When eating out it’s important to study restaurant nutrition facts to limit your overall food intake. To help you stay in control when you sit down to a meal in a restaurant or café, here are some great nutritional tips.

Try to view the menu before you enter and select sensible options, with a view to reducing intake of saturated fat and sugar. A number of fast food restaurants have websites with nutritional facts available prior to purchase.
Eating a piece of fruit or drinking a glass of water prior to your meal can take the edge off your hunger and deters overeating.
Eat rough bread as an entree, avoiding butter and high fat dips.
Menu Selection

Plan your daily intake, considering total calories and balance your meals over a 24 hour period.
Limiting your meal to 1 or 2 courses can help to limit overall calorie intake. Selecting two starters instead of a starter and a main course is another option, or you could share a starter or dessert.
Choose a selection of vegetables without butter, sauces or fat laden dressings.
Select dishes which are steamed, braised, grilled or baked and avoid fried food.
Be cautious with cream sauces, pastries and meat dishes as they can be high in saturated fat.
Eating your meal

Eat slowly - allowing your stomach to register satiety.
Drink water with your meal and limit calorie rich alcohol or sodas.
Leave what you don’t want. You don’t have to finish everything.
Stop eating before you feel uncomfortable and bloated.
Whether dining in a restaurant or at home it’s important to consider the nutrition facts.

Researchers Conclude That a Healthy, Low-Calorie Diet Doesn’t Lead to Bone Loss

Cutting back on calories does not lead to bone loss, as long as you eat a well-balanced diet, according to a new study.

Researchers tracked bone loss and weight loss in 46 healthy overweight men and women on four different diet programs. The participants’ average age was 37.

The control group was told to eat a healthy diet. The second group was told to consume 25% fewer calories than they expended per day. Read more about diet control

Source: WebMD

Health experts have been using the same healthy eating guidelines for years; eat five portions of fruit and vegetables a day. Unfortunately analysis of diets on both sides of the Atlantic suggests many families fail to meet this target.

A recent study in the UK indicated that only 12 percent of families achieve the 5-a-day target, while the bottom 12 per cent fails to eat any at all. The national average for the UK is 2.5 portions a day, with wide variations between age and economic groups.

It is probably quite predictable that both those in the more affluent groups and the over 45s are far more likely to meet the target, while the less well off and children are missing this target and often fall into the bottom 12 percent category with no fruit and vegetables being consumed at all.

A study carried out in the US also produced similar findings, with some poorer inner-city families adding very little fruit and vegetables to their diet. This was attributed to cost on a calorie to dollar basis and also cited the lack of availability in some areas.

In place of fruit and vegetables, lower cost or bargain ranges of foodstuffs are consumed that are invariable high in saturated fat, sugar and refined carbohydrate. The two-fold effect being a poorer quality diet is eaten, high in calories, but lacking fiber, vitamins and minerals essential to good health.
If you are failing to meet the healthy eating guidelines, maybe now is the time to seek advice.