Is there a Big Change coming for Big Food?

Is Michelle Obama about to take on Big Food? 40

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  POSTED 12:10 PM ON 14 OCT 2009
  BY TOM LASKAWY

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With all the talk of Michael Pollan and Jamie Oliver lately, it’s easy to ignore the person who right now is, given her current address, the most influential voice on food policy in the country. Naturally, I’m talking about First Lady Michelle Obama. While she’s been exercising what diplomats would call her “soft power” for a while, i.e. planting a garden, making speeches on healthy eating, and so on, indications are that she’s quietly developing a set of policy recommendations to reform the food system. Obama Foodorama has been tirelessly reporting on these maneuvers, which have remained under the radar—even to the point of Mrs. Obama holding “secret meetings” between her policy team and USDA officials.

The speeches continue—she gave another one just the other day at the Department of Health and Human Services. But according to Ob Fo, the First Lady’s policy team—White House Food Initiatives Coordinator Sam Kass and Policy Director Jocelyn Frye—are currently fleshing out a new set of national food and health initiatives. And while nothing is imminent, it now appears that the White House is embracing the “addiction model” of food consumption as portrayed in former FDA chief David Kessler’s new book The End of Overeating:

[T]he book has become something of a bible for Mrs. Obama and her food policy team, and required reading in the White House. Dr. Kessler holds that our bodies and minds are completely changed when we consume sugar, fat, and salt and he maintains that there needs to be all kinds of behavioral changes focused on countermanding this. So while creating better food infrastructures in schools, and promoting educational programs that include cooking and gardening, and promoting better access to healthy foods for the general population through edible gardens and farmers markets, etc., ect., is crucial—these are only part of the very complicated dynamic that gets people to permanently embrace healthier eating. Mrs. Obama and her food policy team are fully aware of this, and they’re busily working on ways to encompass Dr. Kessler’s ideas in upcoming policy initiatives.

I’m very curious to hear how Mrs. Obama translates Kessler’s treatise into policy. Because not only are sugar, fat, and salt addictive, they are accompanied by billions of dollars in marketing designed to get you hooked in the first place. The WaPo’s Ezra Klein summed it up nicely when he observed that:

People like crap food. It’s convenient. Brilliant, highly paid scientists have spent millions of dollars precisely calibrating it to the modern palette. Innovative, award-winning advertisers have spent billions of dollars making us want it.

Resisting that onslaught is impossible even for many of the most jaded, highly-educated, “cosmopolitan” Americans. And yet even chef and activist Jamie Oliver—who is witness to this phenomenon on a daily basis as he tries to change the food habits of a working class American city—can’t avoid indulging in a serious game of Blame the Parents:

“I’m a respectful person, and I’m going to try to do things in the nice way. But it’s almost as if parents here have stopped saying no. It’s as if the kids rule the roost.” We came upon a table of Krispy Kreme doughnuts. “They’re a treat, there to be loved,” he said. “But start having them every day, job done. It’s harsh to say, but these parents, when they’ve been to the doctor and keep feeding their kids inappropriate food, that is child abuse. Same as a cigarette burn or a bruise.”

The abuse, Mr. Oliver, is in fact perpetrated by beverage and snack company executives who develop the products, concoct the marketing campaigns and have the gall to declare things like “soda is a staple food.” Meanwhile, a new study out of UCLA’s Center for Health Policy Research offers compelling, if not overwhelming, evidence that focusing like a laser on sugar in general and soda in particular may really offer the most bang for the buck:

[R]esearchers found that adults who drink a soda or more per day are 27 percent more likely to be overweight than those who do not drink sodas, regardless of income or ethnicity.

“The science is clear and conclusive: soda is fueling California’s $41 billion a year obesity epidemic,” says CCPHA Executive Director Dr. Harold Goldstein, an author of the research brief. “We drink soda like water. But unlike water, soda serves up a whopping 17 teaspoons of sugar in every 20-ounce serving.”

Research shows that over the last 30 years Americans consumed 278 more calories per day even as physical activity levels remained relatively unchanged. One of the biggest changes in diet during that period was the enormous increase in soda consumption, accounting for as much as 43 percent of all new calories. According to Goldstein, that research, combined with this new data on soda consumption, offers conclusive proof of the link between soda and obesity.

And while adult soda consumption is troubling, consumption trends among children paint an even more alarming picture for the future health of California. The study found that 41 percent of young children (2-11 years of age) are drinking at least one soda or sugar-sweetened beverage every day. Adolescents (12-17) represent the biggest consumers, with 62 percent (over 2 million youths) drinking one or more sodas every day—the equivalent of consuming 39 pounds of sugar each year in soda and other sugar-sweetened beverages.

According to the study, Americans consume 22g of added sugar daily—that’s up to four times the recommended daily amount of sugar. And that’s just the median amount, which means half of Americans are consuming even more than 22g of sugar a day. That. Is. A. Lot. Of. Sugar.

It sure looks like an addiction to me. Just as with tobacco, we must have government intervention to get anywhere in the obesity epidemic—and Michelle Obama has positioned herself to advocate for just that. Now we just have to wait and see if and how she survives the firestorm that will erupt the minute she does.

ARTICLE FROM GRIST.ORG

Junk Food as addictive as heroin

Scientists claim junk food is as addictive as heroin 0

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  POSTED 1:19 PM ON 27 OCT 2009
  BY TOM LASKAWY

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With the rumors swirling that Michelle Obama is a big fan of former FDA Commissioner David Kessler’s new book The End of Overeating, it seems reasonable to check in on the science behind an “addiction model” for salty, sweet, and fatty processed food (an assertion at the core of the book). As it happens, a group of researchers has just released a new study on the subject. The conclusion: the brain responds to junk food the same way it does to heroin:

Junk food elicits addictive behavior in rats similar to the behaviors of rats addicted to heroin, a new study finds. Pleasure centers in the brains of rats addicted to high-fat, high-calorie diets became less responsive as the binging wore on, making the rats consume more and more food. The results, presented October 20 at the Society for Neuroscience’s annual meeting, may help explain the changes in the brain that lead people to overeat.

“This is the most complete evidence to date that suggests obesity and drug addiction have common neurobiological underpinnings,” says study coauthor Paul Johnson of the Scripps Research Institute in Jupiter, Fla.

Johnson offered one group of rats a broad range of processed food, from bacon and cheesecake to Ho Hos while another received a “high-nutrient, low-calorie chow.” There was an immediate difference:

Rats that ate the junk food soon developed compulsive eating habits and became obese. “They’re taking in twice the amount of calories as the control rats,” says Johnson’s coauthor Paul Kenny, also of Scripps.

The researchers also tested the responsiveness of the animals’ pleasure centers:

After just five days on the junk food diet, rats showed “profound reductions” in the sensitivity of their brains’ pleasure centers, suggesting that the animals quickly became habituated to the food. As a result, the rats ate more food to get the same amount of pleasure. Just as heroin addicts require more and more of the drug to feel good, rats needed more and more of the junk food. “They lose control,” Kenny says. “This is the hallmark of addiction.”

And here’s where things get ugly. The rats wanted their junk food fix so badly, they were willing to tolerate electric shocks if that’s what it meant to keep eating the stuff.

To see how strong the drive to eat junk food was, the researchers exposed the rats to a foot shock when they ate the high-fat food. Rats that had not been constantly exposed to the junk food quickly stopped eating. But the foot shock didn’t faze rats accustomed to the junk food — they continued to eat, even though they knew the shock was coming.

“What we have are these core features of addiction, and these animals are hitting each one of these features,” Kenny says.

Because a study like this isn’t complete without a sinister postscript, I give you this:

Scientists are interested in determining the long-term effect of altering the reward system. “We might not see it when we look at the animal,” says obesity expert Ralph DiLeone of Yale University School of Medicine. “They might be a normal weight, but how they respond to food in the future may be permanently altered.”

Eating junk food for a while could leave your brain’s response to food “permanently altered”? How. Nice.

Kinda puts industry calls for preserving consumer “choice” regarding the foods we eat into perspective, doesn’t it? When it’s an addiction, choice is the last thing we have. Besides giving ammunition to those wanting to restrict access to these foods for children (well, for anyone really), this study certainly ensures that I will never look at a Ho Ho the same way again.

H/T Jambutter via Twitter

ARTICLE FROM GRIST.ORG

Tail Docking and Cribbing

As I have become more acquainted with the animal world, it's alarming to recognize the vices that our animals in confinement are inflicting on themselves. What's even more amazing is the parallel that can be drawn to the human behaviors we have also adopted in our own confined worlds.
My daughter has a fantastic obsession with horses. She reads horse books almost exclusively, which includes horse ownership encyclopedias. Recently, she read me a chapter on horse habits, where they mention cribbing. In case you aren't familiar, cribbing is the nasty habit of stalled horses to bite the edge of a stall or something metal or wood and arch their neck and inhale huge amounts of air. It provides them with a sort of natural high. It can become a destructive habit to both the horse and the stall. They can wear down their teeth to a point where they no longer touch when the jaw is closed and develop colic. They do this primarily because they are bored or they observed another horse doing this and have adopted the habit. It is a vice, a sort of pacifier to occupy their time during their long hours on confinement in the stall. The horses have been deprived of their simple need to be horse like in their behavior.
Another phenomenon is the tail biting that occurs in the confined concrete pens that pigs are raised in. To soothe themselves, they will suck or bite on their neighbors tail. This is not usually seen in nature, where pigs spend their time rooting their noses in mud, chasing one another, and rolling in the grass. To stop this damaging vice, industrial pig farmers have been docking their tails at birth to cause the stump to be in such a considerate amount of pain, that they couldn't possibly tolerate their neighbor nibbling on their hind end. Again, these pigs just want a chance to act like pigs.
We see it in the observable animal world all around us; the zoo harbors a wealth of animals struggling with their own devices like plucking out their feathers, or the lion that paces. Our own domesticated animals present with signs of stress like scratching at their skin until it's raw or urinating in the house because you left them for longer then usual. I suppose you could walk into any human caged (mental) institution and see a rainbow of these vices and habits. It's easy to see it there. Of course I am concerned for these animals, but I am not on an animal rights rant right now.
How is it that Christians, who claim to be living the saved life, who have already been "set free" in a sense are struggling with so many habits of the confined? My concern is for the humans who suffer from their own vices. We all have them. Nail biting, scratching, picking, yelling, shopping, eating, exercising, obsessing... it could go on forever. It seems that life cannot be tolerated without our short (or long) list of pacifying behaviors to help us make it through. I entitle myself to a venti Starbucks to numb out, I like to scratch at the follicles of my hair like a baboon, and I can easily be found clenching my jaw. All signs of a stressed life. But why? Am I living in some type of confinement that I can hardly stand to sit here and be still? Did I observe someone else doing these things, and adopt them as my own, as the horses?
Why do we not experience the freedom that we tell ourselves on Sunday that we have? I'm not just talking physical manifestations of stress like the nail biting and leg shaking. I'm talking destructive behaviors and patterns in our lives that over time cause damage to us physically, emotionally and spiritually as well as damage to the world around us (like our stall). If horses are cribbing out of boredom, does that mean that our pacifiers are also caused by a life of boredom? Do we also long to be set out in the pasture where we can run and frolic, graze and socialize?
How interesting that the natural world around us displays such similarities to our inner turmoil. Perhaps the answer could be that simple. Instead of ironically waving the red, white, and blue flag and marketing that we humans have this "freedom", why don't we take it upon ourselves to demonstrate an actual physical freedom by letting ourselves out of this cage, recognize that Christ did come to set us free, and live a celebrated life. If the horses and pigs see relief when they are finally allowed to act according to their natural inclinations within their species, what does a human in it's natural behaviors look like? Then, how do you balance that with earning a paycheck, getting the kids to school on time, and being obedient to Christ?
These are big questions. I'm hoping to discover some small answers in my lifetime. In the mean time, I will be eagerly searching out a life that is symbolic of the pasture rather than the stall.

5 minute Breakfast Burritos for one

Source: LizzyB original

Prep/Cook Time: 5-6 minutes (includes cutting and clean up!)

Serves: 1*

Ingredients:

1 small potato, cut in 1/4 inch dice

2 eggs

1 green onion

1 oz shredded cheddar cheese

2 flour tortillas

olive oil

kosher salt

Tajin Clasico Seasoning (red pepper with lime)

Place diced potato on a small plate, toss with a teaspoon of olive oil, a 1/4 tsp of kosher salt and a dash of the Tajin seasoning. Microwave for two minutes.

Warm up a saute pan on med-hi and add a teaspoon of olive oil to coat the pan. Add the potato mixture to the pan, saute, stirring constantly for about 2 minutes.

Meanwhile, chop up the green onion and set aside.

Remove the potatoes from the heat once they are slightly browned. Crack the eggs into the same pan, turn the heat to low and scramble. They only take about 30 seconds to cook all the way through.

Place 2 tortillas on a fresh plate, add eggs, potatoes, cheese, and onions. You may have a little potato left over depending on the original size of the potato and how full you make your burritos (it makes perfect breakfast potatoes).

To clean up quickly, put some tap water in the pan, place it back on the burner as it cools. The egg and potato will scrape off nicely right on the stove. There's nothing harder than getting dried egg yolk out of a pan- here's a quick way to leave the pan for later without the harsh scrubbing. Enjoy your breakfast instead!

*Of course, multiplying this to accommodate a family is pretty simple, just add on an additional minute for every potato you add, up to five minutes.

Mission update

I'd like to track any progress our family has made in the last few months in our attempt to lead a healthier life; spirit, soul, and body. Here is a quick run down of our areas of development:

Eating: Home cooked meals are occurring much more frequently due to my staying home instead of working. I've been eager to try new recipes and include a variety of ingredients. With the fall, it has brought out a desire for more soups, roasted vegetables and more meat. We have been going to the farmer's market where we purchased grass-fed beef and lamb. Our garden has responded fabulously to the rain, so more vegetables are sitting in our backyard awaiting their recipe. Overall rating: 8 (on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being outstanding); we could stand to eat out a little less than we have been.

Stress: Given the high rate of stress we have been under, things are going much better. Russ is able to focus on school, I focus on the needs of the kids and household. Afternoons are full of homework and dinner prep, and the kids' activities are extremely limited. Weekends are spent in relaxation and not on the soccer field (a nice reprieve). Overall rating: 9; handling things better than a month ago.

Health: The overall health of family has been good. We did have a bout with an intestinal parasite in our girls (caused by close quarters at school and undisciplined hand washing). Russ and I have been going to acupuncture to work on some chronic pain we both had, and have experienced over a month pain free. (What a welcome relief!) There's been some other great benefits to our treatment as well, but I'm a shy girl and wont tell you! We have not been exercising the way we'd like to, so weight loss has been nill. Overall rating: 6; still feel tired and crave caffeine plus I've got a head cold right now, winter weight gain has begun as well.

Daily Habits: Bedtime routine has officially been conquered! With two kids in the reading age, and another preschooler, Bedtime stories are at a critical point. Last month we read Narnia as a group, now we're on to Mouse and the Motorcycle. We follow it with the big kids reading out loud and a short story to the little one. This process takes a good hour to complete, but when done right, they fall asleep instantly. (Oldest daughter had a problem falling asleep, but now with brushing her long mane while she reads to me, followed by a lavender lotion back massage, she's dropping off to sleep pronto.) Overall rating: 8; some times we run late, and it's cut short or skipped.

Organization: We have made huge strides in the home organization department. The garage was cleared out and is staying clean, the game room got an overhaul and is now a dedicated kids artist studio, and one cabinet at a time is getting in order throughout the house. The best part is that we are moving into the maintenance phase of organization. Things are not slowly regressing as they tend to do- we are on top of it! Yeah! Overall rating: 9; everything could stand to be a little better, but ship-shape for my lax standards.

Spirituality: I hate to measure this in terms of tasks, because that rarely translates into a strong spiritual life. But, Russ has conquered a inner battle with school and is doing better than ever thanks to a change in spiritual thinking. We are experiencing a peace beyond understanding, and that is no doubt in relation to the prayers from our friends and family during this time. I would like to take more time to do a bible study, and less time focusing on daily tasks. Overall rating: 7; not quite where we'd like to be, but still mindful of the movements of God in our lives.

Soul: I have taken up a new hobby of reading. I never enjoyed reading much, but now, the library is our big friend (especially after I paid off that gargantuan late fee). I enjoy reading books on food and ecology, the dreams of our farm are cropping up again, and who knows, maybe we can carve a way in our path to get there. The point is: We are all dreaming, we are thinking beyond our current circumstances to a life down the road. It's motivating and exciting. The best part: today still looks good- it isn't just the future when we will be blessed. Overall rating: 9; we can't complain- life is good.

Organic misconception

With my new awareness towards organic and sourcing where my foods come from, I have found that this venture is extremely confusing. No wonder our general tendency is to ignore the source of our meat, vegetables and milk! It is, by far, easier to turn a blind eye at where our food comes from because more often than not, it is an abused system and is prone to disappointment.
Even with the handy logo provided from the USDA that marks our food as organic, it rarely means that the technique is beneficial to the environment or humane in the treatment of the animals. For meat, it solely means that the animals were not given antibiotics and were provided organic corn feed. The animals are not grazing on the prairie, as we'd like to think. They are still overcrowded in their concrete and metal pens, endangering them further by the close quarters which lends itself to sickness.
For vegetables, the organic rating permits the use of organic pesticides. We experienced this with our garden; because the dense population of plants together, pests hopped from garden to garden. Because ours was not bathed in chemicals, it was ravished by aphids and ants. Growers have simply substituted approved chemicals (usually plant based) that still leech into the groundwater and plague our streams and oceans.
Large machinery, packaging and processing plants are used, just as in conventional produce. Organic milking cows are still subject to three milkings a day by machine and cannot be let out to pasture because they are tied down by that schedule. An that frozen organic TV Dinner? Again, the same processing as it's counterpart in the next door over, just approved organic preservatives and stabilizers to prolong shelf life and freezer time.
It's terribly confusing, and the consumer is not the priority. It's still the bottom line for these big producers. I find when I am shopping all the decisions between organic, all natural, cage-free, farm raised... can be seriously overwhelming. Often, I come down to the lesser of two evils when buying anything. Since I am a passionate animal lover, I opt for anything that ensures the animal I eat will be treated with respect and care. Finding that is difficult in a traditional grocery store and a whole other story. If I save money buying conventional produce, but splurge for grass-fed, pastured beef, I have still communicated a message and chose to provide a conscious meal for my family. It comes down to your personal convictions, what you can afford, and what you are willing to sacrifice. Short of having the cow out back, gathering your own produce, and baking your own bread, these are the decisions of getting our food from big multi-chain suppliers.

Food from day one

In our house, we have observed an accidental experiment in the habits of children's taste preferences. Each of our children grew up under different circumstances that translated directly into how they were fed as infants and toddlers.
Oldest daughter- of course, her being our first and only, she received so much loving attention at each developmental stage. She, however, was breast-fed the shortest time (about 6 weeks), she and I never quite got the knack of the whole thing, and pumping gave way to formula very quickly. When it came time for baby food, I insisted on making her food from the foods we were eating. I blended everything, carrots, bananas, soybeans, avocados, chicken, you name it. She grew up eating food that was vibrant in color, texture and flavor. The same food blended turned into tiny chunks, and then things like salt and flavoring were slowly added.
Middle son- with less time, and energy due to the demanding 2 year old, I supplemented jarred baby food with the fresh blended fruits and vegetables. He was breast fed until 10 months. At the same time I quit breastfeeding him, I quickly became pregnant with #3 (take that as a lesson!). With the pregnancy fatigue, trips through the drive thru and quick fix chicken nuggets and hot dogs became a more frequent occurrence at his most influential stage of eating.
Youngest daughter- this little one got the benefit of one of my health kicks in utero when I got turned on to cooking gourmet. As an infant, she was breastfed, again until 10 months. As she got older and demands of three little ones increased, I quickly turned to jarred baby food with the occasional fresh blended baby food. Drive thrus increased again, and gourmet gave way to whatever we could manage with 3 kids under five.
Over time, we have observed their eating habits and can see the direct relation to how they were fed as infants and toddlers.
Results:
Oldest daughter- now 8, eats anything we give her except intentional "kid food" like hot dogs, grilled cheese, and cold cut sandwiches. Prefers a real meal any day. This weekend, she ate beef and barley soup for breakfast! She will order off the adult menu when eating out, and eats PB&J as a concession. She enjoys the healthy meals I make that are full of vegetables.
Middle son- now 6, is more willing to try the healthy food I give him, but is leery of strange texture. Usually just getting the food in his mouth is the challenge, but once he tastes it, he is often okay with it. He will eat "kid food" any time, and prefers the sweeter vegetables.
Youngest daughter- nearly 5, is by far our pickiest eater. She would eat exclusively off the kid menu if possible. We demand she at least try everything on her plate. She definitely has a larger list of foods she hates. Until recently, the potato was blacklisted because of it's lumpy, mushy texture and was shunned every time. She is gradually improving because we never indulge her by cooking her a different meal than the other kids and we recommend she eat 4 bites of everything (one bite for how old they are).
My flawed conclusion is obvious, the more varied, fresh, and textured their primary foods are, the better their eating habits are as children and teens. It obviously had little to do with breast milk (as many will claim) but the exposure to foods the way they naturally taste. A freshly blended banana tastes nothing like jarred banana baby food. The latter is saturated in citric acid to preserve color and freshness and has little resemblance of it's original form.
If you've got an infant, please take the extra time to introduce fresh, whole foods. They will grow up to be strong, healthy eaters. You will not have to spend the time to reteach good eating habits later in life, as we are doing currently with number 2 and 3 in our family.

Correction: Make that TWO cats.

It's been over a month. Our dear mainecoon rescue cat, Shakespere, has been missing. We have finally come to grips that he will not be returning.

We adopted him and his sister almost two years ago. They were an early Christmas present for our kids when our previous cat died earlier that year. These absolute sweethearts were left in a box with another brother almost identical to Shakespere on the driveway of a woman who worked with a local animal rescue foundation. These darling little balls of fluff came home and cuddled their tiny bodies together and tolerated being carried on their backs like infants by our three kiddos for weeks.

Shakespere grew up to be exceptionally different. His personality lied somewhere between the traditional playful kitten and an exhausted great dane. He would often be found laying on his back- legs spread wide open- at the foot of the stairs. During card games at the kitchen table, he would lay on his back right in the middle of the game. He certainly like being the center of attention!

He and his sister played wonderful games of chase around the house. He grew to be a pretty big kitty, so his tromping down the hall at full gait was heard throughout the house. He enjoyed the occasional feigned swat at the dog's tail to try to evoke a rise out of the big monster, but was never successful. The dog cared little for the cat, but was always eager to correct him, like a dutiful sheriff, when he was heard scratching his claws on the couch.

The sadness of his loss, swept through the house with a terrible force last month. We could all be found gazing out the back window eager to witness his return. He went out on a usual romp in the forest just before bed one night. It was their routine- a quick jaunt around the backyard, a dash into the woods, and back in for a cozy snuggle with our oldest daughter. His sister, Nina came in, and he and the little guy- Scrapper- were no where to be found. This wasn't the first time the boys stayed out all night, so we left them to their antics and went to bed. In the morning, Scrapper had stuck himself up a tree and was crying to be let down, Shakespere was nowhere in sight. We expected his return soon after Scrapper got the guts to get himself out of the tree, but "Shakes" never returned.

The whole family walked the woods, knocked on doors, put up signs, and turned up empty handed. A kind neighbor warned us about the foxes and coyotes in the area, and suggested that he was snatched by one of them. We all grieved his loss, especially given the fact that of all the cats to go, he was truly the house favorite. Our oldest daughter- who holds a unique bond with animals- took the loss especially hard. Her best friend and bunkmate was gone for good.

I can't say enough good things about growing children and animals together. My kids have learned a great sensitivity to things that are less than they are. In addition to compassion, they have also learned responsibility, unconditional love, and friendship. We all celebrate the silliness and joy that these creatures bring us on a daily basis. In fact, I think our house would be quite boring without the addition of all these friendly faces. They all offer a caring snuggle when we are down, come running when the children cry, and join in on stories and songs at bedtime. They truly live our lives with us, follow us from room to room throughout the day, and eagerly greet us as we return. What love they offer us. How beautiful... What an amazing gift God has given us in the domesticated animal. We are blessed.

Shakespere- we love and and miss you. You were truly loved, and will be forever treasured in our hearts.

Until one has loved an animal, a part of one's soul remains unawakened.

~Anatole France