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Beef up on your burger stats

Nutrition & Supplements

Burgers are a thing of the past for me -- I stopped eating red meat a little more than a year ago, which struck burgers right from my diet. Turkey burgers never really did anything for me so a burger-free girl I am. Makes me think I'm in the minority when I stumbled upon this statistic in the June 2008 Redbook magazine: Americans eat 13 billion burgers per year. Now that's a lot of beef. Check out these other stats:

  • The year a burger was first served on a bun: 1891
  • Ounces of meat in a Wendy's "Where's the beef?" hamburger: 4
  • The cost of a hamburger at White Castle when the chain first opened its doors in 1921: 5 cents
  • Pounds gained by Super Size Me star Morgan Spurlock after eating McDonald's for one month: 25

This site has some more burger stats. Got any of your own?

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What's your nutrition IQ?

Diet & Weight Loss, Nutrition & Supplements

Does your head spin every time you think about what you should or should not be eating to get this or that result? With so many dieting fads, scientific breakthroughs and general rules of thumb, getting a proper nutrition can leave you nibbling on a piece of cardboard. But if you're interested in good 'ol nutritional facts, check out this "IQ Test" of health to learn a few new things if you didn't already know them!

For example, do you know which nutrient Americans receive less of than any other? It's vitamin E, and over 90 percent of us don't get enough of it in our diets. Almonds and other leafy green vegetables are a good source for this missing element.

True or False: Fat-free dairy foods contain less calcium than the full-fat variety... Itching to know the answer? That statement is false! In fact, according to the quiz, less fattening versions of milk contain 30 milligrams more calcium. Why? Because fat doesn't contain this nutrient and when taken out, the volume of calcium-containing milk goes up! Check out the full article here for more questions and answers.

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Bite-size food facts for pint-sized folks

Nutrition & Supplements

My little boys just got a new National Geographic Kids magazine in the mail. Mostly, this publication contains all sorts of fun animal facts and figures -- did you know that alligators can live for 80 years and that warm frogs croak faster than cold frogs? It also features a bit of technology and sports news, a few family activities, and even a few tidbits about food. Here's what I learned in the March 2008 issue.

  • The holes in Swiss cheese are called "eyes."
  • Chewing gum burns 11 calories per hour.
  • A head of broccoli is made of up hundreds of small flower buds.
  • The largest corned beef sandwich on record weighed 5,440 pounds.
  • Strawberries contain more vitamin C than oranges.
  • Applesauce was the first food eaten in space by an American astronaut.

Chances are you already know some of this. But the kids in your life may not. So share these bite-size facts with them and help them learn a thing or two about the world of food.

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Facing fitness facts

Fitness, Nutrition & Supplements

I'm so much happier with my body now than I was six months ago. A cleaner diet and a more rigorous exercise schedule have helped me whittle away 15 pounds or more, 10 of which I'm blaming on years of cancer treatment. I feel lighter, tighter, and more confident than ever before. Still, there's nothing perfect about my current physique.

For four years now, I've managed to hang on to a handful of post-pregnancy loose tummy skin. It seems no matter what I do to tone my body, this skin -- and its accompanying stretch marks -- just stays put. So does the jiggling skin that covers my quad muscles -- I never even knew it was there until I sprinted on the beach recently. Boy, did that skin flap in the wind!

I don't have ripped muscles, can't brag about a six-pack, and would never be mistaken for an elite athlete. That's just the way it is. And I don't see things changing anytime soon. You see, I'm a stay-at-home mom with two little boys who just don't allow me to focus much on myself -- I'm lucky to get 45 minutes of solid exercise each day. And I'm not wealthy. So I can't afford a personal cook or a full-time trainer. I just can't devote my days or my funds to the overly ambitious pursuit of physical fitness. I must face the facts, then: I am doing what I can, and this may be as good as it gets.

Anorexia: A few facts and figures

Diet & Weight Loss, Motivation

It never hurts to do a little review on a topic that affects so many women, and some men too. The topic: Anorexia.

Anorexia Nervosa, a type of eating disorder characterized by an intense fear of gaining weight and leading to a restriction of food and dangerous weight loss, is one serious disease -- between one and two of every 10 cases of anorexia leads to death from starvation, cardiac arrest, medical complications, or suicide.

Anorexia can halt the physical and emotional growth of teenagers and can lead to premature osteoporosis, infertility, increased risk of miscarriage, and low-birth-weight babies. Anorexia may be especially deadly for women with insulin-dependent diabetes if they omit or under-use insulin to control their weight.

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Get to know your feet

Healthy Habits, Diet & Weight Loss

The foot -- possibly the most ignored and oft-maligned body part. While a few people fetishize feet, many others can't stand the look or smell of them, and get all grossed out at the sight of them. You may not even think about them at all -- that is until something goes wrong and you really realize just how much work your feet do. So in honor of the feet, here are some facts you may not know:

  • 26 of the 206 bones in a human body are in the feet, 14 of which are in the toes.
  • Corns and calluses are the most common foot problems.
  • There are more sweat glands and nerve endings per square inch in the foot than any other part of the body.
  • Feet swell throughout the day so if you're shoe shopping, go in the late afternoon or evening.
  • Feet problems can lead to headaches, indigestion and lower back aches.

For more facts about feet, take a look here. Remember that you don't have to like the look of them, but you should show your feet some respect. Spend money on shoes that fit and that are appropriate for whichever activity you'll be performing, and maybe treat yourself to a pedicure from time to time. Check this page out for more ideas on how to properly care for your feet.

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Summer skin facts you may not know

Healthy Habits, Diet & Weight Loss, Alternative & Green Health

The basics of summer skin care are pretty basic, right? But even things that seem very simple, like wearing sunscreen, may be more complicated than you think. For example, did you know that SPF 30 sunscreen incorrectly applied only gives the benefits of SPF 20?

It's true. In fact, the reason most experts recommend sunscreens with higher SPFs is because they realize most people don't use them properly. The biggest mistake is not using enough, and a good rule of thumb to make sure you're doing it right is 1 ounce, or the amount needed to fill a shot glass, is what the average person needs to cover all exposed areas of skin.

Other little-known summer skin facts include clothing with built-in UVA protection, and free skin cancer screenings available in many areas.

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Random, but interesting, fitness facts

Diet & Weight Loss, Fitness

There is so much information out there nowadays on what's healthy and what's not, how to workout and how not to workout, that it's amazing we keep it as straight as we do. Sometimes it's good to review the basics, to remind you of some simple things you may have forgotten, or just to make sure you stay on track. Things like: Are all plant oils healthy? No. Is it really accurate to try and count calories burned while working out? No. How big of an impact does the intensity of my workout have on the calories I burn? Quite a big one.

So check out this article for some random fitness facts. For being such a quick read, I thought it was pretty good info.

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