Odds and Ends

Vitaminwater - Never a fan myself - high in calories which are empty ones, no matter what essence they add to it. And face it, it is a sugar sweetened beverage.  SSB is the abreviation to note these days.  Public Health folks, such as myself,  are trying to limit (perhaps by keeping out of schools or raising taxes) the consumption of sodas AND sugar sweetened beverages.  Vitaminwater is actually a brand of drinks that are sold by Coca Cola.  However, I can't find it in their list of products on their website which is weird.  Anyways, the UK has an organization that seems a little like a combination of the FDA and FTC in the USA.  This organization, the Advertising Standards Authority told CocaCola that they could not use the advertisement that claims Vitaminwater is good for you because it contains too much sugar.  Gotta love it :)

Skinny Cocktails - It looks like the Cheesecake Factory wants to challenge the DeeDee Sour.  They are offering 150 calorie cocktails.  Okay - it does fit with my Informed Eating agenda, so they get credit for that.  A person, such as yourself,  can go to the restaurant and order a Mich Ultra at 95 calories, a glass of wine at (200-300 by their glass size) or a skinny new margarita or mojito for 150 calories.  If I were not going to get the beer, I expect the cocktail would have less calories than the wine because the wine will be served at more than the standard 4 ounce size.  My DeeDee Sour still wins at 100 calories.  (Fresca with Whiskey [1.5 oz] and a twist of lemon)

Starbucks and Wendy's - They get the "WHAT?" award for the week as they are both making something BIGGER.  To think that the industry is going to modify or regulate itself, skinny mojitas aside is naive.  Starbucks is adding a 31 ounce drink to the line up and Wendy's is making its burgers bigger.

Pizza Please - I reviewed a program that was used at a school to increase students nutrition knowledge and to impact dietary behavior.  A goal was for the children to eat more fruits and vegetables and less fatty foods.  The way the researchers evaluated the program was by having the children play a game in which answering a question correctly got them toppings to add to a pizza.  The winner was the one with the most toppings on their pizza.  HUH?  Those poor kids - how confusing is that,

Marketing Tricks - To be fair, I am critical of all advertisements for diets and diet products as they do not work, can cause harm, provide false hope, delay real change and waste peoples money.  I did not catch the name of the product being promoted on the radio recently, but the spokesperson was someone who had been on the equally disconcerting television show The Biggest Loser.  Guess what?  She gained back a lot of the weight she lost on the show and she isn't able to follow the regimen that she followed during taping. (really? wasn't it a realistic program?)  So she is taking some supplement.  In the "after text" the announcer says, people who lose more than ten pounds in ten days will need to contact their trainer (sales rep) to have their dose adjusted.  As IF?!?

Measurements - No, not that kind.  Researchers often measure the amount of fat one ingests, or the pounds we carry, or points on a knowledge scale, or amounts of types of foods we eat.  In an article I read recently, a menu assessment listed items as ones to eitherpromote (like vegetables) or limit (french fries, soda).  I was not pleased to see that fruit juice was in the same category as fruit and that dairy products were being pushed without a low fat and full fat distinction.