科学美国人60秒:Video Helps with Weight Info Basics

A flood of food comes at us this time of year. So the American Chemical Society has produced a YouTube video with info to help you survive the sweet and savory onslaught.  

The video from ChemMatters called "The Science Behind Calories and Nutrition Facts Labels," notes that: "A lot of us should pay more attention to nutritional values. For example, you might love having a caramel iced coffee every morning. But if you look at the nutritional info, a large caramel iced coffee from a leading fast food chain has 680 calories." That's almost half the total daily recommended calories for an overweight adult trying to lose weight.

And metabolism is king. "A person's basal metabolic rate, the rate at which a person's body uses energy while at rest, is responsible for up to 70 percent of the calories used by our bodies." And the good news? "People can change their basal metabolic rate by exercising…also people with more muscle and less fat generally have a higher basal metabolic rate." So keep moving. Preferably away from the desserts.

--Katherine Harmon