I just watched the Biggest Loser and they had Dave from Mens Fitness on. In a challenge tonight it was a better food choice type challenge The contestants were supposed to be choosing one food over the other.

Multigrain bagel with light cream cheese vs a McDonald’s style have and Egg McMuffin

OK, I like the Egg McMuffin lots. Thesy are yummy and greasy and not good for you and neither is the bagel. The Egg McMuffin was deemed to be better but man that is a lot fo calories

Burritos vs 18 light beers

We all know that burritos are not really good for you and they were apparently a better choice than 18 light beers but come on. The kicker was that 17 light beers would have been better. Would either of these be a healthy choice? Beer will slow you metabolism, the Burritos have protein but are really fatty.

Calories are not the only thing that matters for healthy eating. Watch the carbs, watch the fat!

Then to make things worse the trainers tip from Bob Harper was to eat Dark Chocolate. Again I love chocolate but isn’t it a bit irresponsible to be touting the wonders of dark chocolate a couple of days before Halloween?

I am still watching the show on the PVR right now but just had to comment on that.

Looking to make a change and lose some weight? I have reviewed the top diet on the internet and you can go and read over 200 comments people have made about why this diet has worked well for them, as well as some of the problems.

Those little Halloween candies looking at you from the bowl, little, bright colored and just jumping up with the sweet chocolate that you know that you love so much are very very evil. You know you want one, you yearn for one or two but as you try you just can not say no….or can you?

Halloween candy is some of the worst stuff that you can eat. It is small so you do not worry too much about the calories (even if you eat 20), it is high in saturated fat, and there is so much around at this time of year that it is hard to avoid. In fact it would be hard to find an office building anywhere in america that does not have a few bowls of Halloween candy lieing around on November 1st.

Here are the calories for some Halloween candies:

Nestle’s Crunch – Fun Size 3 bars=210 calories
Peanut M&M’s – Fun Pack 2 bags=80 calories
M&M’s – Fun Pack 2 bags=180 calories
Snicker’s – Fun Size 2 bars=160 calories
Milky Way – Fun Size 2 bars=150 calories
Kit Kat – Fun Size 2 bars=100 calories
Hershey Chocolate Bar – Fun Size 1 bar=90 calories/ 5grams of fat
Reese’s Cup – 1 cup=80 calories
Butterfinger – Fun Size 1 bar= 100 calories
Twix – Fun Size 1 bar= 80 calories
York Peppermint Pattie – 1 pattie=70 calories
Twizzlers – 1 treat size pkg= 45 calories
Almond Joy – 1 snack size bar = 90 calories
Milk Duds – 1 treat size box = 40 calories
Butterfinger – 1 snack size bar = 100 calories
Milky Way – 1 snack size bar = 90 calories
SweetTarts – 1 treat size pkg. = 50 calories
1 Tootsie Pop – 1 pop = 60 calories
1 Tootsie Roll – 1 small roll = 13 calories

Note: Calorie content is based on 1 serving of Halloween snack or fun size packages, not full size servings found in the candy aisle.

If you are not worried about all of these extra calories over the next week that is fine, but if you would like to avoid Halloween candy and the calories that they offer here is a few tips.

1. Change the way that you think about the little Halloween candy. Most of us will associate these candies with childhood and that carefree feeling, instead think of them as something that will raise your blood sugar and make you jumpy.

2. Eat properly so you can stay away from Halloween candy. If you keep yourself on track for eating then avoiding the Halloween candy is easier because you will not be hungry.

3. Only buy the Halloween candy that you do not like. What may be tough for someone to resist may not be too hard for you to resist.

4. Decide what you are willing to eat ahead of time. Look at the list above, there are some good decisions that you can make that will stop you from making this a weight gain holiday by eating the right Halloween candy. I am a big fan of Tootsie Rolls and those are apparently OK to eat.

5. Just stay away. there is some willpower involved in not eating the things that we are not supposed to eat. Have some willpower and you can stay away from treats, it is only a one week holiday anyway, right?

As just about everyone knows I have a bit of a sweet tooth and am very fortunate that my metabolism allows me to eat some chocolate (my wife says I deserve to be fat).

Anyway we had a bit of a scare this week when there was a recall and fears of salmonella poisoning involving many Hershey products made in Canada. I have grabbed a list that is here but also there is a number on the back that must be between 6417 to 6455 as I have stated below. I am no health official so if you have any real questions on this please call the number below.

A number of popular Hershey chocolate products and candies have been recalled because of fears of salmonella contamination at a Smiths Falls, Ont., plant. Hershey brand chocolate bars, chocolate chips, Oh Henry! bars, Reese Peanut Butter Cups, and Cherry Blossom candies are among the affected products. None of the recalled products were produced for Halloween or Christmas products.

There have been no reported illnesses associated with the products.

The recalled chocolate and candy can be identified by date codes found on the back of each package — the affected date codes range from 6417 to 6455. Consumers who have purchased the items in question should contact Hershey at 1-800-468-1714.

The affected products are:
HERSHEY CHIPITS Milk Chocolate Chips 270 gram
HERSHEY’S Creamy Milk Chocolate With Almonds 43 gram
HERSHEY’S Creamy Milk Chocolate 45 gram
HERSHEY CHIPITS Semi-Sweet 350 gram, Chocolate Chips 2 kg
HERSHEY CHIPITS Mini 300 gram, Chocolate Chips 10 kg, 175 gram, 500 gram
HERSHEY CHIPITS Chocolate Chip Bulk 10 kg
HERSHEY CHIPITS Semi-Sweet Mint Chocolate Chips 300 gram
HERSHEY Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips 300 gram
HERSHEY’S SPECIAL DARK Chocolate 45 gram
HERSHEY’S SPECIAL DARK Chocolate with Almonds 43 gram
HERSHEY Assorted 16 count 728 gram
HERSHEY Assorted 50 count 2.5 kg, Nut Roll 5 kg
HERSHEY Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips 10 kg
HERSHEY’S Chocolate Shell Topping 177 ml
OH HENRY! OH HENRY! 62.5 gram, 145 gram and 4 x 62.5 gram
OH HENRY! Bites 130 gram
OH HENRY! Peanut Butter 60 gram
REESE Peanut Butter Cups 51 gram, 68 gram, 4 x 51 gram
LOWNEY Cherry Blossom 45 gram
LOWNEY Bridge Mix 52 gram, 340 gram
GLOSETTE Peanuts 45 gram
GLOSETTE Almond 42 gram
GLOSETTE Raisin 50 gram, 145 gram
EAT-MORE Dark Toffee Peanut Chew 56 gram, 4 x 56 gram

Today being Halloween and with two little kids I thought I would just drop a bunch of links to health news for you to check out at your leisure.

A new sex study was released which found nothing new as far as I see although others may believe that it is more interesting than I think (I have no idea why I don’t write more about sex issues on this blog…should I?)

Here in Canada Kentucky Fried Chicken has announced that it will be cutting trans fats from their chicken. To bad that they are two years too late and that the yummy chicken is really more poison to your arteries than food.

A new strain of H5N1 otherwise known as bird flu has been found in china. Flu season is just about to get started so I guess we will see more of these kinds of stories and the whole health industry is holding it’s breath for bird flu to become a pandemic with so few people in the third world being protected against it.

And finally. I am a sucker for reading about the craziest diets and the Diet Blog today has an article about the OXO diet. You know what OXO is it is those little salty spice cubes for making soup. apparently one man found that they were a good meal replacement and he has lost weight with them. Of course this will work and is a very cheap meal replacement, but remember there are no nutrients in an OXO cube either

I have always been a sucker of the Halloween chocolate bars. In the past I have had all sorts of trouble staying away from them until finally my wife banned them from our house.

Here is another great article from the guys at Starling Fitness on how to stay away this year.
Read the rest of this entry »