Imagine a world where there were no vending machines lurking around every corner, tempting you and your family members with sugary, unwholesome junk. Imagine a world in which your kids ate the healthy fruits and veggies you packed in a brown paper bag with care, instead of chucking them in the nearest garbage bin and punching in some buttons on the nearest machine to score a bag of chips or candy bar.

Sounds like a world I'd like to live in -- what about you? But would it work out how we imagine, or would the kids just find other ways to satisfy their junky tastes?

A study from the Journal Of Nutrition shows that if vending machines weren't allowed in school, kids would eat more healthfully. I guess that's not really too surprising -- if kids are hungry enough, they'll eat what they're given -- but now that there are some official-sounding statistics on this, hopefully the vending machine will start to die a slow and painful death.

(via Calorie Lab.)

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Yummy. Delicious. Insanely flavorful. I feel silly gushing over potato chips, but "Oh my God!" Kettle Brand just introduced some new baked chips, and I was blessed with a bag of both Hickory Honey Barbeque and Sea Salt & Vinegar flavors.

To be honest ... even with my super-human-like fitness guru discipline, it was really hard to stop eating them. I had to physically place the bags in another room to avoid devouring every last chip. I'm a salt-loving type of lady, and I was ecstatic when the world introduced baked chips. Are they as pure and nutritious as fresh blueberries? No! But are they a much healthier version of something most people really enjoy? Absolutely.

If you are a lover of chips and a hater of fat thighs, Kettle Brand Baked Chips are going to float your boat. Each serving of "around 23 chips" contains only 120 calories, and only 25 come from fat. Have high standards and when party time comes, serve some of these. Dip will not be necessary!

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We know portion sizes have grown. They've grown a lot -- and many of us have grown right along with them. But DietBlog is providing some fairly shocking comparisons of portions now compared to 20 or so years ago.

Consider these four items -- take-away coffees, potato chips, chocolate milk, and soft drinks. A standard bottle of pop used to be 12 oz, containing about 160 calories, but now, a dollar (or more, depending on where you are) in a vending machine will get you 20 oz and 245 calories. Chocolate milk is worse, having doubled in size and calories.

That's not the worst of it, though -- coffee, which once was only available in convenience stores (do you remember the days before Starbucks?), generally came in a 7 oz cup, so even with sugar, you were just getting around 85 calories. Now, a large coffee is more than double the size and with all the extras you can order, you can take in just shy of 500 calories. But chips are the icing on the big, fatty cake -- snack bags used to have just about 150 calories, and now, some snack bags that come with sandwiches have 500 calories!

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Feel free to borrow these tips, ladies, but men -- these are mostly for you. Well, those of you who just can't part with goodies like cookies, beer, bacon, and chips. This list offers you options for satisfying your cravings but without the ill-effects. Don't delay -- click on the thumbnails to read on!

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Remember how happy we all felt when Lay's introduced Baked Potato Chips? I do. It was a feeling of relief for me. I had given up chips in lieu of a hard fit body. Fair exchange I thought! But then, there was this company telling me that they weren't going to fry all of their chips anymore, and yes ... there would be a healthier version for people like me. Yahoo!

Once again, snack lovers get to rejoice. The LesserEvil brand snack company has created an amazing variety of popcorns and krinkle potato sticks to make just about everyone drool. Most single servings contain about 110 calories of which about 20 come from fat. Not bad!

The Classic Kettle Corn is the perfect combination of sweet and salty, and thank goodness my bag was a single serving. If it weren't, I could have devoured nine! It was better than any of the junky stuff they sell at carnivals for sure! The Black and White Kettle Corn made my children's "movie night" here at home an even more special event. Good news for me ... I didn't feel the slightest bit bad about giving it to them. The Zesty Pizza Krinkle Sticks were odd to my husband and I though. Why? Because we could not figure out how they made them taste exactly like pizza! It was both weird and wonderful at the same time.

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Not only is it easy to make healthy appetizers, but with little effort, you can impress your guests and enjoy taste and nutrition.

Dips

• Trade those chips for some whole wheat pita, or better yet, fresh veggies, and serve up some hummus. Traditional is universally appealing, or try some black bean hummus -- one of our favorites!
• If you've got to have that onion dip, try this healthy version, made with tofu and fresh garlic and onions and parsley.
• Substitute plain yogurt for the sour cream in the creamy pesto dip, and you've got a simple dip with some basil-y pizazz.

When it comes to dips and dressings, we pretty much know which ones are the bad guys: Things that are cream-based, made with cheese, high in fat or all of the above. So when snacking, we healthy eaters tend to lean towards nutritious things with nutrients and fiber. Vegetable-based snacks like salsa and guacamole fit the bill, right?

Salsa, yes. But guacamole? Is it healthy? What do you think?

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Pinch of Salt is a low-sodium version of four classic snacks -- Ruffles Potato Chips, Lay's Potato Chips, Fritos Corn Chips, and Tostidos Tortilla Chips. By "low" sodium, I mean 75 milligrams per one-ounce serving -- that's about 14 chips or 34 Fritos. Given a daily max of 2,400 milligrams, this low dose hardly makes a dent. And it's far better than the 180 milligrams that come with the classic versions. Now if fat is a concern for you, you might want to exercise some restraint before tearing open one of these Frito-Lay bags, which also happen to deliver a little carb punch too.

Word to the wise: Don't consider Pinch of Salt a health food. Just consider it treat with a little less salt. And enjoy -- in moderation.

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Did you have fun at the Memorial Day party you attended? I hope so. And what about the food - how was it? I hope great. Did you try any of the chips and salsa dip? If so, I'm sure they were delicious. All that crunchiness, the flavor of the salsa, and the 10,000 microscopic bacteria ... yummy.

Not that I'm pointing fingers at you necessarily, but chances are someone double-dipped at your Memorial Day party. And, more likely than not, someone will do it again at the Fourth of July party you attend, too. While double-dipping may seem more like a fairly innocuous, Seinfeldian faux pas, an article in the most recent issue of Women's Health demonstrates otherwise. Pointing to a recent study in the Journal of Food Safety, the article states that as many as 10,000 bacteria are transfered from a mouth to a bowl of dip when someone dips their chip too many times.

As for sharing beers, I can only imagine how many germs are swapped. Oh well, good thing you're usually with family and friends at these sort of events!!

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When it comes to using dishes, I've always been a bit, um, frugal. I don't like doing 'em, so I do what I can to use a few dishes as possible. This mean eating from the bag, box or whatever. When I'm grabbing some crackers, chips or even dried cereal, I grab the bag and munch away.

Correction -- that's what I did do. I saw this great tip on Fitsugar a while ago and it makes a lot of sense. Instead of eating from the bag, put a serving into a dish, then seal the bag and put it away. Out of sight, out of mind -- this simple step will keep you from mindlessly eating the whole bag. You're able to snack away while controlling how many calories you consumer -- now, is that a perfect solution or what?

Are you completely addicted to chocolate? Just can't seem to give it up no matter how you try?

That isn't necessarily a bad thing, you just need to choose your chocolate wisely.

We know the darker the better rule, but if you can find a brand that tastes good that doesn't have any sugar added, probably you should try it.

Enter Sunspire Grain-Sweetened Chocolate Chips. These are great for snacking (try with Newman's Spelt Pretzels), baking, adding to granola and using as you would any other chocolate chip.

OK, I do not recommend a taste test next to Ghirardelli's 60% chocolate chips, but they are pretty tasty nonetheless. Not too sweet, but not bitter either, they really do make a nice substitute for the not-so-healthy chips you know you have been eating.

So, now you've made the switch, or you are at least contemplating it. You know the dark chocolate has health benefits, and the fact that the chips contain no refined sugar sure is a bonus. You've done yourself proud.

Want to feel even better about these chips? For the serving size of two tablespoons, they have only 70 calories and have only four grams of sugar, coming only from whole grain malted barley and corn.

Make your next batch of chocolate chip cookies with Sunspire's chips and see what you think -- then come and tell us about it!

Food manufactures are finally getting the message: Ban Trans Fats!! Nevertheless, there are still plenty of guilty parties out there, many of which may be finding their way into your belly without you even knowing.

What are the worst 10 food offenders when it comes to trans fat? The folks at WebMD point them out in a line-up:

10 - Toppings and Dips

9 - Cookies and Candy

8 - Breakfast Foods

7 - Chips and Crackers

6 - Baked Goods

5- Frozen Foods

4 - Fast Food

3 - Soups

2 - Packaged Foods

1 - Spreads

Surprised that some of these foods made the naughty list? Me too. For a detailed description on each of these items, click here to read the full article.

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Whoopi Goldberg is all about honesty these days. She just recently declared her own personal war on smoking -- "Whoopi Kicks Butts" is the slogan used on her talk show The View -- and now she's speaking out about her love for junk food, the love that's caused her to gain 50 extra pounds.

"Folks don't tell the truth about sex and money or about what they eat," says Whoopi in the November 11 issue of Parade magazine. "But I'm not going to lie to you: I love potato chips, big bags of them. I love junk food. Not sweets. I like salt."

Whoopi isn't hiding the fact that she's been indulging of late. The extra pounds aren't hiding either, she says, which is why she's back on her diet. It's meat, vegetables, protein, and fruit for this Oscar-winning star who knows this is the way she's supposed to eat.

Whoopi has quite a challenge ahead of her. She wants to be completely done with smoking by December 15, and now she's taking on a major diet overhaul. The work may be hard. But the rewards will be oh so sweet.

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If you're busy prepping for your upcoming holiday travels, you may want to consider what nutrition experts have to say about eating healthy at airports.

Definitely avoid the fast food spots, they say. And since flying makes you incredibly dehydrated, they recommend picking snacks with high water content -- like apples and pears. Instant soup works too, but only if sodium levels register at 500 milligrams or less.

More tips: During airport layovers, give dairy foods such as yogurt and cheese a try. They contain amino acids which increase blood flow and tryptophan which promotes relaxation and calmness during air travel. Almonds are another wise choice -- just limit your portion to a healthy one-ounce serving.

Low sodium is key for travel. So pass on the potato chips and try something like low-sodium beef jerky. It's low in calories and carbohydrates and has lots of protein. Optimally, though, whole foods top any sort of processed food. The fewer the ingredients, the better.

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I've come to realize that there are two types of people in the world: the sweet and the salty. No, I'm not talking about their disposition, I'm talking about their cravings. Some people have a major sweet tooth and when they're craving something, they reach for the chocolate or the ju jubes. Others crave salty things and will go for the chips. That's not to say that sweet people can't crave salty and vice versa, but they usually have one or the other as their default craving.

My point? I'm a sweet, so I've done a few posts on low-cal sweets that can satisfy this palate of mine. But I though I'd give the salties something to munch on and offer these suggestions, which include:

• Edamame, which is steamed soy beans lightly sea salted
• Roasted pumpkin seeds with a dash of salt
• Reduced-Fat Triscuits
• Light microwave popcorn (or air-popped -- even better!)

Salties, what's your favourite indulgence?

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