2008 April 21.04.08 | Fitness and Freebies Blog

SAFETY RECALL

› KFC Double Chocolate Chip Cakes, distributed at KFC restaurants nationwide

Reason for recall: egg, wheat, soy, milk, and possibly tree nut ingredients not labeled

Hazardous Selenium Levels Found in Samples of Two Dietary Supplements

FDA has found hazardous levels of selenium in samples of certain flavors of the dietary supplement products “Total Body Formula” and “Total Body Mega Formula.” The agency has received 43 reports of persons from nine states who experienced serious adverse reactions using these products. Selenium, a naturally occurring mineral, is needed only in very small amounts for good health. Excessive intake of selenium is known to cause symptoms that include significant hair loss, muscle cramps, diarrhea, joint pain, fatigue, loss of fingernails and blistering skin.

http://www.fda.gov/bbs/topics/NEWS/2008/NEW01818.html

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April 21st, 2008 Posted by fitnfree | Health | one comment

Think Before You Drink

Make your beverages work harder for you instead of derailing your diet. It’s now a known fact that sweetened drinks are the only specific food directly linked to weight gain.

Here are some tips to help you make smarter choices:

Drink more water. Tap, bottled, or sparkling. Make it more appealing by adding a wedge of lemon or lime.
Buy one 100 percent fruit juice. Instead of flavored drinks with added sugar. But limit juices to one or two four-ounce servings a day (or dilute with water).
Switch to fat free or low fat milk instead of 2 percent or whole milk.
Don’t keep soft drinks in the house. And order water, unsweetened tea or low-fat milk when eating out. if you can’t “kick the can”, switch to diet soda and limit to one or two a day.
Do the math. Those ubiquitous 20 and 24-ounce bottles of soda are really two to three servings. If you drink at all, multiply the listed calories by two or three.
Don’t make calorie assumptions — even water isn’t always calorie free in these days of specialty water.
Order coffee drinks with fat free milk and skip the whip. Whipped cream adds 60 to 100 calories and 6 to 11 grams of fat, depending on the type and size of your drink.
Request sugar free syrup for coffee drinks. Or, ask for fewer pumps of regular syrup; you will save 20 calories and 1-1/4 teaspons of sugar per pump.
Watch out for frozen coffee drinks that are more like milk shakes. Instead, order “skinny lattes”.
Scale back your smoothie serving size
Drink alcohol in moderation