Food, Inc. - You won't want to eat again

Food Inc. is a new movie. Not about food, but about how America is destroying food. It's as if we are paving the fields of paradise and putting up a parking lot (for McDonald's).

Do you ever wonder how businesses can sell a hamburger for a buck, and soda for less than milk? Have you ever wonder why, businesses would do that?

Twenty years ago, it was clear to everyone who ever looked at the automobile industry that America needed a new model...not a new car model, but a new business model built on efficiencies. Overall transportation efficiencies: like electric trains, hydrogen buses, bike-friendly cities, etc. But most of all we didn't need Hummers getting 10 m.p.g. But nobody at GM was getting bonuses thinking outside of the internal combustion engine.

Well, the same thing is happening in food. Everyone knows we need to grow broccoli a lot more than 400-pound cows to supply Burger King with fatty hamburgers. Everyone knows we need less pesticides and more nutrition in our food. Everyone knows we need less 100,000 chicken cooped up, and more sustainable food sources.

GM is bankrupt. Look out Monsanto. Look out Tyson. Look out meat producers. Look out pork producers. Look out corn syrup producers. Look out Coke.

Check out Food, Inc.'s website.

Here's an excerpt from the New York Times review:

“Food, Inc.” begins with images of a bright, bulging American supermarket, and then moves to the jammed chicken houses, grim meat-cutting rooms and chemical-laced cornfields where much of the American diet comes from. Along the way Mr. Kenner attempts to expose the hidden costs of a system in which fast-food hamburgers cost $1 and soda is cheaper than milk.

“The way we eat has changed more in the last 50 years than the previous 10,000,” Michael Pollan says as the film opens. Mr. Pollan, an author and occasional contributor to The New York Times Magazine, is the spiritual guide for the film and serves as its narrator. “A lot of it is hard to watch,” he conceded, “but I think people are ready to take a good, unflinching look at how their food is produced."

Exercise will not stop obesity

Without a million dollar grant, I have concluded obesity in America started with over-eating, not the lack of exercise.

My own story was evidence. I lost 94 pounds by NOT over-eating. NOT by more exercise.

Now a new study concludes the same thing. From Times on Line:

Over-eating rather than more sedentary living is almost entirely to blame for the rise in obesity in the developed world, according to research.

A study of the US obesity “epidemic” — a precursor of world dietary trends — suggests that there has not been any significant reduction in levels of exercise in the past 30 years. It concludes that the surge in obesity is a result of excessive calories.

Researchers at the World Health Organisation Collaborating Centre for Obesity Prevention, at Deakin University in Victoria, Australia, said that the findings would be reflected in other industrialised countries such as Britain.

Last year the largest British study into obesity, backed by the Government and compiled by 250 experts, concluded that excess weight had become the norm. It predicted that by 2050, 90 per cent of today’s children will be overweight or obese — costing taxpayers an estimated £50 billion.

Professor Boyd Swinburn, chairman of population health at Deakin University, said that US children had grown on average 9lb heavier and adults were 17lb more. For the US population to return to leaner 1970s levels children would have to cut their intake by about 350 calories a day — equal to a can of fizzy drink and a small portion of fries, and adults by about 500 calories — about the same as a Big Mac burger. Alternatively children would have to walk an extra 2½ hours a day, and adults nearly two hours.

“Getting everybody to walk an extra two hours a day is not really a feasible option for countering the epidemic,” Professor Swinburn said. “We need to limit our expectations of what an increase in physical activity can achieve.” He said that the findings did not seek to negate the value of exercise for weight control.

Colleges slow down fast foods

School cafeterias are teaching Americans all the wrong things about food. 

Fast, fatty, fried foods are the favorites of lazy cooks and fat students.

But some colleges are trying to change that with local, slow foods.

The Boston Globe reports:

But on a recent night at College of the Holy Cross, an entirely different scene was unfolding at one end of the cavernous dining hall: a five-course meal served on hand-painted Wedgwood china by bow-tied servers in crisp white tuxedo shirts. The stylish repast would last - gulp - two hours.

Students feasted on cream of asparagus soup, mushroom and chevre tarts, and maple-glazed hanging tender steak - all products of local farms. The din of conversation floated over the linen-covered tables as the last rays of the setting sun streamed through the wall of windows.

Two little eggs can make a big difference

Eggs can help you manage your weight.

That's the findings in a recent study. I can verify that experiment. I lost 94 pounds eating egg whites and mushrooms every morning. It filled me up and kept my appetite lowered during the morning.

If you want to control your weight, try eggs in the morning.

From dnaindia.com:

Eating eggs for breakfast can help adults manage hunger and reduce calorie consumption throughout the day, according to a new research on breakfast choices.

On the other hand, teens who choose a protein-rich breakfast are less hungry and eat fewer calories at lunch.

In one study, Maria Luz Fernandez,Ph.D., professor in the department of nutritional sciences at the University of Connecticut, investigated the differences in post-meal hunger and daily caloric intake when eating a breakfast of either protein-rich eggs or carbohydrate-rich bagels.

It was found that men who consumed eggs for breakfast consumed fewer calories following the egg breakfast compared to the bagel breakfast.

Also, they consumed fewer total calories in the 24-hour period after the egg breakfast compared to the bagel breakfast.

In addition, they reported feeling less hungry and more satisfied three hours after the egg breakfast compared to the bagel breakfast.

The study supports previous research, which found that eating eggs for breakfast as part of a reduced-calorie diet helped overweight dieters lose 65 percent more weight and feel more energetic than dieters who ate a bagel breakfast of equal calories and volume.

The study found no significant difference in blood levels of LDL and HDL cholesterol and triglycerides between the individuals who ate the egg breakfast and those who ate the bagel breakfast.

In another study, researchers from the University of Kansas Medical Center assessed the impact of a protein-rich breakfast on appetite and overall calorie consumption among teens who traditionally skip breakfast.

They found that teens consumed fewer calories at lunch when they ate a protein-rich breakfast of solid foods compared with a protein-rich beverage breakfast.

Also, they discovered that post-meal hunger was significantly reduced when the teens ate a protein-rich breakfast of solid foods.

When fat we have a million excuses and studies

When it comes to fat and obesity no one wants to face the truth.

Eating outside the home, especially at unhealthy fast food restaurants -- but also at cafeterias, schools, hospitals, makes nearly all of us fat. There only one reason a person becomes fat: eating more calories than burning calories.

But of course, we keep looking for other reasons of why we are fat. It's because of our mother, our genetics, our tonsils; it's because we are depressed or unhappy or too poor or too rich.

Scripps News give a sampling of recent studies:

-- Blame what Mom ate. Rockefeller University researchers found when a mother eats a high-fat diet during pregnancy, her offspring stimulates the appetite -- and lead to overeating and obesity early in life.
-- Tonsils keep us thin. Dutch researchers reported last month that children who have their tonsils surgically removed, with or without their adenoids, are at increased risk for becoming overweight or obese by the time they're 8.
-- Ear infections make us fat. Scientists at the University of Florida found that middle-aged adults with a history of middle ear infections tend to be overweight more than similar adults with no history of infections.
-- Obesity numbs the tongue. Penn State researchers reported that obesity in lab rats gradually numbs their sensitivity to sweet foods and prompts them to consume larger and ever-sweeter meals to get the same feeling of reward.
-- Gut hormones make food look better. Canadian researchers reported brain imaging studies on humans that showed reward centers in their brains responded more strongly to pictures of food when the subjects have received an infusion of the appetite hormone ghrelin.
-- Junk food makes kids happy. Kids eating fast foods were less likely to feel unhappy, sad or depressed.

Channel 7 may fry in fast food hell!

It's no wonder that Americans are get fatter every day.

The media continues to pepper the public with publicity, and not facts.

Take for example, Channel 7 in Los Angeles. ABC's Food Coach Lori Corbin tells you "popular chains have menu items they can be proud of and you should be ordering." She then goes through the entire list of healthy food at McDonald's, Chipotle, Panera, Einstein Bros. Bagels, and Au Bon Pain. The list goes on for nearly -- wait for it -- three or four items. And of course none of the items are healthy.

Corbin crows about the reduced-fat cream cheese at Einstein Bros., but the oversized bagel will still cost you 500 calories. She says if you hanker Mexican, then Chipotle has a lot of choices...a lot of choices of 1,000-calorie meals.

No one in America is going to get fit and healthy with our media telling us fast foods is where the healthy food is.

If you want to read the truth see The Nation.

The Nation reports the first lady, Michelle Obama, is telling America quite a different message. And it's what I have been saying all along. Fast food is not fresh, tasty or healthy.

What made Obama's message so subversive was something she left unsaid: the food most Americans eat nowadays is not fresh, tasty or healthy. The superiority of fresh ingredients may be obvious to Italians, but it is a truth most Americans long ago forgot, if they ever knew it in the first place. Over the past fifty years, the United States has been transformed into a fast food nation, in author Eric Schlosser's phrase. What the typical American eats is not so much food as it is highly processed food derivatives that have traveled thousands of miles since leaving the farm, losing along the way most of the flavor and nutritional value they once possessed. To disguise such losses, food manufacturers overload products with fats, salts and sweeteners, especially corn syrup--additives that, along with the massive portions typically served in the United States, help explain why nearly one in three Americans is obese. more...

Splitting will make a whole healthy

Every health professional is encouraging Americans to eat less when dining out. One strategy is to split an entrée. For one thing most restaurant entrées are too many calories for a healthy meal. Many other sites are encouraging splitting meals to save money, but my passion is not putting restaurants out of business.

However, I do believe healthy food, healthy portions at the right price, and local ingredients will be the foundation of economically healthy restaurants in the future. 

Freep.com reports a mixed bag in Detroit when it comes to splitting entrées. Some restaurants charge $10 and $5 to split. Others allow you to split at the table for free. In some places, they might try to embarass you into NOT splitting.

Last night we split the entrée at our favorite Italian restaurant. The waitstaff brought two extra plates, and of course, for its best customer, the restaurant did not charge any fee. (They have also waived any corkage charges in these economic times.)

I would encourage us all to speak up to the management if you think splitting entrées should be encouraged. And let's all eat the RightSize of food at our favorite restaurant.

Freep.com:

I still remember the night my family and I were seated near a frail-looking elderly couple at an Italian restaurant in West Bloomfield, and the man told the waiter he and his wife would like one entrée to share.

In a disapproving voice loud enough to be heard several tables away, the waiter said something like, "Well, you'll have to pay a $5 split plate charge."

From his tone, I didn't think the waiter thought they were hard of hearing. I thought he was trying to embarrass them.

"What we are seeing, rather than more shared plates, are more people ordering petite entrées" -- regular menu items offered in a reduced size, said owner Jim Kokas of Opus One in Detroit.

But if diners still want to share an entrée, there's a $10 charge, which is clearly stated on the menu, as it should be.

The fee exists, he says, because his kitchen gives each person a half portion of meat or fish but a full measure of vegetables and starch, so it's serving more food. And there are other, less-obvious costs in serving two people rather than one: bread and butter for two, washing china and glasses for two, laundering napkins for two and so on.

Most restaurants, including Opus One, don't charge extra if a waiter splits a dish such as a salad or appetizer for the guests at their table. more...

Feed children only healthy foods in schools

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Commission to Build a Healthier America today urged all Americans to make healthier choices and society to help remove the obstacles so many people face in making those choices, issuing 10 cross-cutting recommendations for improving the nation’s health. According to the Commission, how long and how well Americans live depend more on where we live, learn, work and play than on medical care, which accounts for only an estimated 10 to 15 percent of preventable early deaths. Building a healthier nation requires a broader view of health, the Commission said.

That's what this blog is all about. Proactively, building a healthier nation -- not by increasing medical care -- but by preventing a multitude of diseases caused by obesity.

I believe obesity is caused by eating too many calories and too many calories are in foods we eat outside the home.

It's clear the federal government should not promote obesity. But it does. It does it through food subsidies and it does it by forcing schools to sell unhealthy foods.

“Everyone must be involved in the effort to improve health because health is everyone’s business,” said Co-chair Alice M. Rivlin, former head of the White House Office of Management and Budget and the first director of the Congressional Budget Office. “People should make healthy choices by eating better, getting enough physical activity and not smoking. Communities and employers should support those choices by creating healthy environments. And the federal government should make and enforce healthy policies, like ensuring that all subsidized food is healthy and junk food is eliminated from schools.”

The best kind of tax

Some great ideas are not accepted right away. This healthy idea will take several years to catch on. And it will have to overcome one of the strongest lobbies in the U.S. But it's an idea that will take hold.

The idea is a tax on sodas and sports drinks containing sugar. And no other idea will stop sugary drinks in its tracks like this one.


From the New York Times:

A month after Gov. David A. Paterson dropped his proposal for a soda tax, New York City’s health commissioner has written an article advocating “hefty” taxes on sodas and sports drinks containing sugar. Such a tax, the article said, could be the biggest boon to public health since tobacco taxes.

The commissioner, Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, and Kelly D. Brownell of Yale University, his co-author, argue in the New England Journal of Medicine that a tax of a penny per ounce could reduce consumption by more than 10 percent and raise $1.2 billion a year in New York State alone.

“It is difficult to imagine producing behavior change of this magnitude through education alone, even if government devoted massive resources to the task,” said the article, published in the journal’s April 30 issue and released online Wednesday. “Only heftier taxes will significantly reduce consumption.”

Music to my ears: Fatburger bankrupt

Two Fatburger subsidiaries have filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy protection.

Who said that Americans would only eat cheap hamburgers during this recession? In any case they are not eating those fatburgers in California and Nevada.

Americans are starting to make wise choices, and the day of the hamburger is almost over.

From the Las Vegas Sun:

Fatburger Restaurants of Nevada Inc. and its sister company in California have filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, saying the recession has slowed sales and reduced the availability of bank financing.

The filings Tuesday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in San Fernando Valley, Calif., say Fatburger has 13 restaurants in Nevada with 205 employees, as well as two parcels of developed real estate. The Nevada restaurants generated sales of $12 million in 2008, the company said. More...