OTG Daily News

Cocktail parties, cookie swaps, and family meals help the average American pack on a pound of body weight between Thanksgiving and New Year’s, and those who are overweight could gain 5 pounds or more during the holidays, according to research from Tufts University. Dietitians estimate that a holiday meal alone—like the plate you pile high with turkey, stuffing, green bean casserole, and pie—can pack 2,200 to 2,400 more calories than an everyday dinner. To burn off these calories, a 165-pound person would have to swim laps for 4.5 hours or walk almost 30 miles on the treadmill. But you have better things to do this season, like shop, string lights, and entertain guests—and that’s okay. This plan of attack will show you how to use these activities, along with classic calorie-cutting tips, to burn off an oversized meal (and then some!) in three short days. Calorie ranges have been calculated for a person who weighs 165 to 195 pounds, the average body weights for American women and men a...

Americans gobble up 46 million turkeys at Thanksgiving. That works out to almost 3 pounds of poultry per person who partakes in the feast, according to statistics from the National Turkey Federation. At an average weight of 16 pounds apiece, last year's Thanksgiving turkeys weighed 736 million pounds altogether. And at an average cost of $1.19 per pound, Americans spent $875 million buying those birds for the big day. All that may sound like a lot, but as it turns out, we're a turkey-loving nation the rest of the year, too. More than 226 million turkeys were consumed in the United States in 2010; the 46 millionThanksgiving birds represent just one-fifth of that total. We also ate 22 million at Christmas and 19 million at Easter. The rest, 139 million turkeys, were devoured in club sandwiches and the like. Turkey consumption has nearly doubled over the past 25 years, according to the National Turkey Federation. Per-person turkey consumption is currently 16.4 pounds per yea...

Move over cavemen and Mediterraneans , Vikings are the new diet gurus. Claus Meyer,  co-founder of the Danish restaurant Noma, twice named the best in the world, has been collaborating with nutrition experts to combat the obesity epidemic. Meyer calls it The New Nordic Diet, but it’s not exactly new. His food philosophy developed with obesity scientist Arne Astrup has been the subject of a $20 million research project over the past two years. Today, the early results of their work are in and it could mean a revolution in the diet industry . In a 26-week study by Astrup and her team at the  University of Copenhagen, a group of overweight subjects managed to lose an average of 6.8 pounds after 12 weeks on the new Nordic diet. That was more than twice as much as dieters on standard portion-controlled meal plans lost. “It’s hard to pinpoint the individual ingredients that work but we can see that they lose more weight,” said nutrition professor Thomas Larsen, who prese...

Sometimes choosing a fruit is difficult. Do you want a grape? Too small. An apple? Too appley. What if I told you that you could have both at the same time? A fruit-based product called the Grapple let's you have the satisfying size and crunch of an apple with the delicious taste of a grape! No, we're not kidding. According to MarketWatch , Grapples (pronounced grape-ells) are an annual treat that's quickly growing in popularity, especially when it comes to children. The seasonal items, which are sold from October through May, begin as Washington State Gala apples or Fuji apples. The apples are bathed in a patented mix of Concord grape flavor and water. The Grapple brand's website boasts that the process does not add sugar or calories to the apples. The apples also maintain their red color. Currently, they are sold in packs of four at $2.99-$3.99 each. In a time when diets like the trendy caveman diet and even fast-food restaurants such as McDonald's are promot...

(theweek)The popular McDonald's sandwich is back. Find out what's inside — if you dare McDonalds' McRib and its cult-like following are back. Thank goodness the "disconcerting" sandwich is only returning for a limited time only, says Meredith Melnick at TIME . Because if you knew about all the unpronounceable ingredients packed into the McRib, you might think twice about wolfing down the sauce-drenched pork concoction. Think you can stomach what's inside? Read on: How many ingredients are there? At face value, the sandwich contains just pork, onions, and pickle slices slathered in barbecue sauce and laid out on a bun. But the truth is, there are roughly 70 ingredients. The bun alone contains 34, says TIME's Melnick . In addition to chemicals like ammonium sulfate and polysorbate 80, the most egregious may be azodicarbonamide — "a flour-bleaching agent most commonly used in the manufactur[ing] of foamed plastics like gym mats the and soles of shoe...

Poison lurks everywhere – even in common foods you would never expect to be poisonous.  Beware of these deadly eight items of food! They can all kill you before you’re done enjoying your meal. Almonds Seemingly healthy for you, these not-so-safe delights can never be eaten raw and unprocessed because of the amount of cyanide contained in each one of them. New Zealand has banned them and the US monitors the cleaning and heating process of them very carefully – so yes, that’s also why it’s not a cheap snack either. Nutmeg Did you know that nutmeg is a hallucinogen? If consumed in great quantities, it’s like taking a serious trip on some Amphetamines. Eating a whole nutmeg can give you something called a ‘nutmeg psychosis’ – probably rather psychedelic and comparable to ’shrooms, but yeah, death has been reported as well. Tomatoes You say tomato, I say poison! Apparently the green stems of tomatoes, especially those of green, unripe young ones can cause stomach pain and agitation....

Full Story:  YAHOO.COM My grandmother used to make the most amazing smooth-as-silk mashed potatoes that were never gummy, lumpy or dry. What was her secret? Tons of butter and whole milk. Related Recipes:  Delicious Mashed Potato Recipes I would love to follow in her footsteps and make her recipe as is, but I would have to spend the next month on the treadmill working those potatoes off. Related Recipes:  Easy Low-Fat Potato Recipes 21 Skinny Potato Recipes So this year for Thanksgiving I've decided to forgo my grandmother's version of classic, fluffy mashed potatoes, my favorite Turkey Day side dish, and look into healthier ways to get the same result. We've tested and developed many mashed potato recipes in the EatingWell Test Kitchen, discovering a few tips to getting the classic fluffy result without the aid of tons of butter and full-fat milk. Related Recipes:  Layered Mashed Potato & Mushroom Casserole & More Thanksgiving Casseroles Meringue-T...

Unless a microwave dinner is your idea of a Thanksgiving feast, you probably have had firsthand experience with the after-dinner fatigue that sets in after the meal. Why do you want a nap? To escape the dishes? Perhaps, but the meal itself plays a big part in the way you feel. L-Tryptophan and the Turkey The turkey is often cited as the culprit in afterdinner lethargy, but the truth is that you could omit the bird altogether and still feel the effects of the feast. Turkey does contain  L-tryptophan , an essential amino acid with a documented sleep inducing effect. L-tryptophan is used in the body to produce the B-vitamin, niacin. Tryptophan also can be metabolized into serotonin and melatonin , neurotransmitters that exert a calming effect and regulates sleep. However, L-tryptophan needs to be taken on an empty stomach and without any other amino acids or protein in order to make you drowsy. There's lots of protein in a serving of turkey and it's probably not the only food on ...