We all love chocolates. Regardless of your age, unless you are suffering with conditions like diabetes, you will most definitely enjoy having anything with the chocolate flavor, any time of the day.

There are various types of chocolates in the market. Sweet chocolate, Milk chocolate, Dark Chocolate and White chocolate are some of the popular varieties among these.

What about calories and other nutrients in chocolates?
Lets take a look at nutrition values of 1 bar of Milk Chocolate with almonds.

One bar of Milk Chocolate (1 oz) with almonds contains about 150 calories. Also it contains,
– 125.9mg of Potassium
– 63.5mg of Calcium
– 2.6g of Protein
– 9.8g of total fat
– 5mg of Cholesterol,
some Dietary Fiber and 12.4g of Sugar.

What can be considered as ‘fast food‘?
A short answer would be,
“A food with a fast preparing time that can be served quickly..”

While any meal you prepare at home very quickly can also be considered as ‘fast food’, we use this term typically to describe the food items sold in restaurants/stores which has fast preparation time and served to us in a package form if we want it for take-away.

Good examples for such restaurants/stores would be Burger King, KFC, McDonald’s, Subway, Taco Bell and Wendy’s.

Fast Food Calories
According to research done by various institutes, most fast food items are high in fat, contains excessive calories and low fiber. The amount of calorie intake from a regular meal at some of these fast food restaurants can be over 1400 calories.

Click on the two links below to find out more information on calories in fast food.

1. Subway Calories

2. McDonalds Calories

Question : How Many Calories In Pita Bread?

Answer
There are about 80 calories in a small pita bread.
The large (6-1/2″ dia), contains about 200 calories.

Produced from Sugar Cane or Sugar Beet, Sugar is a white crystalline carbohydrate most of us use everyday as a sweetener and a preservative.

When adding sugar to water, the crystals dissolve up to a point where it gets saturated, after which no more sugar can be dissolved into that solution. The amount of sugar you need to saturate will vary according to the temperature. At very high temperatures, sugar remains in the solution while water evaporates and and sugar molecules will begin to crystallize as soon as the temperature drops back into a solid state. This is very important in making candy.

The two most popular varieties of Sugar we know are the granulated (white) sugar and brown sugar. White sugar is a highly refined version of cane or beet sugar. What we get as brown sugar today is mostly white sugar combined with molasses. The distinctive brown color and the soft texture is mainly due the presence of molasses, which is a byproduct you get when processing sugar cane or sugar beets into sugar.

Brown sugar contains less calories than the white version. 100g of brown sugar contains 373 calories and same amount of granulated sure contains 396 calories.

The list below will give you detailed information on nutrition values of each type.

Nutritional Values Of Sugar
Sugar, granulated (white sugar)
Nutritional value per 100 g (3.5 oz)
Energy – 1,619 kJ (387 kcal)
Carbohydrates – 99.98 g
Sugars – 99.91 g
Dietary fiber – 0 g
Fat – 0 g
Protein – 0 g
Water – 0.03 g
Riboflavin (Vit. B2) – 0.019 mg (1%)
Calcium – 1 mg (0%)
Iron – 0.01 mg (0%)
Potassium – 2 mg (0%)

Sugars, brown
Nutritional value per 100 g (3.5 oz)
Energy – 1,576 kJ (377 kcal)
Carbohydrates -97.33 g
Sugars – 96.21 g
Dietary fiber – 0 g
Fat – 0 g
Protein – 0 g
Water – 1.77 g
Thiamine (Vit. B1) – 0.008 mg (1%)
Riboflavin (Vit. B2) – 0.007 mg (0%)
Niacin (Vit. B3) – 0.082 mg (1%)
Vitamin B6 – 0.026 mg (2%)
Folate (Vit. B9) – 1 μg (0%)
Calcium – 85 mg (9%)
Iron – 1.91 mg (15%)
Magnesium - 29 mg (8%)
Phosphorus – 22 mg (3%)
Potassium – 346 mg (7%)
Sodium – 39 mg (2%)
Zinc – 0.18 mg (2%)

Question: What is Nutrient Density?

Answer: “Nutrient density” has several meanings and are explained below.

Nutrient Density explained as a simple formula :

ND = Nutrient Content / Total Energy Content

Nutrient density is the ratio of grams value of the nutrient content(vitamins and minerals etc.) to the kilo calorie value of its total energy content. In other words “a measure of the nutrients obtained per calorie..”

Lets take an example..

1. A fresh apple containing 60 calories, few grams of fiber and various vitamins and minerals.
2. A small glass of apple juice with the same amount of calories (60) but no fiber and less vitamins and minerals.

In the above case, option #1 is the more nutrient-dense choice since it gives you more nutrients per calorie of energy you intake. Knowing about the nutrient density will help you choose more healthy food choices and it will help you improve your physical health and physical activities in your activities.

Another definition for nutrient density would be the ratio of food energy from carbohydrate/protein/fat to the total energy.

It can be also defined as the ratio of the nutrient composition to the nutrient requirements of the human body.

Whichever way you want it to describe, any nutrient-dense food will be a good choice to have since it will provide you more nutrition always compared to the same quantity of non-nutrient-dense food and you will intake less calories always by eating nutrient-dense food.

Empty calories are calories with almost no nutritional value. In other words, calories present in foods high in energy but has poor nutritional values. The perfect example can be alcohol, rich in energy, loading you with unwanted calories, and lacking in vitamins, minerals or any other vital nutrients.

As empty calories will always cause you to gain weight, it is essential to cut down foods with empty calories if you are trying to lose weight. You can achieve your wight loss goals by having a balanced diet with adequate amount of vitamins and minerals. In order to do so, replace the empty-calorie foods with fruits and vegetables which are nutrient-dense foods. Every Dietitian we know recommend this.

Below find a list of foods known to contain empty calories mostly.

1. All forms of alcohol, including wine, beer, hard liqueur.
2. Foods with high amount of added sugar. (candy, various kinds of sweets and ice cream are good examples).
3. White rice and white bread. (refined grains)
4. Foods with saturated fat like butter and lard.
5. Fried chicken, hamburgers, sausages, certain pizza and similar foods with high amounts of fat.

The Durian is a fruit widely found in southeast Asia known as the “king of fruits”. The edible yellow color flesh emits a distinctive strong odor, even with the husk intact. While some consider this smell as fragrant; most people find it overpowering and offensive.

Nutritional and medicinal properties
The following few paragraphs are taken from the page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Durian

Durian fruit contains a high amount of sugar, vitamin C, potassium, and the serotonergic amino acid tryptophan, and is a good source of carbohydrates, proteins, and fats. It is recommended as a good source of raw fats by several raw food advocates, while others classify it as a high-glycemic or high-fat food, recommending to minimise its consumption.

In Malaysia, a decoction of the leaves and roots used to be prescribed as an antipyretic. The leaf juice is applied on the head of a fever patient. The most complete description of the medicinal use of the durian as remedies for fevers is a Malay prescription, collected by Burkill and Haniff in 1930. It instructs the reader to boil the roots of Hibiscus rosa-sinensis with the roots of Durio zibethinus, Nephelium longan, Nephelium mutabile and Artocarpus integrifolia, and drink the decoction or use it as a poultice.

In the 1920s, Durian Fruit Products, Inc., of New York City launched a product called “Dur-India” as a health food supplement, selling at US$9 for a dozen bottles, each containing 63 tablets. The tablets allegedly contained durian and a species of the genus Allium from India and vitamin E. The company promoted the supplement saying that it provides “more concentrated healthful energy in food form than any other product the world affords”.

Durian Nutritional value per 100 g (3.5 oz)
Energy – 615 kJ (147 kcal)
Carbohydrates – 27.09 g
Dietary fiber – 3.8 g
Fat – 5.33 g
Protein – 1.47 g
Water – 65g
Vitamin C – 19.7 mg (33%)
Potassium – 436 mg (9%)

What we know as the vegetable beetroot is a beet (Binomial name : Beta vulgaris) variety with a edible red color tuber. Betalain pigments present in the cell vacuoles of beetroot are responsible for this distinctive red color.

Beetroots are said to be rich in betaine, a nutriant good for cardiovascular health. Betaine help reduce the homocysteine concentration which is harmful to blood vessels which can cause heart strokes and diseases.

Beetroots are also rich in ‘boron’, an element helping in the production process of certain human sex hormones.

Several studies have shown the ability of beetroot juice to increase your stamina, enabling people to exercise for longer periods of time. The nitrates contain in beetroot is the reason for this. The amount of oxygen burned by the body when exercising is reduced by nitrate turning into nitric-oxide, making exercise less tiring.

Nutritional value of Beetroot
Nutritional value per 100 g (3.5 oz)

• Energy - 180 kJ (43 kcal)
• Carbohydrates - 9.56 g
• Sugars - 6.76 g
• Dietary fiber - 2.8 g
• Fat - 0.17 g
• Protein - 1.61 g
• Vitamin A equiv – 0. 2 μg
• Thiamine (Vit. B1)  - 0.031 mg
• Riboflavin (Vit. B2)  - 0.04 mg
• Niacin (Vit. B3)  - 0.334 mg
• Pantothenic acid (B5)  - 0.155 mg
• Vitamin B6 - 0.067 mg
• Folate (Vit. B9) 109 μg
• Vitamin C 4.9 mg
• Calcium 16 mg
• Iron .80 mg
• Magnesium 23 mg
• Phosphorus 40 mg
• Potassium 325 mg (7%)
• Zinc .35 mg (3%)

Nutritional Properties Of Grapefruit
Grapefruit is an excellent source of many nutrients and phytochemicals that contribute to a healthy diet. Grapefruit is a good source of vitamin C, pectin fiber, and the pink and red hues contain the beneficial antioxidant lycopene. Studies have shown grapefruit helps lower cholesterol and there is evidence that the seeds have high levels of antioxidant properties. Grapefruit forms a core part of the “grapefruit diet”, the theory being that the fruit’s low glycemic index is able to help the body’s metabolism burn fat.

Nutritional value per 100 g (3.5 oz)
Energy 138 kJ (33 kcal)
Carbohydrates 8.41 g
Sugars 7.31 g
Dietary fiber 1.1 g
Fat 0.10 g
Protein 0.69 g
Water 90.48 g
Thiamine (Vit. B1) 0.037 mg (3%)
Riboflavin (Vit. B2) 0.020 mg (1%)
Niacin (Vit. B3) 0.269 mg (2%)
Pantothenic acid (B5) 0.283 mg (6%)
Vitamin B6 0.043 mg (3%)
Folate (Vit. B9) 10 μg (3%)
Vitamin C 33.3 mg (56%)
Calcium 12 mg (1%)
Iron 0.06 mg (0%)
Magnesium 9 mg (2%)
Phosphorus 8 mg (1%)
Potassium 148 mg (3%)
Zinc 0.07 mg (1%)
Manganese 0.013 mg

Low Fat Black Bean and Cabbage Stew Recipe
(makes 6 servings)

Ingredients:

*2 tablespoons olive oil
*1 large onion, chopped
*1 leek, chopped
*3 garlic cloves, minced
*1 tablespoon paprika
*2 tablespoons chopped fresh marjoram or thyme
*1 1/4 lbs. potatoes, coarsely chopped
*14 oz. can black beans
*3 1/2 cups low-sodium vegetable stock
*6 oz. cabbage or scallions, shredded

How to make :

1. Heat oil in a large saucepan. Add onion and leek and sauté for 3 minutes. Add garlic and paprika and continue to sauté for 2 minutes.

2. Add marjoram or thyme, potatoes, beans, vegetable stock* and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer for 10 minutes or until potatoes are cooked through.

3. Add cabbage or scallions and season to taste with salt and pepper.

4. Simmer for 5 minutes.