So I recently published my “protein shake check-up” so you can make sure your protein shake is still on the right side of your plan. As I read through that, I began to think of all the wonderful ways we have of dressing up our shakes that add little or no calories to the equation. It’s interesting to me, how …

 So you’ve found the PERFECT protein shake. You’ve tested, you’ve tweaked, you’ve tested, you’ve tweaked and now it is divine. And Nik has to come and mess it all up! It’s good, as we’re playing with our food, to every once in a while do a “check up” on our protein shakes (with all our recipes really) to make …

 So…you’ve made it this far, eh? At the beginning you didn’t think there was that much to the nutrition label, did you? And I’ve only given you a glimpse of what there is to learn! There’s even more, believe it or not. Ok, so the last thing I want to talk about is vitamins. Yes, vitamins. Now some of …

Yes, Queen. So, of all the things on the nutrition label, protein is among the most straight-forward. Most of the significance of the protein count lies in how that number relates to other information on the food label. I should point out one thing though. Not all protein is created equal. Folks ask me all the time about pork rinds, …

Oh, this is where the fun begins. For everything you wanted to know about carbs (well, maybe not everything) check out the BF Basics series, Carb Confusion. But here are the basics of carbs on the nutrition label. The total carbohydrates are all the carbs in the product. This includes the fiber, the sugars and the “other carbohydrates” (usually sugar alcohols). But under …

 Man, nothing can take a good food choice to down faster than the sodium count. I have rejoiced over foods that are low-carb, low-fat, high protein and…VERY high sodium. Sigh. For those not in the know, sodium is a mineral that, in the proper quantities, can be beneficial to our health. The most common source of sodium is table salt but …

Yep…that’d be a pound of fat. Keep THAT image in your mind next time you want a cookie!  This section is important, especially to those of you who have or are at risk for heart problems (dang, I sounded like a pharmaceutical commercial, didn’t I?). Total fat is all the fat that is in the food: the good, the …

 Ah…calories. Never has a concept been so misunderstood and feared.  Calories (or kilocalorie [kcal] if we want to be official) are units of energy. That’s it, that’s all. We can get energy from several sources: from protein, from fat, from carbohydrates. THAT is the information we most need to pay attention to. Calories, in and of themselves, are …

Most foods sold in the United States, with a very few exceptions, MUST have a nutrition facts label on them. It looks something like this: It’s a lot of information, isn’t it? And, to add insult to injury for us, at the bottom it says it’s based on a 2,000 calorie a day diet. Yeah, that’s not us. Well….it’s not …

Yes, yes I know you got good grades all year but a little summer school never hurt anyone. Does the nutrition label look like gibberish to you? Do you think it’s impossible to learn to get good information from it? Or perhaps you have a good basic knowledge but just feel like you don’t “get” everything on the label. I’m …