News Items

Bottled Water is 'Immoral'

Drinking bottled water should be made as unfashionable as smoking, according to a government adviser. "We have to make people think that it's unfashionable just as we have with smoking. We need a similar campaign to convince people that this is wrong," said Tim Lang, the Government's natural resources commissioner.

Phil Woolas, the environment minister, added that the amount of money spent on mineral water "borders on being morally unacceptable".

Their comments come as new research shows that drinking a bottle of water has the same impact on the environment as driving a car for a kilometre. Conservation groups and water providers have started a campaign against the £2 billion industry.

A BBC Panorama documentary, "Bottled Water: Who Needs It?", to be broadcast tomorrow [Feb. 18] says that in terms of production, a litre bottle of Evian or Volvic generates up to 600 times more CO2 than a litre of tap water.

:: The Telegraph

News Nuggets 1

Dieter see, dieter do – Dieters beware – You might be watching what you eat but if a friend is tucking into a calorie-loaded snack you could be in trouble. An international study published in the April issue of the Journal of Consumer Research found that watching someone eat a snack caused the viewer to be inclined to eat the same thing.

Weighted toys help kids burn calories – Doctors have warned for years that American children are getting fatter. Now even some kids' teddy bears are packing on the pounds. Researchers at Indiana State University tried a small experiment to test the effects of having kids play with heavier toys. They found that 10 children ages six to eight burned more calories and had higher heart and breathing rates when they moved 1.4 kilogram toy blocks instead of un-weighted blocks. "This is not going to solve the obesity problem," said professor John Ozmun, "but it has a potential to make a positive difference." :: Deanna Martin, The Associated Press

Walking speed sign of decline – How fast an older person walks may predict long-term survival, report researchers at the University of Pittsburg who found that faster walkers were substantially more likely to outlive the slowest. "This is a very simple analysis," said geriatrician Stephanie Studenski. "What was astonishing to me was how powerful that simple information was' and how it might serve as an early warning for physicians. Walking speed can mirror the health of many body parts – heart, lungs, limbs, circulatory system – and a decline might prompt doctors to investigate further. :: New York Times Service

Ads Inside your Children's Schoolbuses? – If you live in South Carolina, that horrifying headline is about to come true. According to Brandweek, the caring folks that make up the South Carolina Department of Education have sold out your children by allowing advertisers to pay school districts $2,100 per month per bus for an 11 inch strip of advertising above their school buses' windows. :: Yoni Freedhoff

Is fat the new tobacco? – Too much body fat raises the risk of about a dozen different cancers, according to a major new study that adds to growing evidence linking excess weight to cancer at most sites in the body. British scientists who pooled data from 141 studies on 20 cancer types found a higher body mass index is associated with: an increased risk of thyroid, kidney and colon cancers, cancer of the esophagus, multiple myeloma (cancer of the blood cells), leukemia and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in both sexes; rectal cancer and malignant melanoma in men; and gallbladder, pancreas, endometrial and post-menopausal breast cancers in women. :: Sharon Kirkey, CanWest News Service

Fake food leads to real fat

Canada's children, almost half of whom are obese, are the product of a new "fake food" era, according to nutrition guru Dr. Joey Shulman. In other words, never before has the food market been so inundated with processed, packaged, coloured and sugared foods. "I call it 'fake food,'" says Schulman, currently touring the country with her new book, Winning the Food Fight: Every Parent's Guide to Raising a Healthy, Happy Child. "We have no idea how these children are going to be in the future. I can predict how they are going to look, with our obesity rate closing in on 50 per cent. But I can't predict what heart disease rates are going to look like in 20 years."

The quality of food in our neighbourhood grocery store, has taken a devastating plunge. "Wholesome grains, fresh produce and clean drinking water have largely been replaced with refined flours, packaged goodies and sugary sodas. As a result, she maintains, children are absorbing unparalleled rates of "anti-nutrients" such as preservatives, food dyes and chemicals. Ingredients found in the likes of crackers, boxed cereals and ketchup are being linked to life-threatening diseases such as cancer, asthma and obesity.

"Children are monkey see, monkey do. They are going to pattern their moms' and dads' behaviour," she says.

Parents and children can improve their overall health, writes Shulman, by implementing even the simplest of rules such as:

• Eat one or more fruits and vegetable per day;
• Switch from drinking sugary juices to fresh, clean water for a month;
• Eliminate white, refined bread and pasta from the cupboards and replace them with dense, grain breads and pastas that are high in fibre and have more protein;
• Replace snack foods such as chips when watching TV with vegetables, fruits or nuts;
• Go for a walk after dinner.

Shulman acknowledges getting children to make healthy choices can present a challenge."The house is not a democracy. I give our children three healthy food choices. If they don't like any of them, they don't have to eat." :: Kim Heinrich Gray, CanWest News Service

News Nuggets 2

Mixing alcohol and exercise healthy – Drinking is healthy, exercise is healthy, and doing both is even healthier, Danish researchers reported. People who neither drink nor exercise have 30 to 49 per cent higher risk of heart disease than people who do one or both of the activities. "The main finding is there seems to be an additional beneficial effect of drinking one to two drinks per day and doing at least moderate physical activity," said Morten Gronbaek of the University of Southern Denmark, who led the study. :: Michael Kahn, Reuters

Canadians revel in the sweet stuff – There's no question we Canadians love the sweet stuff. Many of us down 16 teaspoons of sugar a day from cookies, soft drinks, specialty lattes, candy, chocolate, frozen desserts, sugary cereals, fruit yogurt and granola bars. Our consumption goes up even more if we add in the sugar from packaged foods such as salad dressing, ketchup and tomato sauce. It's amazing to consider that a 355-ml can of pop contains approximately 10 teaspoons of sugar and more than 150 calories. Just switching to diet pop can significantly reduce one's calorie intake, saving over 4,500 calories a month, assuming you drink a can a day.

But when it comes to losing weight, the research isn't clear whether artificial sweeteners are helpful or harmful. In some cases, these substances may even increase appetite – up to three times or more. Sugar substitutes are not a sure-fire way to lose weight. Instead, you are better off managing your weight by choosing a healthy diet and exercising regularly. Here are some tips to manage your sweet tooth naturally:

1. Drink sparkling water with a splash of fruit juice instead of diet soft drinks.
2. Eat small portions of sweets made with real sugar, rather than large amounts with artificial sweeteners.
3. Learn to drink your tea or coffee black or with just milk.
4. Skip the packet of sweetener and try honey, maple syrup, raisins, dates or coconut to sweeten your foods.

Stupidest Idea Ever – Meet Mississippi House of Representative Republicans W. T. Mayhall Jr., John Read and Bobby Shows. These are the gentlemen that submitted perhaps the stupidest idea ever regarding obesity in the form of House Bill 282. So what did their collective brain trust come up with?

They've proposed that the State of Mississippi make it illegal for restaurants to serve folks who are technically definable as obese (utilizing a BMI of 30 as a cut off).Ê
In Mississippi, the fattest State in America, that would be more than 30% of the population.

Any restaurant that failed to do so would risk having their restaurant license revoked.

While we're all for a top down approach to providing consumers with more information (like Calories on menus, proper education in schools and national eating guidelines that actually address the issue of obesity), blind, hateful bias helps no one. :: Yoni Freedhoff

Take a walk, lose the pills – Spend an watching television and you will be convinced that everything that ails us – from impotence to high blood pressure can be cured by a pill. But our eagerness to reach for a prescription bottle to deal with every problem carries a price. Recent warnings about the risks of a leading weight-loss drug are another reminder that we need to think much harder about our use of prescription drugs.

Health Canada issued warnings to doctors not to prescribe Meridia, a popular weight-loss drug, to people at risk of heart-related side effects. Meridia changes the users' brain chemistry so that they feel less hungry. Users can expect to pay $100 to $150 a month indefinitely all for the same results that most could achieve by taking an evening walk around the block and cutting down on snacks.

Sign of the Times – Boy Scouts Healthy Eating Badge – If you're a Beaver Scout in the UK, check out the new badge – it's the Healthy Eating activity badge. Not sure what it says about society. Maybe this is a great idea. Of course even if it is, it makes me a little sad. Our world is spiraling faster and faster away from healthy living.

Even if you think it sounds like a great idea, what does the eager Beaver Scout need to do to get the badge?

According to ScoutBase UK he's got to:

1. Make a fruit salad
2. Make a healthy snack
3. Make two different sandwiches
4. List some unhealthy foods

Want to know what they think a healthy snack is (emphasis is mine not theirs)?

"Examples of healthy snacks include omelette, salad, mini pizzas, strawberry smoothie, homemade meatballs, etc."

Yup, it's a strange world alright. :: Yoni Freedhoff

The McTeacher

You've got to hand it to McDonald's, no one can ever say they aren't innovative in ways to integrate themselves into the educational system and healthcare.

Today i'll be serving up McTeachers.

Apparently McDonald's McTeacher night has been around for some time. An article in the San Francisco Chronicle from 2002 reported that it has been around since 2000 and back in 2002 included 2,500 schools in 14 states.

So what happens on McTeacher night?

Well if you're a teacher you end up behind the counter at McDonald's; if you're a student you end up going to McDonald's to order your teachers around; and if you're a school you end up pocketing a percentage of all the cash that exchanges hands.

In 2002 apparently that percentage amounted to $500,000.

One of the teachers interviewed by the chronicle had some concerns with the program, "We will be endorsing a product that contributes to the epidemic of childhood obesity and heart disease, even though the state dictates that we teach students to avoid junk food"

Yup.

"This is exploiting teachers for a real, live McDonald's commercial"

Yup.

A quick google search shows that the McTeacher program is anything but dead with reports from across the usa of successful McTeacher events.

Recently some uproar has hit the press again in Maryland and in Washington where the chair of Montgomery County's council's health and human services committee asked, "Would we have a school fundraiser at a cigarette store?" I wonder how long until this hits Canada? :: Yoni Freedhoff