If you’ve ever wondered about the nutritional content of food, your problems are at an end, because here’s WolframAlpha, a computational knowledge engine!

Whatever is that, I hear you cry.

Quite straight-forward,  Wolfram|Alpha is an early stage of a long-term project that aims to make all systematic knowledge immediately computable by anyone.

The way it works is that you type in a question, or a calculation you need to make, and Wolfram|Alpha uses its built-in algorithms and growing collection of data to compute the answer.

The link I’m sending you to is based on food and nutrition, but if you browse some of the other options, you’ll find plenty of other fascinating facts!

Enjoy… and please add, as a comment, some of the nutritional and health-related uses you can find for Wolfram|Alpha.

Here’s just one idea to start you off, go to the site and type in “2 weetabix + bowl of milk” (without the quotes).

We hear that we must eat five (or even ten – depending on who you listen to) portions of fruit and veg a day. But what is a portion?

Fruit

A portion is 80 grams or 3.2 ounces. Example portions from a British Dietetic Association handout:

• Large slice of melon or pineapple
• Medium-sized apple, pear, orange
• Two plums or satsumas
• Cup of grapes or berries
• 2-3 tablespoons fruit salad or canned fruit
• One 150ml glass of fruit juice
• Two tablespoons vegetables – raw, cooked, canned or fresh
• One dessert bowlful of salad

Potatoes don’t count. They don’t contain the same antioxidants as the fruit and vegetables.

The fruit and veggies don’t have to be raw or fresh though they may be even better for you if they are.

If you’re anything like me, you’ve marveled at the size of portions in (some) restaurants these days. Eating out when younger I would regularly enjoy a three course meal, without feeling bloated. Now – two courses and I’m begging for mercy.

Does anyone else agree that restaurant portions have increased to mammoth proportions? If so you could be forgiven for thinking that it’s better for you to eat at home.

Well, to some extent, you’re right – but when you’re doing your own cooking, it turns out that – despite the availability of “healthy cooking books” you might be better served by reaching for an old one.

A study directed by Cornell University marketing professor Brian Wansink,  investigated changes in classic recipes over the past 70 years, and found almost a 40 percent increase in calories per serving for nearly every recipe reviewed. That’s about an extra 77 calories.

This is only one example. Lisa Young, a  New York University professor of nutrition , had similar findings in a 2002 study that compared a brownie recipe from the ’60s and ’70s editions to the 1997 edition recipe.“Same recipe. Same pan. But in the ’60s and ’70s it yielded 30 brownies,” she says. “In the 1997 edition it yielded 15.”

You can read the whole story in FoxNews.

Click the book cover below for more information on healthy eating :