To achieve and maintain good health, educate yourself about nutrition fact labels and use them regularly when shopping. They provide valuable information that will help you make wise food choices. When guessing and estimating just aren’t getting the job done, let the facts speak for themselves. Arm yourselves with the valuable information you need to stay on track and make good health a priority in your home.

The most essential piece of information offered by the nutrition fact label is the serving size and the number of servings per container. Everything else on the food label depends on this information being accurate. Looks can be deceiving! Always look to see how much you are consuming.

Another essential piece of information found on your label is the total calories and the number of calories from fat. In order to reach and maintain your ideal weight, you must expend more calories than you consume. A calorie is a unit of measure that tells you how much energy is provided per serving of that food. If your package provides two servings, and you eat both, you must double the information.

Nutrition numbers are the next piece of information provided. These include total fat, saturated fat, trans fat, total carbohydrates, fiber, sugars, protein, cholesterol, and sodium. Sometimes you will see monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats as well. Even though manufacturers are not required to do so, many also include potassium, vitamins, and minerals on their labels.

The food label is designed to make it easy to understand. Notice that the first several nutrients are the ones that you want to limit in your diet. Eating too much of these may increase your risk of heart disease, high blood pressure, and certain cancers. So go easy on foods high in fats, cholesterol, and sodium. Get plenty of the nutrients listed next. Fiber, vitamin A, vitamin C, calcium, and iron can all help improve your general health and reduce the risk of some conditions.

Some Nutrition Fact Labels list a footnote at the bottom of each label. Some footnotes are complete and some are not, depending on the size of the label. The footnote simply lists, based on the 2,000-calorie diet, the recommended dietary amounts for all Americans. This information is standard and does not change from label to label.

The Percent Daily Value, or %DV, makes it very easy for us to make sure we consume 100% of our total nutrients. This percentage computes how much of each nutrient one serving provides. You don’t have to eat 2,000 calories each day to benefit from this calculation.

You will notice that trans fat, protein, and sugars do not have %DV. Research links trans fat to high LDL cholesterol levels and should be avoided! %DV only has to be listed for protein if the product claims to be “high in protein” or if the product is for children under the age of four, and there is no daily recommended amount for sugar. Keep in mind that sugar has many synonyms, such as sucrose, fructose, maltose, lactose, honey, syrup, corn syrup, high-fructose corn syrup, molasses, or fruit juice.

If used correctly, nutrition fact labels are an extremely valuable resource, but unfortunately, they are not always available. For those times when you don’t have the option of using a nutrition fact label, equip your kitchen with an Eat Smart Nutrition Scale. This impressive food scale instantly calculates and displays key nutrients for specific portions of 999 foods! It serves as a “food guidance system” as you work to achieve a healthy lifestyle.

Soup is one of the great all-season foods. People love the many tastes and textures soup offers, and lest we forget, there’s also the classic comfort factor. Not just for winter, soup is actually favored year round. And your thick, hearty soups are a meal all alone. If you don’t feel like hot soup, why not try nice chilled fruit soup instead. Here is some soup basics to get you started on your way to making your next homemade soup.

Soups can be separated into a few categories; beginning with those made with a stock base and those that can be made without stock. Additionally there is the option of fruit soups. Soups made with stock include broth, bouillon, and consomm?. Soups that may be made without stock can include puree, cream, bisque, and chowders.

You can make soup stock from every kind of meat including beef, turkey, lamb, chicken, veal, fish, etc. Using dark-colored meats will produce brown stock while white soup stock is made from light-colored meats. Vegetables commonly added to soup stock include onion, celery, and carrots. Soups in this category include beef vegetable, chicken soups, tomato soups, cabbage soups, and broth’s.

If you’re making a rich thick puree or cream type soup you’ll find they can be a perfect main course for a light dinner or afternoon luncheon. Create such classics as creamed corn or creamed broccoli, split pea, oyster or lobster bisque, bean or potato puree, clam chowder, and much more.

If you’d like great fruit soup, consider such refreshing favorites as chilled cantaloupe, cherry soup, honeydew melon, peach, or strawberry cream. These delicious soups are wonderful anytime, but especially on a hot sultry day. Some fruit soups use fruit juice as a base, while others call for a vegetable stock base. It’s also a great vegetarian meal.

There’s nothing like well-made, scrumptious, homemade soup to make any meal complete. Remember to top your creamy soups with a simple garnish for that finishing touch. Serve soups like bean or onion in a covered soup dish, while your cream soups are best served in a round, flat soup bowl. Don’t be surprised if everyone asks for seconds.

Many people object to the common practice of cooking a live lobster by plunging it into boiling water. Those with tender hearts and animal rights philosophies are concerned about the pain the animal experiences and advocate more humane ways of creating lobster dinners.

Scientists have searched for information regarding the amount of pain a lobster is capable of feeling. Lobster lovers everywhere may be surprised at what they found.

A lobster has a very simple brain that consists primarily of a group of nerve endings. The whole brain is about the same size as a grasshopper’s which gives you an idea of how small it is. Since the lobster’s brain is so lacking in complexity, it is obvious that he’s incapable of doing any deep thinking.

Because of this lack, it is also extremely doubtful that a lobster is able to feel pain the way people do. Based on these findings, the practice of cooking live lobsters continues. Three common methods of cooking a live lobster are by steaming, boiling, or grilling.

The method used to steam a lobster starts with putting two inches of seawater or any salted water into the bottom of a four to five gallon pot. This is the ideal configuration for cooking six to eight pounds of lobster. Put a steaming rack into the cold water, and turn the heat on high until the water reaches a rolling boil. Add the lobsters one at a time, put the lid on the pot, and start your timer. It takes about 10 minutes to cook one pound of lobster. A pot of six to eight pounds of lobster will take about an hour to cook. During the cooking time, rearrange the lobsters once.

For every 1 to 2 pounds of lobster you want to boil, add three quarts of water to your large pot. Calculate the total number of gallons of water in the pot, and add one quarter cup of salt for each gallon. Heat the water to a rolling boil and add the lobsters one at a time. It will take about 8 minutes to boil one pound of lobster. Six to eight pounds will take 50 minutes to an hour. Halfway through the cooking time, stir the lobsters.

Before grilling lobsters, you have to parboil them. Use the same procedure you use when boiling lobsters, but only boil them for five minutes. Remove the lobsters immediately and plunge them into cold water to stop the cooking process, and then drain them thoroughly. On a cutting board, lay a lobster on its back. Split it down the center with a sharp knife and remove both the black vein in the tail and the sand sac near the head. Use butter or oil to baste the lobsters before placing them flesh-side down on the grill for five to six minutes. Turn them over, re-baste, and finish cooking another four or five minutes.

There are still people who shy away from lobsters that are cooked live, but most have come to accept the fact that the lobsters do not suffer. Cooking a live lobster is the way to experience the freshest lobster meat available. Not only can you purchase live lobsters at restaurants and supermarkets, there are also many wonderful online seafood shops that promise the very freshest lobster delivered to your door overnight.