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6 Worst Soups in America

Soup may be the ultimate comfort food. It’s warm, it’s nourishing, and you don’t even have to chew it. No wonder Mom made it whenever you were sad, cold, or just plain under the weather.


But here’s a dirty little secret: A lot of soups out there aren’t comfort food at all. They’re discomfort food. That’s because they can make for a lot of discomfort every time you step on the scale, test your blood pressure, or try to squeeze into last year’s swimsuit. Everybody likes a nice, rich broth, but some soups are the Donald Trumps of food: too rich, too thick, and ultimately, full of nonsense. (And like the Donald, some are pretty darn salty, too!)

So whether you’re watching your weight, your blood pressure, or just your general health, take a second look at what’s in your bowl. Here’s how to spot a bad bisque, quick!

6. WORST LEGUME-BASED SOUP

Amy’s Organic Soups, Indian Dal Curried Lentil (2 cups/1 can)


460 calories
16 g fat (2 g saturated)
1,360 mg sodium

Dal is a healthy staple throughout the Indian subcontinent, but in Amy’s version, these legumes are awash in fat. Each can contains more than a full tablespoon of vegetable oil, which contributes nearly a third of the total calories. Switch to Amy's Light in Sodium Split Pea, instead. It cuts calories and sodium by more than half and provides a hunger-crushing 12 grams of fiber.

Eat This Instead!


Amy's Light in Sodium Split Pea Soup (2 cups/1 can)

200 calories
0 g fat (0 g saturated)
660 mg sodium

5. WORST POTATO SOUP

Pacific Natural Foods Organic Rosemary Potato Chowder (2 cups/1 container)


460 calories
16 g fat (10 g saturated)
1,460 mg sodium

Pacific’s soup may be natural and organic, but with this much cream, it's certainly not light. With an escalated calorie count and half a day’s saturated fat, this chowder seems like it should be served from a fast food window. In fact, you'd take in fewer calories if you ate a McDonald’s 4-piece Chicken McNuggets with small fries.

with small fries.


Eat This Instead!

Pacific Natural Foods Organic Butternut Squash Bisque (2 cups/1 container)

220 calories
7 g fat (3 g saturated)
1,020 mg sodium

4. WORST SEAFOOD SOUP

TGI Friday’s New England Clam Chowder


500 calories
18 g saturated fat
1,560 mg sodium

When it comes to chowder, it's all about region: Manhattan-style relies on a tomato base, whereas New Englanders prefer a far fattier cream base. That detail makes all the difference, as evidenced here by Friday's 500-calorie chowder. Switch to Manhattan or, when at Friday's, this Chicken Noodle instead and you cut the saturated fat load by more than 80 percent!

Eat This Instead!


TGI Friday's Chicken Noodle

250 calories
3 g saturated fat
1,240 mg sodium

3. WORST CHOWDER

Au Bon Pain Corn Chowder (large)

510 calories
26 g fat (12 g saturated)
1,640 mg sodium

The other problem with chowders: They can be weighed down by high-calorie dairy ingredients. Milk and half and half sit atop this one's ingredient list, followed shortly thereafter by heavy cream and butter. The result is a bowl of soup that swallows up 60 percent of your saturated fat allowance for the entire day. Get your Tex-Mex fill for fewer than the half the calories by switching to the Southwest Vegetable Soup instead. Make a trade like this for lunch every day and you'll lose more than half a pound each week!


Eat This Instead!


Au Bon Pain Southwest Vegetable Soup (large)

250 calories
7 g fat (1 g saturated)
580 mg sodium

2. WORST VEGETABLE SOUP

Cosi Tomato Basil Aurora (large)


597 calories
54 g fat (33 g saturated, 3 g trans)
1,701 mg sodium

Tomato soup is one of the good guys, right? While typically this is true, a single bowl of Cosi's bisque will saddle you with more than 1.5 days' maximum allotment of saturated fat, not to mention a dangerous glut of trans fat. Here are a few foods than contain less saturated and trans fat: Burger King Triple Whopper, 13 Taco Bell Steak Nacho Cheese Chalupas, and an entire medium-sized pepperoni pizza from Domino's. Switch to the Moroccan Lentil Soup for less than half the calories and an impressive 15 grams of fiber. Cosi's soups tend to be on the salty side, though, so stick to a regular serving size to keep the sodium levels in check.

Eat This Instead!


Cosi Moroccan Lentil Soup (regular)

238 calories
4 g fat (0 g saturated)
1,225 mg sodium

1. WORST STEW

Panera All-Natural Sonoma Chicken Stew with Mini Dry Jack Biscuit


630 calories
34 g fat (20 g saturated, 1 g trans)
2,030 mg sodium

Panera’s chicken stew sinks to the bottom of this list thanks to its precipitous calorie count, a full day's saturated fat, and nearly a full day's worth of sodium. This stew fares poorly across every major nutritional category, which makes it the worst bowl in America. Switch to the Garden Vegetable Soup instead, which delivers three times the fiber with a mere fraction of the calories.

Eat This Instead!


Panera Low Fat Garden Vegetable with Pesto

150 calories
5 g fat (1 g saturated)
930 mg sodium

The 9 Best Winter Foods

One kiwi packs 100 mg of immunity-boosting vitamin C! Slice one up in a spinach salad. 9 Best Winter Fruits & Veggies:

Just because it's winter doesn't mean you should skip the produce aisle. For starters, the cold months are the perfect time to branch out to bolder fruits, and some of the best hit their peak just in time to snap your tastebuds out of their winter funk. "Many offer a great combination of sweet flavor and an acidic tang," says chef Theo Roe of the Culinary Institute of America. "They're refreshing and can provide a nice mental boost during long, cold winters.

But here's the catch: A healthy diet is made from more than just fruit. Canadian scientists recently compared the cancer-protective properties of 33 vegetables and found that the most powerful tumor fighters—brussels sprouts, leeks, beets, and kale—are often among the ones least likely to land on your plate. So I found the 5 fruits and 4 vegetables that you must eat this winter. If you find any of them hard to swallow, use my tips to unlock their flavor potential. And for a list of all-season farmer's markets in your area, check localharvest.org. Or just stay in bed and order online!

Best Winter Fruit #1

Pomegranate

Pomegranate seeds are high in polyphenols, plant chemicals that fight inflammation. Mix the seeds into oatmeal for more flavor and crunch.

Best Winter Vegetable #1

Brussels Sprouts

Remove the outer layer of leaves, trim the stems, and toss with olive oil and sea salt. Place them on a baking sheet and roast at 425 degree-F until they're nicely browned.

Best Winter Fruit #2

Persimmon

The antioxidants in persimmons can help control diabetes and the cell damage it causes. Serve the fruit with prosciutto and fresh mozzarella.

Best Winter Fruit #3

Kiwifruit

One kiwi contains about 100 milligrams of immunity-boosting vitamin C. Add kiwi slices to a spinach salad.

Best Winter Vegetable #3

Beets

Wrap one or two beets in foil and bake them in a 350 degree-F oven for an hour or until they're cooked through. Then cut them into cubes to toss into a salad of greens and crumbled goat cheese. Add a drizzle of walnut oil.

Best Winter Fruit #4

Guava

One cup of raw guava contains more than 8,500 micrograms of the antioxidant lycopene, which may help prevent coronary artery disease. Pair it with blue cheese and figs for a snack.

Best Winter Vegetable #4

Kale

To temper kale's bitter taste, gently sauté it with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, chopped garlic, and pine nuts.

Best Winter Fruit #5

Pomelo

Pomelos pack flavanones, a class of antioxidants that have been shown to help prevent the spread of cancerous cells. Include them in a topping for a dessert sorbet.

Thanks for reading!

Marty Ozaeta

Velocity Performance Training

www.VPTForAbs.com

www.VPTBootCamp.com

831.236.3423

VPTraining10@yahoo.com



20 Habits That Make You Fat

#1: Eating "low-fat"

It sounds crazy, but stop buying foods marketed as low-fat or fat-free. Typically, they save you only a few calories and, in doing so, they replace harmless fats with low-performing carbohydrates that digest quickly—causing a sugar rush and, immediately afterward, rebound hunger. Researchers from the University of Alabama at Birmingham found that meals that limited carbohydrates to 43 percent were more filling and had a milder effect on blood sugar than meals with 55 percent carbohydrates. That means you’ll store less body fat and be less likely to eat more later.

#2: Not seeking nutrition advice

Good news here: By reading this, you’re already forming habits that can help you shed pounds. When Canadian researchers sent diet and exercise advice to more than 1,000 people, they found that the recipients began eating smarter and working more physical activity into their daily routines. Not surprisingly, the habits of the non-recipients didn’t budge.

#3: Sleeping too little or too much

According to Wake Forest researchers, dieters who sleep five hours or less put on 2½ times more belly fat, while those who sleep more than eight hours pack on only slightly less than that. Shoot for an average of six to seven hours of sleep per night—the optimal amount for weight control.

#4: Eating free restaurant foods

Breadsticks, biscuits, and chips and salsa may be complimentary at some restaurants, but that doesn’t mean you won’t pay for them. Every time you eat one of Olive Garden's free breadsticks or Red Lobster's Cheddar Bay Biscuits, you're adding an additional 150 calories to your meal. Eat three over the course of dinner and that's 450 calories. That's also roughly the number of calories you can expect for every basket of tortilla chips you get at your local Mexican restaurant. What's worse, none of these calories comes paired with any redeeming nutritional value. Consider them junk food on steroids.

#5: Drinking soda—even diet!

The average American guzzles nearly a full gallon of soda every week. Why is that so bad? Because a 2005 study found that drinking one to two sodas per day increases your chances of being overweight or obese by nearly 33 percent. And diet soda is no better. When researchers in San Antonio tracked a group of elderly subjects for nearly a decade, they found that compared to nondrinkers, those who drank two or more diet sodas a day watched their waistlines increase five times faster. The researchers theorize that the artificial sweeteners trigger appetite cues, causing you to unconsciously eat more at subsequent meals.

 

#6: Skipping meals

In a 2011 national survey from the Calorie Control Council, 17 percent of Americans admitted to skipping meals to lose weight. The problem is, skipping meals actually increases your odds of obesity, especially when it comes to breakfast. A study from the American Journal of Epidemiology found that people who cut out the morning meal were 4.5 times more likely to be obese. Why? Skipping meals slows your metabolism and boosts your hunger. That puts your body in prime fat-storage mode and increases your odds of overeating at the next meal.

#7: Eating too quickly

If your body has one major flaw, this is it: It takes 20 minutes for your stomach to tell your brain that it’s had enough. A study in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association found that slow eaters took in 66 fewer calories per meal, but compared to their fast-eating peers, they felt like they had eaten more. What’s 66 calories, you ask? If you can do that at every meal, you’ll lose more than 20 pounds a year!

#8: Watching too much TV

A University of Vermont study found that overweight participants who reduced their TV time by just 50 percent burned an additional 119 calories a day on average. That’s an automatic 12-pound annual loss! Maximize those results by multitasking while you watch—even light household tasks will further bump up your caloric burn. Plus, if your hands are occupied with dishes or laundry, you’ll be less likely to mindlessly snack—the other main occupational hazard associated with tube time.

#9: Ordering the combo meal

 

A study in the Journal of Public Policy & Marketing shows that compared to ordering a la carte, you pick up a hundred or more extra calories by opting for the “combo” or “value meal." Why? Because when you order items bundled together, you're likely to buy more food than you want. You're better off ordering your food piecemeal. That way you won't be influenced by pricing schemes designed to hustle a few more cents out of your pocket.

#10: Facing the buffet

 

Cornell researchers found that when eating at a buffet-style restaurant, obese diners were 15 percent more likely to choose seats with a clear view of the food. Your move: Choose a seat that places your back toward the spread. It will help you avoid fixating on the food.

#11: Eating off larger plates

One study found that when given an option, a whopping 98.6 percent of obese individuals opt for larger plates. Translation: More food, more calories, and more body fat. Keep your portions in check by choosing smaller serving dishes. If need be, you can always go back for seconds.

#12: Putting serving dishes on the table

Resist setting out foods buffet- or family-style, and opt instead to serve them from the kitchen. A study in the journal Obesity found that when food is served from the dinner table, people consume 35 percent more over the course of the meal. When an additional helping requires leaving the table, people hesitate to go back for more.

#13: Choosing white bread

A study from the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that when obese subjects incorporated whole grains into their diets, they lost more abdominal fat over the course of 12 weeks. There are likely multiple factors at play, but the most notable is this: Whole grain foods pack in more fiber and an overall stronger nutritional package than their refined-grain counterparts.

#14: Taking big bites

The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that people who took large bites of food consumed 52 percent more calories in one sitting than those who took small bites and chewed longer. By cutting food into smaller pieces, you can increase satiety and enjoy your food more thoroughly. A good general rule? The smaller your bites, the thinner your waistline.

#15: Not drinking enough water

Adequate water intake is essential for all your body’s functions, and the more you drink, the better your chances of staying thin. In one University of Utah study, dieting participants who were instructed to drink two cups of water before each meal lost 30 percent more weight than their thirsty peers. And you can magnify the effect by adding ice. German researchers found that six cups of cold water a day could prompt a metabolic boost that incinerates 50 daily calories. That’s enough to shed five pounds a year!

#16: Having overweight friends

Research from the New England Journal of Medicine indicates that when a friend becomes obese, it ups your chance of obesity by 57 percent. This probably has to do with the social norms that you’re exposed to. Rather than ditch a friend who starts to put on a few extra pounds though, suggest healthy activities that you can do together, and avoid letting him or her dictate the meal (“Let’s split the cheesecake!”).

#17: Eating too late

Your body can burn flab while you sleep, but only if it isn't too busy processing a full stomach. A new study in the journal Obesity looked at the sleeping and eating habits of 52 people over seven days, and it found that those who ate after 8 p.m. took in the most daily calories and had the highest BMIs.

#18: Not using a scale

Looking at your body weight reinforces weight-loss goals and makes it difficult to cheat your diet. When University of Minnesota researchers observed dieters who weighed themselves daily, they discovered that the routine of stepping on a scale helped those people lose twice as much weight as those who weighed themselves less frequently. Avoid being thrown off by natural fluctuations in body weight by stepping onto the scale at the same time every day.

#19: Drinking fruity beverages

Most restaurants and bars have ditched their fresh-fruit recipes in favor of viscous syrups made mostly from high fructose corn syrup and thickening agents. As a general rule, the more garnishes a drink has hanging from its rim, the worse it is for your waistline.

#20: Eating when emotional

A study from the University of Alabama found that emotional eaters—those who admitted eating in response to emotional stress—were 13 times more likely to be overweight or obese. If you feel the urge to eat in response to stress, try chewing a piece of gum, chugging a glass of water, or taking a walk around the block. Create an automatic response that doesn't involve food and you'll prevent yourself from overloading on calories.

Hope you ebjoyed :)

Best in Health & Fitness,

 

Marty Ozaeta

www.VPTBlog.com

www.VPTForAbs.com

www.VPTBootcamp.com

VPTraining10@yahoo.com