Fast-Food French Fries: Which Are Healthiest?

Who knew french fries could be so different?

WebMD took a look at 14 different fast-food chain french fries to find out which had the healthiest. Now "healthiest" is a relative word. By nature french fries are not a healthy food. But with that said, some french fries have more calories, more fat and more sodium than others.

What they found was Sonic Drive-In's regular fries -- (75 g), 220 calories -- are are lowest in calories, fat grams, percentage of calories from fat, and total amount of "bad fats." (As well as second lowest in sodium.)

The worst french fries, just so you can see, are printed below. The entire article is at WebMD.

Highest in Calories:
Carl's Jr. Natural Cut small fries (116 g): 540 calories
In & Out regular fries (125 g): 400 calories

Highest in Fat:
Carl's Jr. Natural Cut small fries (116 g) = 25 grams total fat
Arby's small curly fries (106 g) = 20 grams total fat

Highest Percentage of Calories From Fat:
Arby's Curly Fries, small (106 g): 53%
Chick-fil-A Waffle Potato fries (85 g): 51%

Highest in "Bad Fat" (saturated and trans fats)
Jack in the Box Natural Cut fries, small (124 g): 9 grams (4 grams saturated fat and 5 grams trans)
Long John Silvers basket combo portion (113 g): 7 grams (3.5 grams saturated fat and 3.5 grams trans)

Lowest in Fiber:
In & Out fries (125 g): 2 grams fiber (tied with No. 2)
Sonic Drive-In regular (75 g): 2 grams fiber

Highest in Sodium:
Carl's Jr. Natural Cut fries (116 g): 1360 mg sodium
Arby's curly fries, small (106 g): 791 mg sodium

Don't eat food at these restaurants

The word for politics today is "transparency". Every dollar the government gives out is to have full disclosure. 

Even in the grocery stores, you have the right to know what's in the foods you are buying, what the ingredients are and what the nutritional value of the food is.

But there's no transparency in a restaurant. And that's why Applebee’s, IHOP, Outback, and T.G.I. Friday’s are the "WORST RESTAURANTS IN THE WORLD" (apologies to Keith Olbermann).

Men's Health lists the most unhealthiest restaurant for 2009 and the list is no surprise to readers of this blog. What should you do? Don't eat there.

Applebee's, IHOP, Outback and T.G.I. Friday's receive an "F"
These titans of the restaurant industry are among the last national chains that don’t offer nutritional information on their dishes. Even after years of badgering their representatives, we still hear the same old excuses: it’s too pricey, it’s too time-consuming, it’s impossible to do accurately because their food is so fresh, or we have too much variety. Our response is simple: If nearly every other chain restaurant in the country can do it, then why can’t they? more...

A spring sighting of the future

Today I saw a glimpse of the future.

It's extremely limited. It's disguised by the economy, but clearly it's the aroma of better times ahead.

What is it? Chipotle -- which I reported as one of the worst restaurants in the world, for its large portions, high calorie foods -- has now seen the dawn of the new world. A world where Americans are demanding smaller portions at appropriate prices, aka RightSizing in America.

The Westwood Food Blog reports:

So here's what's happening. Local Chipotle outlets will, over the next week or so, be rolling out a newly re-structured menu. There will be pozole in a couple different varieties and a kid's menu (which was always available, but had to be asked for). The existing menu will be "reconfigured" (Arnold's word) in order to showcase the diversity of plates available through a careful reading of the board. And there will also be a new section offering smaller portions at low prices -- single tacos, for example, served a la carte.

"We're calling it our 'low-roller' menu," Arnold told me, laughing. "The days of the high-roller look like they're going to be over for awhile, so this was our answer."

Exercise cannot turn the obesity tide

I lost 90 pounds without exercising.

I'm not saying that works for everyone, but I know exercise alone is not the panacea for the obesity crisis in America.

In fact you can exercise and not lose any weight. But it's extremely difficult to not to lose weight if you simply cut down on the number of calories you eat (no matter what the kind).

I lost 90 pounds by cutting my calories in half. In the process I learned to eat more healthy foods (because they are lower in calories). I stopped going to any fast food restaurants because I realized the hamburgers and fried foods were killing me. I realized over-sized portions were wrong, not only for my wallet but where I keep my wallet.

The TV reality show, "The Biggest Loser", shows an unsustainable amount of exercise. What they rarely show is the gigantic change in eating habits in order to lose hundreds of pounds.

To stop childhood obesity, we can't completely rely on exercise as Forbes.com reports:

Physical fitness programs in schools improve many aspects of children's health, but they don't appear to combat obesity, a new study in the Canadian medical publication CMAJ shows.

Improvements in blood pressure, muscle mass, bone mineral density, lung capacity and flexibility were some of the benefits experienced by the more than 18,000 students participating in "physical activity interventions" at their schools; however, the program's did not noticeably lower the children's body-mass index (BMI) -- a common measurement of obesity.

Most people can't find calorie information

Do you want calorie information at your fast-food restaurant? Most people couldn't or wouldn't find it.

This from the Washington Post:

Researchers from the psychology department at Yale University hung out in a handful of fast-food eateries (McDonald's, Burger King, Au Bon Pain and Starbucks) in Manhattan's Upper West Side; New Haven, Conn.; and Connecticut suburbs of New York City, keeping an eye on customers' behavior. Of 4,311 people they observed, only six looked at the nutrition information provided by the restaurant, whether it appeared on a poster, in a pamphlet or on a special touch-screen computer.

The authors of the study, which appears in the April issue of the American Journal of Public Health, say their findings suggest that nutrition information needs to be made more prominent, even added to menu boards. Moves are afoot in Maryland and several other states to require chain restaurants to provide nutrition data; restaurants argue that that information is already available by request at restaurants and on their Web sites. More...

NYC restaurants can't be trusted

You knew this was the case!

In NYC, you picked up a breakfast tart -- which Starbucks says is a healthy 120 calories -- and as you ate it you knew that wasn't right. We all can taste 300 calories of sugar and flour.

Well, you know you were right. That tart wasn't 120 calories...and that muffin wasn't 420 calories. They are much more!

You can't trust restaurants to ever tell you the truth. So the new law in NYC that calories must be displayed doesn't stop restaurants from still hiding the truth about unhealthy food from you.

This story from limelife.com:

Just when you thought you could trust your food, you can't.

Remember when food was actually food? Remember when it wasn't packed with excess dyes, sugars and calories? Hmmm, probably not. And guess what? Food is even sneakier then we originally thought. Well, packaged food is anyway. That's right America, nutrition labels are lying to us. They're lying to us and they're getting away with it.

Are you mad? You should be.

Recently, reporters from New York City's WCBS-TV sent snacks such as, muffins, scones and sandwiches to a calorie lab for testing. Not surprisingly, the real amount of calories didn't match the label.

For example, Dunkin' Donuts' turkey, cheddar, and bacon sandwich masqueraded around as 360 calories but tested at 460. A Starbucks blueberry muffin, labeled 420 calories, came back as 580. And its peachy apple tart, disguised as a 120 calorie delight, actually weighed in at 280.

Toxic food assets

Two years ago I told you fast-food and chain restaurants were in trouble.

The portions were too big, too over priced, and too unhealthy.

Those restaurants are just like Wall Street. Their excesses were disguised for only so long. Now with a contraction in the economy, the emperor is exposed. Those restaurants cannot increase sales by opening another 1,000 stores next to schools and in the inner city.

It's not surprising Americans have stopped going to the over-fried, over-red meat, over-portioned fast-food restaurants. It's too expensive for your wallet and for your health.

Two stories this week have come together for me: 1) a study that links eating red and processed meat with increasing your risk of dying prematurely, and 2) restaurant chains are struggling so they have lowered the price on a couple their entrees.

Why over-pay at a chain restaurant and eat unhealthy food? Many Americans are choosing to say no.

The industry must expunge those toxic food assets, just as Wall Street needed to.

Obama's first small step against obesity

The Obamas have started to lead the charge against obesity.

From CNN.com: First lady Michelle Obama helped break ground on a new White House "kitchen garden" Friday. It will be the first working garden at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue since Eleanor Roosevelt planted a so-called "victory garden" at the height of World War II.

This time, however, the enemy is obesity. The first family is hoping to send a clear message to a fast food-driven nation that often seems to be losing the battle of the bulge.

"We're just hoping that a lot of families look at us and say this is something that they can do and talk to their own kids about and think a little bit critically about the food choices that they make," presidential mother-in-law Marian Robinson said

Don't look at this food (# 1)

Applebee's will not publish its nutritional information.

Now you know why.

Did you think that the Chicken Wings could possibly be 1,545 calories?

But that's not the worst. The Chicken Broccoli Pasta Alfredo Bowl (for god's sake, it's broccoli) is 1,644 calories with 84 grams of fat.

But wait, there's more. The Boneless Buffalo Wings with Blue Cheese Dressing tops out at 1,724 calories and a whopping 132 grams of fat.

You'd have to walk the dog for six hours to burn off those wings.

Applebee's, officially, has the worst food of the day.

Fast food salads to make you fat!

The Today show along with "Eat This, Not That" took a look at salads. You have to watch this video to see one salad which is the caloric equivalent of eating an entire pizza, and another salad that has the same calories as eight donuts.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Fast food near a school means fatter students

Sara Mead of The Internet Food Association reports that a McDonald's close to schools means fatter kids.

A new study by economists from Berkeley and Columbia University finds that 9th graders who attend schools within a tenth of a mile of a fast food restaurant are 5.2 percent more likely to be obese. Such students consume 30 to 100 more calories a day than their peers.

The good news: Having a fast food restaurant a quarter to a half mile away from the school doesn’t increase students’ risk of obesity, nor does having non-fast food restaurants in close proximity to a school. Proximity to fast food restaurants also seems to have greater impacts on youngsters’ consumption and risk of obesity than it does for adults. More...

Indiana trails in everything

Nobody has ever accused Indiana of being on the forefront of anything. That now includes children's health.

State Rep. Charlie Brown of the Indiana General Assembly tried to follow New York City's lead and have fast-food restaurant display calorie counts. But the lobbyists made sure the proposal would not get out of committee. And what's the rationale?

The yellow legislators said the federal government might pass a national law soon, and Indiana should wait rather than lead.

It seems the entire nation has past by Indiana...and Notre Dame football, and Indiana basketball.

From the Post-Tribune:

If a bill to force fast food restaurants to prominently display the nutritional value and calories of their menu items isn't dead this year in the General Assembly, it's definitely on life support.

No word on whether the proposal suffered a heart attack due to morbid obesity and calcification of the arteries.

State Rep. Charlie Brown of Gary had hoped showing Hoosiers some of the nasty stuff they eat would move them to eat less of it.

He predicted children and teens would lead the way, convincing their parents to stay away from the more nutritionally reprehensible products on the menu.

But opponents argued restaurant owners would face unreasonable costs to comply.

They also pointed out a federal statute governing fast food nutritional information could soon become standard across the country, and said Indiana should wait rather than putting its restauranteurs at a disadvantage.

The bill languished on the House agenda for weeks, as Brown tried to privately drum up support.

When he finally called it to the floor, Brown's proposal failed on a tie vote, 48-48.

He hopes to introduce the bill again, and find the votes necessary to get it passed.

Early death for obese teenagers

From WebMD.com it is reported obesity in teens is as unhealthy as smoking.

Teen Obesity as Deadly as Smoking
Study Shows Obese Teens Have Similar Risk for Early Death as Teen Smokers
By Salynn Boyles
WebMD Health News Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD
Feb. 25, 2009 -- Obese teens are just as likely to die before they reach old age as teens who are heavy smokers, while those who are overweight, but not obese, have the same risk for early death as lighter smokers, a new study shows.

Researchers followed 45,000 Swedish men from the time they were drafted into the military at the age of 18 until most were in their mid-50s.

They found that those who were obese in their late teens had nearly double the risk of dying during the almost four decades of follow-up, compared to those whose weight was normal at age 18.

This was a similar increase in risk as seen in men who smoked more than 10 cigarettes a day in their late teens.

Men who were overweight, but not obese, in their teens and did not smoke had a similar risk for early death as normal-weight teens who smoked one to 10 cigarettes a day.

The study appears in the latest issue of the journal BMJ Online.

"Most parents would warn their child about the dangers of even moderate smoking, but most probably wouldn't associate being overweight with the same level of risk," study researcher Martin Neovius, PhD, of Sweden's Karolinska Institute tells WebMD.

Why do our taxes pay for unhealthy fast food in schools?

One of the worst lunches our children eat is at school. The government through the National School Lunch Program promotes extremely poor food choices.

Our taxes pay for $9 billion worth of processed cheese, high-fat, meats, chicken nuggets and pizza, ready to be thawed and reheated. How good can these foods be? The value is 20 cents a meal.

This is shameful in America. This is wasteful in America. And this is terribly unhealthy in America.

You must read the Op-Ed section of the NY Times to understand this problem.

THIS new era of government bailouts and widespread concern over wasteful spending offers an opportunity to take a hard look at the National School Lunch Program. Launched in 1946 as a public safety net, it has turned out to be a poor investment.

When school districts allow fast-food snacks in the lunchroom they provoke widespread ire, and rightfully so. But food distributed by the National School Lunch Program contains some of the same ingredients found in fast food, and the resulting meals routinely fail to meet basic nutritional standards. Yet this is how the government continues to “help” feed millions of American schoolchildren, a great many of them from low-income households.

Many nutrition experts believe that it is possible to fix the National School Lunch Program by throwing a little more money at it. But without healthy food (and cooks and kitchens to prepare it), increased financing will only create a larger junk-food distribution system. We need to scrap the current system and start from scratch. More...

Everyone agrees this diet works

There is only one kind of diet that works, says the latest 2-year federal study.

And it's exactly what I have been telling you in this blog for more than 2 years.

Reduce the calories and you reduce your weight. It doesn't matter whether you listen to Atkins, Zone or Ornish. It doesn't matter if you visit Weight Watchers, Medifast or Jenny Craig. It doesn't matter if you eat only grapefruit, cabbage or red meat.

There's only one way: eat less calories than you burn. For most Americans you need to eat about 1,200-1,500 calories a day to lose weight.

Take it from me. I stopped eating 1,000 and 2,000 calorie meals, and in six months I lost more than 90 pounds. I did it through Nutrisystem, but any type of food would have worked in the right portions. And this is what this blog is all about. Let's get all of America eating the RightSized portions. Let's get all the restaurants to serve smaller portions at smaller prices. 

The study was published in this week's New England Journal of Medicine.

MSNBC.com reports: LOS ANGELES - Low-fat, low-carb or high-protein? The kind of diet doesn’t matter, scientists say. All that really counts is cutting calories and sticking with it, according to a federal study that followed people for two years.

However, participants had trouble staying with a single approach that long and the weight loss was modest for most.

As the world grapples with rising obesity, millions have turned to popular diets like Atkins, Zone and Ornish that tout the benefits of one nutrient over another.
Some previous studies have found that low carbohydrate diets like Atkins work better than a traditional low-fat diet. But the new research found that the key to losing weight boiled down to a basic rule — calories in, calories out.

“The hidden secret is it doesn’t matter if you focus on low-fat or low-carb,” said Dr. Elizabeth Nabel, director of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, which funded the research.

Limiting the calories you consume and burning off more calories with exercise is key, she said.

The study, which appears in Thursday’s New England Journal of Medicine, was led by Harvard School of Public Health and Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Louisiana.

When is health.com not healthy

On the web there is a lot of good being done -- informing and motivating people towards the RightSizing of America. I have tried to highlight those websites and let you know where you can get good healthy information.

On the other hand, there are many, many websites that look like good information, but they are not. These sites have names that sound like they are healthy, but look again. Sometimes the articles just don't make sense. Last year I told you about HealthyDiningFinder.com. Sounds like a great idea. It's not. Burger King, Domino's, Hooters, and Chili's support it. Type in your city and all you get -- for healthy eating -- is the worst fast food restaurants in your area. You can guess who pays for the site. Not your locally produced, locally owned eatery.

Yesterday, I visited Health.com. Wow, you'd really expect good healthy ideas on this site. Wrong! I was curious about its article: "America's Top 10 Healthiest Fast Food Restaurants". Immediately I got sick to my stomach. This pretend health web site proceeded to tell me McDonald's and Chipotle are two of the MOST healthiest fast food restaurants in America.

(It shouldn't have surprised me to discover that Health.com's research is supported by Coke AND Pepsi.)

Luckily, I'm not the only person in America that can see fraud. Below are comments from Health.com's own website:

seth
healthy? really? It’s articles like this that perpetuate the myth that “eating fast food can be healthy.” And perpetuating such myths is one of the many reasons why our country’s citizens are generally obese or overweight.

CUFlatlander
A lot of these places have many food choices that end up in the ‘Not That’ category (of the ‘Eat This, Not Fat’ website).
When Chipotle and McDonalds (SNACK WRAPS HEALTHY?!?!) make this list… makes me think that there wa$ $ome in$entive to get the$e companie$ on thi$ li$t…..

Italians love Pizza Hut! Huh?

My wife and I laugh every time, I see the Pizza Hut commercial on its new lasagna. If you haven't seen it, the commercial shows Italians in Rome eating Pizza Hut's new menu-item, lasagna, and of course, lauding its praises. Hard to believe, because that lasagna bears no relationship to any kind of food I have ever seen or ate in Italy.

In fact, I have never seen a 3-pound entreé with 2.5 pounds of cheese ever in Rome. Meals are simple, cheese is sparse, and the tastes are layered with fresh ingredients. I don't need to tell you that this commercial has no basis with reality.

What is real is the number of calories and grams of sugar (yes, sugar) in Pizza Hut lasagna (which comes with bread sticks)? How about 710 calories in 12 oz. of lasagna and one breadstick, and don't forget the 13 grams of sugar (more sugar than two of Pizza Hut's desserts). And don't forget the 1 gram of trans fat thrown in for flavor.

I'm not sure I believe Pizza Hut's website on how many calories are in its lasagna. At other restaurants lasagna can really put you over the scale:

Pizza Hut -- 570 calories.
Olive Garden -- 858 calories.
Macaroni Grill -- 1048 calories.
Sbarro's -- 650 calories.
Old Spaghetti Factory -- 850 calories.

Here's a sweet tax

There's two things you can't avoid: death and taxes. But now a tax might delay the first.

In New York they are considering a tax on sugar drinks, the scourge of all healthy life. Gov. Paterson is thinking of lumping soda pop with tobacco and liquor, as something "sinful" and thus, needing for his citizens to limit their intake.

I applaud his actions, though, good luck against the Pepsi, Coke and corn lobbyists. Sugary drinks have ZERO nutritional value...at least a Big Mac provides a few nibbles of protein. And it's not like any of these drinks have real plantation-grown sugar. They are just made up of some chemical-lab-born corn syrup.

(A quick story: My aunt in the early 60s would always complain to me about how Coke in the 12-oz. cans tasted different than her supply of the 6.5 oz. real-glass bottles. I thought she was a little nuts, because I couldn't taste the difference, nor could there be a difference. It was all Coke, wasn't it? Later I found out that the little bottles of coke had real sugar, while the new-fangled cans had corn syrup. My aunt knew those laboratory boys were fooling around with her coke.)

If we want to win the war on childhood obesity, one way to start is to tax Mountain Dew, Coke and all the rest.

Here is why. Americans now consume 200 to 300 more calories each day than we did 30 years ago - and a great deal of these extra calories come from sugar-sweetened drinks. A fast-food burger, for all its shortcomings, does have some nutritional value. A 20-ounce soda provides none. And sugar-sweetened beverages now supply 10% to 15% of total daily calories, both in children and adults.

It gets worse. Rigorous scientific studies have shown that consumption of sugared beverages is associated with poor diet, increased rates of obesity and an increased risk of diabetes. In studies where the same people are followed over time, and other studies where people are assigned randomly to reduce sugared beverage consumption, diets improve and subjects lose weight.
Obesity rates in New York State are staggering - 58% of adults are overweight or obese, and the current prevalence of diabetes represents a 50% increase since 1993. When a harmful product is legal, cheap and readily available, a modest tax is the single best way to change behavior.

Yes, we've all heard the complaints from the soft drink industry. I've been an advocate for soda taxes for 15 years - and have heard the special interests cry foul at every turn. Soft drink companies bombarded Maine with money and consultants to successfully overturn a smaller tax there last year.

In fact, in jurisdictions around the country, this debate has unfolded with neatly scripted predictability. In scene one, the industry claims it's just standing up for hardworking taxpayers. To counteract the credible scientific evidence linking sugar sodas to obesity, the industry pays a stable of scientists to write papers saying the evidence is weak, just as the tobacco industry paid scientists who claimed for years that smoking does not cause lung cancer and nicotine is not addictive.

There's no Joy of Cooking at home

Most excess calories are consumed away from the home. That's why I created this blog. To alert Americans -- and especially parents -- of the dangers of eating away from your own kitchen table. That includes fast-food restaurants, office cafeterias, 5-star hotels and, even, hospitals. Every time you eat away from your house, you are in danger. In danger of "mindlessly" overeating because of the portions and cues you receive when dining.

Now I find out, that the portions are clearly creeping up even at home, and you don't even know it. Why? Because the bible of cookbooks, "The Joy of Cooking", has been pumping up the calories in its recipes. I don't know about you, but I frequently consult the "The Joy" when I am cooking. I use it exclusively for my Cincinnati (turkey) chili, and banana nut bread. But Brian Wansink has taken the time to review all the recipes from all the "The Joy of Cooking" books, and has discovered some startling information, but not surprising data.

Though restaurants often take the blame for portion distortion - the trend of serving up ever larger helpings - cookbook recipes have done some Supersizing of their own, a study published this week in the Annals of Internal Medicine found.

"There's so much attention that's been given to away-from-home eating and so much attention that's been focused on restaurants and the packaged food industry, it makes me wonder whether it's actually deflecting attention from the one place where we can make the most immediate change," says Cornell University marketing professor Brian Wansink, who directed the study.

The study, which looked at how classic recipes have changed during the past 70 years, found a nearly 40 percent increase in calories per serving for nearly every recipe reviewed, about an extra 77 calories.

The study identified the trend in numerous cookbooks, but it focused on American kitchen icon "Joy of Cooking," first published during the '30s and regularly updated with new editions since then, most recently in 2006.

Of the 18 recipes published in all seven editions, 17 increased in calories per serving. That can be attributed partly to a jump in total calories per recipe (about 567 calories), but also to larger portion sizes.

Only the chili con carne recipe remained unchanged through the years. The chicken gumbo, however, went from making 14 servings at 228 calories each in the 1936 edition, to making 10 servings at 576 calories each in the 2006 version. Read more...

Restaurant critics are part of the problem

Today I read that one of the restaurant trends for 2009 will be smaller plates with a smaller price point.

That makes a lot of sense in this economy depression, and it makes a lot of sense for your waistline. This is a fantastic trend for our health, as are some of the other trends. See all of Joseph Baum & Michael Whiteman Co.'s predictions. 

However, most restaurant critics don't get it. They continue to revel in the larger portions, telling you to take home part of your food for later on. Now I know most of us have taken home a doggie-bag. But I also know that most of us have thrown out leftovers which have spoiled after forgetting about them for two weeks. 

Larger portions in the long run are not healthy and contribute to wasting food. (And -- I don't know about you, but -- leftovers are never as good as the food at the restaurant.) Most of the times you ruin the food with the microwave, toughen the meat, destroy the pasta, kill the vegetables, and mostly make the food mush.

RightSizing portions also means RightSizing the price for those smaller portions. And restaurant critics need to look at portions from the RightPerspective, and not fall into the 1950s cliche that bigger is better.

Queen business: Let them eat peanut butter!

Many, many times on this blog, critics have suggested Americans don't need big government to protect them from obesity. The argument is we don't need government to tell business what to do. Let the consumer decide. Let the individual decide. Let the company decide.

So these so-called individual rights advocates want government out of our lives when it comes to gun control, and when it comes to tobacco use and when it comes to unhealthy fast foods.

However, if the Wall Street (and Main Street) crisises have taught us anything: it's business only care about making money and mostly making money and bonuses for themselves. To the point that businesses will kill people to make money.  Witness the salmonella outbreak in peanut butter.

The company tried to keep the salmonella outbreak secret. But they are not the only company keeping salmonella poisoning secret. ConAgra Foods -- maker of Peter Pan peanut butter -- hid salmonella in its products from the public for THREE years.

All you "individual rights" advocates, all you caveat emptor people, all you fat-cat executives: Are you ready for your PB&J sandwich from Peanut Corporation of America?

If you want to get sick (or not get sick), read today's article in the NY Times:

Problems emerged in southwest Georgia’s peanut country in 2004, when a whistleblower reported that the food-product giant ConAgra Foods had found salmonella in peanut butter at its plant in Sylvester, Ga., 75 miles from Blakely. But when plant officials declined to release their laboratory tests, the Food and Drug Administration did not pursue the records and was unable to confirm the report of salmonella.

The government finally demanded the records three years later, and verified the whistleblower’s claims, after hundreds of people were sickened by salmonella-tainted peanut butter produced at the plant in 2007. Even then, ConAgra insisted that the government not make those records public, according to documents obtained last week by The New York Times. Calling its testing proprietary, ConAgra told the food agency in a Feb. 27, 2007, letter: “Once F.D.A. has completed its review of the documents, please return them to ConAgra Foods or shred.”

Papa John's founder warns against eating too much pizza

It doesn't take a genius to figure out that eating too much pizza is not good for you. Now the founder of Papa John's is taking the courageous step of pointing out the obvious: "Eat pizza, not too much".

It seems even pizza millionaires are starting to worry about 30, 40 and 50 percent obesity rates in the U.S. and even in the U.K.

Let's thank Papa, and all the Mamas telling their children to eat the RightSize.

CNN.com reports:

The founder of one of America's latest pizza chains has offered unexpected advice to his customers to limit themselves to only one or two slices.

During an interview on BBC's Radio Four program in the United Kingdom, John Schnatter, said, "you can't eat five or six slices."

He was responding to a question from presenter Adam Shaw about whether he was concerned about the impact of the British government's anti-obesity drive on pizza sales.

"No. Pizza's actually healthy for you if you don't eat too much of it," Schnatter replied, adding, "You can't eat five or six slices but if you eat one or two slices it's very nutritious."

Biggest losers must stop going to fast foods

The "Biggest Loser" reality show on NBC never shows the contestants heading off to McDonald's or Wendy's. And of course they never mention the cravings the people must get for food. In fact, the show barely mentions food at all. It's all about 10 hours a day of exercise.

But the NY Times reveals the contestants must make huge changes to their diets -- along with the unrealistic amount of exercise -- in order to lose weight. That's the real story the producers and trainers don't tell you. And that's the story all Americans can participate in. Very few of us can exercise with a dedicated trainer for 10 hours a day for eight weeks. But all of us can stop eating fast foods.

Some experts say it's nearly impossible to become morbidly obese eating home cooked food. But it's fairly easy to become obese stopping at Burger King several times a week, and even easier if you stop for breakfast and lunch.

Even if home cooking is of the fried-chicken-and-mashed-potatoes variety, it rarely produces extreme obesity, said Barry Popkin, a nutritional epidemiologist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. “Almost any kind of cooking you can produce in a kitchen is healthier than fast food.” The decline of home cooking worldwide, he said, is an underlying cause of obesity.

“People are eating more, and more often,” Dr. Popkin said. “And the foods that they are consuming almost always replace meals cooked in a kitchen and eaten at a table.” It is difficult to quantify a decline in cooking skills, but many studies show that time in the kitchen has declined steeply since 1965, when American women spent a weekly average of 13 hours cooking. Last month the government of Britain, where obesity is spreading rapidly, passed a law requiring all secondary-school students to attend cooking classes.

“Twenty minutes in the kitchen will save you three hours on the StairMaster” said Devin Alexander, a chef in Los Angeles who developed the recipes for the cookbooks. “You can’t trust restaurant food to be low fat.”

There you have it. If you don't want to be the biggest loser, lose the fast food.

Denny's: it's not free of calories

If you wedge yourself into a booth at Denny's today for that "free" breakfast, just remember you are eating more than half of all your calories for the day. At more than 1,100 calories, the Grand Slam breakfast rates a "F" nutritional grade.

Now "free" is my favorite four-letter word, but remember, nothing is free. You'll have to pay for this breakfast by walking for 8 hours, or skipping dinner tonight.

Good luck, but don't allow the economy make you obese.

Is Oprah's diet guru only in it for the money?

Byron Richards, Health Freedom editor, says that Bob Greene doesn't know what he's talking about, is causing Oprah Winfrey more harm than health, and shills McDonald's just for the money.

He makes a strong case on why all these diet books don't work, even if you are the billionaire Oprah.

It is unusual that Greene owns property with Oprah, shares financial ventures, and yet she keeps bringing him back. Richards calls this "The Failure Empire".

Bob, that is not exactly what everyone knows. Oprah's two big weight-loss experiences came on a liquid diet and by starving herself, not from following your diet and reaching an ideal weight. In fact Bob, following your diet is next to impossible , which is why Oprah so easily goes off it , and this simple fact is directly your responsibility and the fault of your diet program. Furthermore, Oprah's following your program has resulted in her having a significant increased risk for breast cancer, diabetes, heart disease, and early death , nice friend.

Check out his article, and see if he makes sense.

Education can stop childhood obesity

Tuesday on the Oprah Winfrey show, Dr. Mehmet Oz reported on: "Why America's Kids Are Fat"

What can we do to reverse the trend? 

Dr. Oz says he thinks the answer is education.

 "The most important thing I do in my professional life, besides heart surgery, is work with a group called HealthCorps, which takes—just like Peace Corps does—young, healthy, energetic people and they put them in high schools to work with kids who are struggling," he says. "What we try to do with Health Corps is we try to teach you that it's not just food and exercise, it's mental resilience. Because if you can control your body, you can control the world around you."What can we do to reverse the trend? Dr. Oz says he thinks the answer is education. "The most important thing I do in my professional life, besides heart surgery, is work with a group called HealthCorps, which takes—just like Peace Corps does—young, healthy, energetic people and they put them in high schools to work with kids who are struggling," he says. "What we try to do with Health Corps is we try to teach you that it's not just food and exercise, it's mental resilience. Because if you can control your body, you can control the world around you."

The real "Heart Attack" fast food restaurant

Dr. John runs the most honest fast-food restaurant in the nation.

His "Heart Attack Grill's" motto is "taste worth dying for", and if you eat there you are guaranteed to die.

Instead of a salad bar, the restaurant has an all-you-can-eat french fries buffet. Just to make sure they're real bad, the fries are cooked in real lard.

There's no diet soda, no lite beers; not even lettuce on the burgers.

Dr. John believes people are tired of being healthy. (Do you think he's right?)

The 8,000-calorie quadruple-bypass burger is by far the worst food sold in America, but no different than McDonald's, Wendy's or Burger King. Just think of it as supersizing four Big Macs.

Next time you are Chandler, Arizona head for God's waiting room, and take a look at who's clogging up their arteries and clogging up our hospitals.

Watch CBS Videos Online

Cafeterias don't get it

We all have had to eat in the company's or building's cafeteria. What did you think?

Even at the NY Times (with a food critic there) it's difficult to understand some of the foods. 

My problems with all the cafeteria are the lack of local/fresh ingredients, and the large amount of fatty, high-caloric foods. 

I wrote the director of The Hartford Financial Services cafeteria last year, and the standard response was: "we provide a healthy option everyday". Of course that healthy option was always a dry, over-priced, piece of nondescript white fish (with a white sauce many times!).

Have you ever had anything good at a cafeteria?

Burger King announces trans fat are here to stay in 2009

Burger King Corp. said Thursday it is now cooking with trans-fat free cooking oils at all of its restaurants nationwide.

However that doesn't mean there is no trans fat at Burger King. In fact for the rest of this year many items will include trans fat, including all the baked goods. Not until Nov. 1 will Burger King get rid of trans fats.

Until that time, skip Burger King this year.

Trans fats are partially hydrogenated vegetable oil. They can raise bad cholesterol and lower healthy cholesterol, increasing the risk of heart disease, according to doctors. Trans fats are used to allow Burger King to increase the shelf life of its baked goods. (With trans fat, who knows how long food has been sitting on the shelf.)

Is Applebee's lying to the public?

Applebee's restaurants and Weight Watchers are being sued because they mislead customers, claims a Washington D.C. law firm.

The Today show on NBC reports that, for example, the Cajun Lime Tilapia was advertised as having six grams of fat, but results from Analytical Labs of Boise Idaho showed twice that with 12 grams of fat. The Garlic Herb Chicken is supposed to also have six grams of fat, but the lab counted 18 fat grams.

Even though the in-question entrees are better for you than some of the other items on the menu, the alleged menu items are distorting what you think you are eating.

When restaurants deceive the customer, then the government must step in and prevent the fraud. 

And by the way, Applebee's -- after 3 years -- finally stopped frying its food in trans fats. However, trans fats have NOT been removed from desserts or from any of its non-US operations.

In these economic times, Applebee's doesn't deserve your business. Look in your town for a family-run restaurant and visit it tonight.

See the video.

What will Obama do about obesity and fast food?

I celebrate with the rest of the nation President Barack Obama's inaguration this week.

Now the hard work begins.

The nation is like a obese man. Years of an unregulated diet have led us to the brink of disease and disaster. It will take years to correct going forward. And it will be difficult, because no one wants to give up the "easy" life. No one wants to sacrifice. But in order to have change we all must change our behavior and habits.

How will Obama solve the nation's obesity problem? What will he do to stop the fast food advertising to our young people? Can he stop the proliferation of McDonald's and Dunkin Donuts next to our schools?

As I have said many times, nearly a third of Americans are obese and two-thirds overweight. Researches are predicting if this trend continues 80 percent of Americans will be obese in 30 years.

We must call on the new President and the Secretary of Health and Human Services, Tom Daschle, to immediately begin programs to halt obesity in this country, especially with the children.

During this recession/depression the President must ensure everyone has equal access to healthy food, not just the dollar menu.

Change the root cause of food issues

Take a look at: Food Democracy Now | Home. 

Sign the petition for real Food changes.

Will fast foods disappear like GM and Chrysler?

The Los Angeles Times reports today decades of inaction by federal and state governments is starting to change.

It's a small wave, but it's a start in the Right direction. Of course restaurants and manufacturers object, but we can't let them stop us.

Remember the auto industry has fought for 50 years every safety and fuel efficiency standard. Now look where that industry is.

No one can visualize America without fast foods. But I can.

It may take years -- but unless that industry changes along with the tide of anti-obesity standards -- then McDonald's and Burger King and KFC may be the next American titans to fall.

Restaurants are being told to list calorie counts on their menus. Schools are banning bake sales, and cities are outlawing new fast-food restaurants in some neighborhoods.

State and local governments, concerned about the growing cost of obesity and diabetes and the ever-higher cost of healthcare, are acting more like food police. And more regulations may be ahead.

Decades of federal inaction in fighting the nation's obesity epidemic and regulating dangerous food ingredients such as artery-clogging trans fats are behind these local and state efforts, said Michael Jacobson, director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest.

The Obama administration, with large majorities in Congress and headed by a president who made healthcare a centerpiece of his campaign, could launch a new era of food regulation, he said. "The Obama administration clearly believes strongly that government has a major role to play in many arenas, including protecting the public's health."

Jacobson and other proponents of more oversight of what and how the nation eats want to see the Food and Drug Administration split into two agencies, with one focusing on food and the other on drugs and medical devices...

Yum Brands Inc., the parent of KFC, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut, isn't waiting for more legislation. It plans to add product calorie information to menu boards in its company-owned restaurants nationwide and to encourage franchise owners to do the same. The company said the calorie information would be phased onto menu boards starting this year and be completed by Jan. 1, 2011.

It's a big move by one of the largest purveyors of fast food. Louisville, Ky.-based Yum franchises or owns about 20,000 U.S. restaurants. More...

Let's have a Secretary of Food

Columnist, blogger, twetter and social critic, Nicholas Kristof, nominates a Food Secretary for Barack Obama's cabinet.

I second that nomination!

Kristof clearly points out the failures of the last 25 years of the Department of Agriculture: subsidies for the high fructose corn syrup, paying journalists not to grow food, giving McDonald's bacon and hamburgers at below market prices, and finally a nation filled with fatties. We don't need a Secretary of Agriculture to dole out our money to mega-agri-corporations -- that's last century.  

We need a Secretary of Food to help all Americans eat Right.

Please take 5 minutes to read Kristof's succinct article. It's powerful and should make you want to write to Obama and his Secretaries.

“We’re subsidizing the least healthy calories in the supermarket — high fructose corn syrup and hydrogenated soy oil, and we’re doing very little for farmers trying to grow real food,” notes Michael Pollan, author of such books as “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” and “In Defense of Food.”

The Agriculture Department — and the agriculture committees in Congress — have traditionally been handed over to industrial farming interests by Democrats and Republicans alike. The farm lobby uses that perch to inflict unhealthy food on American children in school-lunch programs, exacerbating our national crisis with diabetes and obesity.

Read more...

Here's what Obama needs to do

The Public Health Advocacy Institute at Northeastern University School of Law presented to the Obama Transition Team a list of legal and policy recommendations to help reduce obesity in America.

Unfortunately, this is not an issue where Congress can "bail-out" the nation's youths.  It will take enormous effort and focus. And it must be done or all the money we pour into the health system will be wasted.

These recommendations are dense, complex and easy to dismiss as might not work. But it's a good start for the Obama administration.

BOSTON Nov. 24– President-elect Barak Obama’s Health and Human Services Transition Team today was presented with a series of nearly 50 legal and policy recommendations designed to combat the nation’s obesity epidemic.

The document, developed by the Public Health Advocacy Institute (PHAI) at Northeastern University’s School of Law, was sent to the Transition Team by Richard Daynard, a professor at the law school and president of PHAI. DownloadPHAI Obesity Policy Recommendations to Obama Transition Team

“Public health, unlike some other national assets, cannot be ‘rescued’ or ‘bailed out,’” Dayard wrote in a cover letter. “A sophisticated and aggressive federal approach to obesity is desperately needed. “Such an approach could save countless lives and reduce the devastating consequences of this epidemic while meaningfully connecting with healthcare, agriculture and energy policies,” said Mark Gottlieb, Executive Director of the Institute. “A failure of federal obesity policy would have untenable public health and economic consequences.”

Among the recommendations:

• Initiate a mediated public dialogue about reduced portion sizes as a tool for reducing caloric intake of the population.
• Support adoption of a federal law requiring disclosure of calories on menus.
• Develop a cultural program featuring popular personalities to elevate the social value of tasty, healthy food.
• Impose federal taxes, both sales and excise, on purchases of unhealthy foods and beverages and earmark the revenue for obesity programs.
• Promote and fund innovative farm-to-school and farm-to-community programs across the nation to support local farmers and increase access to locally grown food.
• Prohibit and remove all commercial  promotion of food in schools and educational settings receiving federal funds.
• Provide funding through the 2009 reauthorization of the federal Child Nutrition Bill to establish a garden in every school.
• Establish strict federal regulations limiting food and beverage advertising to children, including the Internet.
• Shift federal meal programs from the US Dept of Agriculture to the US Dept of Health of Human Services.
• Include reimbursement for preventive care related to obestity as a structured health benefit.

Blue state, red state: color your state FAT

Despite spending billions of dollars Americans continues to wallow in poor health. 

For the fourth year in row, Americans (overall) have failed to improve their health. Key factors are the "unprecedented" levels of obesity. U.S. health lags behind 27 other countries despite spending more on health care. President-elect Obama must do something about this health crisis. And the way to do something is to spend money on prevention and stop the obesity madness.

MINNEAPOLIS (Dec. 3, 2008) — In a disturbing development, the 2008 America’s Health Rankings™: A Call to Action for Individuals & Their Communities revealed that the health of Americans has failed to improve for the fourth consecutive year. Key factors contributing to these results included unprecedented levels of obesity, an increasing number of uninsured people, and the persistence of risky health behaviors, particularly tobacco use.

For 19 years, America’s Health Rankings™ has provided an annual analysis of national health on a state-by-state basis. The longest running report of its kind, America’s Health Rankings™ evaluates a historical and comprehensive set of health, environmental, and socio-economic data to determine national health benchmarks and an annual ranking of the healthiest and least healthy states. Despite the discouraging national story, some states are making significant strides against some of the country’s biggest health challenges — demonstrating that there are workable solutions to the most prevalent health problems.

The prevalence of obesity has more than doubled in the last 19 years. An alarming one in four Americans is currently considered obese putting them at increased risk for health issues such as heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, Type 2 diabetes, and cancer (endometrial, breast, colon, and gallbladder).

The United States currently falls behind 27 other countries in terms of a healthy life expectancy with an average of 69 years, while Japan leads all countries with an average of 75 years. Some of these differences can be attributed to the inability of the United States to effectively treat disease. The United States has the worst mortality rate from treatable conditions when compared to 18 other industrialized countries. The U.S. has fallen four spots in the last five years.

Look up your state.

Today show calls the report "appalling".

CEOs agree obesity should be Job #1 for Surgeon General

When American's health care CEOs got together recently to try and make sense of the health care issues, their top concerns were not universal health coverage, medical mistakes or even Medicare and Medicaid.  The #1 topic was obesity!

That makes sense. Because without addressing obesity, all the facts and figures on health are meaningless.

From the Wall Street Journal:

Obesity, of course, is a giant driver of rising health-care costs. Novartis Chief Executive Daniel Vasella explained that two-thirds of Americans over 20 years old are obese, “and their children are becoming obese now.” The long-term impact on heart disease, joint disease and numerous other health problems is immense, Dr. Vasella said.

The executives said obesity should be the top priority of the nation's surgeon general.

See the video of The Wall Street Journal CEO conference on health care.

Now is the time to let your President, Congress and local elected officials that we need to stop obesity in the United States.

Philly -- maybe -- to follow NYC's lead

Philadelphia is considering passing a law that mandates chain restaurants must post the number of calories in their meals in plain sight.

Rick Nichols, the Philadelphia Inquirer's Food columnist thinks it's a great idea:

Very soon - possibly as early as today - City Council is going to vote on a bill that asks big chains like Wendy's or Applebee's to level with their customers: to post the number of calories in their meals in plain sight.

It will require other nutritional data to be available. But calorie counts - the quickest way to judge what items will make you fat - will have to be posted on menu boards, or on the menu at your table.

Just like the prices.

Not cringing on the back of a tray-liner or the side of a bag. Or on a Web site - like you're going to go online standing in line.

Here are the top 10 reasons why it should be passed:

1. How else do you know what's in what you're eating? What you see isn't what you think you get: An innocent-sounding Ruby Tuesday turkey burger with fries? That's 1,171 calories, folks, half what you need for the entire day.

And that's just lunch.

Think that's tricky? How about this: Burger King's Tendercrisp Chicken Sandwich weighs in at 100 calories more than the all-beef Whopper. When did beef get lower-cal than bird?

2. Not to worry. It won't apply to Tony Luke's or Geno's or Pat's. It's only for big chains (over 15 outlets) and for their standard menus. You can still eat your home-grown cheesesteak in blissful ignorance.

More...

In this recession, don't go to McDonald's

Poor people have poor eating habits.

In these recessional times, don't make your health poor as you try to save money.

Already McDonald's has seen a jump in revenues as we ditched the $8 seared tuna for the $2 scorched hamburger.

But you can fatten your wallet without fattening your waistline.

Here's some tips:

Making coffee at home instead of buying it every day.

Brown-bagging it can cut your daily lunch tab in half.

Eat everything in your pantry before going shopping.

Visit your farmer's market or roadside stand. (Many are still open in the fall and winter).

Switch to tap water.

Reduce your meat portion size.

Buy popcorn instead of chips.

And here's a lot more from the Casual Kitchen blog:

Money-saving Tips and Ideas: 
Ten Tips to Save Money on Spices and Seasonings
A Simple Way to Beat Rising Food Prices
Mastering Kitchen Setup Costs
Eight Tips to Make Cooking At Home Laughably Cheap
How to Get More Mileage Out of Your Cookbooks


And also:


When Times are Tight: 168 Frugal Tips to Make Your Dollar Stretch

Is Food Network making us fat?

The Lynchburg News Advance is asking: Is food television making you fat?

I love watching the Food Network. Since I advocate eating healthy meals at home and at restaurants, I'm always trying to learn more about food and cooking.

But until I read this article, I really haven't stopped to think about how bad a lot of the meals they make on TV are.

Paula Deen and Rachael Ray seem to be the worst. I'm sure their food tastes great and is filling...because it has so many calories. As we all know Paula uses butter -- lots of butter -- in all her recipes. Rachael seems to put cheese -- lots of cheese -- on every plate. Neither Paula nor Rachael could you call skinny.

Maybe the Food Network should put up nutritional information for each of the meals (just like the menu boards at NYC restaurants).

I think people might think twice about Paula's cooking if they knew one meal has nearly 3,000 calories (the same as 4 Whoppers!).

"Paula Deen shook her hips and said, “I feel like I’m being bad, y’all.”

And in one sense, she was. The Food Network’s Doyenne of Butter had just made a breakfast for her “Paula’s Home Cooking” show: Bananas Foster French toast, one-eyed sailor with cheese sauce, hash brown casserole and a hot mocha float for dessert.

Total calories: 2,881 per person. That’s more than most men need to eat all day to maintain their weight, and far more than most women need.

If you look at some of the scale-tipping chefs on the Food Network and cooking shows on other networks, and then you look at the expanding waistlines of Americans everywhere, you have to ask: Is food television making us fat?" more...

US companies spend $1 billion to make kids fat

Park Wilde in the US Food Policy blog tells us how the beverage and fast food restaurants spent nearly a billion dollars marketing sugary drinks and "happy meals" to our children. Even the Bush Administration's Federal Trade Commission is getting heartburn over these practices.  But don't expect action from the FTC or the companies themselves.

Wilde points out that the Children's Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative, a Better Business Bureau project to forestall government action, can't get many of the top fast food chains to participate. 

Unfortunately, my opinion is we need government regulation. Because as we have seen for the past eight years, unregulated businesses will fleece Americans everytime.  Even if it means their own destruction. 

In July, based on information collected through federal subpoena, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) produced a detailed report on the massive extent of children's food and beverage advertising (see earlier post).

A concurring statement (.pdf) by Commissioner Jon Leibowitz most strongly criticized two industries whose practices "leave a tinge of heartburn": the beverage and fast food restaurant industries.

First, the disproportionate amount ($474 million) to market sugary carbonated beverages to adolescents is striking – that’s nearly $20 per American teenager in 2006. The marketing efforts must be working; on average, adolescents get eleven percent of their calories from soft drinks. Studies show that those who drink more soda are more likely to become overweight. To their credit, the major carbonated beverage marketers entered an agreement with the Alliance for a Healthier Generation and have committed to phase out the sale of full-calorie sodas in schools, shifting to lower calorie and more nutritious beverages. Wouldn’t a responsible next step be to extend this effort beyond the schoolhouse door, and curtail at least some marketing of full-calorie soft drinks to school-age youth – including teens – whether on television, via the Internet, in stores, or elsewhere?

Second, the big dollars to promote fast food restaurants to children are also somewhat hard to stomach: the $520 million for advertising and the toys included with fast food children’s meals was more than twice the amount spent by any other food category to target children under twelve in 2006. Some inner city low-income neighborhoods have numerous quick service restaurants but few grocery stores or markets that sell nutritious foods, so many of the children most at risk for obesity rely on fast food as a mainstay of their diets. Studies show that over-consumption of fast food likely contributes to overweight and obesity. I recognize that McDonald’s and Burger King are working to develop new, lower calorie menu items for children. But surely more can be done to add options to fast food menus and improve families’ incentives to order healthier choices.

Obese children are really 45-year-olds

Being young and obese cannot be good for you. The evidence of how bad is growing.

The Boston Globe reports obese children have the arteries of 45-year-olds.

NEW ORLEANS - Obese children as young as 10 had the arteries of 45-year-olds and other heart abnormalities that greatly raise their risk of heart disease, say doctors who used ultrasound tests to take a peek inside.

"As the old saying goes, you're as old as your arteries are," said Dr. Geetha Raghuveer of Children's Hospital in Kansas City, who led one of the studies. "This is a wake-up call."

The studies were reported yesterday at an American Heart Association conference.

About a third of American children are overweight and one-fifth are obese. Many parents think that 'baby fat' will melt away as kids get older. But research increasingly shows that fat children become fat adults.

As economy slows, people reach for the least nutritious food

From McDonald's McDonald's Sales Up 8.2% in October McDonald’s October comparable sales increases by segment were as follows: U.S. up 5.3% Europe up 9.8% Asia/Pacific, Middle East and Africa up 11.5%

OAK BROOK, IL – McDonald’s Corporation announced today that global comparable sales rose 8.2% in October. Systemwide sales for McDonald’s worldwide restaurants increased 5.4% for the month, or 9.9% in constant currencies.  McDonald’s Chief Executive Officer Jim Skinner said, “McDonald’s strong October sales show that we are delivering what customers count on from McDonald's – choice, variety and high-quality food and beverages at affordable prices." U.S. comparable sales increased 5.3% in October due to the enduring appeal of McDonald’s breakfast, recent product introductions such as Southern Style Chicken, compelling value throughout the menu and the continued popularity of McDonald’s Monopoly game. In Europe, strong performance in the U.K., France and Russia and positive results in nearly all other markets drove a comparable sales increase of 9.8%. Unique menu items and promotions as well as everyday value options continue to resonate with customers and drive results. Comparable sales were up 11.5% in Asia/Pacific, Middle East and Africa, driven by robust sales growth in Australia and broad-based strength throughout the segment. Locally-relevant menu choices, branded affordability, and extended hours fueled the segment’s October sales.

South is now the fattest and sickest

USAToday.com reports the rate of new diabetes has doubled in the last 10 years. Why? The obesity epidemic.

I'm really afraid that with all the nation's other issues, obesity will get very little attention. And millions more Americans will suffer.

I'm not in favor of increased health care coverage if it doesn't include obesity prevention as well. And that's both a health and business issue.

The nation's obesity epidemic is exacting a heavy toll: The rate of new diabetes cases nearly doubled in the United States in the past 10 years, the government said Thursday. The highest rates were in the South, according to the first state-by-state review of new diagnoses. The worst was in West Virginia, where about 13 in 1,000 adults were diagnosed with the disease in 2005-07. The lowest was in Minnesota, where the rate was 5 in 1,000.
Nationally, the rate of new cases climbed from about 5 per 1,000 in the mid-1990s to 9 per 1,000 in the middle of this decade.

Roughly 90% of cases are Type 2 diabetes, the form linked to obesity.

The findings dovetail with trends seen in obesity and lack of exercise — two health measures where Southern states also rank at the bottom.

"It isn't surprising the problem is heaviest in the South — no pun intended," agreed Matt Petersen, who oversees data and statistics for the American Diabetes Association. more...

War is Peace AND Fast Food is Healthy

When are fast food places going to get it?

With obesity rates in children raising throughout the world (as KFC and McDonald's globalize), it's only a matter of time before other-than-US governments take the lead and stop the American-based fast food chains from poisoning the children.

I know that's harsh. But we know for a fact that eating these meals will cause a variety of health issues. 

This new story tells it all. Today George Orwell would write: 

War is Peace

Freedom is Slavery

Ignorance is Strength

and

Fast Food is Healthy

Burger King's New 'Healthy' Meal for Kids Is Mostly Hype: "(NaturalNews) The media is applauding a recent announcement by Burger King introducing new healthy menu items designed to appeal to kids. Apparently the term 'healthy' is relative. While it may be a baby step in the right direction, one is left thinking, 'Gee, Burger King, is this really the best you can do?'

The new menu items are part of a pledge to take more action in promoting children's nutrition. In making the pledge to the Council of Better Business Bureaus, Burger King joins 11 other food and beverage companies claiming to be committed to advertising that promotes healthy dietary choices and lifestyles to children 12 and under."

Disco dieting

“Counting calories is so 1980s,” said one of the dancers. “But when it’s right there, it’s kind of hard to ignore.”

The New York Times now reports -- after restaurants had to list calories -- that counting calories is back in vogue, or at least in The New Yorker.

“More and more, people are looking at calories in, and calories out,” said Dr. Terry Eagan, a Los Angeles psychiatrist, who for 16 years has helped 

people with eating disorders and other addictions. “I know some people want something that’s sexy and different and new, but there really isn’t anything new about weight loss.”

More...

Emotionally, you can't handle eating

Eating is life.  But it's also emotional, says a new study. Looking at menus and advertising affect our emotions and affect our food choices. People who make the healthiest choice have confidence in their emotions. 

Next time you order listen to your heart and stomach.

Menus and advertising affect our emotions, and if we understand those emotions, we make better food choices, according to a new study in theJournal of Consumer Research.

Authors Blair Kidwell, David M. Hardesty, and Terry L. Childers (all University of Kentucky) examined the "emotional intelligence" of consumers, including obese people. They found that people who made the healthiest choices had high correlations between their emotional intelligence and confidence in their emotional intelligence—what the authors call "emotional calibration."

"When perusing a restaurant menu, many consumers may not be aware of the subtle implicit feelings of arousal elicited by visually appealing presentations of unhealthy food choices," the authors write. Faced with choices between healthy and unhealthy food options, individuals who are confident that they can appropriately interpret and employ their emotions, but who do not actually possess these emotional abilities, are likely to make low-quality decisions."

In the first of two studies, the authors measured emotional ability, confidence, and nutritional knowledge. They asked participants to plan meals from a menu with a wide range of options—some healthier than others. They found that people with emotional miscalibration chose foods higher in calories, even more so than people with low levels of nutritional knowledge.

10 Breakfast Ideas

For great breakfast ideas see this blog:

10 Breakfast Ideas (With Photos): "10 Breakfast Ideas (With Photos)
by J. Foster

Here is a comparison of 4 breakfasts from fast food outlets, along with 6 home-made breakfasts.

Each breakfast was actually prepared (or purchased) and photographed. Calorie counts are listed (full nutritional details also available).

Ranae (who compiled this list) lost 137 pounds by eating around 1400-1500 Calories per day (divided into 3 meals and 2 snacks). All meals were around 300-400 Calories.

This is a 'real world' list. While it would be great for health if we all ate organic oats every morning - sometimes we need to be pragmatic about the foods we normally eat - and just how much change we can realistically make."

Jack is not nimble

SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Want to enjoy a hearty, weekend-style breakfast on a weekday schedule? Then head to your local Jack in the Box(r) restaurant for a new Breakfast Bowl - a Sunday-brunch-worthy meal of eggs, meat, hash browns, and cheese that's filling, tasty and totally transportable!

I don't think so, unless you want more than 700 calories before 9 am. You'll be sluggish, slow and sloppy fat after eating these breakfasts. Stay away from the Box and the bowl.

Try a few mushrooms and spinach in a egg-white omelet and for less than 150 calories and you'll have save yourself 60 pounds in just one year.

Some 'kids' meals' are rated XXX

Fast foods are bad for you and your kids. Check out today's USA Today! Many of the "kids' meals" should be rated XXX, for way too big and too many calories. One meal has nearly a day's worth of calories.

If you have children you need to read this report.

USATODAY.com reports

"The first comprehensive report on kids' meals at popular fast-food and chain restaurants finds the servings are far too high in calories for a single meal.

In fact, some of meals contain more 1,000 calories, which is almost as many calories as some elementary-school children need for the entire day, according to the analysis from Center for Science in the Public Interest, a consumer group.

Overall, the findings reveal that 93% of the kids' meals at McDonald's and Wendy's contain more than 430 calories, the average number of calories that children ages 4 to 8 should get at a single meal. The comparable numbers are 92% at Burger King; 89% at Dairy Queen; 69% at Arby's; 60% at Denny's. The latter's kids' meals don't include drinks."