When you are rushing through the supermarket trying to decide what meat to cook for dinner, do you really know what you are looking for? I’m sure you know what tastes great, or what you are comfortable cooking, but what about the health benefits? It is possible your habitual choices could be damaging your health and waistline. I have examined our most popular (and some less popular) meats, and you might find the results surprising!

And the winner is…

Kangaroo meat!!!  For the Aussie readers out there, we grew up watching ‘Skippy’, so now it can be hard to come to terms with eating him! Kangaroo meat has less calories and fat per serve than white fish yet as much iron as red meat and almost as much protein. Skippy really packs a punch in the nutrition stakes! Click here for a Bill Granger marinated kangaroo recipe. They say to treat it as you would beef, however I prefer stews, casseroles and marinades to plain steaks.

Second Place:

White fish. Also extremely low in fat and high in protein, white fish will provide you with some iron, minimal cholesterol and lots of healthy omega 3 fatty acids.

Third and fourth place:

Ostrich, closely followed by chicken breast. I’d like you to note on the chart the vast difference in nutritional value of chicken breasts without the skin versus a BBQ chicken. Don’t fool yourself into thinking that just because it’s chicken, that it’s good for you!

The Healthiest Meats (Best to Worst)

Read more…..

Tagged As: beef, chicken, cholesterol, diet, lamb, Meat, nutrition, pork, Weight gain, Weight loss

How many calories did you consume yesterday… no idea? You’re not alone. Many of us eat foods we think are smart choices, but they could be an energy dense calorie catch-out, contributing to weight gain. Avoid these calorie catch-outs and you might find your body shape changing faster than before!

Firstly do you even know what your daily caloric allowance is? A general guide for weight loss is 1200-1500cal/day for women and around 2000 cal/day for men. Determine your personal daily caloric intake for weight loss.

One common catch-out is coffee and tea. A couple of innocent coffee’s can end up costing you close to half your daily allowance!

Coffee shop coffee and tea
Here is a list of your favourite drinks, total calories and percentage of your daily allowance:

If you drink one coffee shop coffee per day from Starbucks or similar, you will be consuming close to ¼ of your daily allowance. If you have 2 coffees, there’s almost ½ your day gone! That’s a lot of calories for a little drink!

Solution

1. Drink no more than 1 coffee shop coffee/tea per day
2. Always take the skinny option
3. Never add syrups, whipped cream etc
4. Try herbal teas that don’t require milk
5. Drink more water
6. Order the smallest size

****Read about using a weekly eating scorecard

Tagged As: Calorie, Coffee, Cream, Drink, Food energy, Starbucks, Weight gain, Weight loss