Do You Know How to Read Nutrition Labels?

I spoke to a group of parents and children on how to read nutrition labels this weekend and decided it will be good to blog about this for a larger audience. From my experience, even among the educated, ‘Nutrition Literacy’ is far from where it should be and learning to read nutrition labels can be a good starting point.Most of us walk into a grocery store and add items to our basket, blissfully unaware of what nutrition it actually delivers. In fact, many of us hardly ever stop to read the label and even if we do get around to looking at it, we may not be sure what the numbers imply. So here are some pointers which will help you decide if the product falls in the “healthy or not so healthy category” and how often you or your child should consume it.”No Label Don’t Buy ” -check for nutrition label on the food pack you buy. Today, all food manufacturers in the country have to declare the following on a label -nutritional facts per 100 g or 100 ml or per serving of the product:energy value in kcal,
total carbohydrate and sugar,
the amount of protein,
fat in gram (g) or ml, and
vitamins and minerals for which a health claim is made”Match Nutrition information to the quantity you eat”- next check if the nutrition information is given per 100 g or per serving.Net weight grams = grams declared on the nutrition label – the package is a one serve pack, say net weight is 30g and the nutrition label gives information for a serving size, then the numbers you see on the label is the nutrition you get from the pack.Net weight (g or ml) > grams/ml declared on the nutrition label – a good example for this is the fruit drinks/juices segment – nutrition facts are often shown per 100 ml even when a typical serve size is 200 ml. So if you are not alert to this fact, you might assume that your child is consuming only half the calories /sugar!Net weight (g) < grams on nutrition label- The single serve snack packs which we buy frequently for children weigh approximately 30 g while nutrition information is given for 100 g, so we need to do some simple division here else you might be left wondering how a small packet can deliver so many calories!”Stay away from large snack packs” – they weigh more than 100 g, but present nutrition information for 100 g. Unfortunately, current labeling norms do not mandate serving size, and even if they did when was the last time you were able to convince your child to close the packet after eating 15 chips? So, it is wiser to stick to the single serve /smaller packs!”Deciphering the calories further”: What is declared on the pack is the total calories you get from the product. To arrive at the number of calories from fat multiply the amount of fat, given in grams by 9, for carbohydrates and proteins, multiply by 4.”Sugar watch”: The number declared against carbohydrates indicates ‘total carbohydrates’ which includes complex carbohydrates (like what is found in cereals), simple sugars as found in fruit, milk and cane sugar and fibre. Check if the product contains added sugar. Some responsible fruit beverage companies do differentiate between the added sugar and the sugar coming from the fruit but many do not. So, if you are not able to figure out, take a look at the ingredient list on the pack – if the ingredient list includes ‘sugar’ in addition to water and juice concentrate, you can be certain that sugar has been added to make the product.”Fat Facts”: There are good fats and bad fats. But in our country, companies are not required to provide a break-up of the fat in foods unless they make health claims like ‘low fat,’ ‘low cholesterol’. As a result, one can never be sure of the type of fat used in the packaged food. One way to find out is to look at the ingredient list for words like ‘partially hydrogenated fat’ ‘shortening,’ as these products have a higher proportion of bad fats (trans fat). In the absence of any of the above information it might be best to avoid products which are high in fat content.Trust you find these pointers useful. Next time when you go to the grocery store, do look for the nutrition label and ingredient list on pack. If you are not happy with the information given, or after doing the math realise this should not be in your basket, put it right back on the shelf and do yourself and your kids a favour!

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Best Affiliate Program – Black Belt Marketing Success Secrets

If you search the internet you’ll find millions of free and also paid online affiliate programs.Most people have signed up in these online affiliate programs and tried to make money from them but failed miserably.They don’t know why.Are you one of them?If yes, read on to find out how to locate the right top affiliate program and how to promote it to start making money.All affiliate programs are not created equal.Some will make you money if properly promoted and others will not, no matter what you do.Why?Below are some reasons why.(1) The Right Affiliate Programs To PromoteMost people are under the mistaken notion that just because an affiliate program is free that they can promote it and get rich.Nothing can be farther away from the truth.The bitter reality is that if an affiliate program is free, then most likely thousands of people will want to sign up to promote it.Since thousands of people are promoting it, competition will be stiff and so the likelihood of getting rich from it will be slim because there will be more people promoting it than people who wish to buy it.When supply is greater than demand, profitability will nose dive.This is economics 101.So stay away from free online affiliate programs which hundreds of thousands of people are already promoting!The best online affiliate program which will likely make you rich will be the one that very few people are promoting and which is in great demand. The demand MUST be greater than supply.Most likely, such an affiliate program will not be offered free!You will have to pay for it to promote it.When people are required to pay to promote an affiliate program, then most people will not sign up for it, so only few people will promote it.This will then guarantee that the demand for it will be greater than the number of people who promote it and this means that the profitability for it will skyrocket.This is the kind of online affiliate program which can make you rich!There are few people online who are getting rich from online affiliate marketing and this is one of their sacred hidden secrets of success!(2) Build Landing Pages For Your Online Affiliate ProgramsYou must create a landing page at your website for any affiliate program which you desire to promote.At the landing page, you will then include a short introduction of the affiliate program, preferably, your own personal experience of using the program or a short review.Then at the bottom, include the link to the affiliate program website.This affiliate program landing page must be optimized also.You may also add Google AdSense ads and other pay per click ads as well as Clickbank products on this page to monetize it.This way, if your customer doesn’t click and go to the affiliate program, they may click on any of the pay per click ads such as AdSense or Clickbankbuddy or pay per click ad and you’ll make money.If you don’t know how to monetize your website with Google Adsense, Clickbankbuddy ads and pay per click products and ads, please contact us for free help.By having a landing page for your affiliate programs at your website, you have the advantage of not losing all the traffic you’ve built up if the affiliate program is stopped.If the affiliate program which you’re promoting is discontinued, you may replace it with another similar affiliate program and continue generating income from it.(3) Secret To Promote Your Online Affiliate ProgramOnline marketing has become more difficult than rocket science.During the past couple of years, most affiliate marketing strategies which used to work 6 yrs ago don’t work anymore.E-mail marketing has been dead for many years now.And the ISPs have added salt to the injury by creating so many filters which filter away your e-mail offers and so they don’t reach their destinations.Besides, most people don’t read their e-mails anymore.Most people have been bombarded by thousands of spams and offers and they just don’t have time to read these offers anymore.So e-mail marketing is completely dead.Free For All, FFA promotion is dead too.Banner advertising is dead too, unless you have thousands of dollars to promote it at highly trafficked sites.Search engine marketing, SEM doesn’t work any more because the search engines are constantly changing their optimization rules.It takes both Google and Yahoo several weeks to even index your page and include it in their system.You may optimize your website properly and attain a top ten position in a few keywords.But they never last long.In a few months when they update their search ranking, all your positions may likely disappear and your traffic will be gone too.You may try to promote through Google Adword campaign.But the truth is that not all programs can succeed in getting traffic from Google Adword or any other pay per click advertising.If you try to promote an online affiliate program, which hundreds of thousands of others are already promoting using Google Adword and pay per click advertising, you’ll end up squandering thousands of dollars! This has happened to many people already.So stop squandering your money in pay per click advertising.
(There is a better way. To learn more contact us for free help.)You may also try to use article writing to promote your affiliate programs.But very few people know the “SECRET” on how to write a highly optimized interesting article which will attain top ranking in the search engines and therefore produce traffic and sales for your online affiliate program.To succeed in doing this, you must know how to optimize the article, it must be interesting and you must post it where many people will read it.If you write and post an article but it can’t be found in the search engines when people search for the affiliate program which you’re promoting and if people are not reading it at the article directories where you posted it, you’ll not generate any traffic or sales!This is what many people are doing and among the TOP reasons why they are not making any money in their online affiliate marketing.(4) Traffic Is The Lifeblood Of Success In Online Affiliate Marketing ProgramThere are so many naïve people who have spent tons of dollars buying internet marketing e-books, programs and videos from so called internet marketing gurus and as if that is not enough, they have been suckered into squandering thousands of dollars attending seminars organized by these so called gurus only to find out that what they are peddling are outdated and archaic internet marketing strategies which don’t work any more.These suckers never to think about the truth.The truth is that no right thinking businessman will sell a secret on how to generate thousands of traffic daily to you for $50, when he knows he can keep his secret, use them to promote hundreds of affiliate programs and make millions.The real truth is that these so called gurus have no secret that really work. But what they have is a large e-mail list which they have built through e-zine and newsletter publishing for many years.So they make their money by marketing their e-books and affiliate programs to these mailing lists.If you have 50,000-100,000 e-mail lists which you have generated over 6 yrs, you’ll always manage to make a few thousands of dollars marketing any program to them especially if it is about internet marketing!In conclusion, there are still a few online affiliate programs which are easy to market and generate obscene income and there are still many jealously guarded traffic generating secrets which work and which can explode your website traffic and sales and so make you rich instantly.But they are not free. They will cost you some money.If you’re ready to pay to sign up in any of these few online affiliate programs, and to get the powerful traffic generating secrets of millionaire webmasters, then you’re serious about getting rich from online affiliate programs.May these insights about affiliate program, best affiliate program, free affiliate program, affiliate marketing program, top affiliate program, free online affiliate program, best free online affiliate program, online affiliate program, make money with affiliate program help you to attain success in your online business.Copyright Info: This article is copyrighted and you may publish this article at your website, in your e-zine (newsletter, blogs) or send it to a friend as long as you retain the author’s resource box, including the website address, and refrain from altering the content or using it in any re-direction manipulation scheme.If you don’t agree to these conditions, please don’t copy and use this article.Anyone who violates this condition will be subject to legal action and payment of damages for violation of our copyrights. Thank you.

SPDN: An Inexpensive Way To Profit When The S&P 500 Falls

Summary
SPDN is not the largest or oldest way to short the S&P 500, but it’s a solid choice.
This ETF uses a variety of financial instruments to target a return opposite that of the S&P 500 Index.
SPDN’s 0.49% Expense Ratio is nearly half that of the larger, longer-tenured -1x Inverse S&P 500 ETF.
Details aside, the potential continuation of the equity bear market makes single-inverse ETFs an investment segment investor should be familiar with.
We rate SPDN a Strong Buy because we believe the risks of a continued bear market greatly outweigh the possibility of a quick return to a bull market.
Put a gear stick into R position, (Reverse).
Birdlkportfolio

By Rob Isbitts

Summary
The S&P 500 is in a bear market, and we don’t see a quick-fix. Many investors assume the only way to navigate a potentially long-term bear market is to hide in cash, day-trade or “just hang in there” while the bear takes their retirement nest egg.

The Direxion Daily S&P 500® Bear 1X ETF (NYSEARCA:SPDN) is one of a class of single-inverse ETFs that allow investors to profit from down moves in the stock market.

SPDN is an unleveraged, liquid, low-cost way to either try to hedge an equity portfolio, profit from a decline in the S&P 500, or both. We rate it a Strong Buy, given our concern about the intermediate-term outlook for the global equity market.

Strategy
SPDN keeps it simple. If the S&P 500 goes up by X%, it should go down by X%. The opposite is also expected.

Proprietary ETF Grades
Offense/Defense: Defense

Segment: Inverse Equity

Sub-Segment: Inverse S&P 500

Correlation (vs. S&P 500): Very High (inverse)

Expected Volatility (vs. S&P 500): Similar (but opposite)

Holding Analysis
SPDN does not rely on shorting individual stocks in the S&P 500. Instead, the managers typically use a combination of futures, swaps and other derivative instruments to create a portfolio that consistently aims to deliver the opposite of what the S&P 500 does.

Strengths
SPDN is a fairly “no-frills” way to do what many investors probably wished they could do during the first 9 months of 2022 and in past bear markets: find something that goes up when the “market” goes down. After all, bonds are not the answer they used to be, commodities like gold have, shall we say, lost their luster. And moving to cash creates the issue of making two correct timing decisions, when to get in and when to get out. SPDN and its single-inverse ETF brethren offer a liquid tool to use in a variety of ways, depending on what a particular investor wants to achieve.

Weaknesses
The weakness of any inverse ETF is that it does the opposite of what the market does, when the market goes up. So, even in bear markets when the broader market trend is down, sharp bear market rallies (or any rallies for that matter) in the S&P 500 will cause SPDN to drop as much as the market goes up.

Opportunities
While inverse ETFs have a reputation in some circles as nothing more than day-trading vehicles, our own experience with them is, pardon the pun, exactly the opposite! We encourage investors to try to better-understand single inverse ETFs like SPDN. While traders tend to gravitate to leveraged inverse ETFs (which actually are day-trading tools), we believe that in an extended bear market, SPDN and its ilk could be a game-saver for many portfolios.

Threats
SPDN and most other single inverse ETFs are vulnerable to a sustained rise in the price of the index it aims to deliver the inverse of. But that threat of loss in a rising market means that when an investor considers SPDN, they should also have a game plan for how and when they will deploy this unique portfolio weapon.

Proprietary Technical Ratings
Short-Term Rating (next 3 months): Strong Buy

Long-Term Rating (next 12 months): Buy

Conclusions
ETF Quality Opinion
SPDN does what it aims to do, and has done so for over 6 years now. For a while, it was largely-ignored, given the existence of a similar ETF that has been around much longer. But the more tenured SPDN has become, the more attractive it looks as an alternative.

ETF Investment Opinion

SPDN is rated Strong Buy because the S&P 500 continues to look as vulnerable to further decline. And, while the market bottomed in mid-June, rallied, then waffled since that time, our proprietary macro market indicators all point to much greater risk of a major decline from this level than a fast return to bull market glory. Thus, SPDN is at best a way to exploit and attack the bear, and at worst a hedge on an otherwise equity-laden portfolio.