Category Archives: fast food

What’s the Deal with Actresses Eating During Every Interview?

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photo of brooklyn decker in underwear pictures hot

Recently, the February issue of Esquire magazine taught me that model-slash-actress Brooklyn Decker likes to make dinner for her interviewers. Author Tom Chiarella goes to her house in, where else, Brooklyn, for a revolutionary meal of chicken and salad. The crux of the story surrounds Chiarella’s feelings about Decker (he seems to often be a central part of his profiles, not the person being interviewed), most specifically, his feelings about her and food. Chiarella notes that Brooklyn wants to know what he likes and what he does not like, and that “She even seems a little curious about my preferences. I’m cool with whatever, I say. I can handle anything she dishes up. But Brooklyn doesn’t cook like that. She doesn’t want to disappoint. She just wants me to like it. There is no protest or resistance in her voice. It’s just something she can do.”

Because that’s how women are always! They don’t protest or …

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Did Your Home State Make the “Deadliest Eating Habits” List?

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Photo of Overweight Woman Eating Fast Food
On a daily basis, weight conversations seem to crop up everywhere.  Try this pill.  Shoot for hypnosis.  Snap a rubber band around your wrist when the urge for Cheetos hits.  Weight Watchers.  Jenny Craig, Nutri-System.  And what about the frustrated naturally thin people that are epically sick of hearing about how dietary news should revolve around a bunch of overindulgent potato chip addicts?

What I find interesting, though, are the many and varied approaches the media goes with in order to make what’s really a very old story at least kind of fresh and exciting.

After regurgitating the fact that America leads the world in excessive BMI (and that “U.S. eating habits and diets have been exported,” leading to a 5% increase from 1980 to 2008 in the population percentage that fit the “obese” definition), Yahoo Finance explores causes for America’s excessive need to feed.

From Yahoo Finance:

Like so many other issues where data are collected in the public sector and the information is used to solve problems nationwide, the problems are local. 24/7 Wall St. looked at a number of factors which cause unhealthy diets and resulting obesity. These include income, access to healthy food sources, the ability to pay for healthy food, the concentration of fast food outlets, and the consumption of fruits, vegetables, sugar, fat and soft drinks. The levels of healthy eating defined with these parameters varies wildly …

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McDonald’s Happy Meals Being Blamed for Increase in Childhood Obesity, Have Some Parents Very Unhappy

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I’m the first to admit that the trip to McDonald’s for a Happy Meal has been a not uncommon experience for both of my daughters. I’m very well aware that they are not the most nutritionally sound dinner options, but once in a while the little flimsy cardboard box containing McNuggets, fries, and a toy is just the way to go. The Center for Science in the Public Interest, however, is coming down hard on Happy Meals, taking the fast food giant to task for “predatory marketing practices” by using cheap plastic toys to get kids eating fatty junk.

California’s Santa Clara County has already taken the first step, actually banning toys from the Happy Meal package. This is in the name of combating childhood obesity, a cause that First Lady Michelle Obama has faced head on. As an increase in obesity rates continue, the fast food industry is facing growing pressure.

From Foster’s:

In New Hampshire, 33 percent of third-graders are overweight or obese, according to a recent state Department of Health and Human Services survey. It’s part of a rising trend of childhood obesity in the state fueled by unhealthy eating habits — including fast food — and a lack of exercise, said Lisa Bujno, bureau chief of DHHS’s Division of Public Health.

She said McDonald’s isn’t all to blame.

“An occasional Happy Meal isn’t going to be a problem,” Bujno said. “It all goes back to what you take in and what you expend for energy … It’s about choices.”

You know, I can’t help but feel that the focus is on the path of least resistance here. It’s a lot easier to point the finger at Mickey D’s or BK for foisting junk food on our children, but I very strongly believe that the bigger emphasis should be on increasing physical activity.

I offer as an example my younger daughter. She is picky to the extreme and adamantly refused to eat anything but pizza, fried chicken tenders, and cheese for the first half of her life. She’s six now and has expanded her repertoire to cookies, chips, macaroni and cheese, and tuna fish sandwiches. Oh, and Happy Meals.

Before you come down on me too hard here, please know that there are veritable tons of fruits, vegetables, protein-heavy snacks, and yogurt around. This child’s older sister would rather have blueberries than chocolate and actually seeks out broccoli. Furthermore, the strictly enforced expectation is that she has to eat a bite of everything at the dinner table. I keep hoping that her dietary horizons will broaden, but it hasn’t happened yet.

The thing is, …

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Insurance Companies Making a Killing with Fast Food Stock

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Oh, insurance companies. I knew you had some questionable ties to the tobacco industry, but you just keep making me sick impressing me with your investments. Via CNN:

According to Harvard Medical School researchers, 11 large companies that offer life, disability, or health insurance owned about $1.9 billion in stock in the five largest fast-food companies as of June 2009.

Those fast food companies include McDonald’s, Burger King, and Yum! — the parent company of KFC and Taco Bell. According to CNN, “the fast-food industry has long been under fire for selling high-fat, high calorie meals that have been linked to weight gain and diabetes.” Now, maybe I’m just idealistic, naive, etc., but doesn’t it strike you as kind of unethical for insurance companies — especially those that provide health coverage — to hold stock in this industry?

The Harvard Medical School researchers think so:

The researchers say insurance companies should sell their fast-food stock or use their influence as shareholders to make fast food healthier, by pressuring big restaurant chains to cut portion sizes or improve nutrition, for instance.

There’s a “potential disconnect” between the mission of insurance companies and the often-unhealthy food churned out by companies like McDonald’s, they write.

By investing in unhealthy products like tobacco and fast food, the article says, the companies profit twice over. They can raise premiums for smoking and conditions caused by unhealthy eating — plus, stocks rise.

I know, I know, at the end of the day, each of us is responsible for taking care of our own bodies. We like to see ourselves as smart, independent thinkers who aren’t swayed by advertising — but if that were totally true, companies wouldn’t waste their time and money on ad campaigns. Children and teenagers can be especially susceptible. So until we live in a totally ethical world — ha — all we can do is stay vigilant for ourselves and our kids.



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