Interesting items from my email inbox …
Dear Parents: Your Kids Are Fat
Let’s file this under the category of we’re from the government and we’re here to help: schools in Massachusetts are now sending letters to parents informing them that their kids are overweight.
Schools in North Andover are trying help students dealing with obesity issues, but some families say the schools are going too far.
Cameron Watson, 10, isn’t just a strong athlete; he’s also a tough fourth grader who didn’t let a “fat letter” sent to his home get him down.
“I know I’m not obese so I didn’t really care about the letter. I just crumpled it up,” Cam Watson said.
The letters were sent to plenty of homes throughout the Commonwealth.
The Department of Public Health says 32 percent of our students have a Body Mass Index that shows they’re overweight or obese, and the letters are supposed to be a helpful tool for parents.
The “helpful tools” in this case are the government officials who believe these letters have any positive effect whatsoever. Do they really think the letters will result in conversations like this?
“Johnny!”
“Yes, Dad?”
“You’re too fat!”
“I am? Why the heck didn’t you say something about it?”
“Well … I didn’t realize you’re fat until your school told me.”
“Wow. I didn’t either. Are we stupid, Dad?”
“I’m afraid so, Johnny.”
“So what do we do about this, Dad?”
“Well, you stay in school and I’ll try to read more books and–”
“No, I mean what do we do about me being fat?”
“Uh … I don’t know. They haven’t told me yet.”
But of course, we know what advice the school will give: more of the same eat less/move more nonsense that’s already failed. Of course, it doesn’t help that the schools are serving meals like this (picture supplied by a reader who works in a school):
A roll, mashed potatoes, pasta, an apple and strawberry milk … all in one meal. Yup, that’s your government-approved school lunch.
Now why the heck are so many kids fat?
Dear Person: YOU’RE TOO FAT, YOU LAZY @#$%!!
Letters to parents may be enough to turn around the tide of childhood obesity, but we adults need stronger medicine, according to a bioethicist:
Unhappy with the slow pace of public health efforts to curb America’s stubborn obesity epidemic, a prominent bioethicist is proposing a new push for what he says is an “edgier strategy” to promote weight loss: ginning up social stigma.
Daniel Callahan, a senior research scholar and president emeritus of The Hastings Center, put out a new paper this week calling for a renewed emphasis on social pressure against heavy people — what some may call fat-shaming — including public posters that would pose questions like this:
“If you are overweight or obese, are you pleased with the way that you look?”
Callahan outlined a strategy that applauds efforts to boost education, promote public health awareness of obesity and curb marketing of unhealthy foods to children.
But, he added, those plans could do with a dose of shame if there’s any hope of repairing a nation where more than a third of adults and 17 percent of kids are obese.
“The force of being shamed and beat upon socially was as persuasive for me to stop smoking as the threats to my health,” he wrote. “The campaign to stigmatize smoking was a great success turning what had been considered simply a bad habit into reprehensible behavior.”
That same pressure could be applied to overweight people, perhaps leading to increased efforts by people to eat right, exercise — and actually succeed in losing weight, Callahan argued.
Dr. Callahan, the people who beat up on you for smoking were clearly in the wrong. They should have beaten up on you for being an arrogant ass. Shaming and beating up on obese people socially will only cause them stress, which will raise their cortisol levels, which will make them fatter. Then you’ll want to beat up on them even more.
Dr. Callahan is described in the article as a “trim 82-year-old.” In other words, he’s never been fat and has no flippin’ idea what he’s talking about. I wrote about his weight-loss theories in a previous post, so I’ll just repeat myself:
Boy, if only someone with Professor Callahan’s deep understanding of what causes body-fat accumulation had been around when I was becoming an obese adolescent, I would have remained lean. When we had to play shirts vs. skins in gym-class basketball games, it just never occurred to me to feel ashamed of my fat belly, love handles and boy-boobs. If the naturally-skinny boys in my class had cared more about me (and been armed with Professor Callahan’s insights), they could have helped me out by calling me names like Lard-Ass, Fat Boy, Pudge, Booby Boy, Porky Pig, or Butter Butt. I now realize that with their kind-hearted acceptance of me (and the one other fat kid in class), they were inadvertently acting as enablers.
So to all you obese people out there who are happy with your bodies, it’s time to look yourself in the mirror and feel ashamed! Don’t wait for Professor Callahan’s ideas to catch fire and inspire some do-gooders to shame you … be pro-active and take responsibility for shaming yourself.
But if we only exercised more …
Our friends down under, who have already been advised by their government to exercise to prevent obesity, are now being told to exercise even more:
Australians are now being advised to exercise for up to one hour a day, up from 30 minutes, because of the higher number of calories we’re consuming.
At least 60-90 minutes of activity a day are required to prevent weight gain in previously obese people, according to new official dietary guidelines released today.
Australians have also been told to cut their consumption of white bread, high fat milk, hot chips, take away food and cakes and biscuits amid warnings 85 per cent of males and 75 per cent of women will be obese by 2025.
The nation’s peak medical body the National Medical Research Council says we need to eat more vegetables, fruit, wholegrains, fish and low fat dairy products.
Yes, if only everyone would set aside an hour per day for exercise and stop drinking high-fat milk — just like our grandparents did back in the days when few people were obese. (You all remember how Grandma drank her skim milk before heading to the gym for an hour, don’t you?)
If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it at least twice: when government programs fail, government officials interpret the failure as evidence that they should do the same thing again – only bigger.
One way to avoid high-fat milk
What, you mean don’t like low-fat milk? Well, how about if we sweeten it up for you?
Two powerful dairy organizations, The International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA) and the National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF), are petitioning the Food and Drug Administration to allow aspartame and other artificial sweeteners to be added to milk and other dairy products without a label.
The FDA currently allows the dairy industry to use “nutritive sweeteners” including sugar and high fructose corn syrup in many of their products. Nutritive sweeteners are defined as sweeteners with calories.
This petition officially seeks to amend the standard of identification for milk, cream, and 17 other dairy products like yogurt, sweetened condensed milk, sour cream, and others to provide for the use of any “safe and suitable sweetener” on the market.
They claim that aspartame and other artificial sweeteners would promote healthy eating and is good for school children.
I dare you to read that last sentence 10 times in a row while fighting the urge to bang your head on your desk.
Here’s how we get kids to drink milk: STOP TAKING THE FAT OUT OF IT. The last thing kids need is more sweet food to pervert their taste buds.
Wrong interpretation of an otherwise interesting study
You probably saw the headlines this week about a new study touting the benefits of a Mediterranean diet. Here are some quotes from an online article:
Pour on the olive oil in good conscience, and add some nuts while you’re at it.
A careful test of the so-called Mediterranean diet involving more than 7,000 people at a high risk of having heart attacks and strokes found the diet reduced them when compared with a low-fat diet. A regular diet of Mediterranean cuisine also reduced the risk of dying.
The findings, published online by The New England Journal of Medicine, come from a study conducted right in the heart of Mediterranean country: Spain.
A group of men and women, ages 55 to 80 at the start of the study, were randomly assigned to a low-fat diet or one of two variations of the Mediterranean diet: one featuring a lot of extra-virgin olive oil (more than a quarter cup a day) and the other including lots of nuts (more than an ounce a day of walnuts, almonds and hazelnuts).
While lots of research has found benefits from the Mediterranean diet, many of the studies have observed what people have eaten and looked for associations. One of this study’s strengths is that it randomly assigned people at high risk of developing cardiovascular disease to diets that stood to help them.
The study was stopped early (after a median follow-up of 4.8 years) because the benefits from the Mediterranean diet were already becoming apparent. Overall, the people consuming the diets rich in olive oil or nuts had about a 30 percent lower risk of having a heart attack, stroke or dying from a cardiovascular cause.
The Mediterranean diet has become a politically correct alternative to the low-fat diet because of this commonly-held opinion stated in the article:
The Mediterranean diet is rich in fish, grains, nuts, fruits and vegetables. The diet is low in dairy products, red meat and processed foods.
Grains, fish, fruits and vegetables … heck, the USDA could almost get behind it. Just one little problem: people who’ve lived in the Mediterranean assure me the local diet is also high in pork and saturated fat.
I looked up the dietary protocols for this study. All three groups were told to limit their consumption of red meat – no more than one serving per day for the Mediterranean dieters, and no more than one serving per week for the low-fat dieters. There’s no way you can conclude from this study that cutting back on red meat improved anyone’s health.
The low-fat dieters were also encouraged to consume at least three servings of bread, pasta, rice or potatoes per day. The Mediterranean dieters weren’t told to consume grains at all.
So the headline for this study shouldn’t be Mediterranean Diet Saves Lives. It should be Grain-Based, Low-Fat Diet Fails … Again!
Faced with this evidence, the USDA will of course continue recommending a grain-based, low-fat diet. And then the schools required to follow that advice will send letters home to parents telling them their kids are too fat.
Baby Boomers Living Longer, But Sicker
The baby boomers are the first generation raised to fear arterycloggingsaturatedfat! and told to eat a grain-based, low-fat diet. So let’s see how they’re doing:
As each generation gets older they like to think that they are healthier than the previous generation, however, the baby boomers are now unable to confidently make this claim.
The new findings were published in JAMA Internal Medicine, in a study conducted by a group of researchers from the West Virginia University School of Medicine.
The study revealed that a portion of the baby boomer generation, specifically the 78 million Americans who were born in the post-war baby boom from 1946 to 1964, were less healthy than most of their parents.
Historically, the baby boomer population has been labeled the “healthiest generation”, due to their long life expectancy and their ability to take advantage of the newest medical care and public health campaigns.
However this label may no longer apply because studies are now showing that baby boomers have more elevated levels of certain conditions than the previous generation, including:
- obesity
- high cholesterol
- diabetes
- hypertension
Key findings the authors pointed out:
- 7 percent of baby boomers used a cane or other device to help them walk, compared to 3 percent in the previous generation.
- 13 percent of baby boomers have a type of limitation in their ability to complete daily tasks – like going up steps or mowing the lawn – compared with 8.8 percent of those in the previous generation.
Like I’ve said before, if your fifty-year-old grandfather could be transported through time to face the average fifty-year-old today in a fight or any other physical contest, I’d bet on Granpda every time. The Greatest Generation gave birth to the Sickest and Fattest Generation, thanks in part to our government subsidizing and promoting a grain-based, low-fat diet.
Faced with this evidence, the USDA will of course continue recommending a grain-based, low-fat diet. And then Dr. Callahan – a trim 82-year-old – will yell at the baby-boomers that they’re too fat and ought to be ashamed of themselves.
As the baby-boomers might say: and the beat goes on …
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I see that eventually the anti obesity campaign will lead to the government to round up all overweight/obese people – as per BMI – and place them in concentration err “education” camps, sentenced to stay there until they lose the extra weight using govt. guidelines which will be applied at the camp.
Careful … just when you think you’ve made fun of government by exaggerating their stupidity to an extreme degree, they catch up.
The school lunch in that picture looks disgusting..how the heck would they expect a kid to want to eat that?
But look at all the business it drums up for the USDA’s subsidized farmers!
Reminds of my old breakfasts: granola bars and fat free flavored yogurt. I would have been better off eating Nutella.
I remember French school lunches, they usually tasted horrible, but at least we had a serving of meat, not only starch. I wonder why kids here aren’t fat. Sadly, France seems to have jumped on the “fat is bad, grains are good” bandwagon. I see way more non-fat products than before and we get teached that fat is bad.
Please don’t tell me the French Paradox will become a thing of the past.
Here’s some more government-inspired brilliance on obesity. During an interview on her “Let’s Move” campaign tour, Michelle Obama rattled off a bunch of “unhealthy” foods that she wishes she could magically turn into healthy ones, so people could eat them guilt-free:
“If French fries were a healthy food, if macaroni and cheese – macaroni and cheese can be a healthier food, but you know, the good old-fashioned creamy, cheesy, heavy macaroni, if that could be a healthy food, if pie could be a healthy food – I could go on – a hamburger and good juicy burger covered, smothered in cheese.”
It’s comforting to hear our government officials (and their spouses) speak with such masterful erudition on these issues of health.
(searchable on Yahoo! news for anyone wishing to read more)
The flaw is stupidly obvious in the study when comparing low-fat, olive oil, and nut diets. Absolutely no confounding variables? These researches have to know better, but they set the studies up to prove themselves right. Good science is actually trying to prove theories wrong because a good theory will stand up to the test. Debating these people is like trying to reason with Michael Moore.
Yes, because what we *really* need is more shame. If I could sell my shame over being fat, I’d be a millionaire.
Here’s how deep the shame runs: I saw a survey once that said most obese people would trade five years of life on earth to be thin.
Makes me appreciate my herd of Toggenburg dairy goats even more.
Yes indeed, France is on good way to become USA-bis. The anti-fat propaganda has ratcheted (sp?) up a level lately. My son who’s now in third class (CE2) had a lesson last week on the food pyramid. On TV, ads for food products must always have the caveat slogan “mangez-bougez” (eat, move implying eat less, move more) or “Évitez de mangé trop gras, sucré ou salé” (avoid to eat too fatty, sweet or salty) or “Mangé 5 fruits et légumes par jour” (eat 5 fruits or veggy per day). All the bullshit claims we all here know are counterproductive bullshit.
Yes, France is doomed. Our only chance of salvage is if paleo/lowcarb gets some visibility outside the grassroot in the US, so that our media/political system can copycat their masters in Washington and Hollywood (long gone are the times of real political independance of De Gaulle).
Jeez, why on earth would France want to import dietary guidelines from the USA? Didn’t they notice how well those worked out here?
Yes, because what we *really* need is more shame. If I could sell my shame over being fat, I’d be a millionaire.
Here’s how deep the shame runs: I saw a survey once that said most obese people would trade five years of life on earth to be thin.
@Tom: “But look at all the business it drums up for the USDA’s subsidized farmers!”
You don’t need to post this, but just a gentle reminder that 80% of the USDA budget goes to food stamps, not farmers. So while the total budget might look huge, the nation’s farmers aren’t getting rich off this thing.
Nor are commodities prices being kept artificially high by the government. On Feb 21 of this year, corn prices were forecast to average $4.80 per bushel in 2013. That might go up or down, but that’s a ballpark figure. The overall US average a century ago — in 1913 — was $2.42 per bushel.
Using the US Inflation Calculator, the buying power of $2.42 in 1913 would be the same as $56.29 in 2013.
I enjoy your blog, it’s one of the few I’ve stayed with over the long haul. You and I are on the same wavelength on a number of issues. But I do wince when I see this farmer-bashing thing come by, because it isn’t accurate.
I’m not bashing farmers. I’m bashing the USDA for using subsidies to pervert the natural supply and demand curve. As an old farmer told the guys who made the excellent documentary “King Corn,” the only reason so many farmers in Iowa grown corn fence-to-fence is that it’s subsidized. Take away the subsidy, they’d grow something else. The subsidized (and therefore cheap) corn then shows up in the entire food supply, from HFCS to corn-fed meats.
Coming soon. Fat Koreans. And yes, that’s their choice…
http://gossiponthis.com/2013/03/01/mcdonalds-korea-throws-kids-out-for-hosting-250-french-fry-party/
http://kotaku.com/5955694/at-mcdonalds-in-japan-french-fries-are-causing-all-sorts-of-chaos
Ugh.
Yes indeed, France is on good way to become USA-bis. The anti-fat propaganda has ratcheted (sp?) up a level lately. My son who’s now in third class (CE2) had a lesson last week on the food pyramid. On TV, ads for food products must always have the caveat slogan “mangez-bougez” (eat, move implying eat less, move more) or “Évitez de mangé trop gras, sucré ou salé” (avoid to eat too fatty, sweet or salty) or “Mangé 5 fruits et légumes par jour” (eat 5 fruits or veggy per day). All the bullshit claims we all here know are counterproductive bullshit.
Yes, France is doomed. Our only chance of salvage is if paleo/lowcarb gets some visibility outside the grassroot in the US, so that our media/political system can copycat their masters in Washington and Hollywood (long gone are the times of real political independance of De Gaulle).
Jeez, why on earth would France want to import dietary guidelines from the USA? Didn’t they notice how well those worked out here?
The lunch program at the Catholic elementary school that I went to consisted of you bring your lunch, we supply the milk. All of the kids brought their own lunches packed by either their parents or by themselves. There were no lunch Nazis that told us what to bring for lunch.
Our parents paid the school to provide our milk. Just about everyone got one carton of whole milk a day. Since I was a growing boy and had a large appetite (I would pack at least two sandwiches a day plus fruit or whatever on the side) my parents also spent extra so I could get two cartons of milk a day. In effect I was eating twice as much as my other classmates.
I’m sure the lunch Nazis of today would have had a cow if they saw how much I ate every day for lunch. Their biggest dilemma would have been that they couldn’t send a note home to my parents telling them that I was fat because I was far from it. I was average height and one of the skinniest kids in the class even though I was eating twice as much as the other kids.
The only explanation they could have given for my size compared to my diet would have been that I was eating the heart healthy cocoa puffs for breakfast. (drowned in whole milk, of course)
My first grade school didn’t serve any food at all. You brought your lunch or walked home for lunch. They served milk, but only whole milk.
A novel approach might be to ultimately take responsibility for our own happiness and thus, our level of nutrition. I noticed that the “fat kid’s” father in the first scenario didn’t seem too bright. The govt.’s influence notwithstanding, I’d say that the fat kid’s father and parents like him are the problem.
Yes, we are ultimately responsible for our own choices, but the fat kid is probably eating a crappy school lunch approved by the USDA and his parents are probably feeding him the kinds of foods the USDA insists are good for us. It’s difficult to make correct decisions with bad information.
The “not too bright” father was my vision of how government sees us, not how we are.
@Tom: “But look at all the business it drums up for the USDA’s subsidized farmers!”
You don’t need to post this, but just a gentle reminder that 80% of the USDA budget goes to food stamps, not farmers. So while the total budget might look huge, the nation’s farmers aren’t getting rich off this thing.
Nor are commodities prices being kept artificially high by the government. On Feb 21 of this year, corn prices were forecast to average $4.80 per bushel in 2013. That might go up or down, but that’s a ballpark figure. The overall US average a century ago — in 1913 — was $2.42 per bushel.
Using the US Inflation Calculator, the buying power of $2.42 in 1913 would be the same as $56.29 in 2013.
I enjoy your blog, it’s one of the few I’ve stayed with over the long haul. You and I are on the same wavelength on a number of issues. But I do wince when I see this farmer-bashing thing come by, because it isn’t accurate.
I’m not bashing farmers. I’m bashing the USDA for using subsidies to pervert the natural supply and demand curve. As an old farmer told the guys who made the excellent documentary “King Corn,” the only reason so many farmers in Iowa grown corn fence-to-fence is that it’s subsidized. Take away the subsidy, they’d grow something else. The subsidized (and therefore cheap) corn then shows up in the entire food supply, from HFCS to corn-fed meats.
I have a huge problem with the sweetners in milk especially not being listed. I am oneof those rare people who cannot consume them because of massive stomach upset so now i will have to eliminate a whole food group from my diet because some idiot thinks that processed sweetners will make everyone thinner. I swear it gets worse every year
I did share the article on my Facebook on the FDA allowing aspartame in milk and I wrote “lactose is already bad enough! Why add a deadly chemical?!” Also Colette Heimowitz, current nutritionist of the Atkins diet, talked about the Mediterranean diet and low fat comparison in her blog. She mentioned how there was a 2008 study already similar where it showed that the group on the Atkins diet compared to those 2 not only showed weight loss but better lipid results since that diet, aside of the commercial products, still advocates the healthy fats like olive oil, avocados and nuts the Meditteranean diet encourages.
That’s right, the Atkins diet actually came out on top in an Israeli study.
Coming soon. Fat Koreans. And yes, that’s their choice…
http://gossiponthis.com/2013/03/01/mcdonalds-korea-throws-kids-out-for-hosting-250-french-fry-party/
http://kotaku.com/5955694/at-mcdonalds-in-japan-french-fries-are-causing-all-sorts-of-chaos
Ugh.
The lunch program at the Catholic elementary school that I went to consisted of you bring your lunch, we supply the milk. All of the kids brought their own lunches packed by either their parents or by themselves. There were no lunch Nazis that told us what to bring for lunch.
Our parents paid the school to provide our milk. Just about everyone got one carton of whole milk a day. Since I was a growing boy and had a large appetite (I would pack at least two sandwiches a day plus fruit or whatever on the side) my parents also spent extra so I could get two cartons of milk a day. In effect I was eating twice as much as my other classmates.
I’m sure the lunch Nazis of today would have had a cow if they saw how much I ate every day for lunch. Their biggest dilemma would have been that they couldn’t send a note home to my parents telling them that I was fat because I was far from it. I was average height and one of the skinniest kids in the class even though I was eating twice as much as the other kids.
The only explanation they could have given for my size compared to my diet would have been that I was eating the heart healthy cocoa puffs for breakfast. (drowned in whole milk, of course)
My first grade school didn’t serve any food at all. You brought your lunch or walked home for lunch. They served milk, but only whole milk.
A novel approach might be to ultimately take responsibility for our own happiness and thus, our level of nutrition. I noticed that the “fat kid’s” father in the first scenario didn’t seem too bright. The govt.’s influence notwithstanding, I’d say that the fat kid’s father and parents like him are the problem.
Yes, we are ultimately responsible for our own choices, but the fat kid is probably eating a crappy school lunch approved by the USDA and his parents are probably feeding him the kinds of foods the USDA insists are good for us. It’s difficult to make correct decisions with bad information.
The “not too bright” father was my vision of how government sees us, not how we are.
I have a huge problem with the sweetners in milk especially not being listed. I am oneof those rare people who cannot consume them because of massive stomach upset so now i will have to eliminate a whole food group from my diet because some idiot thinks that processed sweetners will make everyone thinner. I swear it gets worse every year
I did share the article on my Facebook on the FDA allowing aspartame in milk and I wrote “lactose is already bad enough! Why add a deadly chemical?!” Also Colette Heimowitz, current nutritionist of the Atkins diet, talked about the Mediterranean diet and low fat comparison in her blog. She mentioned how there was a 2008 study already similar where it showed that the group on the Atkins diet compared to those 2 not only showed weight loss but better lipid results since that diet, aside of the commercial products, still advocates the healthy fats like olive oil, avocados and nuts the Meditteranean diet encourages.
That’s right, the Atkins diet actually came out on top in an Israeli study.
I’ve been going to a naturopath for a while to treat chronic infections that cause fatigue. I finally talked my husband into going as well. Our wonderfull naturopath immediately recognized that poor hubby has suffered from a massive, chronic candida albicans infection for years. Years of treatment by conventional doctors never dealt with the root of his fatigue. They mostly prescribed ritalin and anti-depressents. It took a naturopath to put all the inofrmation into one whole picture.Think about it: chronic fatigue, unrestfull sleep, intense sweets cravings, repeated yeast infections, sinus/asthma/allergies problems, acid reflux/heartburn, irritable bowel symptoms, headaches, anxiety, depression etc… Soooo, if a health conscious person is encouraged to eat a high carb/low fat diet what do you think they are doing to their gut flora? My husband isn’t even overweight. He can bench 300 pounds at 55 years old and he still has to nap almost daily and has all the other symptoms of chronic yeast infection. Chronic infections of all sorts thrive on a sugar rich diet and the USDA diet is perfect for yeast. How many “lazy” fat people are really just suffering from chronic infection? When I started treatment with nystatin and then ketokonezol my sweets cravings plumetted.
As for shaming kids and adults, public school is torturous enough as it is. How many more mass shootings do we need by people who crack under that sort of pressure?
The last thing fat people need is more shame and more rejection.
I’ve been going to a naturopath for a while to treat chronic infections that cause fatigue. I finally talked my husband into going as well. Our wonderfull naturopath immediately recognized that poor hubby has suffered from a massive, chronic candida albicans infection for years. Years of treatment by conventional doctors never dealt with the root of his fatigue. They mostly prescribed ritalin and anti-depressents. It took a naturopath to put all the inofrmation into one whole picture.Think about it: chronic fatigue, unrestfull sleep, intense sweets cravings, repeated yeast infections, sinus/asthma/allergies problems, acid reflux/heartburn, irritable bowel symptoms, headaches, anxiety, depression etc… Soooo, if a health conscious person is encouraged to eat a high carb/low fat diet what do you think they are doing to their gut flora? My husband isn’t even overweight. He can bench 300 pounds at 55 years old and he still has to nap almost daily and has all the other symptoms of chronic yeast infection. Chronic infections of all sorts thrive on a sugar rich diet and the USDA diet is perfect for yeast. How many “lazy” fat people are really just suffering from chronic infection? When I started treatment with nystatin and then ketokonezol my sweets cravings plumetted.
As for shaming kids and adults, public school is torturous enough as it is. How many more mass shootings do we need by people who crack under that sort of pressure?
The last thing fat people need is more shame and more rejection.
Hi Tom,
I am the “other” K…I think I saw another person recently under the name K, so I decided to go with K2 for now.
Re adding aspartame to milk and not labeling it…I am not the least surprised. I happened to pick up a packet of hot cocoa mix in the cafeteria a few months ago, just to check the ingredients, and REGULAR cocoa mix has Splenda in it. It was not labeled as low-cal, reduced sugar, or include any warning that there was a sweetener in it. So out of curiosity, I started checking other regular – that is that the products had nothing on the label to say it was lower in sugar, lower in calories, etc – products, and you’d be amazed how many have Splenda. Things like Coffeemate flavored creamers, most hot cocoa mixes, breads (the little flat rounds that I see on the bread aisle now, when I dare wander it), and many more.
I don’t eat any of that stuff, and granted, the Splenda is listed on the label, but most people don’t really read the ingredients. They just look at the deceptive packaging, or calorie count, or such, without reading the fine print of the ingredients. For those with sensitivity to Splenda – and I am one – that could be dangerous.
Also, what is it with adding sweeteners – regular or artificial – to every flippin’ food? A few months ago, I noticed after eating a few Planter’s lightly salted, dry roasted peanuts that my hands were a little sticky. Something prompted me to check the label. Where the ingredients used to be simply peanuts and salt, they were suddenly: peanuts, sea salt, maltodextrin, corn starch, corn syrup solids. So….in dry roasted lightly salted peanuts, there are 5 ingredients, and 3 are sugar. There’s a bang-head-on-desk moment for you.
The food manufacturers just keep making their products richer in calories and sweet taste, presumably to drive consumption. I could be wrong, but sugar/sweet addiction is about the hardest to break, so that would keep the customers coming back for more.
So, thank goodness most of us reading this blog go for real food, not food products, and can side-step the issues that are going to come from all the manipulation of the consuming public’s taste and health.
Thanks for all you do to share with your readers.
K
I can’t say I’m surprised. Obviously the manufacturers found that adding sugar prompts people to eat more of the stuff.
When I first read what that man said I nearly burst a blood vessel. How dare he categorize himself as an “ethicist” of any sort when he encourages bullying? Bullying = verbal and emotional violence, which usually leads to physical violence. No truly ethical person would promote such a thing.
My sentiments exactly.
Hi Tom,
I am the “other” K…I think I saw another person recently under the name K, so I decided to go with K2 for now.
Re adding aspartame to milk and not labeling it…I am not the least surprised. I happened to pick up a packet of hot cocoa mix in the cafeteria a few months ago, just to check the ingredients, and REGULAR cocoa mix has Splenda in it. It was not labeled as low-cal, reduced sugar, or include any warning that there was a sweetener in it. So out of curiosity, I started checking other regular – that is that the products had nothing on the label to say it was lower in sugar, lower in calories, etc – products, and you’d be amazed how many have Splenda. Things like Coffeemate flavored creamers, most hot cocoa mixes, breads (the little flat rounds that I see on the bread aisle now, when I dare wander it), and many more.
I don’t eat any of that stuff, and granted, the Splenda is listed on the label, but most people don’t really read the ingredients. They just look at the deceptive packaging, or calorie count, or such, without reading the fine print of the ingredients. For those with sensitivity to Splenda – and I am one – that could be dangerous.
Also, what is it with adding sweeteners – regular or artificial – to every flippin’ food? A few months ago, I noticed after eating a few Planter’s lightly salted, dry roasted peanuts that my hands were a little sticky. Something prompted me to check the label. Where the ingredients used to be simply peanuts and salt, they were suddenly: peanuts, sea salt, maltodextrin, corn starch, corn syrup solids. So….in dry roasted lightly salted peanuts, there are 5 ingredients, and 3 are sugar. There’s a bang-head-on-desk moment for you.
The food manufacturers just keep making their products richer in calories and sweet taste, presumably to drive consumption. I could be wrong, but sugar/sweet addiction is about the hardest to break, so that would keep the customers coming back for more.
So, thank goodness most of us reading this blog go for real food, not food products, and can side-step the issues that are going to come from all the manipulation of the consuming public’s taste and health.
Thanks for all you do to share with your readers.
K
I can’t say I’m surprised. Obviously the manufacturers found that adding sugar prompts people to eat more of the stuff.
When I first read what that man said I nearly burst a blood vessel. How dare he categorize himself as an “ethicist” of any sort when he encourages bullying? Bullying = verbal and emotional violence, which usually leads to physical violence. No truly ethical person would promote such a thing.
My sentiments exactly.
“If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it at least twice: when government programs fail, government officials interpret the failure as evidence that they should do the same thing again – only bigger.”
In french we call this the Aspirin Syndrome. It goes like this:
—
One day, I broke my arm. So I took an aspirin pill. But it didn’t help, so I took two aspirin pills.
But I still wasn’t healing, so… Three aspirin pills.
…and so on for two months. Then I died (gangrene).
I should have taken more aspirin pills.
Sounds about like government thinking.
“If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it at least twice: when government programs fail, government officials interpret the failure as evidence that they should do the same thing again – only bigger.”
In french we call this the Aspirin Syndrome. It goes like this:
—
One day, I broke my arm. So I took an aspirin pill. But it didn’t help, so I took two aspirin pills.
But I still wasn’t healing, so… Three aspirin pills.
…and so on for two months. Then I died (gangrene).
I should have taken more aspirin pills.
Sounds about like government thinking.
Sugar and salt both encourage eating more and even better you can hide either one from taste by adding the other, which is undoubtedly the reason the Coke a Cola has salt besides not making Coke a thirst quencher it allows more sugar to be added and when you drink Coke you get that sugar rush which conditions the drinker to want more. For this reason I consider Coke to be the perfect American food. The phosphoric acid and sodium benzoate are nice bonuses too.
It’s a wonder the government does not require it in school lunches.
A sugar-filled drink in school? Naw, they’d never recommend that … unless it was chocolate milk.
Sugar and salt both encourage eating more and even better you can hide either one from taste by adding the other, which is undoubtedly the reason the Coke a Cola has salt besides not making Coke a thirst quencher it allows more sugar to be added and when you drink Coke you get that sugar rush which conditions the drinker to want more. For this reason I consider Coke to be the perfect American food. The phosphoric acid and sodium benzoate are nice bonuses too.
It’s a wonder the government does not require it in school lunches.
A sugar-filled drink in school? Naw, they’d never recommend that … unless it was chocolate milk.
Thanks Tom for another interesting recap of articles. And a big thank you for including the information about the new milk articles and for responding to my email about it too. Your information has really helped me change the eating in our household and my husband and I both feel much better after doing so.
My pleasure, and thanks for reading.
You know the more I read about modern nutrition the more I can’t help but shout in my head “conspiracy!” and “new world order!” It’s so clear that the world’s food supply is gradually coming under control by a few, powerful people, and if you control the food, you control the people, and their health. I work as a substitute teacher, and I am astonished by the “food” they serve those children. Get them fat, sick, and nearly dead now, then convince them that they need to be vegetarians, and you’ll have yourself an adult later on who’s a slave to BigAg and BigPharma.
In regards to Walter’s comment, don’t forget the caffeine! Caffeine is a diuretic, and salt makes you thirsty. Good combination there.
If you’re not a little paranoid, it means you’re not paying attention.
Thanks Tom for another interesting recap of articles. And a big thank you for including the information about the new milk articles and for responding to my email about it too. Your information has really helped me change the eating in our household and my husband and I both feel much better after doing so.
My pleasure, and thanks for reading.
You know the more I read about modern nutrition the more I can’t help but shout in my head “conspiracy!” and “new world order!” It’s so clear that the world’s food supply is gradually coming under control by a few, powerful people, and if you control the food, you control the people, and their health. I work as a substitute teacher, and I am astonished by the “food” they serve those children. Get them fat, sick, and nearly dead now, then convince them that they need to be vegetarians, and you’ll have yourself an adult later on who’s a slave to BigAg and BigPharma.
In regards to Walter’s comment, don’t forget the caffeine! Caffeine is a diuretic, and salt makes you thirsty. Good combination there.
If you’re not a little paranoid, it means you’re not paying attention.
From the news also, I just read an interresting information from Reuters on the french version of Google News. I found the US version for you : http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/03/06/us-despite-obesity-rise-idUSBRE92518620130306
In a nutshell: the calorie consumption decreased in the US, but people still get fatter. The proposed explanation is… (please don’t bang your head on your desk!)… that people don’t exercice enough.
I thought it could be an interresting topic for a Fat Head article!
Indeed, that one deserves a look.
From the news also, I just read an interresting information from Reuters on the french version of Google News. I found the US version for you : http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/03/06/us-despite-obesity-rise-idUSBRE92518620130306
In a nutshell: the calorie consumption decreased in the US, but people still get fatter. The proposed explanation is… (please don’t bang your head on your desk!)… that people don’t exercice enough.
I thought it could be an interresting topic for a Fat Head article!
Indeed, that one deserves a look.
My kids received one of these “Health Assesments” from the public school here in Escambia county FL. According to them both of my children are “underweight” by bmi calculations and should be seen by a doctor. They wanted me to sign the form and send it back with a doctor signature! I refused. My kids eat bacon, eggs, and full fat milk for breakfast every day. I pack their lunches, no bread products, just healthy fats and fresh fruit (it’s the only sugar they get). We eat sensible dinners with protein, veggies, and potatoes (for the kids). My kids were chubby toddlers when they were eating the SAD of chicken nuggets, mac and cheese, goldfish, frozen fish sticks, mini pizzas (ugh I could kick myself now for what I fed them then!) and their bmi’s were overweight. The gov’t needs to get the Hell out of my kitchen as well as the gun cabinet and then some!
Yup, but they won’t.
My kids received one of these “Health Assesments” from the public school here in Escambia county FL. According to them both of my children are “underweight” by bmi calculations and should be seen by a doctor. They wanted me to sign the form and send it back with a doctor signature! I refused. My kids eat bacon, eggs, and full fat milk for breakfast every day. I pack their lunches, no bread products, just healthy fats and fresh fruit (it’s the only sugar they get). We eat sensible dinners with protein, veggies, and potatoes (for the kids). My kids were chubby toddlers when they were eating the SAD of chicken nuggets, mac and cheese, goldfish, frozen fish sticks, mini pizzas (ugh I could kick myself now for what I fed them then!) and their bmi’s were overweight. The gov’t needs to get the Hell out of my kitchen as well as the gun cabinet and then some!
Yup, but they won’t.
Should that ultimate sentence end with “the beating goes on.”
Probably.
Should that ultimate sentence end with “the beating goes on.”
Probably.
Managed to bump into this. It’s not recent, but should help with the milk…
Going to link this blog post to the Facebook post I saw it come up on in my news feed… They’ve now started to talk about sweetened milk.
Here is the link:
http://www.collective-evolution.com/2012/10/06/aspartame-damages-the-brain-at-any-dose/
I don’t honestly know if aspartame is dangerous or not. I drank the stuff for years and didn’t experience any issues that I’m aware of. On the other hand, if my mom drinks it, she gets numbness in her fingers. Her doctor said that for some reason, he sees more side effects in women than in men.
Either way, it doesn’t belong in milk.
Managed to bump into this. It’s not recent, but should help with the milk…
Going to link this blog post to the Facebook post I saw it come up on in my news feed… They’ve now started to talk about sweetened milk.
Here is the link:
http://www.collective-evolution.com/2012/10/06/aspartame-damages-the-brain-at-any-dose/
I don’t honestly know if aspartame is dangerous or not. I drank the stuff for years and didn’t experience any issues that I’m aware of. On the other hand, if my mom drinks it, she gets numbness in her fingers. Her doctor said that for some reason, he sees more side effects in women than in men.
Either way, it doesn’t belong in milk.
The pasta and potato combination reminds me of the time I walked into my husband’s hospital room to find him happily eating his dinner. For whatever reason, the kitchen had discarded the menu I had filled out a few days earlier and substituted their own ideas of what he should be eating. Because he’s a T2 diabetic, I try to limit the starches I order. And I would never order pasta and potatoes together. But whoever filled out the menu had marked the pasta, potatoes, garlic bread, and diet ice cream. And not a vegie in sight to boot. But the kicker was, someone else in the kitchen had apparently reviewed the menu and marked in red on the bottom, “this is all starch!” Well, duh! But did that stop them from sending this carb fest? Not a chance. And when I spoke to the dietician about it, she was more concerned with letting me know that for the upcoming holiday dinner, they would be serving pumpkin pie to all the residents and they would adjust insulin doses to cover it. Head. Bang. On. Overbed. Table.
Sounds as if the hospital is a great place to get sicker.
Seems like this so called deal might be to rank up test scores too. If you sweeten milk, Wouldn’t we have more hungry kids.. Does’t aspartame make you want more to eat? Where are they getting these ideas? Banging my head on the desk is hurting! Hey, at least in middle school they ridicule kids for what they bring to school for lunch.
I don’t know if aspartame ramps up appetite, but it sure doesn’t belong in milk.
The pasta and potato combination reminds me of the time I walked into my husband’s hospital room to find him happily eating his dinner. For whatever reason, the kitchen had discarded the menu I had filled out a few days earlier and substituted their own ideas of what he should be eating. Because he’s a T2 diabetic, I try to limit the starches I order. And I would never order pasta and potatoes together. But whoever filled out the menu had marked the pasta, potatoes, garlic bread, and diet ice cream. And not a vegie in sight to boot. But the kicker was, someone else in the kitchen had apparently reviewed the menu and marked in red on the bottom, “this is all starch!” Well, duh! But did that stop them from sending this carb fest? Not a chance. And when I spoke to the dietician about it, she was more concerned with letting me know that for the upcoming holiday dinner, they would be serving pumpkin pie to all the residents and they would adjust insulin doses to cover it. Head. Bang. On. Overbed. Table.
Sounds as if the hospital is a great place to get sicker.
Seems like this so called deal might be to rank up test scores too. If you sweeten milk, Wouldn’t we have more hungry kids.. Does’t aspartame make you want more to eat? Where are they getting these ideas? Banging my head on the desk is hurting! Hey, at least in middle school they ridicule kids for what they bring to school for lunch.
I don’t know if aspartame ramps up appetite, but it sure doesn’t belong in milk.
K2:
“A few months ago, I noticed after eating a few Planter’s lightly salted, dry roasted peanuts that my hands were a little sticky. Something prompted me to check the label. Where the ingredients used to be simply peanuts and salt, they were suddenly: peanuts, sea salt, maltodextrin, corn starch, corn syrup solids. So….in dry roasted lightly salted peanuts, there are 5 ingredients, and 3 are sugar. There’s a bang-head-on-desk moment for you.”
I was surprised by this because I eat these frequently, and I didn’t notice that, so I looked into it.
Planters’ “dry roasted” peanuts indeed do now have all that stuff in their ingredients list (except for the unsalted variety, which drops the sea salt) and more: I read spices (contains celery), dried onion, dried garlic, paprika, natural flavor, sugar, gelatin, and torula yeast, too.
However their “cocktail” peanuts are still the simple list of peanuts, peanut and/or cottonseed oil, and sea salt, and have less sugar and a bit less sodium on the nutrition label.
Adding to the confusion is that their peanuts which are simply labeled “salted” (usually in the 1oz snack packs that I like to keep around) are also the simpler ingredients list.
We buy dry-roasted nuts and almonds at Costco. Ingredients: nuts, salt.
K2:
“A few months ago, I noticed after eating a few Planter’s lightly salted, dry roasted peanuts that my hands were a little sticky. Something prompted me to check the label. Where the ingredients used to be simply peanuts and salt, they were suddenly: peanuts, sea salt, maltodextrin, corn starch, corn syrup solids. So….in dry roasted lightly salted peanuts, there are 5 ingredients, and 3 are sugar. There’s a bang-head-on-desk moment for you.”
I was surprised by this because I eat these frequently, and I didn’t notice that, so I looked into it.
Planters’ “dry roasted” peanuts indeed do now have all that stuff in their ingredients list (except for the unsalted variety, which drops the sea salt) and more: I read spices (contains celery), dried onion, dried garlic, paprika, natural flavor, sugar, gelatin, and torula yeast, too.
However their “cocktail” peanuts are still the simple list of peanuts, peanut and/or cottonseed oil, and sea salt, and have less sugar and a bit less sodium on the nutrition label.
Adding to the confusion is that their peanuts which are simply labeled “salted” (usually in the 1oz snack packs that I like to keep around) are also the simpler ingredients list.
We buy dry-roasted nuts and almonds at Costco. Ingredients: nuts, salt.