Looks Good Enough to Eat…Until You Open the Package

In our earlier post on the prevalence of fast food outlets here in the Central Valley – and some of the corresponding health consequences – we provided a link to Fast Food Ads vs. Reality, a gallery of images comparing commercial photos of fast food with what you actually get. Since then, via Fark, we’ve …

Quick Links: Diet and Exercise Edition

89 Percent of Children’s Food Products Provide Poor Nutritional Quality, Study Finds (Science Daily) The Productive Diet (Washington Post) Regular Walking Nearly Halves Elderly Disability Risk (Science Daily) Active Lifestyle May Prevent Cancer: Japan Study (Reuters) Prolonged Sitting Turns Off Fat-Burning Enzyme (Natural News) Weight Watchers Vs. Fitness Centers (Science Daily)

While We’re on the Subject…Super Duper Wonder Foods vs. the Total Diet

We’re not really fond of articles like this: The 11 Best Foods You Aren’t Eating. Why? Because they always somehow manage to leave you with the impression that if you just eat these “superfoods,” you can directly cause a desired health outcome. Just as our parents and guardians tried to persuade us to eat our …

Small Is More: Why Snack Packs Ain’t All They’re Cracked Up to Be

Think buying snack foods in smaller sizes will help you eat less of them? Think again. In one experiment, students were primed to think about their body shape, then were given potato chips and left to watch television. They ate nearly twice as many chips when given nine small bags as when given two large …

Junk Food Longevity? A Misleading Lead

Check out the headline in this screenshot from a recent article posted on the Vacaville (CA) Reporter site: There’s just one problem: the subject of the story, 102 year old Samuel Cancimilla, doesn’t really claim that junk food has been good for him. The writer does list his favorite sweets but then includes some more …

Stat!: “Breakfast Is Important, but…”

Percent of Americans who say breakfast is the most important meal of the day: 92 Image by Bob van Martin, via Flickr Percent of Americans who eat breakfast every day: 46 Source: IFIC 2008 Food and Health Survey

Stat!: Is the Standard American Diet Sickening?

Percentage of disposable income spent on food in the U.S. in 1984: about 15 Percentage spent on health care: about 9 Percentage spent on food in 2004: less than 10 Percentage spent on health care: 16.2 Source: Oil and Food Don’t Mix (Salon)

Stat!: Waste Not, Want Not

The amount of food Americans throw away each year: 27%; or about 1 pound per day, per person Image by jbloom, via Flickr (CC) According to Andrew Martin, writing in the New York Times, In 1997, in one of the few studies of food waste, the Department of Agriculture estimated that two years before, 96.4 …