Calorie Count

In this country, where super-sized portions are as normal as, well, being super-sized, it's difficult to keep perspective on the amount of food you're actually consuming. Between monstrously sized drinks and the seemingly endless parade of food in all-you-can-eat joints and Vegas-style buffets, how do you determine what actually constitutes a normal portion size?

The folks at Calorie Count have devised a visual aid to help you. Because if you know that a normal portion of steak or halibut should be about the same size as a deck of cards, you might think twice about the behemoth on your plate. (A mnemonic device that would come in particularly handy if your buffet is actually in Las Vegas.)

More >>

Flickr/nickynunchuck

Fat kids everywhere, rejoice! There's no link between childhood obesity and junk food sold in schools, a new study has found.

Cities all over the country have been busy banning the sale of sweet and salty snacks in public schools in a bid to fight childhood obesity (thanks, Mrs. Obama). But a new study by researchers at Pennsylvania State University suggests that the strategy may be ineffective, The New York Times reports. The research appears in the January issue of the journal Sociology of Education.

More >>

Does your New Year's resolution have you up against a wall yet? Introducing the Fooducate app, an app available for iPhones that helps the average food consumer shop for grocery foods. The app works like a scanner; it scans the barcode of foodstuffs and immediately produces a nutritional breakdown in layman's terms, highlighting things like the tablespoons of sugar per serving and hidden trans fats not shown on the nutrition facts.

Reaching for that guilty pleasure all the way in the back of your pantry? According to a recent scan of Pilsbury's Creamy Supreme Milk Chocolate, it will cost you "5 tsp of sugars per serving" and also "contains controversial artificial colors."

There are specialty foods that are not part of the database yet. Sorry guys, no truthful rundown on that can of garbanzos from Fresh & Easy yet. But the platform makes it really easy for you to add it yourself and help your fellow Fooducate classmates.

There are two versions available on iTunes: a free app with ads and an app without ads and a couple of extra perks for $3.99.

More >>

T. Nguyen

A buck buys you a whole lot of calories, sugar, and sodium.

Way back in 2004, University of Washington researcher Adam Drewnowski explored the relationship between poverty and obesity, finding that foods in supermarket middle aisles - mostly processed junk - delivered the most calories per dollar. One dollar spent on soda, for example, delivered 875 calories, versus only 170 calories found in fruit juice. For families stretching their limited food budgets, picking up the soda almost makes sense.

This study led Michael Pollan to argue that these "energy-dense" foods are so much cheaper than nature's fruits not because of the free market, but due to "a function of government policy: our farm policies subsidize the most energy-dense and least healthy calories in the supermarket." His own conclusion: "eating well is elitist".

A recent follow-up study published in Grist shows that 7 years later, eating well still is elitist.

More >>

iirraa/flickr

Apples at McDonald's

Last week, First Lady Michelle Obama and James Gavin III practically shed tears of joy over Wal-Mart's professed commitment to selling good food cheaper and expanding into barren Whole Foods-deprived "food deserts." Gavin said, perhaps jokingly, that he hoped to see Wal-Mart double its U.S. store count. The next corporate behemoth up for a public knighting is McDonald's. In response to the fast food giant's plan to, among other noble deeds, add apple slices to its Happy Meals, push a health-oriented mobile phone app, and reduce sodium, sugars, saturated fats, and calories by 2020, Mrs. Obama made a statement yesterday:

McDonald's is making continued progress today by providing more fruit and reducing the calories in its Happy Meals. I've always said that everyone has a role to play in making America healthier, and these are positive steps toward the goal of solving the problem of childhood obesity. McDonald's has continued to evolve its menu, and I look forward to hearing about the progress of today's commitments, as well as efforts in the years to come.

More >>

Samantha Appleton/White House

The First Lady and elementary school students tend the White House garden

Update 11:50 a.m. 7/20/2011 - Mayor Manuel Lozano spoke before Obama about his work in Baldwin Park, along with James Gavin III, chairman of the Partnership for a Healthier America's Board of Directors. "We know this isn't going to be easy -- nothing we do ever is -- we cant just throw money at this problem, and it wont be solved by government alone, or businesses alone, or communities alone," said Obama, a few minutes into her speech, which was directed towards an assembled group of grocery store employees as well as elected officials and reporters. "If we want to make a difference. . .we all have to find a way to do our part. No child should be consigned to a life of poor health because of the neighborhood he or she lives in. . .Today isn't just a celebration; it's a call to action."

With her announcement at the White House this morning, Michelle Obama's campaign to end childhood obesity took its next step. In an effort to give more people access to healthy foods, the First Lady revealed to the gathered food industry experts, city officials, and press corps that several large retailers, including Wal-Mart, Walgreens, and Supervalue, will be opening or expanding 1,500 stores in parts of the country lacking access to fresh produce and other healthy foods, eventually reaching close to 40% of the citizens living in these areas. As you might recall, back in January, Wal-Mart executives promised to cut back on sodium and sugar in many of the retail chain's products and lower prices on produce.

More >>

Center for Science in the Public Interest

The Cheesecake Factory Farmhouse Cheeseburger

This year's winners of the Xtreme Eating Awards have been named, just in time for us all to continue massively overeating. The so-called "dishonorees," as if we needed more clues as to the point of this, were unveiled in the current edition of the Center for Science in the Public Interest's Nutrition Action Healthletter.

The eight winning (and we mean that in much the same way Charlie Sheen does) dishes are loaded with bacon, fried eggs and pork belly, ice cream and peanut butter, and come stuffed, fried, and accompanied by more fried things. Big surprise. Turn the page for the list, in order of number of calories. Just a little reminder: an average adult is theoretically supposed to consume about 2,000 calories, 20 grams of saturated fat, and 1,500 milligrams of sodium per day.

More >>

Screenshot of Ruth Bourdain's Twitter page

This morning the USDA unveiled their new food chart, finally replacing the food pyramid which first debuted -- and was trashed pretty much since -- in 1992. The new chart also comes with its own new website, ChooseMyPlate.gov. The food pyramid, you will doubtless remember, is that irritating, confusing and misleading visual nutrition aid that divided foods into recommended layers. Your pyramid scheme joke here ______.

The new chart comes in the form of a plate, plates being somewhat more food relevant than pyramids. And it's the proportions that are changed as much as the geometry: More plant-based foods, less meat. Scientific American asked nutritionist Marion Nestle, who did not like the old one much ("The 2005 pyramid had no food on it. It was completely un-teachable, and you needed a computer to understand it.") what she thought of the new plate chart. "Well, it's banal, but it works. It's very easily teachable."

More >>

Flickr/96dpi

a glass of water

If you've ever spent much time at a kids' soccer game -- much less a middle school basketball jam session at Staples Center sponsored by Gatorade -- you'd think that kids required sports drinks as much as adults training for triathalons or the NBA finals (go Mavs!). They do not, of course. According to a new clinical report by the American Academy of Pediatrics published in the June 2011 issue of Pediatrics, kids don't need them, and some of these products contain substances that could be actually be harmful to children.

This should not come as a surprise if you've ever read the labels. Or checked out the suspiciously neon colors of many of these drinks. Here's a novel idea: How about hydrating your kid with some actual water. Water is also a lot better to douse your kid's head with after a game. And the coach, given that at the last 4th grade soccer game we attended, the kids spent more time plotting how to dump the contents of all the sports drinks over their coach than they did how to run the offense.

More >>