Wimbledon has arrived, and that means strawberries!

Unfortunately this year I am not going to be able to make it to the Wimbeldon tennis championships, which is a real shame as this is usually the highlight of the sporting calender for me. However, that does not mean that I can't enjoy all of the action from SW19 from the comfort of my living room while I am working on my laptop. One other thing that I would also have been enjoying there, along with the glut of top class tennis, is some strawberries!

Strawberries are without a doubt my favorite fruit, and it is a shame that they only pop up in England for a few months over the summer, and then seem to disappear for months on end. They are one of few foods that I can literally taste with my eyes, and even looking at pictures of them online makes me hungry! At Wimbledon they go through a horrendous amount of strawberries,  some 35 tonnes I believe, over the two weeks that the tournament is on. That and a hell of a lot of cream to go with them too, as this tasty combination are synonymous with Britain's biggest annual sporting event.

In a 5 oz cup of strawberries there are some 45 calories, which isn't a lot, but then when you go adding cream or sugar to them, that tasty treat becomes bulging with calories. Just one tablespoon of sugar to go on your 5 oz portion has another 45 calories in, and in a serving of fresh double cream there are several hundred calories. So unless you like your strawberries on their own, you could be exceeding 400 calories!

Fortunately I don't do cream, and I will have to limit the sugar to a teaspoon, which itself is 16 calories. So 60 calories a couple of times over the two weeks will just have to be a treat, or currently a replacement, for the beer consumed while the European football championships were on. I think once the summer of sport is over I will need to be getting back on that exercise bike.

To find out about strawberry nutrition facts and calories check out my page devoted to the sumptuous fruit on my websites.

Is cantaloupe fattening?

Having discovered the wonderful fruit that is the cantaloupe for the very first time a few months ago, I have been wondering whether this delicious melon-type example is too good to be true. I have checked out it's nutritional benefits, the number of calories in cantaloupe, whether it has any common side effects or irritations, and I am unable to find a chink in it's armor. One of the things that looked up first was whether cantaloupe is fattening.

It is common knowledge that fruits and vegetables are the the best examples of nutritious foods that we are ever likely to come across, and with the cantaloupe fitting into this bracket, there is a whole list of nutritional benefits that promote it's goodness. But how about the fat content, is the cantaloupe fattening at all?

Well the answer is no, plain and simple.

In a 3.5 ounce serving of cantaloupe there is less than 0.2 grams of fat, which is literally nothing. There are also just 35 calories in the same size serving, again a very minimal amount. Just like other types of melon, the cantaloupe has a high water content, and as we all know water is calorie and fat free.

What's more is that cantaloupe is crammed full of nutrients, just like other natural foods, so the only effects that the fruit is going to have on your body, your diet, and your weight, are positive ones.

In that same 3.5 ounce serving you can get almost half of the vitamin C that you need in a whole day and just under a quarter of the vitamin A that your body requires a day too.

I would recommend to anybody that is looking to make their diet a little more interesting by trying new foods, to give the cantaloupe a go. It tastes absolutely fantastic, can help towards topping up the levels of pretty much every vitamin and mineral that your body makes use of, it is not fattening, low in calories, helps to hydrate you due to it's high water content and provides energy due to it's potassium and sugar content.

If you don't know what to look for when it comes to the cantaloupe then check out the picture below, which shows a picture of what is rather a unique looking fruit. You are unlikely to get this mixed up with anything else, especially the regular watermelon.

So hopefully this post has been able to encourage you to try a new fruit today, especially with the summer months drawing on and fruits such as the cantaloupe being as prominent as ever in shops and at food markets. I also hope that you are no longer unsure as to whether or not cantaloupe is fattening.

For more information on cantaloupe calories, and exact figures of the nutrients it contains, please check out the cantaloupe page on my calorie site, via the link below.

http://www.calories-in-foods.com/calories-in-cantaloupe.php

Euro2012 football is on - Time for a beer

One of the biggest events in world football is currently going on over in Europe, as the countries of Poland and the Ukraine host the Euro2012 football championships. Hundreds of thousands of fans will take the trip to these nations to witness a glut of the world's finest players compete arguably the biggest international football trophy, after the FIFA world cup. Millions more fans like myself will tune in from the comfort of their living rooms at home, and if there is one thing that the average football fan likes, it's a nice cold beer.

I am not normally one to drink at home, but this is an excuse to relax and watch the game with a selection of beers with my football fanatic friends. One thing did cross my mind a little bit though, and that was just how much 3 weeks of casual beer drinking was going effect my daily calorie intake. So naturally I had a quick check on the number of calories in beer, updating my website as I went along, as this is obviously something that many calorie counters out there will be interested in.

I normally sit down with a Budweiser and in a bottle of their regular beer I was consuming 145 calories, which is fine, but then 6 or so of these soon adds up and does no good at all when you are watching your calories. Six of these regular Bud's have 870 calories in, that's quite a lot!

So looking at the figures I decided to see what the difference is in the calories found in regular beer and light beer, as you always see a box of Bud Light or Coors Light in the supermarket when you are purchasing your favored drink.

In the same sized bottle of Bud Light there were just 110 calories, so when you are putting away a six pack you are saving yourself on 210 calories, which is approximately a quarter of those from the regular Budweiser beer.

It just goes to show that making the odd simple change to your diet, can have a significant effect on the calories that you are consuming. If you sit and watch any sport once or twice a week at home and enjoy a nice cold beer at the same time, then just think about the number of beer calories you could be cutting out in the long run.

With the Euro2012 tournament drawing to a close and my beloved England, failing to make it very far once again, I will not be sat watching too many more games. However, with Wimbledon and the Olympics blitzing the television schedule for the next month or so I am sure that I will be sat with a beer in my hand a fair few more times before the summer is over, a light beer I might add!

If you would like to find out more examples of the calories found in popular beers such as Bud Light and Coors Light, please check out the link to my calories website below.


http://www.calories-in-foods.com/calories-in-beer.php

What do you want to see calories in?

If there is a specific food that you see vacant from www.calories-in-foods.com, please feel free to leave a comment so that we can add this.

Also feedback on the information and layout of the site in comparison to other calorie related sites would be much appreciated.

We are currently in the process of almost doubling the size of the site in order to include a wider selection of the calories found in popular foods, and are always looking for extra ideas from the people who visit and use the information on the site.

Thanks in advance

Steve

Low calorie snacks - A good habit

Snacking is something that we are all guilty of to some degree. It is almost impossible to go throughout the week without having a day or two where we have felt the need to eat between mealtimes. For many people that is not a problem, but for those who are watching their weight, this can be a major issue.

When you are feeling hungry it can be all too easy to reach for what is available, and when you are out and about that can generally be something that is high in calories, like a bag of potato chips or a candy bar.

A great habit to get into is eating low calorie snacks, if the need to eat between mealtimes really becomes that great. This way you are not cheating yourself, and adding unnecessary high amounts of calories to your daily total, and therefore making it less likely to gain weight.

Here are some examples of low calorie snacks for you:

Fruit - You just can't go wrong when it comes to fruit, it is highly nutritious and low in calories. If you are on the move then maybe you have to go slightly out of your way to find some, but let's face it you can grab an apple, orange, or banana from any supermarket, and even McDonald's sell fruit bags. You can always take some to work or school with you in your bag as well, just in case you do feel hungry during the day. With 90 calories in a small banana, 75 calories in small apple and just under 50 calories in a small orange, you are not causing problems for yourself by eating these. Even having a cup of something like blueberries or raspberries is not going to exceed 100 calories. Bearing in mind that you are going to be consuming over double that in a 1.5 oz milk chocolate bar.


Soup - Soup is something that you can easily make at home and grab while you are out on the move. A cup of soup will generally have somewhere between 100-200 calories in it, and will likely provide you with a range of nutritional benefits as well.


Cereal - Cereal is not just something for the breakfast table. You can have a bowl of cereal any time of day that you want to. Having a high fiber cereal is also going to do you lots of favors as well, because fiber is something that can help to keep you feeling full, and will therefore keep hunger at bay for longer. Taking a box of cereal to work with you may sound like a strange idea, but then it is there for you to use whenever you have a break, or are sat at your desk thinking about heading to the vending machine. Again there are somewhere between 100 and 200 calories in a bowl serving of high fiber cereal.

The key is to try your best to make sure that feeling hungry between mealtimes doesn't happen in the first place. By this I mean that you have to make sure that you are eating your three main meals, and eating enough to satisfy your hunger. This is vital if you are to feel as though you can last several hours until it is time to eat again.

If you do snack, and of course the temptation is there for us all from time to time, then get into a habit where the things that you eat are the right things, such as those listed above.

To find out more about calories in foods, in order to make up your own low calorie snacks, visit my site www.calories-in-foods.com