Babies, Toddlers, and Food, Oh My

Is anyone really surprised by this study that finds that America's young children aren't eating a very healthful manner?

Even before their second birthday, many American children are developing the same bad eating habits that plague the nation's adults — too much fat, sugar and salt and too few fruits and vegetables.

A new study of more than 3,000 youngsters found significant numbers of infants and toddlers are downing french fries, pizza, candy and soda.

If I had gotten to this earlier in the weekend, I was going to address this at length, but Kelley at Suburban Blight has a very good take on this with an anecdotal twist, so I'll just link to that and be on my way.

hln

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Battle of the Bars

No, it's not what you think.

Rather, this post is all about carbohydrates, money, and, well, whatever else pops out of my head in the next 30 minutes.

You see it everywhere now, especially this past two or three years. LOW CARB! LOW CARB! Everywhere you look, it's carbs carbs carbs - from the radio commercials that now tout the glories of light beer to the weight-lifter Michelob Ultra water, er, I mean beer (or so I hear) billboards.

I've never really worried too much about carbohydrates as an isolated group. You know - those things that with exercise burn away. Stored glycogen in the muscles. I have, though, in recent years watched calories pretty closely as I honed my food intake plans and execution to where they are now, which, on a day where I'm especially diligent, might pass for a low/controlled carb diet (but I eat a WHOLE lot of fruit and salad with fruit, and there's no way I'd give up the Kashi, so perhaps not). I don't much care.

I got this idea a couple of weeks ago, though, because you see SO much marketing, as I mentioned earlier, for low-carb diets and dieters. I mean, there's a whole new section in the grocery store just filled with this stuff - pasta made out of soy flour, tiny tiny chocolate bars for a buck and a half apiece. Now, granted, there's a whole section of the store for me, too - sometimes a whole STORE (Whole Foods) - with the Luna Bars and the Genisoy Extreme Bars, and the whole wheat pasta. Mmmm. So, in this spirit, I bring you the side-by-side comparison of two chocolate bars (okay, so one's "Pecan Chews" - humor me).

In the upper corner, weighing in at ONE, yes, ONE ounce, I bring you the Russell Stover Low Carb Pecan Delights. And, in the bottom corner, weighing in at TWO ounces, the Reese's Fast Break. I've never eaten either of these - have no idea on taste. But, here you are - pictures.

Ooh, aah. What does all of this mean? Well, here's the other side of the wrappers. The top is the Pecan Delights, and the bottom is the Fast Break.

These are pretty large, so you can probably read this pretty well. Before I give you the breakdown in a table, though, I will, of course, assert that neither of these bars is a compact, bursting mound of nourishing manna. (I'll write a post about the Snickers Marathon as soon as I've held one in my hot little hand and later consumed one). But, here's how they stack up against each other...

(Forgive my ugly, boring table)

	Russell Stover Pecan Delights	Reese's Fast Break
Weight	1 oz	2 oz
Calories	130	280
Total Fat	9 grams	13 grams
Saturated Fat	4.5 grams	4.5 grams
Protein	2 grams	5 grams
Carbohydrates	16 grams	35 grams
Price	99 cents	69 cents

Okay. Statistics. We can prove anything we'd like now, right? We could start with the "candy bar" that's cheaper than the "healthy low carb bar" if we believed that. We could, rather, talk about serving size of 1 oz versus 2 oz of something. Someone want to put up a placard with "Obesity" on it - bigger font, please. But, what I'd really like to focus on is equalizing the information - basically, what happens if you make the serving size the same - 2 oz.

This is basically the size of my mid-morning snack, but I usually don't exceed 200 calories. So, this would be for a "light" breakfast or lunch day - the day I consumed two packages of the Russell Stover's candies or one Fast Break. (Here's the table "equalized."

(Again, forgive my ugly, boring table)

	(2) Russell Stover Pecan Delights	Reese's Fast Break
Weight	1 oz	2 oz
Calories	260	280
Total Fat	18 grams	13 grams
Saturated Fat	9 grams	4.5 grams
Protein	4 grams	5 grams
Carbohydrates	32 grams	35 grams
Price	$1.98	69 cents

Okay. I went to a two-ounce serving rather than cutting the Fast Break in half because 130 calories is not ENOUGH to satisfy you as a meal - even a mid-morning snack. To illustrate, 130 calories is about what I consume every hour I'm on the bike when I take my little break. EVERY hour of biking. And that's after having eaten a full, nutritious breakfast.

What do you see here - wow, these are SURPRISNGLY similar. Actually, if you're like me and you watch saturated fat, you're nearly gawking. And the Reese's provides more protein, which is probably of no matter if you're on a low-carb diet - you're likely already getting plenty.

The packaging for the Russell Stover's Pecan Delights states "For Low Carb Dieters." On the flip side, it also states that the Net Effective Carbs - also often called Impact Carbs - are only 2.4 g per serving. Having never seen a "real" nutrition (not stilted toward a carb-controlled diet or really ANY diet but rather an overall nutrition site) even mention these little wonders, I tried to find a good definition anyway. So, here we have it - don't take it to the bank, though.

The FDA previously allowed a disclaimer on all wrappers, which was an asterisk noted on the bar stating that glycerin, maltitol and fiber had been omitted from the total carb count as they have a neglible impact on your blood sugar.

What dieters and diabetics are trying to avoid is a spike in their "blood sugar" as this releases insulin. Dieters are trying to avoid this, as insulin is a trigger to store fat. Diabetics must avoid this as well. Carbohydrates cause this spike in blood sugar. Simple carbs cause it quickly and Complex carbs more slowly. (Simple carbs are all sugar, pasta's, all white flour and rice. Complex carbs are veggies and salad greens)

That actually makes sense - a slower rise in blood sugar. But, still - they're CARBS. I saw another site advertise a meal replacement bar with 22 carbohydrates as "carb controlled" as it lauded its low "impact carbohydrate content."

I could go on and on. I won't. I'll consume these two sometime in the next two weeks (but not together, of course), and I'll point back to this post. About the only thing that could convince me that, of the two, the Pecan Delights are the way to go would be EXTRAORDINARY taste.

The info's just here for you to decide. And I'll provide the standard disclaimer now. Heather and Angelweave do not endorse chocolate bars such as these as good nutrition. If you say I did, I'll deny it. Treats are okay every once in a while, but they should not supplant more healthy, more important food options. Blah blah blather blah.

Good night.

UPDATE - 10/24/03. I ate the Pecan Clusters for a snack this evening. Wonderful - heavenly. When I opened the packaged, they seemed very small, but because of the carmel and basic consistency, they actually took a while to eat.

Definitely a good treat when they go on sale. I'm surprised I'm endorsing them.

hln

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Labels on Menus?

Our beloved federal government is hopefully just planting the seed and won't insist on laws to water the plant, but...

Yahoo reports that the government is "encouraging or even requiring" labels on restaurant menus to detail calories regarding food items.

Restaurants doing this voluntarily: fabulous! And do more than calories, please. I want info all the way down to fiber grams.

Unfortunately, this is spearheaded by the radical Center for Science in the Public Interest, which is probably why the word "require" even appears in this article. Yes, this same center that pretty much says, "if you're fat, it's not your fault." Gag. I have Restaurant Confidential, which I should've mentioned earlier in my post about calorie counters. There really isn't anything earthshaking in the book - a lot of it is common sense once you start learning about nutrition, but there may be one or two eye openers.

hln

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Breast Cancer/Smoking

Found this while perusing the news.

MONDAY, Oct. 20 (HealthDayNews) -- Kicking the smoking habit can extend the lives of breast cancer (news - web sites) patients who've been treated with lumpectomies and radiation, says a study by researchers at Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia.

The study included 1,039 breast cancer patients, smokers and nonsmokers, treated with lumpectomies and radiation at Fox Chase from March 1970 to December 2002. Median follow-up of the patients was 67 months.

The researchers compared overall survival rates and deaths from breast cancer among the smokers and nonsmokers.

I think a general study will come next - survival rates of smoker/nonsmoker cancer survivors.

Nothings surprising here, but it'd be nice to see some numbers. The alarming statement comes near the end of the short article.

"This analysis shows that smoking, either past or present, was associated with increases in distant metastases and deaths from breast cancer," Fox Chase radiation oncologist Dr. Khanh H. Nguyen says in a prepared statement.

Distant metastases. Spreading far and wide. Exactly what you do NOT want your cancer to do.

Quit now. As if you needed another reason. Cancer's amazingly easy to catch - at any age. No need to go knocking door to door, asking for handouts.

hln

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Hey, Didn't I Say That?

When you get past 30, you need resistance training whether you know it or not. It slows bone loss and makes it a lot harder to hurt yourself doing everyday things. Muscles and ligaments protect your back and your joints.

Nope, it was the guy at Little Tiny Lies with this post.

hln

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Stretch Marks

Strange article.

WILMINGTON, Ohio (AP) -- The sharply rising number of obese Americans is leading medical-equipment manufacturers and ambulance crews to supersize their stretchers.

Would you like restraints with that?

Bet the company that makes these is raking in the bucks.

hln

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Pizza Hut Might Finally Give Me the Proper Amount of Cheese

So, you know, I'm fairly normal. I like pizza. But everytime I order it, I have to explain to the people working exactly how I want it, and their computers probably can't adequately display to the pizza makers what that is.

Until now.

The company, a unit of Yum Brands Inc., launched a new Fit 'N Delicious pizza that contains half the cheese of a regular pizza served on the brand's thin crust. The pizzas will also use lean meats for toppings.

"Consumers today are paying a lot more attention to what they're eating," Peter Hearl, Pizza Hut's president, told Reuters.

A slice of the new pizza has 3.5 to 5 grams of fat, depending on the toppings. That's about 25 percent less than the usual thin-crusted slice, the company said in a statement.

So, now I need about HALF of the cheese on the half-cheese pizza, and don't give me that thin crust, give me the pan. Should be an even trade in what's bad for you, and it'll taste tremendous.

I should save this for future ordering.

hln

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Gates the Benefactor

Bill Gates has set aside $25 million dollars to fund nutrition infusions into food.

WASHINGTON - A collaborative effort to get more nutritious food to the world's poor received a $25 million boost from a foundation set up by Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates.

HarvestPlus, an alliance of research institutions and agencies, will use the money for a four-year project on biofortification, which crossbreeds crops with high nutritional value and those that are high-yielding and disease resistant, the organization's director, Howarth Bouis, said Tuesday.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation said the goal of the initiative is to provide people in poor and developing countries with food already fortified with vitamins and mineral nutrients.

Worldwide, "half the instances of death among children have malnutrition as important contributory causes," said Dr. David Fleming, director of the foundation's global health program.

HarvestPlus offers a strategic approach that would address the problem of malnutrition, he said.

The programs hopes to get improved varieties of crops to the world's farmers within a decade, Bouis said.

The organization also will conduct research into more controversial genetically modified crops.

"We're very convinced that this is where the breakthroughs will come in the future, but ... societies, themselves, have to decide whether they're going to be comfortable with genetically modified foods or not," said Joachim Voss, director general of the International Center for Tropical Agriculture.

That's the whole article. And the controversy? Just wait. Introduce the words bacteria, genetic engineering, science, and plants into any one paragraph, and invariably out of same paragraph will manifest a conclusion : Frankenfood.

hln

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Cancer and Exercise

According this article, 9.5 millions of Americans are living their lives post cancer.

I'm one of 'em, so I look around for information like this. The article, brought to me by Yahoo via the AP, mentions that cancer survivors recover better with an exercise program.

Okay, so maybe that's not relevant per se - I'm nearly 12 years past, but it is nice to see my lifestyle validated in terms that directly apply. Here's some text from the article.

Nearly two-thirds of cancer patients live more than five years after diagnosis. And starting during treatment, they face choices about food, dietary supplements and physical activity that can affect quality of life, sometimes even survival.

Yet it's difficult to find consumer-friendly information that separates the fads and frauds from scientifically backed choices. Hence the cancer society's new guidelines, published in CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians.

Topping the advice: there's no magic lifestyle choice that will keep cancer from returning. Beware fads like Gerson therapy, with its emphasis on vegetable juices and coffee enemas. Talk with your doctor about even the seemingly innocuous — high doses of vitamins, for instance, may actually block certain cancer treatments from working.

In fact, the No. 1 protection against another bout of cancer is to avoid being overweight, Doyle says.

Bingo.

And, for more information on the topic of exercise and cancer, well, there's always Lance Armstrong, who is in town today for the Tour of Hope.

hln

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Stopping AIDS

Oh, that Vatican.

"The Aids virus is roughly 450 times smaller than the spermatozoon," Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo, president of the Vatican (news - web sites)'s Pontifical Council for the Family, told the program.

"The spermatozoon can easily pass through the 'net' that is formed by the condom."

He said that just as health authorities warned about dangers like tobacco, so they had an obligation to issue similar warnings about condoms.

And you know this...how? Aren't you, you know, CELIBATE? Sperm - what're those? Cardinal Trujillo, allow me to present to you a better argument to make your only point.

Dear Public: The Catholic Church is against condoms. Sex is for procreation. Sex belongs in marriage - without condoms - to make babies. These are our views. Don't use condoms. Thank you, that is all. Cardinal Trujillo

Pretty dull, isn't it? He had to sex it up a bit, work in some controversy.

And then there's the business of "stopping" AIDS. Nothing, to date, has STOPPED AIDS. But you, Cardinal Trujillo, may be responsible stopping what's stopping AIDS so far in some individuals.

While in Luak near Lake Victoria, Gordon Wambi, director of an AIDS testing center, said he had been prevented from distributing condoms because of church opposition.

Yeah.

hln

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Googlin'

I was at the Parkway North High School gym playing volleyball this evening, which is exercise.

Upon my return, I noticed from a hit shown on Sitemeter that I am the #4 Google hit for exercise manboobs.

An Aussie hit me, no less.

Nice, eh? Drink up.

hln

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Picky By Evolution, Baby

Of course, this makes me laugh, but the headline says, "Is Fussy Eating an Evolutionary Trait?"

The article goes on to state:

The refusal by children refusal to eat new foods may not be due to fussiness but an evolutionary trait designed to protect themselves from harm, scientists said on Wednesday.

My mother probably just spat out her diet root beer. The funniest sentence in the whole thing comes at the end of this.

BABIES WILL put almost anything in their mouths. But as children get older, they become more selective about what they eat, particularly if they have not tried it before.

Green vegetables and meat can be particularly troublesome.

But scientists at the charity Cancer Research UK said thousands of years ago toxins in plants could have harmed children, and meat carried a high risk of food poisoning.

“So it makes sense that humans may have evolved to be highly suspicious of certain food types as youngsters,” said Lucy Cooke, the lead researcher, who reported the findings in the journal Appetite.

She and her colleagues questioned 564 mothers of young children about their eating habits. The fussiest children liked potatoes, cereal and cakes but avoided vegetables, fruit and meat.

Potatoes. My mother said that when she fed me mashed potatoes as an infant, if I could've spat them out, I would've. I refuse to eat them to this day.

Pure belligerence.

hln

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Geriatric Gym

This story was just too cool.

WASHINGTON - Abe Cohen works out every day, and the workouts include at least a couple hundred crunches. Cohen is 92. His wife, Esther, who works out with him, is 86. Her daily ab exercise total is 400.

Mmm, I might hit 100 on a given day...

The Cohens typically are at the gym at 6:15 a.m., just after it opens. He does 30 minutes at a fast walk on the treadmill, works his legs and arms on the machines, and then does his famous crunches.

She also does arm and leg exercises, along with stomach exercises, but no aerobics. The club no longer has the track she used to walk, and the dance exercise classes are too fast-paced, so she lets her housework handle her aerobics. "I keep myself busy going up and down to the basement," she said. "That's enough walking."

The Cohens' workouts get attention from members and employees of the club. "They fuss with us," Abe Cohen said.

So do other seniors. "All the guys say, 'We want to be like you,'" he said. "I give them incentives, they say."

Okay, and now more info. Are you ready? Strength training will build muscle and bone, and muscle cushions bone. Strong bodies are more youthful.

See you in the gym in 50 years.

hln

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Exercise and Breast Cancer and...BREASTS!

While this is still a MAY, can't hurt to follow its advice, ladies.

And, men, if you're exercising, perhaps your wives will come along too, and this'll be beneficial. And, men, if you're exercising, perhaps you can avoid or tone down on those manboobs(I couldn't resist). Drink up, people.

In other news, visit the Blogger Boobiethon (yes, there is such a thing) and donate and/or view the busty ladies. Almost 5,000 raised. Yes, Heather's endorsing soft core porn for a good cause. Wahoo.

hln

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Who Are These People?

No, seriously. The article states in its title, False Beliefs Threaten Cancer Patients.

Well, yeah. But this is astounding

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Nearly 40 percent of lung disease patients believe that surgery can spread cancer by exposing the tumors to the air -- a false idea that could cost them their lives, U.S. researchers said on Monday.

What? The study does go on to say that most of the "believers" are older and not very educated, so perhaps it's a "wive's tale" of sorts, but, amazing. 40% is almost half! (Heather states the obvious).

Reasons for said belief?

Margolis said he found that many patients refused to go see a surgeon, even when told they needed surgery to take out a lung cancer tumor.

"They say, 'Not only do I not want lung surgery, but I don't even want to see the surgeon because I know the cancer will spread once you expose it to air,"' he said.

In the survey, Margolis and colleagues asked patients where they got this idea.

"Most of the patients said very non-specific things, saying 'I heard it from the gossip mill' or 'I heard it from friends' or 'Everyone knows that,"' he said.

Wow.

hln

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All-White McNuggets

But they're still going to fry 'em, right?

Oh, and get this...

CHICAGO (AP)--McDonald's plans to introduce a new, all white-meat Chicken McNugget with less fat and fewer calories, the latest move by the fast-food giant to offer healthier fare.

In the next six weeks, McDonald's will begin offering the smaller McNuggets in all of its 13,600 U.S restaurants, the Chicago Tribune reported in Sunday's edition.

SMALLER, ah, yes. And, let us watch - does the price drop? I doubt it.

Via Fark.

hln

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Restaurants and Nutrition

Here is the post as promised. I'll follow up on this as I gather more information.

First, I'll give the links. Here's what made the cut from everything I perused online.

1. Calorie Counters: Restaurant Links
2. CalorieKing.com
3. Nutribase
4. About.com's Fast Food Nutrition Links
5. DietFacts.com
6. NutriStrategy

Not all that much out there, but there are a few tricks to finding more information, of course.

I'm a Google hound. If I'm going to a new restaurant, and I know what it is ahead of time, I'll find the website and pick through the menu to decide what to eat the rest of the day to possibly accommodate that half order of lasagna I'm going to consume at dinner (yum!).

Another thing - I try to never order something that's cooked in butter. Cooking in butter's okay, obviously, but you really should control how much. Same thing goes for fried food (except occasionally) - try not to order fried food at a restaurant. For french fries, most restaurants will substitute something like cottage cheese, broccoli, or, my favorite, sliced tomatoes.

I found some other general nutrition links that I'll also share.

1. Heart & Palate
2. Weight-loss and Nutrition Myths

And, of course, the papa of them all, Subway.

Good feasting!

hln

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Substantiation

Tomorrow, I'm going to post some nutrition information I've been gathering today. I just need to tidy it up a bit and organize it.

Harvey Olson of Bad Money decided that I am the strongest woman in the blogosphere. I'm not sure why; perhaps it was this (Control-F and look for Noggle - permalink doesn't work.). Yes, that's my arm.

The first advice I'd give is to never take anything you read about fitness/nutrition as gospel. Follow up on everything, including my posts, before committing anything to memory or lifestyle.

That being said, I thought I'd give you all a bit of insight into what's going on in my fitness/nutrition world.

I'm probably done playing cyclist for a while. I may take a good long ride tomorrow, but it's not scheduled. Weather's supposed to be gorgeous, but I have this small problem of, oh, the fact that I went back on a bodybuilder's weight training split this week. And, essentially, everything hurts except the first body part I worked - my chest. That was Wednesday, so that's why.

What's a split, you ask? (No, I don't want to look like THAT guy). Well, if someone shows you a full-body workout, typically you hit a muscle group maybe once, maybe twice. You might do some curls for your biceps and then move on to a chest exercise. You may be advised to do this routine three times a week, and then, POW, you're fit, assuming you stick with the program.

There's nothing wrong with this whatsoever. Eventually, though, doing the same thing over and over will cause you to plateau, meaning, well, you're performing some maintaining (funny word to type), little more. So maybe you go back to a trainer and shake it up a bit - learn some new exercises, hit everything from another direction. Instead of the standard bicep curls, you turn the dumbells so that your palms face in toward your legs - voila, hammer curls. Then, perhaps a few weeks to months later you switch it up again and learn preacher curls (arms immobilized on a surface - really isolates the muscle). You now know three distinct ways to hit your bicep.

A split usually isolates a body part, two, or three to a day. Mine's pretty simple - chest, legs, back, arms, shoulders. I try to do different things (read: torture moves) to my abs every day. So, this could be a five-day workout, or, if I'm feeling motivated, I might work one body part in the morning and one in the evening - whatever.

I've been on a wham-bam-leave-the-gym-ma'am full-body workout since May - maintaining what I've got in favor of more cardiovascular (cycling) work. I've been itching to get back to this for a while, though. But I had forgotten what it feels like to truly shock your muscles when they've been all but napping for a few months. I remember now.

My legs are sore. My legs are sore from a HOME workout. Oh, indeed. I can do everything I need to do weights wise at home except my back, and, if I HAVE to make do in an emergency, I can squeeze out a back workout at home. Chest is easy - I outlined it a couple of weeks ago in that how-to-avoid-manboobs post. Arms - well, all you really need is dumbbells. As you can see, I have a few of those.



And, check it out - plenty of room for more dumbbells - we're going to need 35 pounders soon, seeing as I can squat pretty effectively using both 30s. I have little 1 1/4 pounders called Plate Mates, which are awesome. They allow you to gently progressively add weight; strength rarely accommodates a 5 pound jump.

So, there're some creds at least with the fitness arena. I prefer to use the gym because of the many different ways to do things, depending on my mood - do I use barbells or dumbbells or machines tonight - some combination, maybe. Who's to say?

One more small thing - training and training hard doesn't mean you're going to add size. Yes, I'll post a pic in a couple of months if everything goes as planned, and I will not be bulky. Few people can REALLY bulk, and that's due to genetics. You can train and train intensely but with the goal to add strength without size. I know early on I was afraid I'd bulk up because I add muscle easily, but it's just not going to happen. My calves are thicker from training for cycling (and cycling), but they, my most hereditarily gifted muscle, won't add considerable muscle mass. Fear not the weights.

(Gratuitous leg shot)


There'll be more. I'll list some of my favorite sources to illustrate free weight exercises soon, I'm sure, as I emphasize more on this in my private life. I looked in the mirror and decided I look like the before version of a fitness model. You see them in adds, basically fit women with bodies a bit too soft to be dressed in THAT bikini. But, still, definitely not a poochy, flabby woman. I am, of course, aiming for the after picture. Who isn't, eh? About 15 pounds, and I won't be. What color bikini looks best on a redhead with reallllllly pale skin?

hln

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I'm a Minority in YET ANOTHER WAY

This didn't go into the link queue about what to blog about. It's going straight from read to blog.

An increasing number of entrepreneurs have discovered there's big money to be made out of catering to Americans' bulging waistlines -- without seeking to trim them down.

It's big business.

Freedom Paradise, a 112-room resort south of Cancun, Mexico, bills itself as the world's first resort designed for obese people. Its amenities include large armless chairs, wide steps with railings in swimming pools, walk-in showers instead of bathtubs, stronger hammocks and a staff steeped in sensitivity training.
Nearly one-third of American adults are obese (a Body Mass Index of 30 or more), according to the Centers for Disease Control. In 2000, more than 300 million adults in the world were obese and 1 billion were overweight, according to the World Health Organization (news - web sites).

"We are no longer a niche market. Overweight people are the majority in this country," 324-pound Mindy Sommers said, referring to the 64 percent of Americans who are overweight. "Businesses that don't cater to us are stupid. There are a lot of us, and we have a lot of money to spend."

An expanding obese population is providing lots of demand for businesses that supply things that are plus-size -- from larger towels to larger beds, larger clothes to larger jewelry, larger furniture to larger coffins.

Amplestuff.com (http://www.amplestuff.com), an online retailer, sells nearly everything to the obese market, including seat belt extenders, larger umbrellas, larger clothing hangers, larger towels and weighing scales that can accommodate up to 1,000 pounds.

Kudos to the capitalists for noticing and then catering to the demand. Mindy-of-the-majority certainly seems happy.

For some reason I'm in a "feeling" mood today, so I'll tell you the whole thing makes me feel uncomfortable, somehow like it's a victory won, a celebration. And then I snapped out of it when I read this.

"What we need is a solution to the obesity, but what we have is people feeding the problem to make money off the obese people," said Epstein of Euro RSCG Tatham. "Sadly, this is to be expected in a capitalistic economy."

Well, Epstein, I suppose you would rather the entire obese population be naked and stuffed into chairs out of which they cannot climb. That'll certainly solve the problem (???)

Probably my own fears of obesity weighing in earlier. The other gem in the article - kayaks for the obese. I mean...wow.

hln

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You Go, Nic!

I think I've said this before, probably not as well.

I can probably count on my hands the number of people in the country whose health actually concerns me. If everybody else wanted to eat three Big Macs a day I really don't care. I don't care if people smoke unfiltered Camels and shoot heroin either. Or if they ride motorcycles without helmets. My only objection to any of that is the economic cost I need to absorb when the consequences of their decisions catch up to them, but hey. I walk and hike in tax-supported public parks that the morbidly obese, hypertensive, diabetic, arthritic non-exerciser doesn't use. So maybe it evens out in the end.)

That's from Nic at Shoes, Ships, and Sealing Wax.

She beats up the Center for Science in the Public Interest. She does this with a burrito (I always thought those were soft). Well worth reading.

hln

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