You may be too fat to go through the drive-thru

USAToday.com is reporting that some car owners may be too fat for their cars (and tires).

The Mazda MX-5 Miata and Chevrolet (GM) Corvette, aren't certified to carry two 200-pound adults, according to a government formula aimed at tire safety.

Many five-passenger vehicles are rated about 850 pounds, maxxing out if their five occupants weigh more than 170 pounds each. Six 200-pounders would overload the seven-passenger Dodge Grand Caravan minivan."

Car weight limits are a big, fat problem
Automakers say the limits reflect a mandated federal formula that requires them to rate passengers at 150 pounds each. The limit may not be realistic "given American propensity for food, but that is the regulation," says Mazda safety director Dan Ryan.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says automakers can set the weight limit at whatever they deem appropriate.

In 2004, the Centers for Disease Control pegged average weights at 190 pounds for men, 163 for women.

David Champion, Consumer Reports head of auto testing, says automakers aren't building cars that can stand up to loads of bigger passengers. A family car "should be capable of carrying five reasonably sized people, not five midgets.

Sounds like one part of the government is not talking to the other part. The Federal government reports 66% of Americans are overweight or obese. I don't think those tires are going to last long; not as long as Americans keep going through the fast-food drive thru.

The revolution has started

If McDonald's, Wendy's, Burger King, Jack-in-the-Box, et. al. won't control themselves; and we know Americans can't control themselves, at least in California, the law will control fast food.

The Los Angeles Times is reporting officials are considering "health zoning": prohibiting new fast-food restaurants in certain areas...like all of South L.A.

"The people don't want them, but when they don't have any other options, they may gravitate to what's there," said Councilwoman Jan Perry, who proposed the ordinance in June, and whose district includes portions of South L.A. that would be affected by the plan.

In just one-quarter of a mile near USC on Figueroa Street, from Adams Boulevard south, there are about 20 fast-food outlets.

"To be honest, it's all we eat," Rey Merlan said one recent lunch hour at a Kentucky Fried Chicken. "Everywhere, it's fast food everywhere."

more...

The L.A. Times study found South Los Angeles with the highest concentration of fast food restaurants, and fewer grocery stores than the rest of the city.

And of course the next statistic is no accident. Thirty percent of adults in South L.A. are obese, compared with 20.9% in the county overall, according to a county Department of Public Health study released in April.

For children, the obesity rate was 29% in South L.A., compared with 23.3% in the county.

"While limiting fast-food restaurants isn't a solution in itself, it's an important piece of the puzzle," said Mark Vallianatos, director of the Center for Food and Justice at Occidental College.

But it's a start.

Other cities including Concord, Mass. are starting a new revolution by banning fast-food restaurants in certain districts.

The first shot heard round the world was just fired.

What a concept! Schools teach and serve healthier foods

It's been almost 400 years since Harvard University was founded.

And today the Boston Globe reports that for the first time healthy eating is being taught in the "Hub of the Universe".

Boston City Schools have hired a chef to train cafeteria managers across the public school system how to make their food healthier and more attractive. He started serving food last week.

"I think this chef's program will get kids to change their eating habits," said Mayor Thomas M. Menino. "What we're trying to do is make sure they're educated about what to eat."

Almost half the children in Boston's public schools are overweight and many are obese. At the Frederick school, 41 percent are obese; at the chef's other pilot school, the Mario Umana Middle School Academy in East Boston, 52 percent are obese and 17 percent are at risk of diabetes, according to school officials.

more at: The Boston Globe: Schools hope chef's touch whets cafeteria appetite.

It's about time (and health).

FDA might get it half-way right

On Monday, the Food and Drug Administration took the first step toward new food labeling, inviting food companies, trade groups, watchdog organizations, medical experts and its overseas counterparts to share how front-label symbols, like the 'traffic light' system used in Britain, can improve public health.

Last January, I told you England has easy to understand symbols, pointing out the RightSize of fat, salt and sugar.

I suggested then that this only covers about 60 percent of the food we eat. The other 40 percent is eaten away from the home and we still don't have any way of figuring out the calories, the fats, the salt or the sugar in our restaurant meals.

How much fatter do our children have to get before we take action? How much fatter do we have to get before we take action?

Let pressure our presidential candidates now to consider food labels on menus.

FDA Asks Groups to Consider Food Labels

WASHINGTON (AP) — Next month, General Mills Inc. and Kellogg Co. will begin emblazoning their breakfast cereals with symbols that summarize complex nutritional information — part of the growing use of logos to steer harried grocery shoppers toward healthier choices.

The proliferation of such symbols is a worldwide phenomenon, with government regulators in Britain, Sweden and elsewhere establishing logo systems that concisely indicate how nutritious food products are. In the United States, however, corporations have been left to devise their own schemes. That's led to a patchwork of systems that some fear further confuses consumers already unsure about how to eat wisely.

more...

Here's the way my labeling would look at restaurants:

Chefs Share Their Secrets

I've told you about chefs that can turn healthy foods into fattening foods with too much butter or cream, but now Reader's Digest RD.com searched America to find chefs who are putting down the fats and still cooking good tasting food.

When Michael Wild prepared his savory chicken dish for eager diners 15 years ago, he'd start by reaching for butter and cream to prepare the sauce. Today, the owner/chef of Bay Wolf Restaurant in Oakland, Calif., poaches the chicken in stock, tops it with a mushroom-rich mustardy vinaigrette, and artfully arranges his creation on a bed of greens. The butter and cream rarely leave the refrigerator.

Susan Weaver, executive chef at Fifty Seven Fifty Seven, the restaurant at the Four Seasons Hotel in New York, builds flavor with vinegar, citrus fruits, mustard, spices, and herbs. That approach applies even to whipped mashed potatoes, a traditionally butter-rich member of the comfort-food family. "We puree the cooked potatoes with chicken stock and mustard, which gives a dense, rich flavor," she explains. "The creaminess comes from the potato itself. The taste is that of a luscious, fat-laden dish, but in fact there's no fat whatsoever."

more...

It's chefs like these showing the rest of America it's possible to have good tasting, satisfying healthy restaurant meals.

They are the ones deserving our applause, and business. And fast food restaurants could be doing the same thing. There's not one reason for a salad to be 700 calories. A side order of potatoes doesn't have to be fried; it could be mashed with chicken stock.

As Chef Pierre LeBlanc of the Culinary Institute of America said : I look at low-fat cuisine as a challenge to creativity and a catalyst to healthier food that taste better.

All restaurant chefs take that challenge. I dare you.

Company charges extra for obesity

"If you're too heavy, then we are going to charge you more."

That's the message at least one company is telling its employees.

From MSNBC.com: "Like a growing number of companies, Clarian Health Partners has for a number of years had a program that rewards employees for getting healthy. But now, Clarian is telling its workers, it's time to shape up or pay up."

“For several years, we’ve had a reward program, where if you cease smoking and do a self-assessment, you receive a reduction in your [health care] premiums,” Clarian president and CEO Daniel Evans told TODAY co-host Matt Lauer on Friday. "[But] our health care costs were going up and our employees were not taking full advantage of the programs we had in place.”

To combat the problem, beginning in 2009 Clarian employees will be charged up to $30 every two weeks for failing to meet standards set by the company in a number of areas. That breaks down to $10 for a body mass index that’s too high, and $5 each for smoking, high cholesterol, high blood sugar and high blood pressure.

It's only a matter of time before all companies look to offset the increased costs of health care for obese employees. Now is the time for the restaurant industry to get in line with helping people to get fit, not the other way around.

Why are Missouri citizens so fat?

New men's belt size

Missouri has the 12th highest rate of adult obesity at 26.3 percent.

Why?

One reason might be restaurants and restaurant reviewers who revel in the ridiculously rich, roly-poly, wrong-sized portions of fat and calories.

Take Betha Whitlow from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, a Pulitzer-prize winning newspaper. This is not some backwater village crier, but "what once was" a respected newspaper.

In her review of Billie's Fine Foods, she writes:

Dining: "My eating style typically leans toward small-portion grazing, but I got a thrill when my chicken fried steak with eggs, potatoes and a biscuit ($6.40) arrived on two large dinner plates, inspiring a 'She's a hungry one!' from our server. I forked into the steak, which was covered with velvety white gravy flecked with black pepper. The fried crust of the steak remained inexplicably light and crisp under its heavy gravy blanket, and the steak itself was piping hot and juicily tender. I also devoured my two perfectly cooked over-medium eggs, and fried potatoes that fell somewhere between hashed and cubed. While the larger potato pieces were a little soft, their mild flavor mingled beautifully with the smaller bits, which had a caramelized brown patina. The biscuit — a heavy slab sliced from a pan — was dense and buttery enough to make me forget about cholesterol for the moment."

First, it doesn't sound like Billie knows what fine food is. But why does the reviewer play up the most heart-attack-producing meal? Couldn't we have heard about something that approached fine foods?

I guess not. The reviewer concludes with:

... but we picked the plate clean as we reveled in our newfound gluttony.

Missouri is only the 12th fattest state. With restaurants and reviewers like that, look out Mississippi, they will be #1 in the nation soon.

Time for Congress to get off the couch

This is not a man-bites-dog story. This is expected, predicted and, tragically, the logically conclusion.

Obesity continues to rise in 31 states with no state showing a decline. Obesity rates rise in 31 states - MSNBC.com.

But the reaction is not what we expect from our leaders.

No one is standing up to the fast-food lobby, nor to the corporate farms and its subsidies, nor
to the cola companies. Everyone is taking this laying down.

What was President Bush's reaction to this updated survey by the Trust for America’s Health, a research group that focuses on disease prevention?

Nothing. Not one word. Reminds me of global warming. Keep denying it because it's not on the conservative Republican agenda.

As for the survey, the news is terrible for adults, especially for the South, where Mississippi has the most overweight citizens.

The report also finds that rates of overweight children (ages 10 to 17) ranged from a high of 22.8 percent in Washington, D.C. to a low of 8.5 percent in Utah. Eight of the ten states with the highest rates of overweight children were in the South.

In Connecticut the obesity rate is horrible for its youth: 37th highest rate of overweight youths.

In New York the youths are getting bigger by a New York Minute: 18th highest rate of overweight youths.

In Ohio the adults are not as small as buckeyes: Ohio has the 15th highest rate of adult obesity at 26.0 percent.

When will our representatives get off the couch and start exercising food leadership?

Steamed vegetables can be bad for you

At restaurants there's no nutritional label to read. There's no complete list of ingredients. There's no list of calories and carbs and especially FAT!

DietGuideInfo.com exposes how -- even non-fast food -- restaurants can invisibly wreck your diet.

The sneaky ways restaurants wreck your diet:

"You may think you know what you’re doing when it comes to eating healthy while eating out at restaurants, but do you really? Do steamed veggies and egg white omelets sounds like healthy fare? considering they aren’t normally, at least not as much as you might think. Truth is restaurant food generally tastes as good as it does considering chefs and cooks have any number of tricks up their sleeves to add fat. Fat makes food taste great, sadly, and so they put it in and on everything. Besides steamed veggies (which are often coated in oil before and after steaming) and egg-white omelets (which are cooked in loads of oil in the skillet), other high-fat restaurant shockers"

Will fast foods stop 275 pounders?

Christian Hales of Salt Lake City wrote to the the editor of The Salt Lake Tribune with an unique suggestion.

Stop obese customers from entering Burger King if they weigh more than 275 pounds. He'd have the doors locked, bolted and shuttered.

Here's his letter. Food for thought?

Scaling back obesity

I am writing to voice my concern about obesity in this country and to suggest one possible solution. My proposal is that a scale system be set up at the major fast-food restaurants like Wendy's, Burger King, Dairy Queen and McDonald's. When customers approach the front doors, they walk over a scale that weighs them. The scale has been programmed not to let anyone over a certain weight pass through the doors. If anyone over, let's say 275 pounds, steps on the scale, the doors will lock, preventing their entry into the restaurant. If we as a country can find a way to limit the amount of fatty foods that the average American consumes, I believe our world will be a happier place.

Does The Cheesecake Factory cause cancer?

We all know too many calories and not enough exercise causes obesity in Americans. In previous blogs I pointed out that The Cheesecake Factory has some of the highest caloric portions of all the restaurants. Now the American Cancer Society points out that obesity is tied to an increased risk of several different types of cancers, such as breast cancer in post-menopausal women, as well as cancers of the colon, endometrium (uterus), esophagus and kidney.

It doesn't take a logic professor to tell you that it's possible The Cheesecake Factory causes cancer, the same way Philip Morris causes cancer. Of course The Cheesecake Factory will vehemently deny it, and talk about no cause-effect relationship and freedom of choice, but didn't the American tobacco companies do the same thing for the last 50 years.

ABC news has a great article written by Len Lichtenfeld, deputy chief medical officer of the American Cancer Society. He's a doctor who's had his own battle with weight. Like I have said many times before, it's not easy to live in America and lose weight or even keep your weight appropriate.

The key is making the RightChoice every day of your life.

He writes:

I can sympathize with every one of you out there, especially the older folks, who find it so difficult to get on track and lose some weight. I, too, have had a lifelong battle with being overweight and obese.

After a significant health scare, I tried to go back to a healthier diet.

After about 18 months, more or less, I have been able to lose a bit over 30 pounds. It hasn't been easy, and the reality is that it takes constant attention.

I was once called "Mr. No Fun" by a server at a local waffle shop in north Georgia when I asked for an egg-white omelet, no cheese, no grits, no toast, and yes, please, some sliced tomatoes on the side.

Read more...

Let's take the ham out of burger

That's absolutely no reason why burgers couldn't be healthy and the RightSize of calories, fats and carbs.

But restaurants -- especially, fast food restaurants -- need to turn those Golden frowning arches upside down into smiling healthy arches.

EatBetterAmerica has six smart, better burgers than the typical corn-laden beef burger.

You have to ask yourself, why can't each of these be a option at McDonald's, Wendy's or Burger King? (Could it be that Congress only subsidizes corn farmers?)

Next time you are out at your favorite restaurant try to order a turkey burger...or a soy, portobello, veggie or venison burger. The restaurant won't have it, but if we all keep asking for them, eventually we'll convince restaurants we want to be healthy.

EatBetter America in Branch Out with Burgers writes:

The aroma fills the neighborhood. And that distinctive sizzling sound can mean only one thing: It's grilling season. But while you're enjoying those burgers, be mindful to keep your meals healthy for your heart. 'A burger doesn't have to mean beef,' says Rachel Brandeis, MS, RD, LD, a registered dietitian with a private practice in Atlanta. 'By changing out ground beef, you can save on calories and cholesterol.' Meet These Grilling Greats Here are six heart-smart choices along with tips for better-tasting burgers.

Chicken and Turkey: More supermarket space is now devoted to ground turkey and chicken. The trick is finding the lowest-fat versions to make burgers.
* Heart-healthy benefits: Some ground turkey breast can be 99% fat free. In addition, ground poultry breast can have fewer calories than a typical ground-beef burger.

Read more...

Restaurant Critics: Part of the Problem?

Every day I read another restaurant review where the critic associates huge portions with a favorable review. This isn't like global warming or the big bang theory: There's no disagreement that large food portions are wrong for Americans. Avoiding the wrong size of calories and fat is the #1 way to avoid becoming obese.

Yet in every newspaper in America -- save a couple -- the restaurant reviewer falls into the lazy American slogan that bigger must be better. It must be good 'cause it's so damn big.

Just in one article in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel (I realize it will never win a Pulitzer; still it perpetuates the portion myth), the restaurant critic mentions -- not once, but twice -- in glowing terms "huge portions."

This longtime South Broward favorite continues to delight diners with dependable Indian food. Portions are huge and while fried dishes tend to be a bit soggy, the curries are very good and rice dishes, like biryani, are text book.

If you can live with the enormous portions and sometimes over-the-top conceptions (and Michael Blum's place is packed with fans who can), it's wonderful fun without any pretense to subtlety. Plum-glazed salmon, Asian ribs, turkey meatloaf and Yankee pot roast are all highly recommended.

Don't believe there's any connection. The University of Oregon reported: "Recent studies have shown that there is a higher rate of obesity among...who live in one of four Florida Counties: Broward, Duval, Palm Beach..." Of course the Sun-Sentinel covers Broward county.

But it's not just fat Florida where you find portion flattery.

Head just north of Florida for Atlanta and the Daily Report's restaurant critic -- who, obviously has never been to Italy -- loves the portions.

"Little Italy, lotta food" -- restaurant slogan
We chose the lasagna, which our capable waitress, Autumn, brought to our table within five minutes. It came piping hot with accompanying garlic bread. With just the right combination of pasta, meat and tomato sauce, the dish was larger than we could handle. “For the food and the volume that you get,” says D’Angelo, “you never leave here complaining. That’s where our slogan comes in. You literally get a lot of food. After 13 years, how could we start changing the portions?”

I have been to Italy...many times. Not once in the more than 100 meals did any restaurant approach "lotta food".

I could spend the rest of the day copying and pasting WrongSize restaurant reviews. But it's "hugely" clear that critics must change. It's irresponsible. It's like doctors promoting cigarette smoking. Oh, that's right. Doctors did promote smoking in the 40s and 50s. And it was irresponsible.

Stop the obesity obscenities in newspapers now. You can change the World (and Times and Herald), write your editor!

China recalls McDonald's

Which is worse: putting lead paint on toys and exposing a million children to potentially lead poisoning? Or, putting fat-laden french fries and hamburgers in the bellies of hundreds of million of children exposing them to potentially obesity, diabetes, heart disease and premature death?

Neither is a statistical certainty. No one has claimed -- yet -- their child has a learning disability from lead paint on a Mattel toy. No one has claimed -- yet -- that fast food has led to premature death for their child. In both cases people voluntarily bought the product. No one forced anyone to buy the toys or burgers. There's plenty of other options. Buyer beware, most Americans would say.

Americans demand certainty. It took nearly 100 years of proof before most Americans would accept that smoking causes cancer and premature death. We used lead paint for a 100 years before accepting that children sometimes chew on items with paint, and some children developed learning disabilities from that kind of paint. Even now the government doesn't require you to remove that lead paint around your window.

Americans have had fast food for just 50 years. And now we have an obesity problem. This blog is starting the 50-year countdown. I'm looking forward to the year 2067 when America recalls all fast food because everyone now agrees it causes obesity.

If Mattel recalled toys with lead, should China recall American fast food?

Iowa votes for unhealthy food

When you head to the Iowa State Fair, you've better bring your walking shoes, light comfortable clothes, but leave your healthy salad and water at home. Because the Iowa State Fair doesn't want any stinky, East Coast liberals with their tofu and sprout sandwiches. In fact, the DesMoinesRegister.com reports no beverages, food or coolers may be brought into the fair. The exception is baby food. OK, your baby can eat healthy, lady. You can't.

The Iowa State University Cooperative Extension has estimated the calories of fair favorites.

- Cotton candy: 100 calories.

- Caramel apple: 200 calories.

- Chocolate-covered cheesecake on a stick: 300 calories.

- Plain hamburger: 450 calories.

- Fried candy bar on a stick: 550 calories.

- 64-ounce soda: 800 calories.

- Fried turkey leg: 1,100 calories.

There are more than 220 foodstands at the fair with dozens of items. What healthy foods does the website suggest?

- Baked potato (278 calories with nothing on it)

- Corn on the cob (155 calories with butter)

- Salads (watch out for the dressings at sometimes 500 calories)

- Mixed fruit cups

- Shish kebabs (who knows what's in those)

- Veggie corn dog (Cotton candy might have less calories and taste better)

- Turkey tenderloins

- Pork chop on a stick (154 calories for 3 oz.)

That's it. A thousand food items in the breadbasket of the nation, at the show place for agriculture and food in America, and the website can find less than 10 healthy food items.

I'd suggest you'd bring your own food and water to the fair. But that's illegal in Iowa.

Eating at McDonald's means low paying job

If you eat at McDonald's in high school, that might be the only place you'll be qualified to work.

That's one conclusion I drew after reading Time Magazine's article, Overweight Kids: College Less Likely.

Using college enrollment as a measure of academic success, University of Texas at Austin sociologist Robert Crosnoe found that obese students had a worse experience at school than their thinner peers and were less likely to attend college, and that the effects of being overweight hurt girls far more than boys.

Recent research has shown that overweight youngsters are often teased, ostracized and isolated by their peers, and are sometimes treated differently by teachers and even parents. According to Crosnoe, children often internalize this negative social feedback — whether real or perceived — which can lead to alcohol and drug use, failure in school, truancy and suicidal thoughts. "They are just unhappy at school," he says, "and it does things to them in the present that have long-term consequences."

Seems to me this should be reason number 340,329 not to eat at McDonald's or other fast foods.

The 10 Greatest Advancements in FAST FOOD History

Erik Amonson and Lukas Kaiser tackle the question everyone should ask: What are the 10 top advancements in fast food history. Read all about it in The 10 Greatest Advancements in FAST FOOD History.

I think you can could up with your own list, but I especially liked #6 -- Subway successfully tricks people into thinking they make healthy fast food.

By the time I graduated high school, I was getting close to being borderline obese. I ballooned from a size 40 to a size 44 pants size within my senior year. Things were looking grim. Then I got a summer job that required I be on my feet at all time and an internship that was seven miles from my house that required a 45 minute long bike ride there and back. Oh, also, I barely had any time to eat and ended up quickly making two hot dogs for lunch and two for dinner. Needless to say, by the time I entered college, I was down to a size 36 and I had lost almost 50 pounds (in under three months). I suppose you could say I lost weight thanks to hot dogs in addition to exercise. That'd be a fib...the kind of fib Jared, from Subway, tells every day (his, as you probably know, is that he lost nearly 100 pounds). But it's the kind of fib lazy people who don't want to ride bikes and run and exercise want to believe. Thanks to Jared and his perfect "aw shucks" delivery, Subway is now the fastest growing fast food chain in America (in fact, there are more Subway restaurants in Manhattan than there are McDonalds). Thanks to Jared, every fast food chain (save Popeye's) has "healthy" food items on their menu now. And thanks to Jared, people will continue to believe they can lose weight by not exercising and eating shitty ham sandwiches. And here's something, guys: even if you do lose weight, the sandwiches are still not "healthy" for you. They still don't contain vegetables or nutrients that your body needs and are still mostly packed with bullshit and you'll still die of a coronary. But you'd never know that...because a guy who used to be fat told you he lost weight.

Eat like a gorilla

From the The Nutrient Rich Blog Dr. Joel Fuhrman suggests we eat more like a mountain gorilla than a mountain lion.

What would happen if you attempted to eat like a mountain gorilla, which eats about 80 percent of its diet from green leaves and about 15 percent from fruit? Assuming you are a female, who needs about 1,500 calories a day, if you attempted to get 1,200 of those calories from greens, you would need to eat over fifteen pounds of greens. That is quite a big salad! Since your stomach can only hold about one liter of food (or a little over a quart), you would have a problem fitting it all in.

Did you notice that 100 calories of broccoli is about ten ounces of food, and 100 calories of ground sirloin is less than one ounce of food? With green vegetables you can get filled up, even stuffed, yet you will not be consuming excess calories. Animal products, on the other hand, are calorie-dense and relatively low in nutrients, especially the crucial anti-cancer nutrients.

You would surely get lots of protein from this gorilla diet. In fact, with just five pounds of greens you would exceed the RDA for protein and would get loads of other important nutrients. The problem with this gorilla diet is that you would develop a calorie deficiency. You would become too thin.

Researcher’s Unveil Four Factors of Obesity

The researchers at UC Berkeley came up with the four factors of obesity. One of the factors is directly connected to restaurant food (haven't I been telling you that?). Two other factors seem indirectly tied to restaurant's bad fat and sugary sweet drinks.

The researchers didn't mentioned weak minded as a factor, or personal self-control.

Here are the four factors that are most likely to cause overweight and obesity in America according to researchers:

* the consumption of dietary fat, (because of its high calorie content, palatability and efficient utilization by the body)
* sweetened beverages, (consumption of sugar in beverage form likely to result in higher calorie intake, high fructose corn syrup metabolism in the liver favors lipogenesis - i.e. fat production)
* restaurant foods, (the more one eats out the harder it is to avoid weight gain - fast foods and restaurant foods higher in calories and fat and lack other nutrients)
* and a pattern of breakfast-skipping (overweight individuals tend to skip breakfast)

Read more at Researcher’s Unveil Four Factors of Obesity or read the full report at California Agriculture.

Calorie pusher comes to town

When the Cheesecake Factory comes to your town, you better watch out!

Calorielab.com writer notes that she's might be the only person in Rochester, NY not looking forward to the opening of another Calorie Pusher. And of course, The Cheesecake Factory won't even tell you what's in its food.

Calorie pusher comes to town: The Cheesecake Factory hits Rochester

"They refuse to tell their customers what they’re serving. Their web site states that they do not provide nutrition information, and it’s not available in their restaurants, or on most independent nutrition sites, either.

Emails to the company requesting nutrition bring this response:

At this time we do not provide nutritional information, such as caloric values, although we do hope to have that service available to our guests in the future.

I find it extremely difficult to believe that they don’t have the information.

The Cheesecake Calorie Factory is "in"famous mostly for huge plates overflowing with pounds of high-calorie food.

How bad is it? Officially, the Cheesecake Calorie Factory won't say. But a cook at RecipeZaar recreated their Pasta Da Vinci, and came up with 3,736 calories and 165 grams of fat.

That's nearly TWO DAYS worth of calories in one dish.

A slice of their cheesecake has 1,150 calories, and 74 grams of fat. (You'd have to walk for MORE than 5 hours to work off that Calorie/Coronary cheesecake.

Don't expect anything healthy with the "Profit, I mean Weight, Management" salads. The California Salad has 43 grams of fat. (You could eat 10 peanut butter cookies and still eat less fat.)

Next time you see a Cheesecake Fat Factory feel very good as you pass by.

Do you know anybody who died of obesity?

Today I was reading this blog, and got to thinking. Obesity is a killer in America. But I don't think I know anyone who died of it. I know, unfortunately, way too many young friends and family who died of cancer. Yet, no one of fatness.

So I'm asking my audience to comment: Do you know anyone who died of obesity? Let me know their story.

Americans think Obesity as Unhealthy as Smoking

WebMD.com reports the tide has turned in America.

Both obesity and smoking are risky to our health.

A new Gallup Poll shows 83% of U.S. adults view obesity as very harmful to one’s health, compared with 79% who said the same about smoking.

Researchers say the results reveal a new view of obesity’s health risks and show that medical knowledge about the negative health effects of being overweight has entered the American mind-set.

In fact, they say the message has come through so clearly that at this point Americans are just as likely to say that being obese is very harmful as they are to say the same thing about smoking, which has long been the target of public health campaigns.

Read more on the poll...

Nutritional restaurant food costs more than junk

There's a reason it's called junk food. Because it's cheap nutritionally, and cheap for your wallet. Good food costs money. But most times the local vegetable farmer is not subsidized like McDonald's and Walmart.

A recent report from the University of Washington compared the weekly costs of eating high- and low-energy-dense food in 1,500 French teens and adults. It found that fruit, vegetables and other lower-calorie fare cost more than fast-food burgers, fried chicken and other energy-dense foods. That suggests, the team concluded in June in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association, that 'lasting improvements in diet quality may require economic as well as behavioral interventions.'

Here are some tips from the researchers:

Add a first course to lunch and dinner. Make it a large leafy salad with plenty of vegetables and low-fat or nonfat dressing. Penn State researchers have found this practice can cut an average of 100 calories from the main meal without affecting fullness.

Sip soup. It's filled with water, which helps you feel full on fewer calories. Stews are another smart option. The exception: Avoid cream-based soups, which are packed with fat and calories.

Cut fat but not flavor. Choose fat-free or low-fat cheese instead full-fat varieties, especially in casseroles and mixed dishes where other ingredients can take up the slack.

Add fruit or vegetables to cut calories. Diced grapes, celery, carrots and water chestnuts lower the calories in chicken salad or tuna salad and add flavor and texture. Use mushrooms, onions, tomatoes, spinach and other vegetables on pizza in place of some of the pepperoni and sausage. Add spinach, eggplant, zucchini, tomatoes and other veggies to pasta dishes while cutting back on meat

Get more fiber. Not only does it help dilute calories, but it also increases satiety. So add beans to taco fillings, salads and soups. Switch to whole-wheat bread, pasta and cereal.

Read more at: You can eat more and still lose weight.

Restaurants Experimenting with Smaller Portions

Out West diners are commenting on TGI Friday's new smaller portions for smaller prices.

Check out their reactions at: Restaurants Experimenting with Smaller Portions.

Here's a sample:

"People can be addicted to food the same way some are addicted to alcohol. Unfortunately there is the one difference - we still have to eat. It isn't like we can just stop, like someone who smokes.

I think it is a wonderful idea to have smaller portions as an option. It is difficult to stop eating when there is still food on your plate."

Friends, family may make you fat

Friends, family may make you fat

In my "best 10 ways to lose 100 pounds" I pointed out that your friends and family pose a threat when you are trying to lose weight. This research proves it.

Soda (diet or regular) linked to heart risks

Last blog I told you McDonald's wants to sell you a soda the size of Siberia.

Now researchers from Boston University's School of Medicine finds a link between all sodas -- diets and sugar-laden -- and increased heart disease risks. (The author of the study emphasized the findings don't show diet sodas are a cause of increased heart disease. But cigarette makers have argued for years that cigarettes don't cause cancer either.)

Without a definitive explanation, researchers offers only this advice to diet soda drinkers: "consume in moderation and stay tuned for more research."

I'd say if you are serious about your health stay away from colas.

more...Diet soda linked to heart risks - Yahoo! News

McDonald's wants to make you HUGO fat

McDonald's was starting to offer more appropriately portioned food lately. But that ended today.

The Hugo, a 42-ounce drink is now being offered for as little as 89 cents. One cup of the Hugo Coke has more than 400 calories. Some are calling it the Tubbo.

Of course, the Hugo ads are in both English and Spanish, making sure that Latin minorities have an equal opportunity to be obese.

Today's NY Times comments:

When McDonald’s opened in 1955 the largest soda was 7 fluid ounces, according to Ms. Nestle and Ms. Young. Now a small soda is 16 ounces, and a child’s soda is 12 ounces. And what was once considered a normal adult meal is now a child’s portion. A patty the same size as the original McDonald’s hamburger and a serving of French fries, for instance, is now offered to children as part of the Happy Meal, Ms. Young said.

The problem with bigger portions has been well documented. They are undoubtedly good deals. But put simply, if people are offered more food, they eat it.

I don't remember going to McDonald's in the 60s and saying to myself, this place would be pretty good, if the sodas were 6 times bigger. Or that the hamburgers needed to be have twice the fat, or the fries needed to be 4 times larger.

Why did those "appropriately sized" meals in the 60s satisfy us, but now they don't?

Of could it be the 60s-sized profits don't satisfy Wall Street and McDonald's executives (whose bonuses are all tied to making Americans as fat as possible).

And I just can't believe they call it Hugo. Wasn't that a hurricane?

Hurricane Hugo was a destructive Category 5 hurricane that struck Puerto Rico, St. Croix, South Carolina and North Carolina in September of the 1989 Atlantic hurricane season, killing 82 people. It also left 56,000 homeless. The storm caused $10 billion (1989 USD, $16.3 billion (2006 USD) in damages, making it at the time the most damaging hurricane ever recorded, surpassing Hurricane Frederic.

Doesn't sound like something I'd want my summer drink associated with.

The 10 best ways to lose 100 pounds (continued)

10. ENJOY YOUR LIFE AND FOOD.

After you have lost the 100 pounds, now start living. Not by eating everything, but only the best, healthiest, local, greatest tasting food every day. I stopped eating everyday red meat. That’s the hamburgers, steaks, sausage, ham, pork, bacon, roasts that come from Kroger’s or Stop and Shop. I love a beautiful slice of prosciutto around the ripest melon, or an appropriate portion of Ruth Chris filet mignon occasionally. I live for beautiful local vegetables grilled perfectly with just a touch of the tastiest Italian olive oil and hand-harvested sea salt from France (with some herbs from my garden). Or the freshest catch of the day in my favorite American restaurant. In other words, live it up, live it well, but live it appropriately.

The 10 best ways to lose 100 pounds (continued)

9. FIGURE OUT WHAT FOODS WORK FOR YOU. The foods that work for me are:

a. Spinach – World’s best food. Nutritious and it must have the highest weight to calorie ratio. Can be used for all three meals. Spinach in eggs, spinach salad and sautéed spinach for dinner.

b. Salt, pepper and spices – Just because you are eating correct portions doesn’t mean you can’t live dolce vita. Use generously, it makes the little food you are eating so much better. Buy the best salt and pepper.

c. Mushrooms – Again, one of the best weight to calorie ratios. Everyday I have a spinach and mushroom salad for lunch.

d. Pico de gallo (salsa) – Falls under the heading of spicing up every meal for very little calories. Don’t buy the national brands, but real fresh stuff in the product department.

e. Fish – Any and all kinds. Shellfish as well. Enough said.

f. Egg whites. Breakfast is so important. And everyday I have scrambled egg whites with mushrooms and spinach with a little salsa.

g. Bananas and strawberries – Everyday at 10 am I have a banana. For dessert after dinner I sometimes have strawberries. Both are perfect foods. Sweet, nutritious, low in calories and satisfying. Both are great in a smoothie, I treat myself to on Saturday mornings.

h. Almonds – The perfect snack in the right portions. Extremely healthy for you and very tasty.

i. Walden Farm’s No-Calorie Salad Dressings – Most salad dressings are part of the weight problem, not a solution. These great tasting dressings should be part of every person’s diet whether or not they are trying to lose weight.

j. Metamucil - It's the best way to get lots of fiber into your diet, and it fills you up. I mix it with water in the morning and drink it like Tang. (Like the astronauts.) On the website, the company says the fiber in Metamucil helps modulate blood glucose levels after meals. I don't know how any of this works for me, scientifically, but after losing nearly 100 pounds, I do know, it works.

The 10 best ways to lose 100 pounds (continued)

7. URINATE. Every diet is going to tell you water is your best friend. Maybe your only friend at this point. You should drink lots of water, but not to fill up your stomach. You’ve heard this a hundred times, and it’s boring and stupid. Water doesn’t fill up, despite all those health nuts and diet claims. But it does wash away the impure fats in your body. None of the magazines or TV commercials want to tell you how it really works, but you’ll soon be urinating your weight away. (How else is it going to disappear?) Forget the gym, every time you go to the bathroom, you are literally losing weight. Keep going to the bathroom!

8. READ. Read every blog and book you can on obesity. Read about healthy food. Read about local food. Read about bad food. Read about bad American marketers. Get knowledgeable. You probably know more about baseball or football, than the food you have been sticking in your mouth for the past 20 years.

9. FIGURE OUT WHAT FOODS WORK FOR YOU. All calories count, so find the foods that you like with the lowest calories. I focus on the foods with lots of bulk and little calories, and if they have moderate calories, then the foods should be very healthy for you – at least on the top 10 lists of healthy foods. For me the foods were very easy to find and to eat nearly everyday. The foods that work for me are:
(continued tomorrow).

All of America demands calorie information

Today's NY Times succinctly describes how and why Americans are demanding calorie information at restaurants.

Calorie Labels May Clarify Options, Not Actions

By RONI CARYN RABIN

If you were watching calories, would you go for the chicken Caesar salad at Chili’s or the classic sirloin steak? Subway’s tuna or roast beef sandwich? A Starbucks chai or a cappuccino?

Demand for calorie labels on restaurant food is sweeping the country. New York City is ahead of the trend — a law requiring calorie counts to be posted next to prices in some restaurants went into effect July 1, though it will not be enforced until October. But some 20 other states and localities are considering measures that would require chain restaurants to provide calories or detailed nutritional information right on the menu or menu board, often next to the price and in the same size lettering.

“Do you think people will stop eating McDonald’s French fries and Big Macs?” asked Rick Sampson of the New York State Restaurant Association, which is suing New York City over its law. “It doesn’t keep me from eating a candy bar even though the calories are listed on it right in front of me.” (A Big Mac has 540 calories; a medium order of fries, 380.)

But public opinion polls suggest that consumers are overwhelmingly in favor of menu labeling. And a 2005 survey of 5,297 adults by the food services company Aramark found that 83 percent of them wanted nutritional information in restaurants.

“Often, people are trying to do the right thing and make the healthier choice, but they’re just guessing at what the best choice is — it’s not always obvious,” said Margo Wootan, director of nutritional policy at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, the advocacy group that is leading the movement for menu labeling. “Because there’s no nutritional information, they’re not getting what they think they’re getting.”

The chicken Caesar salad at Chili’s is one of those items that might appear to be a healthier choice, but brace yourself: it contains 1,010 calories and 76 grams of fat, while the sirloin has 540 calories and 42 grams of fat (not counting side dishes).

more...

And the NY Times also asked its readers if menu nutritional information would affect what you ordered at restaurants?

The answer was overwhelming yes!

Some of the comments:

• 
  

  Calorie labels would absolutely affect what I order at restaurants. I am no saint, but I often do try to think about what would be a healthy option when dining out. If I had the added information of a calorie count, it would be much easier to make that decision.

  — Posted by Mark

• 
  

  Yes, it would affect what I order. I travel to Japan often, where many restaurants note in their menus the amt of calories each item has. I find it helpful.

  — Posted by TonyD

• 
  

  not only would it affect what i order, it would allow me to go out to restaurants more often. I currently try to avoid eating out more than once a week.

  — Posted by estefanía

• 
  

  YES, please put labels on restaurant food. Restaurants are famous for adding in tons of fat and I think it would make them more aware. Not to mention me more aware when I eat a steak and wonder why it tastes so good! Well it has a ton of butter rubber all over it! Besides, then when I diet I can actually go out to eat so I have a clue what I am eating!

  — Posted by Linda

• more...
  

The 10 Best Ways to Lose 100 pounds (continued)

4. GET RID OF SABOTEUR'S.


If you are 100 pounds overweight, then everybody will be trying to sabotage your diet. Your spouse, your friends, your kids, your company, your car, and especially your TV. Don’t eat with them. You’ve been eating with your family and friends and colleagues for years, and now look at you. Eat by yourself. Don’t torture yourself by watching others eat what you’d like to eat. Don’t go to restaurants. The portions are much too large. And fast food restaurants are what got you fat in the first place. Don’t go to parties. No one respects your diet. Every appetizer will try to blow up you up.


Don't cook for your family. Everybody nibbles. You can't nibble if you are going to lose 100 pounds. Too many times I finished my wife's dinner or my kids' dinners. I eat my too-large of portions and then another portions. You can't do that if there's no other food there.


5. LIVE WITH HUNGER.


At 7 pm you’re going to be so hungry, that you’d eat the magazine you’re reading. Go to bed. There’s nothing to relieve the hunger pains except sleep. Plus when you wake up, you can eat breakfast. Now this pain -- in the scheme of things -- is not that bad. It's not as bad as living in poverty in Africa, or fighting in Iraq or living with cancer treatment. Suck it up and live with hunger.


Rejoice in it. Every night I have felt hungry, the next morning, I found out I had lost a pound. Every night I remembered that.

6. NO COFFEE, NO COLA, NO CAFFEINE.

Caffeine makes you hungry and destroys your willpower. No body that drinks caffeine can lose 100 pounds. I don’t know why, it may not be scientific, but it’s a fact.

The Best 10 Ways to Lose 100 pounds (continued)

2. FORGET EXERCISE.


If you think you’ll going to lose 100 pounds by exercise then see #1. Stop fooling yourself. Exercise makes you want to eat more. You’d have to exercise hard for an hour just to burn off the calories of one donut. You’d have to exercise hard for 48 hours to burn off a large pizza.


How many people do you know that walk, run, step, bicycle, row and are still overweight? Nearly all of them. Exercise doesn’t help you lose weight. Now maybe it helps maintain your weight. Maybe it tones your muscles, so you look better. But it's the exception that proves the rule.


Don't keep eating what you have always eaten. Don't keep doing the exact same thing, you have alway done -- and add in just a little exercise -- and think you are going to lose 100 pounds. It's not going to happen. Forget exercise...for now.


3. PORTION CONTROL.


Only one thing causes you to lose weight: less food. And it’s a lot of less. It’s a lot more of less than you can ever imagine. For me to lose that much weight, I started with Nutrisystem, which packaged all my meals in the appropriate portions. At first, it took only about two bites to eat the entire breakfast, maybe, three bites for lunch. By the time dinner came, I ate so fast, I don’t remember eating.


Start measuring your food. Get a scale. Get a bunch of measuring cups and spoons. I thought I was using just a teaspoon of olive oil, but in reality I was pouring 3-4 tablespoons. I thought I was eating, maybe, a ½ cup of eggs, but in reality I was eating 2 cups of eggs. At dinner, I thought I was eating just a couple of helpings. Turned out it was 8 portions of meat. And forgetaboutit when it came to pasta. An appropriate portion is 1-2 ounces. I was eating nearly a pound (with meat sauce). That’s 8 portions of pasta!

The 10 Best Ways to Lose 100 pounds

(This list was complied by me. Not a heart doctor who’s never had to lose a pound, but a real-live weight-challenged 54-year-old. Forget the weight-challenged part, I was obese.)

1. CHANGE YOURSELF.

Stop the madness, and stop fooling yourself. You know you want to do it. You know you’ll feel a thousand times better. You just have to decide this is the day. Only you can do it. Sometimes it takes a scary heart attack or just angina. Sometimes it can just be carrying your 5-year-old to bed, and realizing you have to catch your breath after just a few stairs. Sometimes it’s just the effort in bending over to tie your shoes, or maybe the embarrassment of asking for the seat belt extension on the airplane. Whatever is your private hell, use it...to change your life forever.

And it’s difficult. It’s one of the most difficult things you’ll ever do in your life. Have you ever been poked in the eye by a stick? Be prepared to be poked in the eye everyday for at least a year, and then jabbed in the nose for the rest of your life. It’s more difficult than having a baby. What’s child birth, 4 or 8 hours of pain? This is pain that will last a year.

And it’s going to take a least a year. Don’t believe, not just for a minute, one of the hundreds of lies told by diet companies, celebrity magazine and doctors’ books. (We all know Dr. Phil isn’t a medical doctor, right?) Don’t believe any of those claims of “Slim in 6” or those magazine covers of “lose 30 pounds in 30 days.” Visualize one year, 365 days. Visualize two years. Visualize the rest of your life. One year seems so long and yet it’s just a 1/80 (1.3%) or 1/90 of your life. You didn’t gain 100 pounds in one year. So naturally it’s going to take a while to lose that fat.

But it’s going to be more rewarding and more empowering than any raise or job promotion. You might even get a raise or job promotion, since discrimination against obesity is hidden and widespread. But mostly I’m talking about the kind of positive feedback that family and friends will give you once they see the pounds shedding.

And the difficult part is just not the hunger, the lifestyle change or self-doubt. Be prepared for no one noticing. You’ll lose 25 pounds and people will ask if you changed your hairstyle. I lost 35 pounds and no one noticed. And these are caring, attentive work colleagues. No one noticed for the first 3 months and I had lost 50 pounds.

To change your body, you’ll need to change your mind. Both are difficult. Both are possible. You are stronger than you think.


Tomorrow: Exercise doesn’t work.

How to lose 100 pounds

After losing 94 pounds, there's just one question everyone has for me: how did you do it?

I thought I'd answer that question with the details of my journey for the past 10 months.

The easy answer is that I changed.

I changed everything. I changed how I thought about food. I changed how I ate. I changed what I ate. I changed how much I ate. I changed when I ate. I changed on what I read about food. I started this blog to encourage other people and to help change America.

I'm exactly the same husband, father and brother I always was, but I'm totally different than the obese alien that took over my body.

It must have been that alien that forced me to eat a large pizza 10 months and 1 day ago. My mind was saying stop, but those alien hands kept shoving that pizza in mouth.

That night I weighed myself (why?). Two hundred and ninety pounds. Just a biscuit (and gravy) away from 300 pounds. Morbidly obese.

I could play with my 6-year-old, but after five minutes I was tired. I’d love to do yard work, but after 10 minutes I’d have to rest. I hated to go any where. The seat belts on the plane were too tight. My shirts were too tight. My belt was too tight. Even my shoes were too tight.

That night 10 months ago, as I headed to bed the angel of weight came and visited me. My wife and son were in Florida, and I was finishing the rest of the pizza. (I’m already 290 pounds, what’s two more slices?) I looked up and the angel said, “lo, behold an obese man.”

And I was suddenly changed.

I got on-line with Nutrisystem. I had seen their ads and even had a flyer from one of the mailers, but I suddenly found myself picking out food on their website. Now I had thought of all the excuses: it’s too expensive, the food won’t taste good, it won’t work, I won’t have any energy, I’ll cheat anyway…you've heard them all before. You've made them all the before.

So I’ve decided to share my secrets on what works for me. And I’m convinced these same techniques will work for you. For the next few blogs, I’m going to tell you the best ways to lose 100 pounds.

Continued tomorrow.

I have been telling you now for nearly a year, that America is changing. Americans don't want huge portions of unhealthy fatty food. Restaurants which serve these obscene, porcine portions are doomed.

Today it's confirmed. The marketplace has spoken.

Nobody wants heaping portions of $8.49 oriental chicken salad or $10.99 riblet platters (2,027 calories, 200% daily fat).

T.J. Palmer went to Applebee's last fall. Ms Palmer rarely goes there anymore. "It doesn't have anything that would make me want to come back." What's so remarkable about this statement is:

She's the co-founder of Applebee's 27 years ago.

When the largest -- yes, largest -- sit-down restaurant chain in America doesn't have anything for the founder to eat, you know "the times they are a changin.' "

The Friday Wall Street Journal reports sales at Applebee's restaurants dropped in 2006 for the first time. Why is the No. 1 chain in trouble? WSJ says Applebee's didn't change quickly enough and stayed too long with a formula that had worked for it in the past. (Applebee's diners weren't the only ones getting fat with food from the past. Its executives racked up huge bonuses while sales fell. Profits plummeted 20% in 2006.)

WSJ: Menus at many newer-generation restaurants stress the freshness or naturalness of their food, a contrast with the fried-and breaded fare at traditional bar-and-grill chains like Applebee's.

Read between the lines. Americans don't want crappy, fattening food anymore.

In the early 1990s Applebee's menu innovation often consisted of little more than adding a different slice of cheese or a flavored mayonnaise to the hamburger. By 2005 it was clear the Overland Park, Kansas company was out of touch with its customers.

"The landscape has changed," John Cywinski, then chief marketing officer, told investors. "Our paradigm must change."

So the company added television chef Tyler Florence to create food with more-diverse flavors.

The latest menu, out in May, features a giant fold-out photo of Florence's $14.99 New York strip steak with hearts of romaine salad and onion rings...So far, the changes haven't stopped the slide.

Wow, it took 20 marketing guys in Kansas to come up with a strip steak and "signature" garlic butter as what Americans want. Steak, butter, onion rings, bleu cheese, and that will save the nation's largest restaurant chain? WRONG!

Of course, the Applebee's executives are misdiagnosing the ailment. They think that the issues are growing competition, belt-tightening, perceptions with affluent guests, and tacky decor.

The issue is that it's a restaurant. Americans vote (and buy) with their stomachs. In 2007, a restaurant must offer good, healthy, fresh, natural, calorie-appropriate food. Simple.

Even a thick-headed CEO in Kansas should know that. His own Applebee's franchisee, Harry Rose of New Jersey, knows that. Rose is not looking to open any more Applebee's restaurants.

He plans to open a number of branches of Corner Bakery Cafe, a lunch spot that serves grilled paninis with artichokes and apricot walnut rugalach desserts.

Nobody in America is asking, where's the steak and onion rings?

P.S. Not only are Applebee's executives behind the menu and marketing curves, but they continue to be behind the health information curve. Applebee's releases very little nutritional information on its food. (What is it hiding?) According to FoodAndDiet.com website, Applebee's responded with a -- it's too complex for us to figure out the calories -- answer.

"Unfortunately, we do not provide information for all of our menu items for many different reasons. Our menu items vary regionally and many or many not be available in your restaurant, and it is important to know that some restaurants nationwide have changed their menus to no longer include these low-fat menu items."

Maybe this is what they are hiding, a slice of apple pie that has half the daily calories needed by a adult man: Sizzling Apple Pie, (1,085 calories, 56g fat, 580mg sodium, 146g carbs, 7g fiber, 14g protein)

Smaller portions of chefs

We all know diners need to eat the RightSize. How about chefs? Do you trust a fat chef or an appropriate-weight chef?

The Boston Globe looked at chefs and how much they weigh, and what they do to watch their portions.

Most chefs joined the industry because they have a finely honed appreciation for food. And while many are in the 32 percent of overweight American adults, being lean and working in the kitchen is no longer a stigma. In these fitness-conscious times, the old adage, "Never trust a skinny chef," seems as dated as the two-martini lunch.

Even cooking schools are paying attention. The New England Culinary Institute in Montpelier, Vt., requires students to check in once a week with a fitness instructor. Recently they banned sugary drinks from the vending machines. "The big push now is to train chefs who are healthy and in shape," says Mark Molinaro, an executive chef at the school. "We work with food but we're not gorging ourselves. A heavy chef tends to be looked down on."

more...

No fat kid left behind

CT school stays stuck in the seventies

This is a sad, sad state of affairs; or really, Danbury, Connecticut is a sad, sad state of junk food.

Danbury school officials tried to make the high school culinary arts program compliant with a healthy foods program run by the state but couldn't do it, so it's dropping out of the program. And giving up on a potential $50,000 the state provides to some schools for participating.

The Danbury Newtimeslive.com reports the program requires all food items offered for sale to students from any sources, including school stores, vending machines, school cafeterias and any fund raising activities, come from the state certified list.

"We tried," said Sue Levasseur, the school district's coordinator of health services. "The academic program uses a wide variety of foods that the students use in recipes they prepare and serve. The (nutrition) program took away a lot of the ingredients essential to the creation of recipes."

I'm incredulous: "The nutrition program took away a lot of essential ingredients." Is this the kind of coordinator of health services you want in your school district? Levasseur is saying we need to not only serve unhealthy recipes, but in Danbury they want to teach kids how to make unhealthy food.

Danbury High principal Catherine Richard said to comply with the state healthy foods program, the students would have to scan ingredients and adjust recipes before using them.

Duh. That's the entire reason behind the state's initiative! Change the recipes. Stop sticking butter and sugar and fat into every dish. Stop cooking oversized portions. Use fruits and vegetables. What educator -- in today's world -- says: "it's too difficult to teach kids how to cook healthy."

What happens to those Danbury students as they try to get a job in the food industry? Who's going to hire a cook or chef that says: in my schooling I only learned unhealthy recipes.

Susan Fiore, nutrition education coordinator for the state Department of Education, said she's received a number of calls from schools that did not participate but want to join. She also had a call from California, which is looking at Connecticut's program as a model.

Fiore thought the Danbury culinary program was an anomaly.

"If you start at the elementary school it's not an issue, because by the time these kids are in middle and high school they won't be missing the snacks that aren't allowed,'' she said. "Overall, most people were positive.

"The program raised the awareness of kids and staff, but we still have to make healthy food choices more attractive," Janice Jordan, Bethel associate superintendent, said.

In Danbury, their motto is, "no fat kid left behind."

Money and fast food can make you sick

As if you needed another reason not to eat in a fast food restaurant, Swiss researchers have confirmed why fast food restaurants literally may make you sick to your stomach.

I have always had a problem with workers who handle food and handle money. How about when you handle money and then eat? I see lots of people washing their hands before ordering their food, but when's the last time you saw someone order food at McDonald's, pay for it and then go into the bathroom to wash up. Never, would be my answer.

Maybe we all should.

This report has absolutely nothing to do with the RightSize of fast food, and everything to do with how unhealthy it is to be eating food with your hands.

As many as 69 percent of motorists eat meals on wheels by some survey accounts, a trend that fast-food restaurants and convenience stores have duly noted.

Witness the growing number of meals and snacks designed to be eaten easily with one hand. (Could there be any other reason for French toast sticks at Burger King?)

Earlier this year, 7-Eleven introduced Go-Go Taquitos, a to-go deep-fried tortillas. It took the company more than a year to develop a portable version of notoriously messy Mexican food.

The National Restaurant Association estimates that one-third of consumers age 18 to 24 eat more frequently in their cars now than two years ago.

We all know it's dangerous to eat and drive, and yet no one realizes it's more dangerous to pay and eat.

Why? Because no one washes their hands (their only dining utensil when driving) after paying for their food.

And because you don't wash your hands, you now have the nastiest germs on them from the money you just touched.

Swiss researchers have reported that influenza viruses can survive — alive and potentially infectious — on paper money for up to 17 days in some cases.

It’s not known what portion of influenza transmission is due to the touching of contaminated surfaces with hands which then transport viruses to the vulnerable mucous membranes of the nose or mouth. And this study can’t answer that question.

But lead author Yves Thomas said Wednesday he believes the touching of contaminated surfaces plays a role in the spread of flu. And those contaminated surfaces can include folding money.

"When you see that the virus is still alive for several days, I can’t imagine that it does not infect. I’m sure that it can infect," Thomas, a virologist at the Swiss National Centre for Influenza, said at a major international conference, Options for the Control of Influenza.

"It’s still alive. And it’s alive in quantities that can infect."

Think about that the next time you eat a taco by the dashboard light.

Mothers stick heads in sand, kids suffer

From the PR Newswire:

Despite eating habits that include consuming fast food at least once a week and turning to junk food in times of stress, an overwhelming majority of American mothers are not concerned with their child's weight finds a new poll from Woman's Day Magazine and AOL Food.

According to the findings, 36% stated they eat fast food at least once a week, with 16% stating they consume it two or more times a week.

Despite these poor eating choices, a surprising 79% are not concerned with their children's weight. The poll, which surveyed over 2,500 American women, provides insight into the eating habits and concerns of American women. The complete findings are highlighted in the June 19 issue of Woman's Day magazine

When examining the cost of eating healthy, 80% stated they believed eating healthier would be easier if cost weren't an issue; yet 85% stated their actual eating habits were not influenced at all or only a little by the cost.

Other key findings include:

• 43% admit to only sticking to a diet for a week before cheating
• 32% eat something they regret later almost every single day
• Only 21% say they've never really dieted
• 50% often skip at least one major meal and graze throughout the day
• Despite nutritionists suggestions that diners ask for reduced portions when eating out, only 17% have asked their waiter for a smaller portion

The Panhandle of Texas flips the biggest burgers

April is the cruellest month; or so said my favorite poet, T.S. Eliot.

It's the definitely the cruellest month for Texans trying to be the RightSize. That's because Mooyah Burgers opened in April, serving the biggest burgers at the lowest price. Burgers as big as ¾-pound for $3.95. Of course, that comes with french fries.

What it doesn't come with, is any nutritional information. You can't find information in the store or on the web site. The new restaurants is "just burgers, just fries, just fresh". We'll add: "just no (calorie) data".

Would Texans be lining up for the latest big burger bargain if they knew it contained at least 700 calories. Fries are at least 500 calories.

QSRweb enthusiastically reports on the big burger epidemic sweeping the country. (Ironically obesity will definitely kill Americans this year. Bird flu none. Which do you know more about?)

From QSRweb:

When Robert Andersen decided to start a new hamburger chain, he recognized one big trend in the QSR industry — bigger burgers. And the reason was simple, Andersen said: Bigger burgers are of a higher quality than the thin patties that dominated the fast-food market for so long.

Capitalizing on the trend, Andersen opened Plano, Tex.-based Mooyah Burgers in April, serving burgers as large as ¾-pound. The response has been overwhelming, Andersen said.

And why not?

According to Datassentials, a Chicago-based menu-research firm, the availability of extra-large burgers, at least ½-pound in size, is highest in quick-serve and mid-scale restaurants, with just under 40 percent of operators offering at least one extra-large burger. Additionally, nearly 75 percent of all burger operations offer at least one extra-large burger item, while 40 percent of coffeehouses, bakeries, ice cream shops, and other food establishments also offer extra-large burgers.

But size is not enough to satisfy the public; it also has to be affordable. The typical Mooyah burger sells for $3.95; the average price for an extra-large burger in the quick-serve space is $4.42, compared to $9.90 in fine dining restaurants.

Despite a wave of health consciousness that has rolled across the nation, when American consumers walk into restaurant and look at the menu, more often than not they zero in on the 1/3-pound burgers and larger.

It may seem contradictory but that’s the way it is, said Jeff Jablow, director of training and menu development for Cheeburger, a 21-year-old burger chain with 69 locations.

“We offer salads, chicken, and meatless products like the portabella mushroom sandwich, but our No. one item is our burger, and the ½-pound sells as well as the ¼-pound,” said Jablow. “When it comes to burgers it’s one of those menu items that will never go away and, like everything else, we want the biggest and the best.”

In the 1950s, the industry standard for a hamburger was 1/10-pound, and that didn’t change until the 1980s when the ¼-pound hamburger was introduced, said Brad Haley, executive vice president of marketing for Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s.

Haley said during the decades when the fast-food industry clung to the skinny patty, the casual-dining segment, restaurants such as TGI Friday’s, Chili’s and Applebee’s, emerged with bigger- and higher-quality burgers, paving the way for QSRs to add larger burgers to their menus.

Haley said the new hamburger-industry standard is 1/3-pound when previously the ¼-pound burger was considered large.

Andersen said it’s all about the experience for customers. And when they leave the house with the goal of purchasing a burger, diets and weight worries are left behind.

“We talk about eating healthy so logically that makes sense, but we really eat with our hearts,” Andersen said. “And you’d think it’s just big old guys like me eating burgers, but we probably have a higher percentage of females than males and that’s been the most amazing thing.”

So in the 50s normal was a tenth of a pound hamburger, 30 years later it was 1/4 pounder, and now, just 20 years later it's 1/3 of a pound hamburger. Put that into a trend line and soon you'll only be able to buy a hamburger that can feed an entire family.

Fifty years ago just a minority of Americans were overweight. Now it's the majority overweight and obese.

With all these health problems and Americans putting their heads in the ground (or is it hamburgers in the mouths), it's reminding me of where I heard T.S. Eliot's famous stanza. In the "Waste Land."

By the way, Texas is the largest state in the lower 48. Its citizens only have to beat 3 other states to be the fattest people in America.

By being sweet, you're going to be fat

Would you eat a bowl of sugar in the morning? Take out a 1/4-measuring-cup. Fill it with refined white sugar. Now eat it.

Because that's what you do to your body, if you stop at Dunkin' Donuts and have a bagel.

"A bagel and a bowl of sugar may taste different, but to the body they're virtually the same thing," said Dr. David Ludwig. "A bagel would do the same thing to blood sugar hormones and hunger several hours after eating it."

Ludwig treats childhood obesity at Boston Children's Hospital and he is stunned by America's consumption of empty calories. In fact, he says that the average convenience store is a nutritional disaster area.

"All sugar-containing foods aren't bad," he told CBS News correspondent Susan Spencer. "For example, an apple has its main calories come from sugar. But it's surrounded by fiber, so it digests slowly and keeps blood sugar under control."

Including refined sugar, high fructose corn syrup and artificial sweeteners, the average American wolfs down 142 pounds a year, or roughly 2 ½ pound a week. That is up 23 percent in the last 25 years, and is a major factor in soaring rates of obesity and diabetes.

"The problem is when we take sugars and concentrate and refine them, and serve them in massive amounts throughout the food supply," Ludwig said. "That's causing hormonal changes that in many people drive hunger, cause overeating, and increase the risk of diabetes and heart disease."

Nutrition labels can be deceiving. Sugar content always is listed in grams, but few people know there are 4 grams in a teaspoon and, unlike the listings for salt and fats, there's not a clue as to how many grams of sugar is too many.

What's the RightSize of sugar? The Agriculture Department recommends no more than 12 teaspoons a day; that is roughly one 12-ounce soda and a slice of bread.

Eating half a cup of sugar might well send anyone into sugar shock, says author Connie Bennett. The author of "Susar Shock!" claims sugar just about ruined her life.

"I was socked in by brain fog," she said. "I would have these horrible migraine headaches."

All seemed lost until her doctor diagnosed low blood sugar — hypoglycemia — and told her to lay off the sweets.

"I remember all of a sudden, after three days, I was like, 'Wow! I feel so good,'" she said. "It was as if the fog lifted, and then, after a few weeks, all my ailments disappeared."

Connie Bennett thinks it's time to put on the brakes.

"I tell people, 'Don't believe me, just don't believe me,'" she said. "'Then test it out for yourself. Go a week without sugar and refined carbs, or maybe even two weeks and then just watch yourself like a lab rat.'"

Top 10 triggers for overeating

I found this explanation for overeating on WomenFitness.net.

• Boredom
• Feeling deprived
• Feeling disgust or hatred with your body
• Glucose intolerance
• Habits
• Lack of energy and feeling tired
• Needing love and comfort
• Feeling overwhelmed
• Feeling upset or hurt
• Lack of Willpower

And it's so typical of blaming the big, fat victim.

It's all your fault for being fat, America. You're just bored, or deprived or your mother didn't love you enough. That's why you eat too much.

Obviously, just 25-50 years ago, people in America were not ever bored, or felt disgust with their bodies, or had glucose intolerance. They never felt overwhelmed or needed love and comfort.

But amazingly today's Americans are fat, lazy and unloved, and they overeat because of it.

What a large load of lemons!

Why is no one challenging these silly "quick facts"?

Americans are fat because of too large of portions, too many calories and a distortion of what is healthy and appropriate, period.

When will we stop blaming the victim?

I'm back & still mad as hell and not going to take it anymore

It's been 3 weeks since my last post. I have been focusing on rightsizing my little world, instead of America.

I continue to read, see and hear America, though. More and more Americans are waking up, right now, to the portion poison haze hanging over all the eateries.

Two angry moms in Connecticut are demanding cafeterias serve the rightsize to our kids.

Students in Texas are asking Americans to make nourishment -- not gluttony -- a priority of eating once again.

T.G.I. Friday's and Cheesecake Factory are cutting prices along with meal size, so each dish is a few dollars cheaper than the larger entrées.

It has started. It has reached the tipping point.

Like Crocs and Webkinz and Facebook and presidential candidates, a tsunami of momentum is inundating the country.

You now can't open the NY Times and not see a story about obesity and food portions.

You can't listen to PBS and not hear a story about diets and fat people.

You can't turn on The Today Show and not view a story about eating the right foods to prevent disease.

You can't click on MSNBC.com and not see a health report on how government is looking at food.

But is this just the issue of the minute?

Or is this a health crisis like smoking, automobile accidents or cancer?

I don't know.

What I do know is, I'm back and still mad as hell. We need to change America today for our kids' tomorrows.

Yesterday, JD in comments encouraged me to continue the fight. I will.

Time magazine said:

What will it take to build on these ideas such as these, to extend brilliant local and pilot programs to more people? Alice Waters' one-word answer to this question struck me as the most honest: Money. And that's where the grassroots pressure comes in. The food industry will go where its customers lead them. Government ultimately has to heed the voters. "A million mad moms" — is a phrase that echoes in my ears. There is a role for the media — my colleagues, those at ABC, and elsewhere — to educate moms and dads. Perhaps if we stop playing up the dietary confusion message and emphasize what works in fighting obesity, more folks will get mad, understand what's at stake, and demand the kind of programs and changes we've heard about at this conference. Then we can finally reach and pass the "tipping point" on obesity.

I'm not a million moms. I'm just one dad.

But I'm trying to get a million moms mad...understand what's at stake...and demand the kinds of changes necessary to change America.

Join me in this crusade. Onward soldiers!