M&M Calories: Peanut Butter and Caramel

I couldn't find this information when I was looking for it, so hopefully it's helpful.

A serving of Caramel M&Ms is 42g / 1.5oz / ¼ cup for 200 calories. Using a scale, I weighed out 42g - it was 15 Caramel M&Ms. Therefore, 1 caramel m&m has 13.3 calories.

Some useful measurements:

3 caramel M&Ms have 40 calories.
6 caramel M&Ms have 80 calories.
9 caramel M&Ms have 120 calories.
and so on.

madcitycat / flickr

A serving of Peanut Butter M&Ms is 42g / 1.5oz / ¼ cup for 220 calories. Using a scale, I weighed out 42g - it was 25 Peanut Butter M&Ms. Therefore, 1 peanut butter m&m has 8.8 calories.

Some useful measurements:

5 peanut butter M&Ms have 44 calories.
10 peanut butter M&Ms have 88 calories.
15 peanut butter M&Ms have 132 calories.
and so on.

For all of you who are tracking your calories but still enjoying chocolatey goodness of M&Ms: good for you for choosing moderation.  It will be worth it!!!

Low Salt Soups

My health coach wants me to cut back on sodium.  I'm seeing weight loss results, so I'm trying to do what she asks.  Because I take the train in to the office, I'm limited to items I can order on Amazon and that can persist without refrigeration.  Of course, salt is what allows lots of things to remain shelf stable, so my choices are slightly limited.  Here's what I've tried so far.

1. Healthy Valley Organic No Salt Added Chicken Rice Soup - pretty decent.  Would eat again.
2. Healthy Valley Organic No Salt Added Chicken Noodle Soup - it's ok. But the Chicken Rice is better.
3. some soup I haven't tried yet, I'm sure
4. ditto
5. ditto
6. ditto
7. ditto
8. ditto
9. ditto
10. Campbell's Low Sodium Cream of Mushroom - avoid. And I have 11 cans left.  Ugh.  Horrible stuff.  If I find a soup worse than this, I will be surprised and supremely disappointed with the human race. Choke it down with soda. (Of course, she wants me to eliminate soda.  We compromised on a partial can with my soup.)

Recently I thought I had found a winner, it was made by Healthy Valley Organic and it tasted it really good.  And then I realized that it was not low sodium.  Amazon had delivered a different soup than I ordered and I wasn't paying attention and had eaten most of them before I went back and looked at my orders.  I eventually gave the remaining cans away to coworkers who aren't watching their salt.

Feed Sift (06/26/2015)

-1-

ENGADGET.COM -- Anti-graffiti device nabs taggers by sniffing their fumes

-2-

CHANGE.ORG -- Update: Kraft is removing artificial food dyes in all Macaroni & Cheese products because of your help!

-3-

HUFFINGTONPOST.COM -- 10 Ways to Salvage a Bad Morning Before Parting Ways

-4-

BASICINSTRUCTIONS.NET -- How to Remain Optimistic

-5-

SETHGODIN.TYPEPAD.COM -- Toasted

Feed Sift (06/19/2015)

-1-

LIFEHACKER.COM -- Prepare for Networking Events by Writing Follow-Up Emails Beforehand

-2-

CHANGE.ORG -- Crayola: Stop Telling Kids to "Color Their Mouth" with Fake Dyed Candies

-3-

HOUZZ.COM -- 5 Ways to Get a More Beautiful Concrete Patio

-4-

MORNINGDEVOTION.OASISMEDIASERVICES.COM -- The honorable thing to do

-5-

TWISTEDSIFTER.COM -- Food Gradients - #ocd-squee

Feed Sift (02/27/2015)

Five things I wanted to share...

-1-

ENGADGET -- BMW's new street lights will charge your electric car

-2-

LIKE A TEAM -- The Power of Positive Quotes

-3-

HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW -- What You Eat Affects Your Productivity

-4-

BBC -- Your life on earth


-5-

YOUTUBE -- Alexander Gerst’s Earth timelapses


Happy Friday!

Lori's Cupcakes (All-Natural Coloring)

Lori was recently(ish) commissioned to do cupcakes for a church event. Because of some of the research on dyes and their impact on some children (including observed behavioral changes in our daughter when she's had red dye #40), Lori's been only using natural colorings. Because this was a children's event, she saw it as the perfect opportunity to expand her available color palette of natural colors with the goal of also being tasty as frosting.  I think it was incredibly successful.  (See the Flickr collection.)

Here's what her research yielded:

• Pink: beet powder + strawberry purée
• Magenta: blackberry purée with powdered freeze-dried blueberries
• Purple: purple yam with natural cherry extract
• Green: fresh spinach with lime juice
• Orange: sweet potato with powdered freeze-dried oranges
• Yellow: mango in both powdered and reduced purée forms

We hope to someday turn her creative genius into a business.

Feed Sift (03/21/2014)

Five things from around the web I felt like sharing...

-1-

THE INCLUSIVE CHURCH -- 5 Strategies to Include Teens with Special Needs

-2-

FRESH ADDRESS -- Image Caching: What's New In Gmail - how Gmail's image caching will affect your email campaigns

-3-

DINNER LAB -- About Us - I would so want to do this if I had money, the ability to go out at the drop of a dime, oh, and lived in one of the host cities. (Would speak to my "serendipity" goal

-4-

LIFEHACKER -- This Infographic Reveals the Secrets of the Happiest Couples

-5-

ADDTHIS -- This Infographic Reveals the Secrets of the Happiest Couples

Tool Use (Life with #Autism)

So it only took who knows how many battles, but I finally have started seeing some success with getting Ben to try new foods and more importantly, use a utensil.

There's lots of good foods, but if it doesn't look recognizable to Ben, he won't eat it. Never mind if it's awesome like pizza or ice cream.

But recently we've been trying to get him to eat eggs. He will sometimes eat eggs, but we've been trying to get him to eat them with a fork because it's less messy. But he won't take the fork, he fights, resists, won't open his mouth. Even with the offer of bacon (BACON!) he won't do it.

The other night after everyone else left the kitchen, I finally got him to start eating egg. I thought it was the reduction in the number of people in the room. A few nights later, I was in the middle of fighting with him and I had a realization about what really probably was a working factor.

Misdirected Design (A Work-Related Post)

Design should convey its message, even if you miss important details. But if you aren't specific, design might be done for design's sake and your message may get lost. For instance, this box, instead of saying "No matter where - Nature Valley is there." instead says "the path - Nature Valley is there." (umm... what path?)

However, that's minor. This is more troubling:

522 Redo

I know I try to stay away from a lot of politics because I can't stand politics, but as I watched yet another thing I voted for fail (want something to fail? get me to vote for it), I couldn't help thinking they'd gone at it all wrong.

522 would have required foods in Washington State to be labeled if they contain Genetically Engineered or Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs).  It was defeated, in part, by large contributions by Monsanto as well as Pepsi, Coca-Cola and Nestle (hiding with others behind the "Grocery Manufacturers Association" label).  Because frankly, these companies don't want you to look at labels, they want you to remain ignorant. These are the same companies that label their products in other countries where required, and in some cases, even reformulate to avoid having to label at all.

As a parent who has at least one child extremely affected by an unnecessary foodstuff (Red Dye 40), I'm going to be in favor of anything that reduces the amount of, pardon me, unnecessary crap added to our food. So to hear companies like Mars and Kraft produce versions of their products for other countries without these dyes because to use the dyes would require warning labels on the packages, you can be sure I'm going to vote for anything that reduces the inclusion of such unhealthy things in our food, or at least shames companies in choosing not to use it.

I love my Contigos

I was surprised to see that my wife's post about Contigo on her blog has gotten a lot of traffic.  I thought "I want some traffic. Maybe I should write about my Contigos because I love them." I've raved about them on Facebook but never written a blog post about them.

What makes Contigos really cool is this thing they call AutoSeal.  The opening has a spring-loaded sealing valve inside the screw-on top.  The valve is operated by a large button at the back of the lid.  That allows you to use one-hand to take a drink.  This is handy when you're on-the-go.  It can tip over, fall out of your hands, be dropped and nothing spills.

Colorblind (@BestFoods)

When you think of mustard, what color comes to mind? Most people will say yellow. A few, brown and one smart aleck will say "Grey" and you'll glare at them and they'll cheerfully say "Pardon me, do you have" and then trail off as you continue to glare at them and then gloomily say "Yellow." (not from personal experience)

And when you think of mayonnaise, white is probably the only color you think of.  (Bonus if you also think in your head "I order all of my sandwiches with mayonnaise, I'm a whiz at minesweeper I can play for days, once you see my sweet moves you're gonna stay amazed.")

So what was Best Foods thinking?

We Need This, @LoseIt

Dear Lose It! - we really need a "share this meal" option. It would be really helpful for families who eat the same meals.  Also would have worked well last year when we were attending a small group and nearly everyone in the group was using Lose It! - it would have made it easier to share the foods they brought.

Otherwise, it ends up like this because I'm lazy. (Lose It! does allow you to share a recipe, but that's different than sharing a meal.)

Nicely done, Change

I saw the post on my wife's Facebook feed, signed the petition and shared it to my Facebook feed. And someone read it and signed it themselves.  It was effortless and the tracking wasn't creepy. This is a great follow-up email I received a few hours later.  Nicely done, Change.org.

By the way, you should sign the petition, too. Kraft sells this same product in other countries without these unnecessary dyes (because they're banned). You're getting charged extra for food coloring (that's not good for you) and for what?

Legal Drink

Wow, just to read this you feel your soul being deflated. The ingredients list is no better, and I quote:

Filtered sparkling water (sufficient to reconstitute), juice concentrates (blueberry, apple, pear and white grape), natural flavors.

It's been sitting on the counter for two weeks and no one's dared open it.

Worth Repeating: Ron Finley @evofarm

Ron Finley plants vegetable gardens in South Central LA -- in abandoned lots, traffic medians, along the curbs. Why? For fun, for defiance, for beauty and to offer some alternative to fast food in a community where "the drive-thrus are killing more people than the drive-bys." More on TED.com...

Why I'm posting this: This guy's on to something.  And he's doing so much good - with vegetables and community.

Idea: Calorie Tax

San Francisco has been in the news recently for attempts to ban toys from children's meals at fast food restaurants.

And New York has been in the news recently for attempts to ban sugary drinks over a certain size.

Both attempts have been nearly universally decried by people who just see "the man" trying to tell them what to do or how to live.

If I understand correctly (and I may not), the actual attempt in boh cases is the better health of their citizens, not just because they feel a moral obligation to protect people from their own stupidity (like requiring helmets or seat belts) but I think it's also because of the burden that unhealthy behavior puts on society, especially in the case of health care costs.

So I was wondering... if you can't ban unhealthy behaviors (you could always buy multiple small sugary beverages or drive outside the city limits), why not tax it?  If our insurance companies charge us based on our annual driving or our gasoline is taxed based on how many gallons we purchase, why not tax calories?

To me, if the ultimate goal is healthier behavior and a reduction in health care costs, it seems that simply preventing the availability of something doesn't actually help that to happen - it's only when people understand the implications do they actually consider changing their behavior.  And if every 10 calories costs you a penny, people start paying attention - the businesses who suddenly have to confront the idea that their food might not be healthy, as well as customers who have to decide whether they want to pay an extra $1.36 (1,360 calories) for the Burger King Triple Whopper Combo meal (that's with a diet soda that has no calories and a small fries and no ketchup for your fries) or $1.13 (1,134 calories) for a 40oz Dr. Pepper at Taco Bell.

Of course, they would need to list the surcharges separately on the receipt and menu board so that they'd be visible to everyone.  And the taxes would need to go into a fund that helps with medical care.

But you don't change behavior by taking something away, you change behavior by helping people make smarter choices by showing them the true costs of their actions.

Recommended: Recharge Chocolate+Caramel

I've gotten free samples of Recharge bars twice now thanks to Lose-It.

They have three flavors: 

• Peanuts+Caramel
• Raspberry+Apple
• Chocolate+Caramel

Each bar has 100 calories, 8g of protein and 3g of fiber.  All three are dense bars, as you expected for a health bar.  The first two, neither Rachel or I cared for (but Ben did).  

But I really liked the Chocolate+Caramel bar - it's quite tasty.  You can watch Lose-It!'s Twitter feed for possible future giveaways or you can order them directly from http://www.rechargefoods.com/

(I was not compensated in any way for this post nor do I have any future expectation to be compensated as a result.)

Problem of Scale

New! Kellogg's Cinnamon Roll Frosted Mini-Wheats Little Bites.

Title is too long, the product's name contains a relative-size adjective that then has to be contradicted.  Not to be confused with "Big Bites" or "Little Bites."  There's so many varieties of Mini-Wheats, it's crazy...

Why I Don't Foodblog