Posts Tagged ‘obesity’
Food for Fido- All Are Not Created Equal
Posted by The Editorial Desk / Tuesday, September 13th, 2011
We’ve all been made aware that obesity is one of the leading problems in our society today; but what about for your pets?
According to a recent study, obesity in domestic animals is on the rise as well- as much as 20 percent of dogs and cats in America are obese. This is a 1 percent increase from 2007. Part of the problem is that even a small weight gain for a pet is a significant increase.
Ok, so obviously there has to be some sort of correlation. American’s aren’t getting enough exercise and, therefore, our pets aren’t either. But, as the owner of a dog who has recently put on quite a bit of weight, I know that there are other factors at play.
Our 4 year old Welsh Corgi, Nitro, has always been very slim and active. He can and will retrieve an old tennis ball for hours without any signs of slowing- but within the last year we started to notice an excess of tummy dragging on the ground. His exercise habits had not changed- but his food had.
Nitro the Corgi
About a year ago, we decided to buy him a type of dog food that is supposed to be all-natural, super healthy, holistic, etc… All the reviews raved that it was the best type of food to give your pet, made only with the finest ingredients. We felt we were doing Nitro a favor by being such good “parents” and buying this healthy (and expensive!) dog food.
6 months later, at a routine trip to the vet, she informed us that our little dog had put on a hefty 6 pounds! She warned us that all dog foods are not equal; even the ones that say they promote healthy weight management may contain more calories (or kCal) per serving than the dog (or cat) should be having. She reminded us that it is very important to always check the nutritional content- just like you would buying food for yourself.
This was news to me. I had no idea that I should be checking the caloric content of dog food. And sure enough, even though Nitro was on a Weight Management version, the calories per serving were twice what he should be having as a daily intake.
Lesson learned. Don’t just go for the fancy stuff. Be sure to talk to your vet about what’s right for your pet.
FYI, we have since switched him to a lower calorie (and lower priced) food and, sure enough, he seems to be losing weight!
– Jennie Whistler
The L.A. Times’ Virginia Problem
Posted by The Editorial Desk / Thursday, August 4th, 2011
On Aug. 3 The Los Angeles Times published a smug front page article about a grim study from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation on the shortened life expectancy of women in the rural south, specifically highlighting Virginia as having the greatest disparity in life span. The article points out that while women in Fairfax can expect to live to 84, women three hours down I-95 can only expect to live to 74.
The disparity stems largely from obesity and smoking.
To illustrate the fact, the paper dispatched a reporter to Emporia, Va., a tiny town in the southern part of the state that’s most famous as being a junction for Route 58 and I-95. It’s also a hot bed for speed traps. The article touches on the region’s economic trouble, a weak economy tanked formerly strong job providers like tobacco and peanut growers, and securing a job with health benefits is nigh impossible.
Census data for Emporia is bleak: median household income is $32,178, $27 thousand less than the state average, which scratches near sixty. Housing prices are over $150 thousand less than the state average.
Emporia has legitimate problems.
But judging by The Times article, the only ones to blame for Emporia’s health woes are the citizens themselves. The article depicts them as a bunch of bumpkins too addled on fried food and nicotine to change their ways. They eat pie for lunch while sitting around all day getting their hair did between smoke breaks in a rocking chair. They eat hush puppies with everything, and will only tolerate vegetables if they’ve been boiled in pork fat. Even the health conscious ones are too ignorant or stupid to know that mayonnaise isn’t exactly diet food.
It’s irritating that the Times dispatched a reporter to a legitimately hard-pressed Virginia town only to produce a snotty hit piece on Southerners and Virginia culture as a result. Southern cooking is far from indefensible. It’s a greasy, brown, artery clogging (*ahem* delicious) wasteland, and many poorer areas of the south are flushed with the stuff—nary an appetizing salad in sight. This is especially the case for Emporia, whose restaurant scene is like a who’s who of America’s most unhealthy eateries: Hardees, Bojangles, Cracker Barrel.
But that doesn’t mean that Emporia is a vegetable-less blight. Last year the city opened the City of Emporia Farmer’s Market, a small, but nice stand that only sells produce grown within 50 miles of the city. The Market only has 81 followers on Facebook, an LA Times bump would likely have been welcome.
The cultural snipes are the worst. The piece is peppered with pithy remarks about the McDonald’s to YMCA to ratio of the city (2:1, for a low income city of 6,000, according to the piece, not bad, really) and the ubiquity of hush puppies, and it dismisses Virginia staples like the Virginia Peanut Festival and the Virginia Pork Festival as examples of southerners’ obsession with unhealthy food–glossing over, or all out forgetting, that both are massive industries in the region.
Obesity in the south is a problem, one with roots in our culture, economy, politics and bull-headed reluctance to accept change; it is without a doubt a topic that warrants serious coverage. But painting southerners in a manner that makes them seem like they’re just too stubborn and ignorant to wise up and eat some greens is insulting and dismissive of the region’s broader problems.
In short, get bent, L.A. Times.
- Kris King
Posted by The Editorial Desk / Thursday, June 23rd, 2011
Most stock photos of fat people eating potato chips are disgusting, instead here’s a pretty girl starting down the path to obesity (Image: Shutterstock/asbe)
Fresh from the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), a new study shows that eating potatoes can cause you to gain more weight than other foods that will make you fat, like soft drinks, donuts and red meat.
Before you start feigning surprise over a study that proves something that’s obvious, there’s a bit more to it than that. The study gathers information from three separate studies, covering 120,877 men and women and averaged the amount of weight a person gains over the course of four years (3.35 pounds is the average), and then quantified what dietary choices had the most effect on weight gain based on increased daily intake. Basically take what you normally eat and then have an additional serving of something—every day—and tally how it much poundage you put on.
A person who had a daily serving of fruit showed a .49 pound decrease in weight, whereas someone who ate a daily dose of red meat gained an additional .95 pound. The largest contributor to weight gain, more than sodas, butter, or sweets, was potatoes—fried potatoes to be specific. A daily dose of potato chips contributed an average of 1.69 pounds extra over 4 years, while French fries contribute even more (specific number is illusive for that, The Wall Street Journal says it’s 3.35 pounds, but the NEJM abstract does not corroborate that)
The study doesn’t really explain why or how potatoes are more fattening than, say, a daily serving of cake, so I guess we can just chalk it up to SCIENCE. The Wall Street Journal asked a New York University health professor, who gave a fairly funny response: “She says she suspects people who eat potato chips and fries also tend to eat too much in general, making these foods markers for a diet leading to weight gain.” Or maybe it’s significantly easier to eat an entire family sized bag of potato chips by yourself than it is to eat a dozen donuts.
Other factors contribute to weight gain, a beer a day packs on .41 pounds, and quitting smoking can cause you to add on 5.17 pounds of pure misery. Watching television daily adds 0.31 pound per hour watched—which stinks because, I mean, did you guys watch Game of Thrones? That show was punishing enough, I don’t need the added stress of knowing that watching ten hours of television over the past day and a half is going to make me a fat too.
Negative impacts in weight gain were also predictably obvious. Vegetables, whole grains, fruits, nuts and yogurt (-0.82 pounds!) all stave off the fatty blues, and regular exercise decreased weight negative 1.76 pounds, which sounds oddly low.
So there you have it folks, being a soda-drinking, junk-food eating layabout will make you fat—science proved it.
- Kris King
What’s Cooking: Work for Living Edition
Posted by The Editorial Desk / Monday, June 20th, 2011
- From Carcass to Delicious, How Steak Becomes Steak
The Wall Street Journal has an interesting quick read on one of New York City’s beef wholesalers, Master Purveyors, where surly men hack at beef carcasses in near freezing temperatures and transform the gore into beautiful, dry-aged steaks.
- Krispy Kreme Fancying Up the Place with Healthy Options
It seems that these days every fast food place wants to give off that fancy (phony), health-minded bistro feel, and Krispy Kreme isn’t far behind. According to Business Week, the struggling doughnut chain will be introducing healthier options on their menu of fried dough, including oatmeal, yogurt, fruit juice and fancy pants coffee. Hopefully this won’t last when all of their customers continue to order a dozen glazed donuts and black coffee—as God intended.
- How Will Future Food Historians Look at Our Eating?
UK newspaper The Independent puts their forward thinking caps on with a look at how we eat today from the perspective of future food historians. The outcome? It’s a little all over the place: We’re obsessed with cheap food, we’re too busy to think about what we eat and we spend less and less time in the kitchen. Conversely, we’re a bunch of pseudo critical (*cough* yelp) picky eaters who over-think about our food and load it with ethical and health dilemmas. We like fancy science fiction food and old fashioned home cooking. Basically nothing makes any sense.
- Bad Habits Contribute to Teen Obesity, Not Location of Fast Food
A survey of 900 teens showed that fast food restaurants located near schools don’t contribute much to unhealthy eating at schools so much as teens making bad, unhealthy choices they’ve learned from home. According to the U.S. News article “researchers’ statistical analysis found no correlation between a risk for being overweight and the proximity of fast-food restaurants to the teens’ respective schools.” So there you have it, teens will eat cheeseburgers no matter what.
- Kris King
Posted by ryan / Thursday, May 19th, 2011
Eat A Vegetable Already!
The FDA wants Americans to make healthier choices. In a recent press conference, the deputy commissioner berated all the stupid fat people of the country for their eating habits. “Just buy a bag a carrots, and eat them like you would normally devour a pack of hot dogs,” he said. “If you usually stand in front of the fridge, stuffing them into your fat face cold. Do that with a carrot instead. It’s just that simple.”
More tips and tricks for combating obesity can be found at the FDA website. Among them are the evils of melted cheese with every meal, it’s called water people, bacon is not a food group, and remembering to breath between bites.
America’s Waitresses: Are They Hitting On You?
Millions of Americans eat at restaurants every day, where seemingly nice servers charm and enchant customers with playful small talk and their warm smiles. Are they truly this nice, or are they using their feminine wiles to manipulate the customer into leaving a larger tip?
Investigative reports have been inconclusive so far. According to body language specialists, their order-taking posture is indicative of mutual attraction. Other customers are given the same treatment however. Even those men who weren’t particularly good looking had the ability to stall them for up to thirty seconds, which adds to the confusion.
Fast Food Patrons No Longer Trusted to Dispense Own Ketchup
The fast food industry is addressing a growing problem in an effort to cut wasteful expenses. Americans’ utter lack of self-restraint has forced officials to impose a strict two-packet policy on customers. Overestimating the maturity level of the public was part of the problem.
Beginning next week, all fast food restaurants will begin withholding condiments. If additional ketchup is desired, a three-page request form must be completed beforehand. You must have two forms of valid identification, social security number, and a signature from a third-party witness. The manager on duty will then evaluate if your claim is necessary. Only then will you receive a condiment voucher. Requesting barbecue sauce for your fries will result in you being escorted from the premises immediately.
Reaction to this new policy has been overwhelmingly negative thus far. Most people are protesting by eating lunch at home.
Arby’s is still allowing their brave customers to freely operate the ‘horsey sauce’ dispenser though, as nobody has touched it in years.
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-Ryan Robertson
Sugar Kombat: Sugar Industry Files Suit against Corn Industry
Posted by The Editorial Desk / Tuesday, May 3rd, 2011
Who likes semantics? Everyone likes semantics. Semantics matter. That’s why two major sugar producers, Michigan Sugar Company and C&H Sugar Company, filed suit last week against six corn processors and the corn lobbying firm The Corn Refiners Association for false advertising, thanks to the corn industry’s attempts at re-branding the increasingly maligned sweetener high fructose corn syrup under the more sunshine and picnics name “corn sugar.”
The President and CEO of Western Sugar Cooperative, Inder Mathur accused the corn industry of smoke and mirror tactics as they try to run away from their tarnished image, telling PR Newswire “If consumers are concerned about your product, then you should improve it or explain its benefits, not try to deceive people about its name or distort scientific facts.”
No doubt you’ve seen the controversial “corn sugar” ads by now, which hit the air before getting U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval–approval that’s still pending today. The ads feature good looking people walking through crop circles shaped like a question mark or a maze (see what they did there?) in the middle of an eerily large corn field, and spouting on about “doctors” and “research” without citing any actual doctors or research—they’re uncannily like outtakes from a dystopian sci-fi movie.
Of course, all of this fuss stems from a popular movement rejecting high fructose corn syrup in the face of some heavily publicized, damning studies, which suggest that high fructose corn syrup contributes to obesity. As a consequence, we’re starting to see things like “Throwback Pepsi” which uses cane sugar instead of corn syrup, and a general suspicion of the corn industry as a whole—what with its billions in government subsidies and it being in pretty much everything.
Still, the trial should be interesting, and hopefully it will shed some more light on the battle between things that are bad for you.
Now if only the sugar industry can just get the New York Times to stop saying that eating sugar gives you cancer.
There’s just no winning in this world.
Kris King
Posted by The Editorial Desk / Thursday, February 25th, 2010
In their song Revolution, The Beatles sang, “You say you got a real solution. Well, you know We’d all love to see the plan.” Well, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has a plan to start a food revolution.
Image: USDA
On Tuesday, February 23rd Agriculture Secretary, Tom Vilsack, announced the Obama Administration’s priorities for the reauthorization of the Child Nutrition Act and improvement of the National School Lunch (and Breakfast) Programs. The full speech can be found here.
Secretary Tom Vilsack stated, “The health of our nation, of our economy, our national security, and our communities depends on the health of our children.”
The Child Nutrition Act has nine focus areas which include access, education, physical activity, nutrition standards, and food safety. It currently pays $12 billion to feed school children each year.
Chef Ann Cooper, aka the “Renegade Lunch Lady,” is encouraging citizens to write Congress and demand $1 more per school lunch. Cooper (along with Whole Foods Market Inc., Slow Food USA, Roots of Change, Healthy Schools Campaign and AllergyKids Foundation) is part of The LunchBox Project which seeks to provide the elements needed to transition a processed food based K-12 school meal program to a whole environment food based program. The LunchBox Project believes the amount needed to accomplish the Act’s goals is much more than the amount proposed by USDA.
The National School Lunch Program (NSLP), run by USDA, provides meals to public schools and non-profit private schools across the country. School divisions that participate in NSLP get cash subsidies and donated commodities from USDA for each meal they serve as long as they serve meals that meet Federal requirements and provide nutritionally balanced, low-cost or free lunches. In 2006 the program provided low-cost or free lunches to more than 30 million children each day with 17.7 million receiving free or reduced price lunches.
All of Virginia public elementary and middle schools participate in the NSLP. On a typical day, 681,505 lunches, 196,987 breakfasts and 7,240 afterschool snacks are served through NLSP in Virginia public schools alone. 49% of school children in Virginia qualify for free or reduced-price lunches (this figure is based on the parent’s income).
Jamie Oliver’s new show, Food Revolution, also aims to advocate for healthier foods for children, reduce obesity, and to teach every child about food. Food Revolution starts Friday, March 26th at 9pm on ABC.
(Source: youtube)
Think nutrition is the only concern for school lunches?
When 26,500 school cafeterias lacked required food safety inspections, you may want to think again. Or how about the fact that beef bought by fast food chains is tested more rigorously than beef purchased by USDA for school lunches? Gross.
It’s a good thing USDA announced its plans to assure the safety of food provided in the National School Lunch Program earlier this month.
You might ask yourself ‘why not buy local foods rather than industrial foods?’ I’m not so sure about that option when it comes to food safety. Local foods can be just as unsafe as industrial foods. As Doug Powell of Kansas State University stated, “It isn’t about local, small or big. It’s about what will make folks barf. And that requires control of dangerous microorganisms, regardless of politics.”
A food revolution may just be what this country needs.
For information on Food Service Programs nationwide and within Virginia, visit the following:
-Global Child Nutrition Foundation
-Americans and Food Katie Couric’s interview with former FDA Commissioner, Dr. David Kessler, and Fast Food Nation author, Eric Schlosser, which discusses children school lunches and obesity concerns.
-USA Today’s coverage on school lunch safety (food safety)
-Let’s Move: First Lady, Michelle Obama’s initiative to improve information, improve quality of school foods, improve access and affordability of foods, and increase physical education.
-School Nutrition Association, which will be hosting a conference this coming weekend.
-Virginia School Nutrition Program
-Virginia School Nutrition Program Contacts
-Healthy Virginians: Healthy Students
-A list of Virginia Schools that have won the Governor’s Nutrition and Physical Activity Award.
–Aisha Salazar
Virginia Stuck in the Pudgy Middle of Latest Obesity Standings
Posted by The Editorial Desk / Wednesday, July 1st, 2009
(Image: Newsgroper)
According to the “F as in Fat: How Obesity Policies Are Failing in America 2009” report issued today, just over a quarter (25.4 percent) of adult Virginians qualify as obese (demarcated by having a body mass index above 30 percent)–making us the 28th fattest state in the union.
On the upside, the Trust for America’s Health and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation found that we’ve at least not gotten any heavier in the past 12 months (obesity rates creeped up in 23 other states since their last investigation).
More troubling is the fact that nearly a third (roughly 31 percent) of Virginia youths, ages 10-17, qualify as overweight or obese.
And that only 26.2 percent of kids 6-17 report engaging in “vigorous physical activity” on a daily basis.
The suspected culprits are myriad but hardly mysterious:
* Americans consume an average of 300 more calories per day than they did 25 years ago and eat less nutritious foods;
* Nutritious foods are significantly more expensive than calorie-dense, less nutritious foods;
* Americans walk less and drive more — even for trips of less than one mile;
* Parks and recreation spaces are not considered safe or well maintained in many communities;
* Many school lunches do not meet nutrition standards and children engage in less physical activity in school;
* Increased screen time (TV, computers, video games) contributes to decreased activity, particularly for children; and
* Adults often work longer hours and commute farther.
Nothing cryptic here, folks.
Just a reminder of the importance of staying on top of your personal “calories in, calories out” calculations.
Ready to buck the current trend?
Eat healthier.
Move more.
And, while you’re at it, grab a friend the next time you plan to take a walk/head out for a bike ride/go for a run.
–Warren