How many slices of bread should one serve?
In the US, at least, the recommended “serving” size is relatively small for almost all food products, mainly because it is assumed that one meal is going to consist of multiple things, each of which is going to have one serving.For instance, a traditional diner breakfast — two eggs, a side of meat, toast, coffee — will have 1 serving of meat, 2 servings/slices of toast, 2 servings of eggs, or 5 generic “servings” all together.Whether or not 1 slice is going to be “good enough” depends on the rest of your diet. I tend to eat a small breakfast, and I get 1–2 slice-equivalent on average. I’m also not trying to lose weight, and I make up for a small breakfast with a large dinner. I have, at times, completely cut out my bread intake entirely, and then had 0 slices for breakfast.The recommendation in the US currently is about 6 ounce-equivalents of grains, about 6 slices of breads-worth, per day. This also includes the rice you have with dinner, not just toast for breakfast.
Do you go by the serving sizes listed?
no. Serving size is just a measurement of product they give the nutritional facts for. A portion is the amount you eat. It would be nice if they'd just tell you what the nutrition facts are for the whole package, and you could just do your own math... say you eat half a package, then just divide all the nutrition amounts by 2. If that was just normal foods that would be ok, but like say you buy a 5 oz. bottle of cooking oil, it says 1 tablespoon (1/2 oz) is a serving, but you may be using 4 tablespoons for a recipe, it doesn't mean that item you're cooking should be for 4 people, it's just their way of giving you a measurement for the fat, calories, vitamins, etc. it's confusing because recipes say "serves 4" -- if they truly mean 4 people, than to follow suit, they should say "makes 4 portions" this might help you... http://www.healthylessons.com/2009/05/02...
What determines a serving size?
Other than the package nutrition label - Is there a formula companies and the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) uses to determine serving sizes? Is it the amount of fat, carbs, protein, salt, sugar or what? I read on a 12 ounce can of Pepsi that a serving size was 1 can (12 ounces) but on a 20 ounce bottle of Pepsi it said 2 and 1/2 serving (8 ounces per serving), So what determines a serving size?
Is drinking flavored waters such as propel fitness water a good substitute for regular water?
Its totally fine. It's a myth that even coffee dehydrates us. In reality, we get more liquid from the coffee than we loose by taking in the caffiene. Even alcohol can go towards out daily intake of liquid. It is liquid that is important, it doesn't just have to be water. The popular guidline of drinking 2 litres of water a day was created around the mid 1960s and the scientists who developed this guidline also included the moisture found in food, which with an average diet, means you only need to drink and extra half litre in drinks, this information was passed onto the general public with mistakes, leading the public to believe (and still believe) that we need to drink 2 litres a day. Studies in identical twins have shown that drinking an extra 2 litres or half litre show absolutely no difference in the quality of health and fitness. The best guidline is to listen to your body, if you feel thirsty, drink. If you drink too much you will begin to wash the potassium out of your bloodstream which can eventually lead to heart murmurs in later life, so if you do a lot of exercise and have to drink a lot, eat a banana or some other potassium rich food. The only liquid that can not count towards your daily intake of liquid is sea water, and I don't think you'll be drinking too much of that anyway.
How many calories in a pizza slice?
It varies a lot -- depends on how big (size of the pizza), what toppings, etc. There is no single answer. Here's some examples - range from 190 to 640 calories per slice. http://www.godfathers.com/wfdata/frame769-1027/GPI_Nutritional_Chartn.htm
How specifically is the "one beer equals seven slices of bread" statistic derived?
“One bottle of beer equals the kilojoule value of approximately seven slices of bread. Now if you drank a whole six-pack of beers, you would have polished off just over two loaves of bread.”I found that on this site: Weird facts about beerSo it’s not exactly about calories, but about available energy. There are so many different types of beer and bread that it’s probably impossible to derive an exact equivalence.There are obviously many ways to interpret this. If you go back to the ancient Egyptians, bread and beer were the way they paid their workers. The beer was much richer and more nutritious that a typical modern, bottled brew, and so was the bread, since it was made with whole grain flour and sourdough cultures. There are sourdough cultures from Egypt that have been kept alive for centuries. For a long time, from the middle ages up until the early 19th century, bakers would use barm, the yeast skimmed off the top of a batch of brewing beer, to raise their bread. so there was still a connection between beer and bread. Then, commercial yeast was developed, brewers changed the way they brewed beer so the barm now sank to the bottom of the tank, and the connection vanished.
A question about products to help gain weight?
Yes they do work. The key is your diet. Not just one meal here and there, but you need to have a system in place to gain weight, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. My suggestion to you is to follow my diet plan I will list below. It was originally formed to help people lose weight but all you need to do to make it a gaining diet is to substitute the protein shakes with weight gaining protein shakes (around 600-800 calories per serving) and double any carbs I have included (oatmeal, rice, potatoes, etc) Breakfast- 2-3 Eggs (2 yolks removed) , ½ cup oatmeal, 1 piece of fruit, a low fat yogurt (light and go fit) Snack 1- 20-25 gram Whey protein shake, 1 piece of whole grain toast with 1 tbsp peanut butter, ½ piece of fruit Lunch- Grilled Chicken over salad with 2 tsp low fat dressing, 1 serving vegetables other than salad Snack 2- 20-25 gram Whey protein shake, handful of nuts or trail mix, ½ piece of fruit Dinner- Meat of your choice with either a ½ potato or 1/3 cup of brown rice, 2 servings of vegetables Snack 3- 20-25 gram Whey protein shake, 6-10 whole grain crackers with peanut butter or thinly sliced cheese. The other things you need to focus on is how you lift. Make sure you do Back,Chest, and Legs all on separate days, make sure that you do low reps (4-8), high weight. Make sure you get plenty of rest before going back to a particular body part.
My doctors told me I must stop drinking fizzy drinks like cola to lose weight. I hate the diet drinks and some aren’t good for you anyway. What drinks do you recommend that aren’t as bad as cola, but tastes good?
Feels like a good question for me.So once upon a time I was a heavy sugar drinker like you are.Now I'm not.And this (although not this alone) made me lose about 10kg.And by the way, I also hate diet drinks, because I could taste a very strong bitterness in artificial sweetener.A few tips:Drink coffee to keep your mouth occupied. I mean REAL coffee, not those Starbucks stuff or something. Buy some really good beans and make your own coffee. Coffee beans have all kinds of different flavors, I'm sure you will eventually find one you like. And don't add sugar or milk, as that will defeat the purpose. Drink Americano/espresso if you have the equipment, or just manually brew it if you don't. BTW caffeine can increase your energy consumption so it is extra good for losing weight.Drink tea. I'm not a tea enthusiast, but there are also some very good leaves out there. Additionally, some expensive bottled tea found in the supermarket can also be pretty good. And also make sure they are sugarless.Don't drink juice. I don't know why some people think juice is for fitness, but in reality they are just as bad as coke, at least in terms of gaining weight.However, eating fruit itself can be a good idea to fulfill your sugar needs. But not all fruits. Some fruits, such as strawberries and oranges, have surprisingly low calorie but taste very sweet. And BTW they can be very filling.Some non-diet drinks taste very sweet but has very low calories. Check out the nutritional facts on the bottle. For me, I found some bottled Russian Kvass that fall into this category.Some diet drinks are indistinguishable from their sugary counterparts. You just have to try tasting and find them. For example, coca-cola fiber+ (now only available in Asia unfortunately).If you hate diet drinks, drink them during your meal, as your sense of taste will be occupied by the food, so you won't be able to tell if it is a diet drink.If you must drink sugary drink, force yourself to first “deposit” some physical exercise before buying the drink. Running for about 2km-3km (~1.5miles) would remove enough calories for a bottle of coke. (I usually apply this to beer, not coke, but they are equally hi-caloried, so it should be the same.)