As states continue to adopt laws requiring chain restaurants to include nutritional information on menus, Congress has been considering proposals for a national menu-labeling law. This week, members of Congress, the restaurant industry, and consumer groups reached agreement on a proposal that they hope to introduce this summer.
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Oregon Set To Require Menu Labeling For Chain Restaurants
By 6.2.09
Oregon has passed legislation requiring that chain restaurants post calorie information on menus. Oregon’s governor is expected to sign the bill.
Obesity, The Terrorist Threat Within
By 4.7.09
In 2006, the State Department reported terrorism killed 28 US citizens. That same year, the CDC estimated obesity killed 112,000. Picking up where Supersize Me left off, Steven Greenstreet’s doc Killer at Large tries to figure out how we got this fat this fast. I haven’t seen the full film but I’m guessing HFCS getting splooged into everything is a major culprit. No, it’s not a question of HFCS vs Sugar, it’s the sweetening of nearly every product in America, a trend that just happened to be concurrent with the surge in the use of HFCS.
FatWallet Launches Coupon Search
By 3.26.09
Love deal site FatWallet but don’t feel like ragpicking through forum post after forum post? If so, check out their new coupon search function which arranges deals and coupons in a very easy-to-read, and Retail-me-not-esque fashion. If not, you may now return to your regularly scheduled animated smiling faces and OP attacks.
This Is Why You're Fat
By 2.19.09
This Is Why You’re Fat posts reader pictures of the incredible calorie bombs they’ve discovered, like The Hamdog, “A hot dog wrapped in a beef patty that’s deep fried, covered with chili, cheese, onions, served on a hoagie bun topped with two fistfuls of fries and a fried egg.” Really, it’s about efficiency. Who has time for all those meals when you can just eat one and get all the calories you need for the next couple of days?
Delicious 2,600-Calorie Baskin Robbins Milkshake Is The Worst Food In America
By 1.21.09
In their annual roundup of unhealthy restaurant foods, Men’s Health has declared the Baskin Robbins large chocolate Oreo shake the worst food in America, supplanting Outback’s bacon and ranch dressing cheese fries.
Beverly Hills Plastic Surgeon Uses Liposuctioned Fat As Fuel For Car
By 12.30.08
And here’s number 16 on our grossest stories of 2008 list: an LA plastic surgeon is in trouble for powering his car with “lipodiesel” from his patients’ fat. Ewwww.
Lawsuits Claim Applebee's Weight Watchers Food Has Too Much Fat
By 10.10.08
Awhile back we posted about some testing done by a group of local news affiliates that showed that the actual amount of fat (and calories) in certain “healthy” menu items from a variety of restaurants was different than what was listed on the menu.
Baskin Robbins Death Shake Has 2,300 Calories
By 9.20.08
Last time I checked, an adult male should consume 2,500 calories a day, and this shake nearly meets that requirement! The saturated fat present in that shake is over 3 times the RDA of 20 grams, which will put you on the fast track for heart disease. Of course, that’s if the Type 2 diabetes caused by all 266 grams of that sugar doesn’t get you first.
Which Restaurants Are Making Your Kids Fat?
By 8.6.08
Subway’s kids’ meals came out on top. Only a third of its Fresh Fit for Kids meals, which include a mini-sub, juice box, and one of several healthful side items (apple slices, raisins, or yogurt), exceed the 430-calorie threshold. Subway is the only chain that doesn’t offer soft drinks with kids’ meals.
So how do you improve the nutrition of your kid’s meal the next time you eat at a restaurant? A spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association gave the following advice:
“Don’t be too alarmed even when [studies] come out and seem hopeless,” said Dawn Jackson Blatner, an American Dietetic Ass>ociation spokeswoman. “With a few swaps and switches, people really can make healthier choices at these fast-food joints, especially when the decisions are made before going in.
Why Won't Checkers/Rally's Make Their Nutrition Information Available?
By 7.9.08
When we posted our Ultimate Fast Food Nutrition Guide a few months ago, a couple readers pointed out that Checkers/Rally’s, the chrome and neon double drive-thru hamburger joint, has refused to provide nutrition information to customers for years.
Succeed Through Self-Undermining!
By 7.1.08
Our post on freezing your credit cards in a block of ice got me thinking. Anything that slows, stops, or impedes making transactions can be used as a technique for limiting your spending. Whatever it may be, cutting up your credit cards, locking up most of your money in an account it takes 3 days to transfer from, giving yourself an allowance, it will be a variation on a single principle: It’s easier to put a hard limit on the future then to make the right decision in the impulsive moment. Installing some kind of an automatic hiccup can help break you out of your desire-driven action and give you the breathing room to step back and make the right choice. So if you have trouble with overspending (or overeating or any kind of bad habit) and your sheer willpower is sometimes lacking, aka, you’re human, try brainstorming ways you can trip yourself up. The world is full of obstacles, it shouldn’t be too hard to find one.
100 Calorie Packs Makes You Fat
By 6.30.08
Smaller-sized 100-calorie snack packs are supposed to help with weight loss, but the problem is they don’t work. In an experiment published in the Journal of Consumer Research, subjects were primed to think about their body shape and then given bags of potato chips and placed in front of a TV. The group that was given nine small bags ate much more than those given two large bags, 46.1 grams vs 23.5. What’s going on? It appears that the smaller size tricks people into thinking they’re eating less, so they feel fine about chowing down more. Consumers may merrily consume the innocently small packages of Little Pleasures at an even higher pace,” wrote the study’s authors, “leading to over-consumption.”
Taco Bell "Fresco" Bowl: 13g Of Fat or 8g? 350 Calories or 430?
By 1.14.08
I ordered the Zesty Chicken Border Bowl Fresco style without dressing. On the menu at the store, it reads under 9 grams of fat but on online, it reads 13 grams of fat. Please compare your special nutrition page for Fresco menu items to the Nutrition Calculator on the Taco Bell site. I made sure that I chose “Fresco Style” on the calculator and to be advertising something as under 9 grams of fat, but really having 13 is very misleading and wrong.
By 1.12.08
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Target’s in-house brand, Archer Farms, is going trans-fat free this year, announced the company today. The private label has over 2,000 products and “will be the first national store brand to eliminate added trans fats from its entire product line.”
Great News! Higher Gas Prices "Good" For You!
By 9.12.07
A new study from Washington University claims that “the 13 percent rise in obesity between 1979 and 2004 can be attributed to falling pump prices,” and that if gas prices were raised by $1 more, obesity levels would drop by 15% over the next 5 years. Apparently the closer the cost of a gallon of gas comes to a monthly gym membership fee, the more gym-like qualities it magically takes on.
Should We Unilaterally Ban Junk Food Advertising Targetting Children?
By 7.18.07
The New York Times reports that eleven huge food companies, in the face of regulatory intervention, lawsuits, and a forthcoming government study on childhood obesity, agreed to voluntarily withdraw junk food advertising from children’s TV shows targeted at an under-12 audience.
Yes, Let's Stuff The School Children Full Of Fake Fat
By 5.1.07
Um, let’s feed the children meat and veggies? Not a byproduct of over-produced government subsidy corn? Soylent fat is corn husks!
