Why it’s time to stick a fork in fast food
By Emma Teitel - Thursday, November 8, 2012 - 0 Comments
Could a junk food tax fight back the bulge?
Jana Birchum/Getty Images
Every once in a while an issue hits the headlines that isn’t an issue at all, but a combination of a someone’s pet peeve and a slow news month: the rising tide of misandry (the war on men), reverse discrimination (the war on whites), draconian political correctness (the war on everything). And now, the ultimate non-issue issue: the war on fast food—or the “WAR ON FOOD FREEDOM” as Sun TV likes to call it. Even though the Canadian Medical Association Journal says “obesity is expected to surpass smoking as the leading cause of preventable mortality” in Canada, and roughly one-quarter of Americans eat fast food every day, our right to gluttony is apparently on the line. Big Brother is watching what you eat. In September, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg introduced the “Big Gulp” ban, which outlawed the sale of sugary drinks larger than 16 oz. everywhere except supermarkets and grocery stores (the ban is currently being contested in court by both the American Beverage Association and National Restaurant Association). Meanwhile in Ontario, student leaders are boycotting the fast food joints neighbouring their high schools; it appears the province’s year-old, health-food-only-cafeteria policy has teenagers running for the nearest McDonald’s. Students involved in the “Stick it to Fast Food” campaign are urging students to bring their own lunches through November, in the hope that their cafeterias will one day adopt lunchtime fare that is both nutritious and tasty. Continue…
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Disney networks to ban junk-food ads
By macleans.ca - Tuesday, June 5, 2012 at 6:48 AM - 0 Comments
Companies selling to the Mickey Mouse Club set will soon have to play by…
Companies selling to the Mickey Mouse Club set will soon have to play by new rules as the Walt Disney Company joins efforts to combat childhood obesity, the New York Times reports.
U.S. First Lady Michelle Obama will be with the Walt Disney Company at a presser Tuesday when it announces nutritional restrictions for products advertised to children under 12 on Disney channels — including Disney-owned ABC stations that show Saturday-morning cartoons.
Brooks Barnes of the Times explains: “Under the new rules, products like Capri Sun drinks and Kraft Lunchables meals — both current Disney advertisers — along with a wide range of candy, sugared cereal and fast food, will no longer be acceptable advertising material.”
“With this new initiative, Disney is doing what no major media company has ever done before in the U.S. — and what I hope every company will do going forward,” Mrs. Obama said in a statement.
Disney is also expected to announce plans to cut the sodium in the 12 million children’s meals it serves at its theme parks. And it will unveil the “Mickey Check,” a label — “Good for you, fun too! — that will identify products in grocery aisles that meet Disney’s nutritional standards.
Guidelines will take effect in 2015.
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When it comes to being fat, we’re simply too polite
By Jessica Allen - Monday, March 26, 2012 at 1:20 PM - 0 Comments
foshydog/Flickr
Two years ago my doctor told me I was overweight—not in a Karl Lagerfeld to Adele sort of way—but in the privacy of his office, during an annual physical, and in a sensitive manner. The result? After calling him terrible names in my head, I lost 20 lbs over the course of five months. And the next year, I weighed in just about right. It’s been the most effective weight-loss tool I’ve ever encountered because every year I know I have to get back on that medical scale, and I don’t want to disappoint the doctor, or myself.
But recent results from a national survey published in the journal Chronic Diseases and Injuries in Canada show that few of our doctors (one in three) are advising obese patients to lose weight. But if 59 per cent of Canadians are either overweight or obese, and being fat causes God knows how many health problems, and our doctors aren’t measuring waistlines (fewer than one in five of the survey’s participants, the journal reports) and 40 per cent of overweight or obese Canadians describe themselves as just, “about right,” than that’s a fat problem. If we can’t count on our doctors to call the kettle fat, then who can we count on?
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Cooking lessons from dancing tweens
By Kate Fillion - Thursday, December 16, 2010 at 4:00 PM - 0 Comments
Two young girls, ages 11 and 12, teach other kids how to embrace healthy eating
Photography by Andrew Tolson
Very early one Saturday not long ago, Katrina Pacher and Sloane Wilson put on clean aprons and headed into the kitchen at Ritorno restaurant in Oakville, Ont., to make chicken parmigiana. While her father got in position with his video camera, Katrina, 11, adjusted the black scrunchie in her ponytail, and Sloane, 12, got some last-minute coaching from her mom, Donna Wilson: “This time, maybe read out the list of ingredients.” It was the girls’ second video of the day for their 18-month-old website. “But,” Wilson observed wryly, “now, they look awake.”
After more than 100 videos, the girls, friends since preschool, no longer get nervous before a shoot. Fitforafeast.com started when they learned about the childhood obesity epidemic in health class, and decided to use the Internet to teach kids how to embrace healthy living: they provide tutorials on popular dance steps, receive fitness instruction from experts, and demonstrate how to make kid-friendly meals—with a little help. Katrina’s parents have Web-based jobs, and Wilson used to work in film production; together, they built the site and a YouTube channel, which has had 6.7 million views so far.
