Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

Look online for help to navigate the plate

- BARBARA QUINN Barbara Quinn is a registered dietitian and certified diabetes educator and author of Quinn-Essential Nutrition (Westbow Press, 2015).

Eaters have a load of tools at our fingertips to help us decide what to eat. Here are links to a few offered through the U.S. Department of Agricultur­e and other agencies:

My Plate Plan, choosemypl­ate.gov/myplatepla­n. Fill in your age, sex, activity and goal weight. You’ll get a plan that shows you what and how much to eat that fits within your calorie goals.

Food Compositio­n Database, http://ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb. This is the site used by other databases for nutrient informatio­n on specific foods.

Drink Size Calculator, arkansason­line.com/617drink.. This National Institutes of Health site will tell us how much alcohol is in that cup of beer at the ballgame.

Dietary Supplement Label Database. arkansason­line. com/617pills. On this site of the National Institutes of Health, you can look up ingredient­s, products or manufactur­ers of everything from body building formulas to vitamins and minerals for senior citizens.

Pregnancy Weight Gain Calculator, choosemypl­ate. gov/pregnancy-weight-gaincalcul­ator. Enter your height and pre-pregnancy weight and you’ll learn how much weight you should probably gain during pregnancy. This site also leads to other nutrition for moms-to-be.

Can I Eat This? wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/page/appsabout. Handy dandy mobile app for travelers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Select the country you’re in and answer a few questions about what you’re thinking about eating or drinking.

Evaluate Health Informatio­n, medlineplu­s.gov/evaluating­healthinfo­rmation.html. This site from the National Institutes of Health features tutorials, videos and other tools to help users assess the reliabilit­y and credibilit­y of health informatio­n from magazines (and newspapers), TV and the Internet.

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