CHICO, CA--(Marketwire - Oct 17, 2012) - Star Nutrition, Inc. ( PINKSHEETS : STAU ), a California-based diversified health and wellness industry firm, has announced the release of the latest addition to its popular Incrediwear line: The TEC-3 arm and calf sleeves. Engineered from an Italian 3-D weaving machine and utilizing Carbonized Charcoal Anion Technology, the 360-thread count TEC-3 is designed to increase circulation to the arms and calves, while decreasing fatigue, swelling and recovery time.

"The TEC-3 is already loved by many championship athletes around the world," said Star Nutrition CEO Jackson Corley. "They are using the sleeve because it helps them train harder and longer, as well as recover faster from their workouts. The TEC-3 is also our thinnest sleeve available so it allows for a premium release of negative ions and maximum benefit to the athlete. We're excited to bring this product to market to help all athletes unlock their true potential."

Among the athletes currently using the TEC-3 are Morrocan runner Aissa Dghougi, MMA professional trainer Kevin Kearns, championship snowboarder Terje Haakonsen, professional rock climber Ivan Greene, four-time Olympic Judo competitor and bronze medalist Mike Swain, 2012 U.S. Judo Olympic bronze medalist Marti Malloy and 8th-degree Karate black belt Pat Haley.

Benefits of the TEC-3 include:

About Star Nutrition, Inc. California-based Star Nutrition is a publicly traded company ( PINKSHEETS : STAU ) that prides itself on providing innovative, over-the-counter health care products. The company's products include Incredisocks, Rx Diabetic socks and Incredibraces. Its mission is to focus on producing products that will enhance the lives and wellness of its customers.

For more information visit http://www.StarNutrition.com or http://www.BuyIncrediwear.com.

Join the Incrediwear community at Facebook.com/Incrediwear and @Incrediwear.

Continued here:
Star Nutrition's Incrediwear Line Now Features TEC-3 Arm and Calf Sleeves

The nutrition facts label provides us with a great amount of information. But what good is that information if we don't understand it?

The first place to look is at the serving size. This number is important because the amount of nutrients and calories for every product is based on one serving. Servings per container shows how many servings are in an entire package. Be sure not to confuse the entire package as one serving.

Below the serving size, the number of calories per serving is listed. Calories measure the amount of energy that comes from a single serving. Some products also list calories from fat, or how much energy is coming directly from fat. If you are trying to reach or maintain a healthy weight, this section will be helpful. Balancing the calories you consume with the calories you burn during activity is important to managing a healthy weight. To lose weight, you must burn more calories than you consume; to maintain a healthy weight, you must burn equal amounts of calories that you consume.

After looking at the serving size and calories per serving, it is important to look at the nutrients the food contains. Nutrition facts labels list macronutrients such as fat, carbohydrates and protein, as well as micronutrients such as vitamins and minerals.

The nutrients that are listed closer to the top of the label should be limited. These nutrients include total fat, saturated fat, trans fat, cholesterol and sodium. Excessive amounts of these nutrients can lead to chronic health conditions. The nutrients that are listed in the lower half, such as vitamins, minerals and fiber, should be consumed more often. These nutrients can help decrease the risk of chronic diseases.

Listed on the right side of the food label are percentages that represent how much of the daily requirement for a nutrient is in one serving of the product. For example, if a nutrition label lists 10 percent for vitamin A, that means one serving provides 10 percent of the total amount of vitamin A needed each day, based on a 2,000-calorie diet. You will see that trans fat, sugar and protein do not have a percentage listed, because no recommended intake has been established.

To help you understand the percent daily value a little better, use this quick guide: 5 percent daily value or less is low; 20 percent or more is high. Look for foods that contain close to 5 percent for saturated fat, cholesterol and sodium and contain close to 20 percent for vitamins, minerals and fiber.

Finally, it is important to be aware of the ingredients that a product contains. At the bottom of the label is a list of ingredients in descending order by weight. A product contains larger amounts of the ingredients listed at the top of the ingredient list. Those listed near the bottom are used in smaller amounts. Nutrition facts labels are required to list common allergens such as wheat, egg, soy, milk, nuts or fish.

Nutrition facts labels provide a lot of information that explains what and how much a particular food contains, but the information is useless unless we know how to interpret it. Using this information will not only help you understand what is in foods, but it will also help you to make healthier choices.

Kelly Marsteller is a clinical outpatient dietitian at Memorial Hospital. Healthy Helpings is a column written by nutritionists in York and Adams counties.

More:
Healthy Helpings: Understanding the nutrition facts label

CHICAGO On a recent sunny fall afternoon, students from Lake View High School streamed out of a nearby convenience store munching after-school snacks.

Some bought cookies and snack cakes. Others got soft drinks and candy. But the majority walked out of Touchdown Food Mart with crinkly orange bags of Flamin Hot Cheetos sometimes with warm cheese sauce poured on top of the fiery red curls.

Once you start eating them, they are kind of addicting, and you cant help it, said sophomore Zian Garcia. Personally I have been eating them for years, and I cannot stop. I just have this urge to eat them.

In the 20 years since Frito-Lay launched Flamin Hot Cheetos as a snack aimed at urban convenience stores, the product has inspired dozens of spicy competitors, multiple Facebook fan pages, a viral rap video and legions of loyal young fans.

But for many school administrators and public health advocates, the wild popularity of Flamin Hots inspires concern. To many, theyve become shorthand for everything that is wrong with the diets of American children, whose obesity rates have tripled since 1980.

While its true that Flamin Hots, also known as Hot Cheetos, deliver high levels of salt, fat and artificial colors with little nutrition or fiber in return, the same can be said for similar snacks.

Yet there is something about Flamin Hot Cheetos that inflames critics in a way that other snacks including regular Cheetos never did. Some schools and districts, including Illinois Noble Street Charter School Network and the entire Rockford school district, have banned Flamin Hots by name, citing nutritional concerns.

We dont allow candy, and we dont allow Hot Cheetos, said Rita Exposito, principal of Jackson Elementary School in Pasadena, Calif. We dont encourage other chips, but if we see Hot Cheetos, we confiscate them sometimes after the child has already eaten most of them. Its mostly about the lack of nutrition.

Its not hard to find kids who say they eat Flamin Hots or similar products every day, sometimes even for breakfast. If that sounds like an addiction, some scientists say it may not be far from the truth.

Emerging research on food addiction suggests that processed salty, fatty or sweet foods of any kind also called hyperpalatable foods can trigger brain responses similar to those created by controlled substances in addicted individuals.

See the rest here:
Nutrition advocates putting heat on Flamin’ Hot Cheetos

It takes money to make money. Most investors know that, but with business media so focused on the "how much," very few investors bother to ask, "How fast?"

When judging a company's prospects, how quickly it turns cash outflows into cash inflows can be just as important as how much profit it's booking in the accounting fantasy world we call "earnings." This is one of the first metrics I check when I'm hunting for the market's best stocks. Today, we'll see how it applies to Schiff Nutrition International (NYSE: SHF) .

Let's break this down In this series, we measure how swiftly a company turns cash into goods or services and back into cash. We'll use a quick, relatively foolproof tool known as the cash conversion cycle, or CCC for short.

Why does the CCC matter? The less time it takes a firm to convert outgoing cash into incoming cash, the more powerful and flexible its profit engine is. The less money tied up in inventory and accounts receivable, the more available to grow the company, pay investors, or both.

To calculate the cash conversion cycle, add days inventory outstanding to days sales outstanding, then subtract days payable outstanding. Like golf, the lower your score here, the better. The CCC figure for Schiff Nutrition International for the trailing 12 months is 90.2.

For younger, fast-growth companies, the CCC can give you valuable insight into the sustainability of that growth. A company that's taking longer to make cash may need to tap financing to keep its momentum. For older, mature companies, the CCC can tell you how well the company is managed. Firms that begin to lose control of the CCC may be losing their clout with their suppliers (who might be demanding stricter payment terms) and customers (who might be demanding more generous terms). This can sometimes be an important signal of future distress -- one most investors are likely to miss.

In this series, I'm most interested in comparing a company's CCC to its prior performance. Here's where I believe all investors need to become trend-watchers. Sure, there may be legitimate reasons for an increase in the CCC, but all things being equal, I want to see this number stay steady or move downward over time.

Source: S&P Capital IQ. Dollar amounts in millions. FY = fiscal year. TTM = trailing 12 months.

Because of the seasonality in some businesses, the CCC for the TTM period may not be strictly comparable to the fiscal-year periods shown in the chart. Even the steadiest-looking businesses on an annual basis will experience some quarterly fluctuations in the CCC. To get an understanding of the usual ebb and flow at Schiff Nutrition International, consult the quarterly-period chart below.

Source: S&P Capital IQ. Dollar amounts in millions. FQ = fiscal quarter.

See the original post:
The Secret Reason Schiff Nutrition International's Earnings are Awesome