Chinese food is a rare indulgence for me, but there's no denying that when I go for Chinese, indulge I do. Noodles, deep-fried chicken balls, sweet and sour sauce -- I love a good Chinese feast. But it's not the most calorie-conscious cuisine. eDiets recently counted down the five worst Chinese choices:

• Crispy anything. It's just another way of saying 'deep fried.'
• Egg rolls. Again, just another way of saying 'deep fried'
• Spare ribs. The meat is fatty and slathered in sugary, salty sauce. Enough said.
• Sweet and sour anything. Whatever mystery meat they're serving is deep fried and slathered in sugary sauce. Skip.
• Fried rice. White rice alone is not a great choice. White rice fried in fat and served with bits of mystery meat is about 100 times worse.

What do you skip at the Chinese restaurant?

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I've often said that I could be a vegetarian. While I like meat, I just don't crave it. And the health and ethical reasons for going veg are tempting. Yet, knowing everything that I know, I still haven't made the leap. But I do cut down on my family's overall meat intake. For example, this week we only have three dinners that contain meat -- the rest of our dinners will be vegetarian. And, when I do purchase meat, I make sure it's lean.

John's Hopkins has some good tips on how to choose lean meats. Their picks for the leanest choices in each category are:

• Beef: Round steaks, roasts, top loin, top sirloin, chuck shoulder, arm roasts, ground round, and ground sirloin (at least 90% lean).
• Poultry. Chicken, turkey, and Cornish hen without skin.
• Pork. Tenderloin, center loin, pork loin, sausage with 1 gram of fat per ounce or less, and Canadian bacon.
• Lamb and Veal. Chop or roast.
• Sandwich meats. Lean turkey and lean ham.

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You know, I could happily lived my life never knowing what happens inside a meatpacking plant. But then I had to go and read this article from the NYT and the curtain was pulled wide open. Not only is the process disturbing, what's more disturbing is what's happening at one pork processing plant in Minnesota.

A dozen employees have come down with a debilitating neurological disease that involves "heavy legs," loss of limb use, numbness, fatigue, pain, and weakness. The disease appears to cause inflammation of the spinal column, but it's not an illness doctors have seen before. The one thing all 12 employees have in common is that they all work at or near the "head table," where pig brains are harvested by using a process called "blowing brains." During the process, brain matter is pulverized into a fine mist. Workers do not currently wear face masks and can inhale or swallow airborne particles.

I'm sorry. Now I've pulled the curtain wide open for you too, haven't I?

Doctors believe that what is happening to the people affected by this syndrome is some sort of severe immune response to the pig brain matter that ends up inside their bodies. The question is, why? Some patients have recovered and returned to work, while others are still struggling to find treatment that works. Disturbing, indeed.

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We all have our dieting vices, and since one of the worst things you can do is deprive yourself completely (inevitably leads to binging later!) learning to indulge responsibly is key. Red meat is high in cholesterol and saturated fat, but like anything some types are worse than others. If red meat is something you find yourself craving in now and then do you know what the leanest and healthiest options are?

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Our bodies need a lot of stuff for proper functioning, like fiber, calcium, iron, water, a whole lot of exercise, and so much more. Like vitamin B.

The water-soluble vitamin B, in this case known as Thiamine, helps our cells operate like they should. It helps convert calories to carbohydrates and fats and proteins to energy. And thankfully, it's in many of the items we consume, even white flour. Vitamin B deficiencies are therefore rare. Still, we should be mindful of how much we need and how to get it.

Women need 1.1 milligrams (mg) of vitamin B per day. Men need 1.2 mg. Green peas, cooked dried beans and peas, wheat germ, and pork are all excellent sources. Also good are whole and enriched grains, fish, peanuts, and other nuts. Get creative and add black beans to salad, nuts to cereal, and wheat germ to muffin batter and you should satisfy your B requirements. It's that easy.

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I live in a place known for it's ranches and its meat, where being a vegetarian is a sometimes bizarre and incomprehensible lifestyle choice. I'm not a vegetarian but I'm not much of a meat eater either. Basically, if it's served to me, I'll eat meat but I don't keep much of it in my house and I rarely cook it for myself. It's not that I don't like the taste of meat--I do--but I do lots of research about food and nutrition, and hearing about all the hormones that go into meat frankly grosses me out. Plus, I read Fast Food Nation and let's just say it does not paint a pretty picture of how meat is produced.

The Daily Apple has a great post on the safety of meat. Whether it's beef, pork, poultry or even fish, all meats have gone through questionable practices to get on your plate, including being exposed to toxins and injected with hormones. And chances are the hamburger is made from stripped spinal meat. Ewwwww.

But although I don't eat much meat, I would have trouble cutting it out of my life altogether. The key is buying free-range and organic meats that aren't exposed to the same conditions as regular meat. It's expensive, yes, but you have to be careful about what you're putting in your body, don't you think?

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Are you a pork fan? I wouldn't say that I am, aside from the occasional cut of pork tenderloin or maybe if I'm feeling naughty, some bacon. But the folks at Glee Magazine think I should give it another chance. Their reasoning? It's a (usually) lean source of protein, it's got iron and vitamins B1 and B12, it's typically low in sodium and it's far less fatty than some other meats, such as beef. Lean pork can be substituted into many of your favorite meals for a healthier alternative. Such as? How about Pork Lasagna or pork tacos?

It's a good idea to buy organic when it comes to any sort of meat to avoid the nasty hormones that many cuts of meat have in them.

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