nosh nook #151 - monday, october 12, 2009

where they grow our junk food (link)
10.11.09 - toronto star - by margaret webb

if there's one thing that canadians like, it's saying "ay," ay? if there's another thing that they like, it's hockey, ay? if i were to name a third thing that canadians enjoy, it's socialized medicine, ay? if there's something beyond that that's a favorite of canadians (in addition to the aforementioned first three things), it's nickelback, ay? if i was asked to name an additional thing that canadians can get behind, it's cheap junk food, ay? apparently, they can't get enough of it.

since canadians love cheap junk food so much, the toronto star's margaret webb went out in search of a junk food farm. as she notes, "such farms are not so easy to spot. no fields of dorito bags waving in the breeze, no orchards blooming with soda pop, no soil bursting with 99-cent burgers." the canadians are hiding their junk food farms just like the iranians are with their nuclear weapons program. sanctions! basically, the canadians have disguised their junk food farms as soybean & corn farms & those two crops go into a ton of crappy food. soybeans make feed for livestock which makes burgers, soy oil makes lards & corn goes into syrups, sweeteners, starches & oil. who doesn't like burgers, lard & syrups?

as the article describes, canadian farmers are under a lot of pressure. canadians want cheap food (they put less of their income toward food than any country in the world) & with globalization, farmers face a ton of competition. as a result, they have to farm every available inch of land, a practice that has its environmental impacts. one such river, the sydenham, has "turned the colour of chocolate milk." farmers such as dave ferguson have little to no choice but to grow soybean & corn. he's trying to change that by educating other farmers, but as david jenkins (a top canadian nutritional researcher) notes, without a dramatic shift in public policy, "improving our diets through education and persuasion alone will take decades." decades? that's a heck of a long time, ay?...& i thought the u.s. farm system was messed up.

nosh nook #150 - friday, october 9, 2009

the office: snack episode (link)
10.08.09 - the ny times - by randy cohen

advice columnists sure have evolved. "advice columnist" used to mean dear abby giving homemakers advice on how to speak up to your nosy mother-in-law. these days, dear abby's still around, but there are also advice columnists like dan savage, who will give you advice on whether it's ok to sleep with your nosy mother-in-law. the ny times has randy cohen's syndicated weekly "the ethicist" column. dude's won four emmys (three for writing on letterman, one for writing on michael moore's tv nation), so he's clearly well qualified to give advice.

in yesterday's column, he answered three food-related questions--about how to avoid snack temptation around the office, what to do with unhealthy food donated to a homeless shelter & how to deal with a relative who should be eating better for health reasons but refuses to. the first question was from someone from somerville, MA who was trying to watch their weight but whose co-worker was hosting an "all-office dessert swap." they wanted to avoid it & were curious if it was ok to lie & say that their doctor told them to stay away from sweets. cohen suggested avoiding lying, saying that instead, they should simply skip the dessert swap & ask the boss to "make yours a cake-free workplace." i'm sorry, but it's one thing to ask your boss to curb sexual harassment in the workplace. it's a whole other thing to ask them to curb cake. how about suggesting that they use a little willpower?

the next question came from marc ross, an l.a. resident who works at a homeless center. one of the goals at the center is to help clients improve their diets, but the center often receives "unhealthy, highly processed food" in their donations. ross doesn't want to throw it out, but feels bad giving it to other centers, because it just means a different group of people will be eating unhealthy food. in this case, cohen suggested that if it means the difference "between bad food and no food," they should pass the food along. if they aren't able to do that, they should just stockpile the "mac’n’cheesefoodproductsynthi-goo" in case of natural disaster. good advice. from what i hear, mac’n’cheesefoodproductsynthi-goo will last through a nuclear holocaust.

the final question came from a man whose relative had been told by her doctor that she should eat healthy, but who still doesn't. when this relative comes to visit, they make healthy food, but it doesn't matter, because she still has breakfast, "followed by a second breakfast, elevenses and raids on the children’s halloween candy." that's not just unhealthy. that's wrong. you don't take candy from kids. cohen lets the man know that they're already doing all they can by serving healthy food, but they can "lock up the kids’ candy." maybe they should have the relative locked up as well.

nosh nook #149 - thursday, october 8, 2009

secretary fired over meatball snack after 34 years on the job (link)
10.07.09 - the local

this weekend, i'm heading up to massachusetts to celebrate my grandfathers' 90TH FRIGGIN BIRTHDAY. it's my mom's dad & he has a "keep smiling" coffee mug & he pretty much rules. obviously, he's been retired for a while, but when he was still working, he worked for the local power company (yankee electric) & did so forever, to the point where when he retired, the company threw him what, based on my memory of the photos i saw as a kid, was a big affair. in contrast, last year, my dad retired from the post office after almost forty years of service. a dozen or so friends & family had a bbq for him in a family friends' backyard. i guess the guvment isn't exactly in the habit of having big sendoffs for long time employees these days.

neither is the north rhine-westphalian building association, a germany company who, according to the local, fired a secretary after thirty-four years on the job. they did so because she took "two rolls and a frikadelle, a german meatball specialty" that were leftovers from a conference she'd helped set up for her boss. it's total bullshit, because everyone knows that if you're having a day of stupid meetings & there's food left over, it's fair game. you don't just toss it out.

this past tuesday, that secretary "faced her employer...in court to request that he give her a warning instead, saying the incident was not a classic case of theft." damn straight. her boss was all "whatever. she took the meatball snack. can't trust her. she's fired." she's 59 years old, so the chances of her finding another job are pretty damn low. proceedings begin next january & surprisingly, there's actually somewhat of a precedent for this in german courts. earlier this year, the courts ruled "that a former cashier for the kaiser’s supermarket chain was rightfully fired after allegedly taking €1.30 in bottle deposits." this is even more bullshit than that, so hopefully they'll rule in the secretary's favor. after all, it's just frikadelle.

nosh nook #148 - wednesday, october 7, 2009

first look: calories on fast-food menus don't change choices (link)
10.07.09 - washington post - by jennifer larue huget

...so back in july of last year, as one of mayor bloomberg's many "we're going to stick our nose into your business" initiatives, nyc passed legislation requiring restaurants to post calorie counts on their menus. the thinking behind it was that once people were able to see how many calories they were consuming when they ate, they'd cut down on fast food & start eating healthier. thinking that this would be the result takes a bit of specious reasoning, as for many low-income citizens, being able to afford to eat usually takes precedence over being able to eat healthy. value meal!

as the washington post reports, the results of the first study measuring the effects of the legislation have come in & they're the complete opposite of what was expected. health affairs, a peer-reviewed medical journal "looked at fast-food purchases made in low-income areas of new york city...and, as a control, in nearby newark, new jersey, where no such requirement exists." they compared receipts & interviewed customers & found little difference between consumers' actions before & after the law went into effect. in nyc, the number of calories consumed actually went up. the post captures it best in the article's opening line, which is no more than the word "oops."

what went wrong? the study offers a few possible reasons. "the timing was wrong." "the sample size (was) too small." "maybe...there should have been a sign telling people that 2,000 calories is the most they should consume in a day." the post suggests that "maybe people just don't care--or would prefer to ignore--the number of calories they're consuming when they eat fast food." the study, the post & the mayor don't seem to be considering that other factor i mentioned. if you're a low-income mother looking to feed a family of five after getting home from a ten-hour shift & KFC offers you a deal on a twenty-piece bucket of chicken, you're going to take it, calorie count be damned. i guess when you're a medical journal, a 200+ year-old paper or a billionaire mayor, that scenario doesn't cross your mind.

nosh nook #147 - tuesday, october 6, 2009

princes launches new tuna snack product (link)
10.05.09 - talking retail

i don't know about you, but when i'm in the mood for a tasty snack & my stomach's a-gurglin', there's nothing more satisfying than a snack sized helping of minced fish. most of the time, my taste buds are all, "bring on the tuna!" but when i'm out & about & feeling the peckishness coming on, that desire increases tenfold. until now, the only way to fill my fishy desires was with starkist's lunch-to-go. thanks to technological innovations in tuna packaging, it's a whole new world now.

as talking retail reports, princes, which is "the UK's leading canned fish brand," is releasing new tuna products called "tuna bites," which are "cubes of tuna in tetra pak cartons." they're "designed to drive further growth in the canned fish category" & are available in three YUMMY varieties--in brine, in sunflower oil & with sundried tomato. canned fish. brine. mmm x 2.

why the need for a new tuna product? ruth simpson, marketing director for prince explains that "currently more than 67% of tuna is eaten at home as part of a main meal. we're confident that through new product packaging and innovation, we can encourage consumers to use tuna in new ways, and drive further value into the category." not sure what new ways you can use tuna now that it's all snack-sized? you could use it as a place to hide your stash. if you're out with friends, you could whip out a pak of tuna bites & raise everyone's spirits. guys, you could hide a pak in your pants & impress the ladies...& so on & so on. the possibilities are endless! yay tuna!