Website Spotlight: Calorie Count

I'm sure we're all aware that most annual weight gain occurs around the holiday season - and it makes sense, with all of the yummy recipes that don't have nutrition information, making i hard for even the most dedicated healthy eater to lose track. There's a great tool available at Calorie Count to help analyze recipes so that you know what's in them. It may take the fun out of it for some, but for others it can help them carefully plan to avoid overindulging and getting off-track during the holidays. It also makes it easy to see the effects of a few ingredient substitutions so that you're able to make your holiday favorites healthier.

Other things offered at the website include free weight management tools, social support and nutritional information to help members achieve their diet goals through a personal and realistic approach that complements every lifestyle.

CalorieCount.com Director of Nutrition Mary Hartley, R.D., has some great tips for healthy holiday eating at parties:

* Bring a healthy dish to the party - at least you're assured of one healthy dish!
* Check out the entire array of food before digging in.
* Don't waste calories on mediocre food or any food you don't really love.
* Eat slowly and consciously enough to notice when you are satisfied; satisfied is not the same as full.
* Don't overfill your plate. You can always go back for more of something really wonderful.
* Don't sit near the table when eating time is over.
* Limits alcohol to one or two drinks.

She also has some easy substitutions to make recipes lighter (you can use the recipe analyzer to check out how much lighter):

- Instead of butter, shortening, or oil, use applesauce or prune puree for half of the amount and butter/shortening/oil for the rest.
- Use cooking spray or nonstick pans instead of greasing the pans with oil, butter, or shortening.
- Substitute Neufchatel, low-fat or non-fat cream cheese, or pureed cottage cheese for regular cream cheese.
- Use fat-free or low-fat yogurt or sour cream in place of regular sour cream.
- Instead of heavy cream, use vaporated skim milk or 2 teaspoons cornstarch or 1 tablespoon flour whisked into skim milk = 1 cup.
- When using sweetened condensed milk, look for low-fat or non-fat.