Better health starts with better facts (great infographs!)

Improving your health starts with improving your knowledge.

To that end, I discovered some cool and helpful infographics, revealing information about how, what and when we eat -- and how that affects our health. Designed by Column Five (under Creative Commons), sponsored by MassiveHealth, makers of the Eatery app for the iPhone.

Here are just a few snapshots from the wealth of data they've unraveled. Note: in all examples, there's more data than I'm showing here. Hit the original site if you're a data geek. Or infograph afficianado.

Think that bacon and eggs for breakfast will make you fatter than a bagel with low fat cream cheese? Think again; this chart explains what happens to fat and carbs inside your body:

You've heard that eating breakfast is important; this chart shows the difference in portion size for the rest of the day in breakfast eaters vs. breakfast skippers:

And I've had a theory that the reason any diet works in the beginning is because just about any diet is healthier that a no-holds-barred approach. Turns out the data agrees:

Other charts include:

- What effect your friends' eating habits have on your eating habits.

- What days of the week we tend to eat healthy -- or not.

- How eating at home compares to eating out.

In case you skipped the second paragraph, I'll say it again: There's more data than I'm showing here. Hit the original site if you're a data geek. Or infograph afficianado. Or you just want to improve your health.

Two handy apps for comparing food nutrition info

Have you ever wondered how two foods stack up against each other, nutrition-wise? Here are a couple handy online tools that will help you do just that.

Self Magazine's Nutrition Data

This is an extensive database with great depth of nutrion info on a wide variety of foods. Looking at a single food you can find out how filling it is compared to how nutritios it is, as well as showing you a calorie breakdown for carbs, fats and protein:

Or how complete its nutrient (vitamins and minerals) or protein profile is (i.e, how many essential amino acids its contains). 

There are also detailed lists on where the calories come from, how the carbs break down, info on fats and fatty acids, and more.

You can access all this information for free and without registering. You can also choose to compare two or more foods, but for that, you will need to register. (You will be able to opt out from getting emails sent to you.)

Two Foods

While TwoFoods.com gives you limited control and limited data, it is super simple to operate. Simply type in two food names, and you can find out how they compare in calories, carbs, fat and protein. Say, Wheat Thins vs. Triscuits, for example...

And which is healthier for topping your cracker, low fat cheddar cheese, or low fat cream cheese?

Now you have no excuse for choosing the least healthy between two snack options. (Sorry!)