nosh nook #26 - monday, april 20, 2009

gum chewing may cut craving for snacks (link)
04.19.09 - forbes

scientists have figured out a lot of crap & done lots of totally sweet things for society over the years--medical advances, rocket launches, particle discoveries & such. up until now, i've been pretty excited about the benefits of scientific research. i even listen to npr's science friday every single week & find wonder in stories of scientific finds. this time, however, scientists have gone too far...they're trying to discourage snacking.

as forbes reports, an evil study sponsored by the ivy league, world-renowned wrigley science institute recently discovered that by chewing gum, you can cut down on your snacking. why anyone would want to cut down on their snacking is beyond me, but that's what they figured out. they performed an experiment where on two days they offered people snacks three hours after lunch. on one of the days, the people chewed gum for fifteen minutes during the three hours before snack time. on the day where they chewed the gum, they ate fewer snacks & felt less hungry.  i can only assume they also felt less fulfilled, due to the snacking void.

in summary, chewing gum can help contribute to weight loss & positive health, but at the cost of less snacking.  if you must shun snacking & chew gum, you should definitely chew wrigleys. that's just smart science...& like wrigley's current slogan says, "gum is good!"

nosh nook #25 - friday, april 17, 2009

sunchips bags to disintegrate (link)
04.16.09 - the topeka capital journal - by mike hall

i've always enjoyed sunchips. they have simple flavors, taste good (mmm french onion) & aren't as greasy as most chips. compared to the rest of chips out there, they're healthier for you than most & fairly harmless overall. now frito-lay/pepsico is attempting to make them less harmless on the environment as well, with 100% compostable packaging. i'm part hippie & as such, really love the totally positive vibe that sunchips have always given off.  being environmentally conscious only enhances that vibe.

according to mike hall's article, frito-lay has already "reduced the amount of plastic in packaging by 10 percent in the past five years." starting now, they're going to start selling sunchips in bags that are one-third compostable, with the goal of making the bags 100% compostable by earth day of next year. they're doing so by using polyactic acid/plant-based material in their packaging.

it's good to see that pepsico is doing something about their environmental impact. as a multinational, multi-billion dollar company, they have a larger impact on the globe than many small countries do. as hall notes, frito-lay donated $1 million dollars to help repair greensburg, ks, the town that was basically leveled by a tornado almost two years ago. they also had a hand in "inaugurating a solar concentrator field at frito-lay’s modesto, calif., facility," and "(e)nergy from the sun’s rays is helping run the modesto plant."

it looks like making efforts like this, so that frito-lay/pepsico can have a counterweight against the negative efffects of their corporate impact, has now become the cost of doing business. sure, they're still pepsico, but for now, i'll take it, especially if it makes sunchips more appealing.

nosh nook #24 - thursday, april 16, 2009

natural resource (link)
04.15.09 - san diego union tribune - by peter rowe

it's no secret that i like eating foods constructed in a method similar to that of a tonka truck as much as the next guy.  deep down though, i go 10x as crazy for something that's certified organic & actually good for me.  organic veggies?  mmm.  organic cookies?  love em.  organic beers?  i've tried a few and guess what?  they taste just like regular beers.  i just wish organic foods weren't so damn expensive.  i'm not all that low-income myself, but those high prices are definitely a reason behind low-income folks choosing crappy, unhealthy foods over organic foods.

snackwise, my favorite organic pleasure is the organic chocolate bar, with green & black's chocolate bars currently taking my top prize.  as peter rowe's article details, the organic chocolate bar industry is doing pretty well these days.  he visited anaheim & the natural products west expo, where, out of 1,900 vendors, there were "dozens of companies scrapping for limited supplies of organic cacao and for consumers of cacao's scrumptious byproduct, chocolate."

as he goes on to explain, back in the day, chocolate had a bad rep, before there were thousands of studies about the health benefits of dark chocolate.  these days, organic chocolate is "the nation's fastest growing organic snack – u.s. sales leapt 450 percent between 1999 and 2007."  still, most of the organic cacao supply is taken up by two companies--green & black's and dagoba organic (hershey's)--so there's somewhat of a supply problem.  something will have to change there if the organic chocolate industry expects to keep growing as demand does...& if they want more people to be able to afford the organic chocolates, something will definitely have to change.

nosh nook #23 - wednesday, april 15, 2009

when fast food gets in the fast lane (link)
04.14.09 - los angeles times - by dan neil

for years, americans have been having somewhat of a problem with body image. we've got magazines offering tips on how women can shed those extra, bikini-busting pounds for the summer. we've got pretty high rates of both obesity & eating disorders. we've got personal trainer-led tv celebrities setting the gold standard for body types. at the same time, we've got an insatiable lust for both junk food & the regulation of fatty foods...oh & we also have a problem dealing with sex.  yeah, we sort of have issues.

as dan neil explains in his article, fast food joints are attempting to repair/gloss over their own negative image through sexy tv advertising. carl's jr now has a tv commercial featuring skinny hottie top chef host padma lakshmi sucking down one of their burgers in a way that neil describes as "sex with a burger." of course, neil also describes young men as "coarse, callow, emotional imbeciles with suicidal dietary habits," so you have to take what he says with a grain of salt.

he continues on, mentioning a few other examples of sexy fast food ads & notes that "if i put on my magic deconstructing spectacles, i can see neo-feminist subversion in these messages." no shit, dude. they are friggin' fast food commercials. he also notes that no matter how sexy the commercials become, the foods will still be fattening & lead to weight gain. "if you eat a lot of (quizno's tuna melts), you'll get fat and smell strange, and nobody will want to have sex with you"...ok dude, way to back up that "skinny is sexy, fat is not" way of thinking with your flawed idea of body image. he's all over the place in his article & i hope he's being sarcastic & generally trying to prove a point by doing so, but when's the last time the l.a. times took that approach?

nosh nook #22 - tuesday, april 14, 2009

free stuff: tax day is snacks day (link)
04.13.09 - mainstreet.com - by althea chang

tax day is tomorrow & if there's one thing a lot of americans are going to be doing come tomorrow, it's finding a blanket large enough to hide under & hope that the whole damn thing just goes away.  unlike the majority of americans, i have a fairly basic list of taxable worldly possessions, so other than the part where i have to write checks to people, tax time is a relatively quick process.

maybe tax time is ten times more painful for you than it is for me.  if so, you deserve a snack.  according to althea chang, there are all sorts of free treats you can get on tax day.  they're giving away cinnabon bites at cinnabon, ice cream at maggiemoo's (whatever the hell that is) and free tacos at taco del mar (whatever the hell that is).  if you're in baltimore & love mcdonalds, you get a special treat.  not only can you get a free coffee at mickey dees, but when you're done, you can go to one of three post offices & get yourself a free, custom mcdonalds stamp, which means if you're lucky, you'll now be able to afford mailing out that tax bill.

free snacks are good any day of the year, but when they come on tax day, that's a return i've just got to file.  no no no.  when it's tax man time & he's offering free snacks, that a deduction i just have to claim.  no no no.  if they're asking for your taxes but they're giving out free snackses...no no no.  oh screw it.  i'll just wait until the 21st when ben & jerry's has their free cone day.  it's not like i'm going to head to the closest maggiemoo's, which is in bayside (wherever the hell that is) to claim my stupid freebie anyhow.