Assessing Your Diet
Instructions and advice on how to keep a food diary to make sure your diet maintains an adequate balance, variety and moderation.

  Building a Better Diet
Basic healthy-eating principles from the Mayo Clinic make it easy to know which foods to emphasize in your diet and which to limit

  Carbs, Low-carbs: A Mayo Clinic Specialist Cuts Through the Confusion
What do terms such as "net carb", "total carb", "carb wise", and "carb fit" mean? A Mayo Clinic expert answers common questions about carbs and low-carb diets.

  Choosing a Safe and Successful Weight-loss Program
"This fact sheet can help you make an informed decision about joining a program."

  Comparing the Diets
A chart comparing the basic elements of popular weight-loss diets, their premises and what critics are saying about each. Plus, a sample dinner from each plan.

  Create A Diet
Use this interactive website, created by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, to create a heart healthy diet plan.

  Daily Calorie Calculator
From the Mayo Clinic, this interactive tool calculates the number of calories you need each day to maintain your weight.

  Demystifying the Glycemic Index
Once only used in reference to diets for diabetes, now many popular diets have incorporated this concept into their meal plans. This article explains what the GI is as well as its limitations.

  Facts About the DASH Eating Plan
Blood pressure can be lowered by following the DASH Eating Plan and reducing the amount of sodium you eat. This fact sheet tells about high blood pressure and how to follow this diet.

  Healthy Eating Pyramids
From the Harvard School of Public Health and other institutions, a collection of "healthy eating pyramids,". These unique dietary guides based on worldwide dietary traditions are closely associated with good health and includes individual pyramids based on Asian, Latin American, Mediterranean and Vegetarian diets.

  Keep the Beat: Heart Healthy Recipes
This website contains heart healthy recipes, provided by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. Please note that the recipes are available for downloading and viewing in PDF format only.

  Mediterranean Diet
Information on mediterranean-style diets from the American Heart Association.

  MyPyramid Tracker
An online dietary assessment tool that provides information on your diet quality, related nutrition messages and links to nutrient information. Developed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion

  Sizing Up a Serving
This slide show from the Mayo Clinic takes a look at the recommended serving sizes and allows the user to see how the sizes of your food portions measure up.

  The Nutrition Source: Deciphering Media Stories on Diet
From the Harvard School of Public Health, this article provides tips on how to decipher and evaluate media stories on diet.

  Vegetarian Diet: How to get the Best Nutrition
"Find out what you need to know about a plant-based diet and how you can meet your daily nutritional needs."

  Consumer Advice and Publications on Food Safety, Nutrition, and Cosmetics
This website, provided by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, offers information on foodborne illness, safe food preparation, eating safely away from home, storing food properly, and what those food labels really mean.

  Food Safety
The World Health Organization provides information on a wide variety of food safety issues along the entire food production chain, including public health hazards in food, standards for food safety.

  Food Safety and Security: What Consumers Need to Know
Authoritative information from the United States agency responsible for the safety and security of our food supply.

  Food Safety Project
The Iowa State University Extension has created the Food Safety Project, whose goal is to provide the public with the information they need to minimize their risk of foodborne illness.

  Home Food Safety ... It's In Your Hands
This consumer website provides home food safety statistics, information about foodborne illness, and tips on safe food handlng. The American Dietetic Association and ConAgra Foods Foundation have joined together to produce this website for consumers.

  Keep Your Food Safe
The basics of how to buy safe food and keep it safe at home.

  Mail Order Food Safety
Guidelines from the Food Safety and Inspection Service on how to determine if the perishable foods delivered to your home have been handled properly.

  Reporting Foodborne Illness
If you think you or others became ill from eating the same food, please report this outbreak to your local (city or county) health department via this webpage from the Centers for Disease Control.

  Safe Food Handling Fact Sheets
This website contains a wide range of food safety fact sheets to help you answer such questions as, "does a change in color of meat indicate spoilage? If my milk has a sell by Feb. 14th date stamp, does that mean I can't drink it on Feb. 15th? Does freezer burn make my food unsafe?" Just about any question you might have about safe food handling can be answered through these brief fact sheets, compiled by the USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service.

  Safe Handling of Take-Out Foods
Advice from the Food Safety and Inspection Service on the safe handling of take-Out and delivered foods.

  What You Need to Know About Mercury in Fish and Shellfish
From the United States Environmental Protection Agency, recommendations for selecting and eating fish or shellfish and reducing exposure to the harmful effects of mercury.

  BMI - Body Mass Index: BMI Calculator
This interactive website allows users to easily calculate their body mass index. This website is provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

  Dietary fats: Know which types to choose
Confused about what are healthy fats and what are the harmful fats? Look into this website, by the Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research, for answers to your fat related questions.

  Dietary Supplement Fact Sheets
This website provides an easily accessible, A-Z list of dietary supplement fact sheets. Information provided by the National Institutes of Health, Office of Dietary Supplements.

  Dietary Supplements
General information on dietary supplements is provided by the FDA/Center for Food Safety & Applied Nutrition.

  Food Pyramids
A critical look at the new Food Pyramid from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Presents the USDA model as well as the "Healthy Eating Pyramid" created by Walter C. Willett, MD, of the Harvard Schhol of Public Health.

  Functional Foods
The International Food Information Council Foundation provides a brief definition and examples of functional foods.

  How to Understand and Use the Nutrition Facts Label
Use this website to learn how to use the information found on a nutrition facts label more effectively and easily. This website, provided by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, presents an overview of the nutrition facts label.

  MyPyramid.gov
Use this site to learn about the new food pyramids released by the United States Department of Agriculture. This interactive site allows you to create a custom pyramid based on your age, gender and level of physical activity.

  The Fast Food Nutrition Fact Explorer
The Fast Food Nutrition Fact Explorer database contains the nutritional data of 12 of the world's most popular fast food restaurant chains.

  USDA Nutrition Database
Use this interactive nutrition database to obtain a food label on various supermarket products.

  Vitamin and mineral supplements: Use with care
This site, maintained by the Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research, will help you understand how to choose and use dietary supplements.

  Vitamins and Minerals: A to Z Glossary
This site contains an A to Z glossary of vitamins and minerals. Medical content on the site has been reviewed by the faculty of the Harvard Medical School.

  Water
Check out this website to learn about water's vital role in maintaining health.