Text Message Nutrition to Go

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If you tuned in to the food news last week, you know that fatty food (notice I didn’t say fast food) is tied to more than heart problems. High fat food, and let’s get specific, high fat food where the fat comes from saturated and trans fat sources, clogs arteries and also affects the health of your liver. It’s basically a recipe for obesity and complications including type two diabetes.

Don’t get me wrong, fat is not totally bad for you. It’s how much and what type you eat that clogs your arteries and adds dimples to your backside. The reports last week focused on fast food for it has notoriously been high in the types of evil fat we just mentioned--saturated and trans. However, most fast food restaurants now offer healthy choices along with the traditional fare. Fast food takes a real beating but all types of restaurants can potentially serve up items made with unhealthy fat. Heck, the way you cook at home may add to your unhealthy fat intake if you buy fatty cuts of meat and high fat deli meats or processed foods such as many cakes and cookies that use hydrogenated fat.

Evil fats and healthy fats are everywhere and it puts the responsibility on you to be a detective and decide what you will and will not eat. Here’s a new tool to help you out. Diet.com recently launched Nutrition on the Go, a text-message service with access to the calorie, fat, protein and carbohydrate content of over 36,000 foods from 1700 restaurants in North America. You enter the restaurant name and menu item (don’t include the AND), then send the text to 34381. You receive a text back with the item name, calories, fat, carbs and protein. I did this for Panera’s frontega chicken sandwich and the text came back with:

Panera Bread Frontega Chicken
Cal: 870
Fat: 41g
Carb: 78g
Protein: 47g

Since I enjoy this sandwich, I have to decide if I’m better off to get ½ a sandwich with a salad or if I’m going to fit those calories into my day. I would need to eat very lean the rest of the day and work out since for my metabolism, 870 is almost half of my day’s calories. But, I’m empowered with the information and can make a choice if I want to and so can you. Check out their webpage at diet.com/mobile.