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Help! My eating is out of control!

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Q: I work in the emergency room, and the hours are crazy. I get up at 2:30 a.m. to get to work by 5. I start my day trying to eat correctly, but I "munch" throughout the day and go crazy when I get home about 12 hours later. On days off, I try to exercise and eat right, but my weight is waaaay out of control: I'm 5 feet 3 inches tall and weigh 210 pounds. Is there a plan I can follow with my crazy schedule? -- Anonymous

A: There's plenty you can do to take control of your weight, and there's a new, compelling reason why you should eat right: A diet filled with four-egged (saturated) or trans fats can disrupt your circadian rhythms even more than your non-traditional working hours already do.

So goal No. 1 for you is to wean yourself from fast, saturated and trans-fatty food by planning what you'll eat and when. That way, you have the power, not the person who fills the vending machine. It's going to take some time for the first week or two (until this becomes a habit), but it sounds like you're ready to make the commitment to change. So grab a buddy at work with your same goals, and get to it.

1. Eat breakfast, plus two other meals and two snacks every day. That means you'll still get to "munch all day" -- albeit on a morning snack, lunch and a midafternoon snack. Not enough? Eat half of your breakfast at home and bring the other half to work.

You will need to use some effort to be sure you have the right food on hand at work. It's not like you have to grow the food yourself. It doesn't take longer to shop for chicken than steak, and it's not any harder to open a bag of carrot sticks than to open a bag of potato chips. For an easy lunch, consider soup (low-sodium ones are getting really tasty, too) and a salad with walnuts and dried cranberries; it's faster than fast food. And if you get a little longer for a break, take a quick walk around the hallways to fight cravings or, better yet, get outside the building. Here's where you and your buddy can help each other: Get out of the ER and walk on 10-minute breaks whenever you can -- even going to a different floor to visit a patient from two days ago can help all three of you. Extend this break to a 30-minute walk to burn some calories whenever you can.

Q: What is the difference between table salt, sea salt and kosher salt? Is one type healthier than another? -- Jeannine, Niagara Falls, Ontario

A: One isn't necessarily healthier than the others, but sea salt and kosher salt tend to have more flavor than the standard stuff, so you use less.

Most people get about three times more sodium in a day than they need. No surprise, since it comes from processed foods and condiments, not just the saltshaker.

Here's what you're really getting:

Table salt: More than likely, the salt you've been sprinkling on your scrambled eggs and sliced tomatoes since childhood is mined and then refined to the point where it's almost all sodium chloride (and small amounts of minerals including zinc, potassium, calcium and magnesium), plus an additive or two such as an anti-caking ingredient. This salt's very fine texture allows it to dissolve easily, making it best for spots where you want flavor without any crunch.

Sea salt: This is the salt left behind when ocean or seawater evaporates, and it usually doesn't contain the minerals that rock salt (table salt) does.

Kosher salt: This additive-free salt has a very robust salty flavor, so people tend to use less of it. Whether you use the tiny, pyramid-shaped crystals or the coarse-flake variety, its larger grains mean you'll get a tiny bit less per pinch than fine table salt.