how many calories are in that much of what you made. It's a great way to say to yourself, "Alright, self, you can eat 1/3 of this, but no more." Or whatever.
Foods are a lot easier to deal with on this site than on MyPyramid. NutritionData has a lot more food brands (cereals, etc), and a lot more food suggestions overall. The food-related information is easier to follow as well. There are only a few problems, one being that it can be tricky to analyze more than one thing at a time - the site doesn't necessarily remember these numbers for you. So you just have to remember in your head, "Today was XXX calories," or "1/6 of my dirty rice is 300 calories."
The other thing you should just ignore is the "Replace your food with healthier options" thing. The site claims that it has this great list of suggestions to help you replace ingredients in your meals with healthier alternatives. So far every time I've tried to use it, it has told me to replace my entire recipe with wheat germ or something like that. Lame.
Anyway! The two sites combined are pretty sweet, and are also pretty good measures for anyone who is seriously trying to be healthier. I usually try to track myself on MyPyramid for a week to two weeks at a time, to check what my averages actually are. If MyPyramid doesn't have good food options I usually "round off" (aka for a chicken and rice goulash thing I will just put in the chicken and rice, as they're the main ingredients) and put the recipe into ND so that I know what I'm actually eating.
Anyway, hope this helps for anybody on my F-List! :P
http://www.nutritiondata.com
I love this website. It was made for a nerdy engineer like me. Seriously.
The best thing about this site is its ability to put together recipes (in what it calls the "Pantry") so that you can get actual nutrition information on things you cook for yourself! Sometimes it can be hard to estimate just how much of a green pepper you ate... but usually you know how much you put in in total. Throw everything together to create the Recipe, and then estimate your serving size (1/6? 1/4? all?) and you're good!
The Pantry can be used to create actual recipes ("Chicken Stir Fry" however you make it), combinations of foods that create meals (see how much you eat for Breakfast or Lunch), or an overall list of one entire day. It all depends on what you include when you tell it to evaluate.
ND gives you not only a calorie count, but the relevant nutrition data for whatever you are evaluating. This is excellent when looking at a meal in particular or at a day as a whole. How the hell do I know if I'm getting enough fiber, really? Or calcium? This is one good way to figure it out. For people (like me) with assorted health problems that need to make sure they are eating healthy and not just less, this can be invaluable.
Another good thing is that you can break down what comes from where in your recipe. For example, if you look at the ingredients, it might tell you that 25% of your calories and 35% of your fat are coming from that cheese! It helps you make healthier recipes that way.
One of the things I try and use it for is to determine an actual portion size. I know nowadays portion sizes have gotten out of control and one of the easiest ways to watch what you eat is to control your own portion size, but how? If you've got the entire recipe in your Pantry, you can then choose an esstimated serving (say, "1/4") and the website will tell you how many calories are in that much of what you made. It's a great way to say to yourself, "Alright, self, you can eat 1/3 of this, but no more." Or whatever.
Foods are a lot easier to deal with on this site than on MyPyramid. NutritionData has a lot more food brands (cereals, etc), and a lot more food suggestions overall. The food-related information is easier to follow as well. There are only a few problems, one being that it can be tricky to analyze more than one thing at a time - the site doesn't necessarily remember these numbers for you. So you just have to remember in your head, "Today was XXX calories," or "1/6 of my dirty rice is 300 calories."
The other thing you should just ignore is the "Replace your food with healthier options" thing. The site claims that it has this great list of suggestions to help you replace ingredients in your meals with healthier alternatives. So far every time I've tried to use it, it has told me to replace my entire recipe with wheat germ or something like that. Lame.
Anyway! The two sites combined are pretty sweet, and are also pretty good measures for anyone who is seriously trying to be healthier. I usually try to track myself on MyPyramid for a week to two weeks at a time, to check what my averages actually are. If MyPyramid doesn't have good food options I usually "round off" (aka for a chicken and rice goulash thing I will just put in the chicken and rice, as they're the main ingredients) and put the recipe into ND so that I know what I'm actually eating.
Anyway, hope this helps for anybody on my F-List! :P