Are kids smarter than a restaurant owner?

Are kids too sophisticated for restaurants? And are restaurants too unhealthy for kids?

The Boston Globe points out in today's edition that our kids are much more knowledgeable and adventurous than ever before. But look at the kid's menu at any restaurant: it's full of chicken nuggets, spaghetti and grilled cheese.

My picky-eating son often skips the kid's menu. In Newport he ordered the lobster. On the Cape it's calamari. In our home town it's mussel Gorgonzola.

Let's outlaw those damn chicken nuggets, and get real food on the kid's menu.

The obvious problem with children’s menus is their nutritional value. Offerings are often high in fat, sodium, and sugar. “Most kids’ menus don’t even come with a vegetable,’’ says Allison Lauretti, lead clinical psychologist in the Optimal Weight for Life Program at Children’s Hospital Boston, which evaluates and treats children who are overweight. “When we go out to dinner, we have to order a vegetable off the regular menu to give to the kids.’’ Read more...

Hide your eyes: The High Price of Cheap Food

Don't look away. I know you are eating your Sunday breakfast. But do you know how expensive that slice of bacon is? What about that hamburger this afternoon? And the steak tonight?

What does it take to raise cheap bad food in America?

Time Magazine gets real and tells you the truth. Don't look away; you need to read this.

Somewhere in Iowa, a pig is being raised in a confined pen, packed in so tightly with other swine that their curly tails have been chopped off so they won't bite one another. To prevent him from getting sick in such close quarters, he is dosed with antibiotics. The waste produced by the pig and his thousands of pen mates on the factory farm where they live goes into manure lagoons that blanket neighboring communities with air pollution and a stomach-churning stench. He's fed on American corn that was grown with the help of government subsidies and millions of tons of chemical fertilizer. When the pig is slaughtered, at about 5 months of age, he'll become sausage or bacon that will sell cheap, feeding an American addiction to meat that has contributed to an obesity epidemic currently afflicting more than two-thirds of the population.

Read more: Getting Real About the High Price of Cheap Food

How fast foods screws up good food

So you have been reading this blog, and you are ready to stop eating those fat-laden Whoppers and skip the lard-fried potatoes. You order a veggie burger. It's got to be better for you than a beef burger.

That's the not the case at Rudy Tuesday's.

Order a Veggie Burger at Rudy Tuesday's and heads-up heart attack: The mixture of rice, black beans, and vegetables comes top with Swiss cheese and 53 grams of total fat. At a whooping 952 calories, that's more than a Whopper! At 952 calories that's half a man's calorie allotment for the entire day. A veggie burger!?

I'm not sure we can trust any fast food restaurants with our health. And this is the industry that doesn't want to post fat or calorie information. Now you know why.

Another Lie: Lose weight through exercise

There's a big lie around food. The lie is: Fast food isn't bad for you. Hamburgers aren't bad for you. Coke isn't bad for you. 1,500-calorie salads are not bad for you. YOU just need to exercise more. Instead of taking the elevator, walk up the steps. Walk 30 minutes a day. Get off the couch.

Well, it's a lie, and there continues to be science proving that lie.

The only way to lose weight, the only way to stop obesity in this country is to reduce portions, reduce calories, reduce the "bad" types of food you eat.

In the NY Times today, a new study by the University of Colorado School of Medicine, describes how exercise alone does help you with weight control.

But few people, an overwhelming body of research shows, achieve significant weight loss with exercise alone, not without changing their eating habits. A new study from scientists at the University of Colorado School of Medicine in Denver offers some reasons why.

“The message of our work is really simple,” although not agreeable to hear, Melanson said. “It all comes down to energy balance,” or, as you might have guessed, calories in and calories out. People “are only burning 200 or 300 calories” in a typical 30-minute exercise session, Melanson points out. “You replace that with one bottle of Gatorade.” more...

This is the message McDonald's, Coca-Cola, the corn syrup lobby and LA Fitness doesn't want you to ever read, let alone believe.

Food fight is unfair

It's not even a fair food fight. Consumer companies want your kids to be as fat as possible, and they don't care about the consequences.

Soda in the high schools, fast food restaurants on college campus, and of course, before you arrive at school, the companies have you hopped up on sugar.

A new study confirms what savvy consumers have long suspected: Most breakfast cereals advertised to kids are chockfull of sugar and low on fiber.

In fact, cereals marketed to kids have 85% more sugar, 65% less fiber and 60% more sodium than those aimed at adults, according to the report from Yale University's Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity. Read more at USAtoday.com.

And the cereals with the most sugar are advertised the most to our children. When will the parents of America wake up and stop these companies? Right now 30 percent of all children in 30 states are obese. Will we remove these cereals from the grocery shelves? When the rate reaches 40 percent in 40 states? 50 percent in 50 states? 100 percent???

Cereals with the poorest nutrition ratings that are advertised to kids:

1. Reese's Puffs
2. Corn Pops
3. Lucky Charms
4. Cinnamon Toast Crunch
4. Cap'n Crunch (tied)
6. Trix
6. Froot Loops (tied)
6. Fruity and Cocoa Pebbles (tied)
9. Cocoa Puffs
10. Cookie Crisp

The new tobacco -- soda

What's wrong with a Coke once a day? Plenty, according to a recent UCLA study, "Bubbling Over: Soda Consumption and Its Link to Obesity in California". Each additional daily serving of soda increases a child’s chance risk for obesity by 60%.

There's nothing wrong with soda, according to the CEO of Coke-Cola, Muhtar Kent in the Wall Street Journal. Americans should "enjoy the simple pleasure of a Coca-Cola." He says TV and video games are the real problems.

Never mind that before the obesity crisis, Coke-Cola could only be bought in 6.5 ounce bottles with real cane sugar (88 calories). Now a small Classic Coke from Burger King is 491 calories with highly processed high fructose corn syrup.

The study tells the story: "Portion sizes have also increased from an average serving size of 6.5 fl oz (88 calories)in the 1950s, to 12 fl oz (150 calories), 20 fl oz (266 calories), and even larger portion sizes common today. The average serving size of soft drinks in fast food restaurants in 2002 was 23 fl oz (299 calories), with some chains now commonly selling soft drinks in 32 to 64 fl oz portions (416 to 832 calories, respectively)."

I remember when Coke was a nickel. In California sugary soda costs $21 billion every year.

From the study: "Each year in California, overweight and obesity cost families, employers, the health care industry and the government $21 billion. California spends more public and private money on the health consequences of obesity than any other state."

Here's some more sickening facts from Ron Eade and the Ottawa Citizen, read the entire column.

1. Over 10.7 million Californians over the age of one drink at least one soda a day (or other sugar-sweetened beverage).

2. 41% of children ages 2-11 drink at least one soda or other sugar-sweetened beverage every day.

3. That number goes up to 62% of adolescents ages 12-17.

4. Only 1 in 4 adults drinks pop though.

5. Adults who do drink one or more sodas or other sugar-sweetened beverages each day are 27% more likely to be overweight or obese.

6. The average American consumes 22 teaspoons of added sugar a day, vs the recommended 5-9. That 200-400% more than recommended.

7. If you think that’s a high number, just one 20 fl oz single use bottle of soda has 17 teaspoons of sugar.

8. Almost half of the additional calories growth in our diet since the 1970’s come from soda.

9. Each American consumes an average of 50 gallons of sugar sweetened soft drinks per year.

10. Soda is the #1 source of added sugar in the American Diet.

11. Two thirds of all High Fructose Corn Syrup goes into soft drinks.

12. The average size of a soda increased from 6.5 oz in the 1950’s to 16.2 oz today (149% increase!)

Plan for health

You are not alone. Everyone has trouble staying away from cheap, unhealthy, fatty & salty fast foods.

The key to healthy, non-obese producing foods is just a little planning. Not much, just a little.

The Boston Globe reports on sticking to the outside aisles of supermarkets. For me, I never go into the middle of the supermarket. Fruits and veggies are on one side of the store, and dairy products are on the other.

Take a look at this article and see if at least once a week you can plan a healthy meal for your family.

For years, Rachael Scanlon found the glut of fast food restaurants in Framingham almost too convenient. Pizza, hearty subs, and all kinds of Chinese take-out appeared regularly on the family dinner table when she lacked the time or inspiration to cook.

But the calories, cost, and monotony of these dinners drove her to reconsider this lifestyle. Even with “value meals,’’ as many restaurants call them, eating out regularly can add up quickly, from $20 to $30 for a family of four. More...

You lie! Coke.

Finally, the scientific community is jumping off the soda bandwagon.

The venerable New England Journal of Medicine said yesterday that soda is bad for you, and the only way to stop Americans from killing themselves is to tax Coke and Pepsi.

It worked with tobacco and smoking and lung disease; and it will work with corn syrup and soda and obesity.

The Wall Street Journal writes (yes, the Wall Street Journal printed this):

Beverage companies "have spent decades convincing people it's glamorous, sexy and athletic to be drinking sugared beverages, and it's time for some of that damage to be undone," said Kelly Brownell, a professor at Yale University and lead author of the paper.

The latest report joins a growing drumbeat of calls for taxes on soft drinks and other sweet beverages, which some health experts compare to calls in earlier years for cigarette taxes. Dr. Brownell originally put forward the idea of a beverage tax of a penny per ounce in a paper published in April with Thomas Frieden, who was New York City's health commissioner at the time and is now director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Of course -- just like the tobacco executives who lied for 50 years -- the corn lobby and soda executives are against anything that stops them from making Americans the most overweight and least healthy people in the developed world:

Mr. Keane said there is no comparison between soft drinks and cigarettes. "Tobacco kills, directly and irrefutably," he said. "Soft drinks don't. You can be a healthy person and have a soft drink. You can't say the same about smoking. The public gets that."

Remember for years those same executives denied tobacco killed. Now they are telling you the same lies.

School lunches get a "F" for nutrition

When you send your children to school, you expect at a minimum, safety.

But in most schools, there's a hidden danger. There's always been bad jokes about bad school cafeteria food. But the truth is even worst. That food could kill your children with its fatty, calorie-laden, salty food.

One parent is fighting back.

The USDA's food pyramid schema emphasizes meals where fruits,vegetables and grains are take up most of a plate of food while meat, dairy and sweets have very little room on the plate. Obviously, this is the reverse of a school lunch menu. These are hard economic times and school lunch issues can easily be forgotten.

But how we can we stand by and let our children eat food that is more chemicals than actual food? By offering the current options for school lunches, Congress is sitting idly by giving the children obesity. This will lead to and eariler onset of diseases like high blood pressure and diabetes.

Read more: Bad school lunches

There's an obese elephant in Obama's health plan

It's clear reading Michael Pollan in the NY Times that obesity, poor eating and the excess calories plied by fast food restaurants are costing Americans billions of dollars, maybe even trillions of dollars.

The real enemy of Americans -- the enemy that will tax us to death -- is American food. Until we address this issue any reform in health care is just moving the deck chairs on the Titanic.

The American way of eating has become the elephant in the room in the debate over health care. The president has made a few notable allusions to it, and, by planting her vegetable garden on the South Lawn, Michelle Obama has tried to focus our attention on it. Just last month, Mr. Obama talked about putting a farmers’ market in front of the White House, and building new distribution networks to connect local farmers to public schools so that student lunches might offer more fresh produce and fewer Tater Tots. He’s even floated the idea of taxing soda. (Read more...)

Being a food critic made him thin

Frank Bruni just stepped down after five-plus years as the restaurant critic for The New York Times

His new book -- Born Round -- is about growing up, eating too much, becoming fat and then learning as a food critic and Italian resident how to have a healthy relationship with food.

Tucker Shaw in the Denver Post writes:

Who could have imagined that this gig would be what ultimately saved his relationship with food?

"Eating professionally imposes a forced structure and a forced rhythm," he said on the phone the other day. "You have to eat in a round and steady fashion to do the duty of your job. It takes extreme dieting off the table. The only control you have is moderation, portion control and exercise. Which, what do you know, is what works."

Bruni was primed to control his on-the-job eating by his time in Rome, another unlikely stop on his long, strange trip to skinny. "Everyone warned me about Italy," he said. "But I went. And there I was in that country that, far from being a peril, was a land of great food with people who approach it with grace. The portions you get at a true Italian restaurant or at a true Italian dinner party are much smaller. You never see an 'All-you can eat' sign there."