Gizmodo: diets

How to Order at McDonald's Without Killing Your Body

Adam Frucci — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 23:00:00 EDT

McDonald's: not a place you should eat if you are trying to be healthy. But if you must eat there, there are definitely some better choices on the menu than others.

Lifehacker put together a great guide showing just what foods aren't so bad and what should be avoided at all costs. The good news is that good ol' Chicken McNuggets aren't so bad, providing 280 calories in a 6 piece box. And a hamburger has only 250 calories if you can stand eating it without cheese.

The bad news? A large Triple Thick Chocolate Shake has 1160 calories, 27 grams of fat, 168 grams of sugar and 510mg of sodium, which is just fucking insane. Seriously, if you want to cut a decade or two off your life, drink one of these every day. And a Double Quarter Pounder with Cheese ain't much better.

Hit Lifehacker for the full list and all the details, but here's the one rule I always remember when I'm considering a McDonald's menu: don't eat at McDonald's. [Lifehacker]

Taste Test is our weeklong tribute to the leaps that occur when technology meets cuisine, spanning everything from the historic breakthroughs that made food tastier and safer to the Earl-Grey-friendly replicators we impatiently await in the future.

Exercise Pills Will Finally Make You Attractive to the Opposite Sex, I'm Sure

Adam Frucci — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 17:57:32 EDT

Good news, chubbies! Science has got your back. Researchers at the Salk Institute have found two drugs that trick the muscles in mice into thinking they've been working out like crazy, even when said mice have been playing World of Warcraft and eating Funyuns for 8 straight hours.

One drug, known as Aicar, increased the mice’s endurance on a treadmill by 44 percent after just four weeks of treatment.

A second drug, GW1516, supercharged the mice to a 75 percent increase in endurance, but had to be combined with exercise to have any effect.

“It’s a little bit like a free lunch without the calories,” said Dr. Ronald M. Evans, leader of the Salk group.

The results, Dr. Evans said, seem reasonably likely to apply to people, who control muscle tone with the same underlying genes as do mice. And if the drugs work and prove to be safe, they could be useful in a wide range of settings.

Yeah, settings such as your couch, your desk chair and your bed, as those are the only places you'll be sitting when you're taking a pill that tricks your body into thinking you're some sort of Olympian.

Of course, the initial uses are going to be for people with diseases such as diabetes that are improved with exercise, but you know the major pharmaceutical companies are licking their chops and looking at the insanely-large couch potato demographic. The future is now! [NY Times]

Weight Loss Sunglasses Make Your Food Look Gross so You Won't

Adam Frucci — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 16:10:48 EDT

If diets have just never worked for you due to your lack of self-control and your love of all things buttery, maybe it's time for some stupider methods of weight loss. Enter the Weight Loss Sunglasses. Yep, these guys are tinted blue, the "least appetizing color of the spectrum," sure to make that ice cream sundae sitting in front of you look downright disgusting. For only $18.75, I don't know how you can say no. [Product Page via Book of Joe]

Carb Counter Calculates Your Guilt, Shame

Adam Frucci — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 12:45:00 EDT

Nothing ruins the fun of eating like breaking your delicious sandwich down into a bunch of depressing statistics, but I guess that's what you've gotta do if you want to work off that unattractive World-of-Warcraft gut you developed over the past couple years. With that in mind, the Carb counter will make sure you always view mealtime with a sense of dread and guilt. Keep track of your carb, calorie and water (?) intake meticulously, making sure you know just how bad that Chipolte burrito is for you. –Adam Frucci

Product Page [via Coolest Gadgets]