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Bagged salad: the best thing since sliced bread... Convenient, nutritious, flavorful - and scary?  Consumer Reports magazine published the details of their recent tests on packaged salad in their March 2010 issue.  Overall, Consumer Reports is concerned that pre-washed bagged salad is less than perfectly clean.

What is the one fitness goal you wish you could achieve? If you're like most people, you want six-pack abs. It seems easy; do hundreds of crunches a day and wait for your abs to magically appear. But, after a few months of that you might be wondering: where's my six-pack?

The last week of January reminds me of Chinese New Year (no, not the Chinese buffet or the Kung Pao chicken).  Rather, it takes me back to my nutrition counseling days when I would use the Chinese Finger Trap to demonstrate the futility of rigid dieting.

Living a healthy life is all about balance, which is the main premise behind my blog, Carrots 'N' Cake.  Eat your carrots and cake, too!

About 5 years ago, when I decided to lose weight, I knew that a strict diet wouldn't work for me. I needed to find a balance. My new way of "dieting" involved eating plenty of healthy foods that filled me up, but I allowed myself to indulge my sweet tooth so I wouldn’t feel deprived. I love sweet treats

Generally, when people begin to count calories, they try to improve the quality of their diets.  They attempt to “eat healthy”, which takes many forms.  Healthy eating might involve carrying a lunch, eating more vegetables, dumping soda, cooking more often, or many other possible actions.  Choose whatever action brings you joy and makes you feel proud. Give it your best shot to create a satisfying experience.  But, you might also want to know whether your diet is nutritious....

The official definition of a calorie is "...the amount of heat needed to raise the temperature of a liter of water 1 degree (DHHS)." But if that's a little too scientific for you, think of it this way...

A calorie isn't actually a tangible thing, it's a unit of measurement.

A calorie measures the energy in food and beverages we take in. We all need that energy to live. Everything we do relies on the energy that comes in the form of calories.

Each year over 44 percent of Americans make their New Year’s resolutions; the most popular being to lose weight.  And by February, most of these same goal setters have fallen off the wagon.  As we prepare to enter 2010, here are five guidelines for achieving your resolutions the right way.

On January 2, millions of people begin the annual ritual of New Year's Resolutions. Memberships at health clubs and diet programs soar in the following weeks. Sales of chocolate and alcohol decline, replaced by healthier food and drink. People take a long, hard look at their spending habits as they sort through the bills coming in January's mail. "Time for a new beginning" is the message promoted by news media....

Everyday, people ask, “How can I get motivated to stay on my diet?”   Motivation is the kick that pushes you off your old orbit.  But like all good things, motivation ends when the catalytic spark burns out.  And so, the question becomes, “How can I add fuel to my fire?”  The answer is this: Sustain motivation through acts of kindness.  By helping others, you become invigorated via the “Helper’s High.” Even hard-heartened Ebenezer Scrooge was saved by way of the “Helper’s High.”

100 trillion microbes may be conspiring to make you fat.  That’s the implication of a recent study on the relationship of gut bacteria to diet and obesity in mice.  It might be a long stretch from mice to men - or maybe not.

Be a pal to your friends who are trying to eat healthy because the tide doesn’t flow in their direction.  Come to their aid with stocking stuffers that make it easy to eat healthy food.  Stocking stuffers are thoughtful and playful, and the price is right.  They might even be the most used gifts.

Are your eyes really bigger than your stomach?

Apparently, yes. It seems that the larger the plate, bag or spoon, the more we eat. Researcher Brian Wansin, professor of marketing at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, and director of the Cornell Food and Brand Lab studies the psychology behind what people eat and how often they eat it. He and his associates have studied how visual perception of food affects how much we eat or drink.

The question is: What makes people stop eating? Is it the physical feeling of fullness or what our eyes perceive instead?

Thanksgiving and dieting do not usually go together.  Damage control is the order of the day.  But at Calorie Count, knowledge is power, and so let’s stop and look at typical Thanksgiving foods. Pick and choose from your favorites or make lighter versions of your recipes...

New meaning has been given to the words, “I hate my scale.”  Last week, the L.A. Times reported on the first bathroom scale equipped with a wireless connection to send your weight (and percent of body fat) directly to Twitter. Talk about airing dirty laundry in public - try telling the world wide web!  I am trying to imagine who would want to use such a thing.

Chances are you know someone who follows gluten-free diet (why else would supermarkets and restaurant chains point out the gluten-free foods?). Gluten-free diets are catching on at college campuses. Oprah Winfrey's "21-day cleanse" included gluten elimination. But should you be jumping on the gluten-free bandwagon?  Let’s sort out the science from the hype.