McDonalds - two things here. The first is related to the use of branding and marketing by fast food companies, especially McDonalds. With regard to childhood obesity, there is grave concern about the outcomes when we market cheap, high energy dense nutrient poor foods to children. If children were not the target of restaurants like McDonald's then movie characters wouldn't be on their glassware and toys wouldn't come in the Happy Meal. At least one state is proposing legislation that would prohibit this toy association if certain nutrient criteria are not met. I think that it is a grand idea. The second item regards this new concept of tailored or focused ads. As companies learn all about us from our on line activities, promotions are supposed to reflect our true desires, needs and habits. Probably this strategy needs some tweaking as I received a whole booklet of McDonald's coupons in the mail this week. None of the offers included salads!
P.T and the Back - I was talking with a physical therapist this week about back care. From reading the blog, you might be aware that the guidelines for treating chronic, even acute, back pain have changed in the last decade. It is now considered unwise to treat back pain with bed rest and pain pills. This particular physical therapist (who has a doctorate) said it another way. "The best thing you can do for a hurt back is to keep doing everything you did before you hurt your back." Amen.
Weight Watchers - Though I find the WW program to be the best lifestyle approach to maintaining a health promoting weight, I do not endorse the point system or the WW branded foods, per se. The foods in the grocery store are processed foods, but if one was going to buy calorie controlled meals, WW would be just as good as an another. It does exclude a good portion of persons who could benefit from the low point foods, as they cannot afford them. I say all this and then admit that I will buy a WW branded food if the nutrient content appeals to me. I bought one such product this week. I like to use low calorie spreadable cheeses on Wasa crackers and usually buy the light Laughing Cow wedges. This week at Wal-Mart the Laughing Cow was 50 cents more than the WW brand and the WW wedges have a few less calories. I did not pay attention to the cost per unit though and realized later that the WW brand had 6 wedges and the Laughing Cow had eight!
Trusted Sites - I do not have time to vet the many - hundreds, thousands, of websites that offer nutrition advice and include calorie need calculators. Because some of you are feeling a need to adjust your intake, let me share two sites that as of today I do trust. These are from the US government's MyPyramid and The Cooper Institutes's Stand Up and Eat program.
PCBs - This abbreviation is for the chemicals Polychlorinated biphenyls which were used in manufacturing until being banned in or around 1970. The are toxic. Of course, products that contain them are still in use or in landfills. PCBs are still contaminating our soil and water. This past week a warning about eating large mouth bass and catfish from some North Carolina rivers/lakes was announced. In fact, we were told to not eat these fish at all due to very high levels of PCBs. I bring this up to make a political point. There is some discussion about whether or not the EPA should have such "strict" standards on emissions and chemical agents and to that I say YES - they should - these contaminations affect health, tourism, jobs, animal and plant life. It is time to give a damn.
Arthritis - I saw an ad while visiting one of my (web) home pages. It was from the Arthritis Foundation and the Ad Council. It said "Moving is the Best Medicine." Very cool. In the sub text it advised that exercise and weight loss would be helpful in managing arthritis.
Lung Cancer - Here is exactly what the commercial or PSA said - you can make the obvious conclusion. "Among non-smokers radon gas is the leading cause of lung cancer."
Pumpkin Spice - OMG - Have you seen the video or had any of my pumpkin cream cheese? I modified a recipe that my sister had - fat free cream cheese, pumpkin, nutmeg, cinnamon and splenda. I add a little water when I whip it so it is fluffier. Well, it may be an acquired taste but I really like it especially on a certain Jacobsen's Cinnamon Toast. Anyways, I just noticed a Pumpkin Spice Cream Cheese at the grocery store. I don't know - better start copy right patent proofing my recipes :)
No comments:
Post a Comment