Igor's Journal

A New Channel for Calorie Count
Sep 22 2009 06:00

"Could a soda tax help curb obesity?" President Obama has said it's worth considering, and others are weighing in....

This is today's trending topic on our new Facebook Fan Page, which we have recently revamped, and which has already attracted more than 1,500 of our most active members - check out what everyone is saying today about the "soda tax." We will be also using our Fan Page to launch contests with prizes, conduct surveys about new tools and functionality, and to share braking news and updates. In short, Facebook is becoming a whole new outlet for Calorie Count, and we would like to invite you to test it and tell us how you like it.

You might have also recently noticed an invitation on your My Account page to connect your Calorie Count and Facebook accounts. This allows you to find your Facebook friends who are using our site and to share journals, recipes and other content with your friends on Facebook. In other words, it combines the best of both worlds - it lets you talk about your new healthy lifestyle with your friends and family just like our Facebook Fan Page does, but it also lets you do it from within Calorie Count where you can enjoy all of our tools and features. Click here to learn more about it, or get started today.

I also wanted to mention that while we do think that our Facebook features can get you additional support and could prove important to your weight loss journey, we also understand that for many of our users losing weight is a very private matter, and we will always make sure that you can share as much or as little as you'd like with others.

Cubicle Cuisine Test: KIND Fruit & Nut Bar
Jun 09 2009 14:00

After our last Cubicle Cuisine test illustrated the importance of checking the nutrition facts label and the list of ingredients, this week I'll try to find a snack bar that not only tastes good, but is also healthy as well. Luckily, I didn't have to search for long; the very first bar I picked up in our local grocery store got me very interested - the Almond & Coconut KIND Fruit & Nut Bar.

First things first – the bar's nutrition facts label lists the following top four ingredients: almonds, honey, shredded coconut, coconut chips. As you can tell, this is a vast improvement over our previously tested product, which listed the following top four ingredients: high fructose corn syrup, corn syrup, glycerin, sugar. On the negative side, the KIND bars have more calories per unit weight than most other bars (190 calories in 40 grams), and they also come with 14 grams of total fat. These bars are also not fortified with vitamins, which is a trick that many other manufacturers use to artificially boost the Nutrition Grade of their products. This all leads to a relatively low Nutrition Grade of B-, but I would still choose this bar with all the natural ingredients over most other bars with artificial flavors and fortified vitamins.

The second part of the test was to evaluate the taste, and since this is obviously a very subjective task, I asked a fellow About.com colleague to test the bar as well and answer our standard food review questions:

***

1) Describe the taste

Immediate coconut taste that tempers as you munch. I love coconut, though, so this was right up my alley. But if you’re not a lover, this may not be your favorite flavor. Finishes with a nice nutty flavor. Almost like a Girl Scout Caramel Delight cookie, but without the chocolate. You can really appreciate the whole ingredients here. Sweet, but not super sweet, and a little salty – just the right amount to satisfy.

(2) Describe the texture

Nutty and “bumpy!” The honey really makes it a really tacky chew. Your jaw will get a workout.

(3) What did you like about it?

The flavor really did it for me. Nothing fake tasting here. Really fresh.

(4) What did you not like about it?

Felt like I had to run and brush my teeth after I was done! They should attach some floss to the packaging :)

(5) Did it satisfy your snack craving or did you want something else as well?

No, this did the trick for my afternoon pang. Calories (190) were fine, but I really wish this had had fewer grams of fat (has 14g). Would likely only reach for it for a “treat.”

(6) How does this food compare to similar and competing products?

Again, I like that they let the natural flavors shine.

***

Since my About.com friend was so overwhelmingly kind to the KIND bar, I felt compelled to verify her comments with some additional sources. A quick look on Amazon reveals that almost all 19 reviews were positive. Here are some of the soundbites:

"Move over Almond Joy and Snickers!"
"Small slice of heaven"
"Best energy bars on the market!"

There were, however, also some words of caution; it appears that the lack of preservatives in this product also makes it more susceptible to aging, and some reviewers complained that their bars had a very hard texture and were difficult to chew (probably related to the aging factor). My advice would be to buy these bars from a busy store with a sufficiently quick turnaround of inventory.

Overall, the KIND bar seems to have the best of both worlds – it’s a delicious product, and it features some of the best ingredients available in snack bars.

Question for you:
Have you ever tried the KIND bar? Do you like it as much as I do?

Nutrition Facts:

Follow-Up:

As always, your comments greatly contributed to the overall review. Here are some points that have been raised so far (first 20 comments) that I wanted to highlight:

- KIND bars are gluten free
- These bars come in many different flavors, so if you're not a coconut or almonds fan, check out some of their other bars.
- Relatively speaking, this food is not low in calories and fat (but that doesn't mean that it can't be a part of a balanced diet).

Fixes and Updates
May 19 2009 08:12

I just wanted to point out some of the changes we have made recently which you may not know about:

- Weight Gain Diets - can be determined with the calorie target tool and set as an account option on signup or in settings

- Pediatric BMI limits using the CDC boys/girls classifications (ages 2-20).  The BMI tool uses these automatically for users under 20 and it is also used to make better healthy weight recommendations on signup. 

- Clarified the body frame types, replacing the previous fingers-around-wrist method with classifications based upon tape measurements

- Improved ideal weight calculations (on signup) based upon body frame

Cubicle Cuisine Test: Nutri-Grain Cereal Bars
May 19 2009 12:00

Do you ever snack at work? If you do, you’ll love this new series of articles called the Cubicle Cuisine. I will every now and then pick up a couple of pieces of a popular snack or lunch item, share them with my fellow colleagues at About.com, and compare my impression with theirs. I hope that we’ll help you discover some healthy new food options, and make you rethink all the others. This week we tested… Kellogg’s Nutri-Grain Cereal Bars.

This snack bar has the word cereal in its name, but unlike the products with the same name that are sold in Australia and New Zealand, the US version is not made of bonded breakfast cereal. Instead, it has a soft baked crust, which Kellogg’s claims is made of whole grains, and the filling comes with real fruit. To top it off, these bars have “Nutri” in their name, and the package proudly wears a Whole Grain Council stamp. Surely, this must be a great product, right?

After I announced my plans to my colleagues, I quickly found three volunteers who wanted to help me with testing. So we needed four of those bars, but our local grocery store only sells them in a pack of eight, which, as far as I can tell, is the only package these snack bars come in. Not a problem – at $4.79 for the entire package, this investment is hardly a difficult one from a financial point of view, but I do worry that buying in bulk leads to over-consumption, as I mentioned here earlier. If you can’t trust yourself, you may want to stick with single-bar products, like the Odwalla or the KIND bars.

Here are some of the questions that I asked my testers, and their combined answers:

(1) Describe the taste

Sweet, but not toothache-inducing like cotton candy. About halfway through eating the bar, I could taste a hint of berry flavor. Otherwise, the filling tasted like sugar. It was pleasant, actually, but don’t buy this bar expecting to taste mixed berries.

(2) Describe the texture

Somewhat moist - the filling really helped out here. I’ve had so-called health bars before, and they can tend to be like sponges in my mouth. This bar was not like that, but it wasn’t as moist as, say, a candy bar.

(3) What did you like about it?

Despite my gripes about the non-berry flavor, I liked the flavor of the bar. This is the perfect snack for me when I’m between meals but need something small to keep me going.

(4) What did you not like about it?

I would have liked to taste a fresh, berry flavor, but that’s kind of tough to do with mass-produced products.

(5) Did it satisfy your snack craving or did you want something else as well?

This definitely satisfied my craving and held me off until my next meal. I think I actually might stock up on these and keep them at my desk.

(6). How does this food compare to similar and competing products?

It’s quite tasty. Other healthy bars can be chalky, dry, and flavorless. This one is chewy, perfectly sized, and pretty flavorful. The Nutri-Grain would win in a first round knock-out against the Nature Valley Granola Bar.

Overall, the testers gave the Nutri-Grain bar quite a positive review. This is certainly not quite undeserved, but I also suspect that my colleagues didn’t want to look a gift horse in the mouth – after all, the food was free and it hit the sweet spot just at the right time in the mid-afternoon.

So let’s put our detective hat on and look at the nutrition facts label – the first ingredients listed there are: high fructose corn syrup, corn syrup, glycerin, sugar… In other words, sugar, sugar, and some more sugar. And if you are hoping to find a ton of fiber and protein in those bars, you’ll be disappointed as well – 2 grams of each is all you get. To put this in perspective, this is more than Nature Valley Granola Bars, but less than Clif Bars, Kashi Go Lean, Power Bar Harvest, and Odwalla Bars.

In summary, the taste is top but the nutrition is flop. There’s no reason to feel bad about having one of these bars, and they are certainly better than many alternatives such as bagels and other mainstream food. That said, if you’re going to buy a snack bar, you might as well get one that will actually do something good rather than just prevent you from doing something bad. Or, as Kellogg’s puts it on their own Nutri-Grain packaging, "One Good Decision Can Lead to Another."

Question for you:
Am I being too tough on this bar? Have you tried it, and how do you like it?

Nutrition Facts:

Follow-Up:

At the time of this writing (95 comments), there are 13 positive Nutri-Grain reviews in the comments section, 10 comments that recognize that there is at least something good about this product, and 46 strictly negative comments. This reaffirms my recommendation to go for other snack bars with more fiber and protein, and less sugar.

The Psychology of Packaging
May 12 2009 12:00

If you ever wondered how food manufacturers choose colors and iconography for their packaging, I recommend reading "Your Independent Guide to Packaging" by Michael Russell - you may learn a thing or two about yourself by just having a look inside your food cabinet.

Michael makes a point that the iconography used on cereal boxes is a strong indicator of the target audience for that product; brands aimed at children use characters such as Tony The Tiger, The Trix Rabbit and Cap’n Crunch, whereas cereals aimed at adults looking for good nutrition are more likely to feature athletes or an elderly couple. Wheaties is one of the well-known brands that has a long history of association with sports. Here's an interesting historical overview of characters used on various cereal packages.

This sparked my interest and I started searching for more information about the psychology of packaging. According to the magazine aptly titled Package Design Magazine, dish soap bottles use psychological triggers to stimulate purchases. For example, the high-waisted, slim-hipped, frontal female form embedded in the Palmolive dish soap bottle is designed to provide a physical reference to the body of the most likely buyer.

None of this is news to any of us, and we've always known we are being manipulated the moment we step into the grocery store. What surprised me, however, was to witness the power that our instincts have over our minds. I was recently talking to a neighbor about a plainly packaged brand of macrobiotic Thai Chicken that's available in a nearby supermarket. He is normally a very healthy eater, and I was surprised to hear that he had never tried it just because he was turned off by the packaging.  According to him, there was just something wrong with the way that food was presented, and he thought it reflected poorly on the manufacturer. After I assured him that the food is delicious, he tried it and loved it.

Bees choose their flowers based on color, don't they? Then it shouldn't surprise us that we have an internal instinct for food packaging as well, but we should be careful not to let that instinct be used against our rationale.

Are there any products that you think you might be buying at least partially based on packaging?

Is There a Root Cause to Weight Gain?
May 05 2009 11:00

Some people gain weight slowly and gradually over a long period of time, and others experience more sudden changes in weight, sometimes even within just one year. In the latter case, the weight gain is frequently a symptom of something else that's going on in those people's lives that needs to change.

The root causes of weight gain are not always negative. For example, many college students gain 15 pounds in their first year in college, and successful entrepreneurs also find themselves gaining weight when their businesses take off and this ends up consuming all of their time and attention. Those people just need some time to find balance in their lives again, and their weight usually comes off very easily.

However, some root causes are less positive, and that's the focus of this article written by Bob Greene. Bob asserts that many people are affected by bad relationships, unfulfilling careers, and other factors that affect their happiness, and that those root causes need to be addressed as a part of their weight loss efforts. While he acknowledges that weight loss can be achieved by simply eating less and exercising more, he stresses that without resolving the root cause of overeating, long-term success will be unlikely.

I think that Bob Greene makes some valid points, but I am not sure if emotional eating is the only cause of weight gain. For example, many of our members profiled in the Success Stories section didn't seem to have to turn their personal lives upside down in order to start losing weight - for some people, eating less and exercising more is all it takes.

What do you think - is weight gain just a symptom, or are we overcomplicating the matter?

Slow Down to Accelerate Your Weight Loss
Apr 28 2009 13:11

I came across an interesting article on metabolism, which I will summarize here and add a few of my own thoughts to it.

As we are getting older, many of us are noticing that our lives are not getting any simpler. There are more things to take care of, and we don't get as much sleep and rest time as we used to. Shouldn't that mean that all this stress-related activity is also helping us burn more calories and allowing us to eat more?

We all know the answer to this question, for better or worse. It turns out that one and the same activity can have a different effect on your weight loss depending on how you spend the rest of your day.

The reason for this lies in the two nervous systems involved in metabolism: the sympathetic nervous system, known as "fight or flight," and the parasympathetic, known as "rest and digest." The sympathetic inhibts digestion and allows the body to focus all of its energy on the task at hand. It was meant to help us run away from dangerous animals and fight for our lives. In contrast, the parasympathetic nervous system directs blood to the digestive tract and makes sure food is actively digested.

While we are no longer running away from tigers and crocodiles, we do spend a disproportionate amount of time rushing, worrying, or just simply motivating ourselves to be productive at home, work, or elsewhere. Our predecessors were not half as productive as we are today. And neither are our children. Can you see the link there?

It's important to use the sympathetic nervous system to get your heart rate up and perform the hard work required to burn a decent amount of calories. However, it is the parasympathetic system that is required to restore the balance in your body, and allow it to burn your fat reserves rather than other more accessible forms of energy.

Metabolism is a complex subject and I don’t want to oversimplify it with a few brief points. I heartily recommend this article for a more thorough discussion on hormones, enzymes and fuel used in different metabolic states. However, if there is one thing that can be recommended to everyone is to get as much sleep as you can (see Mary's discussion on this topic), and to look for ways to slow down your life after high-intensity periods of time.

Why Are Our Family Members So Unsupportive?
Apr 14 2009 11:00

Losing weight is hard enough, but it can be a whole lot harder if done in an unsupportive environment. Family dinners, for example, can prove to be tricky when other participants don't share the same nutrition goals.

Whenever I visit my family, I always gain a few pounds which really doesn't surprise me at all - I not only get pressured to taste everything, but people also get offended if I don't eat enough of everything. Needless to say, those dinners are very tasty, but also much richer than anything that I usually eat.

I've always wondered why the people that I love the most and who support me in everything else in my life happen to be so unsupportive when it comes to weight loss? Here are a couple of thoughts that come to my mind:

• Fear of malnutrition: my family loves me so unconditionally, that they really don't care what I look like. They would rather have me look plumb than worry about me getting sick.
  
  
• Tradition: back in the old days, people use to be more physically active and their diets required rich meals. Many of my family's recipes are quite old and reflect that old lifestyle than doesn't apply to my life any longer.
  
  
• Avoidance of hunger: in many parts of the world, food is not as abundant as it is in our society, and this also used to be the case even in the western countries not so long ago. Many of our older family members remember those times and hate to see food go to waste.

Those are all very understandable points, and once I became aware of them, I felt much better about all the peer pressure that I keep getting during my visits. So what I will simply do in the future is make my cheat days coincide with times when I get to see my family, and this will make those dinners even more enjoyable.

Does anyone else experience peer pressure at family gatherings? How do you deal with it?

Why Can't We Resist?
Apr 07 2009 11:00

Let me introduce a new concept to you: "If you bought it, you'll eat it!" I just learned this lesson the hard way after getting a gigantic sandwich from the local grocery store. My plan was to eat only half of it, and to save the other half for someone else - but as you could have guessed, that's not how it worked out...

There is a disconnect between our good intentions at the time of purchase of foods, and the time when we are eating them. This really shouldn't come as a surprise, since we see this behavior in many other life situations. Look at shopping, for example - don't we usually spend more than we plan to? Spontaneous purchases account for a large part of many retailors' revenues, and merchants put a lot of effort in luring you into their premises. Once you're in the store, chances are you'll spend money if you find something really cute.

Lesson learned? If you're trying to save money, don't walk into the stores - not even to just "look around." Making the decision to keep your fingers away from your wallet will be much easier while you're still on the street than once you enter the store and are staring at the object of your dreams.

Well, it's the same with food. Many of us count calories at the end of the day, but it really should be the first thing you do in the process of purchasing, preparing, and eating food. Be realistic and accept that if you end up with something unhealthy close to your fingertips, it'll be hard to resist it.

One of my friends at work told me that he doesn't use credit cards and never leaves the house with more than $20 in cash. As an analogous strategy, how about making a commitment never to buy more than a certain amount of unhealthy calories in a day?