You decide:

I have to say kudos to SNL for keeping a play on the infamous Swetty Balls skit in the vault, until they had fodder of comparable hilariousness.  And this is hilarious.

Also, I should have mentioned this earlier, but I’m hanging up the blogging stirrups while I try to get a new project off the ground.  You can check it out at The Food Action Network.

A little known provision nestled in the momentous healthcare bill passed this week means a big change for all those who eat out.  Over the next year, the FDA is mandated to write rules that will require calorie counts on menus of all restaurant chains with 20+ locations.

It turns out that reinforcing calorie counts with the 2000 calories a day recommendation is most effective.  Let’s hope the FDA takes note.

Studies are still being done on the effectiveness of this approach, with early ones showing no change to a 6% reduction in purchased calories.  Either way, giving consumers more information can only be a good thing.

Calorie count laws have already passed in New York City, Seattle, and California. This legislation is a great example of popular local initiatives bubbling up to the national level.

Update: And I suspect this is why the Restaurant Association was lobbying against the healthcare bill.

Pictures really do equal a thousand words.

Yep, that would be beer, butter, and soda that have enjoyed the major declines.  And fresh fruits and vegetable that have seen the steepest increases.  Ben over at consumerist asks the obvious question - hey washington what’s up with subsidizing corn syrup and soy, but nothing for broccoli?  we live in a topsy turvy world when a six pack of Coke is cheaper than some bell peppers.

Ms Piggy and the Owners (photo credit: the.piggery)

Those are some of the names of the sows that will be chopped up and delivered to homes in the NYC area this year. The Piggery is offering the first meat-only CSA in the Big Apple, and it is sure to get bacon lovers all hot and bothered.  Here’s the deal:

At the Piggery, animals are raised among the squeaking and squealing until they weigh about 250 pounds. Then they’re shipped to a USDA-certified slaughterhouse. The meat is returned to the farm, where Sanford and Marshall butcher, cure, cook and package it for customers in Ithaca and New York City.

Their top menu items include thick pork chops, bacon, creamy patés, sausages, salami, pulled pork and chorizo.

Customers can choose between a “whole hog” order which will cost $1200 per season, a half-hog at $600, and a quarterhog at presumably $300, although the website does not explicitly state its price.  A customer that goes half-hog can expect to get at least the following through the 24 week season:

I personally am dying to know what a Boston Butt is.

Now a key trait of CSAs is that the food is supposed to be local.  The Trumansburg-NYC trip is a stretch, clocking in at over 3 hours.  However, its a lot closer than the factory -farm meat that travels to the east coast via I-80 from the western skies. So for CSA lovers, it definitely is a judgement call.  And for the health conscious there is the matter of whether one should incorporate so much bacon fat into a diet.

The Naked Chef makes his debut at TED Talk. Now I love TED Talk, and I love Jamie Oliver, but I have to admit that Mr. Oliver comes off as a little strident, and just skims by shrill.  However, the chart in the beginning is one to know by heart, and some outtakes from his new show teaching folks how to eat are rather poignant.  Check it out:

Rocco debuted his must try foods of 2010 on Rachel Ray, and the one that caught my eye was the Shiritaki Noodle:

These noodles have NO CARBS and NO CALORIES. They’re made of plant fibers, so they’re healthy and make you feel full. The best part? They’re already cooked! Just rinse and eat.

And yes, they are sold over the interwebs. However, no one really addresses how they taste…

Kelloggs took superfluous marketing claims to a whole new level with it’s recent claims that Cocoa Krispies, a cereal that boasts 11 grams of sugar in a single potion of 31 grams - yes, ONE THIRD of the cereal is pure sugar,  “Now helps support your kid’s Immunity” in huge type splashed across the front of the cereal box.

The city of San Francisco sent a letter of concerns to both Kellogg and the FDA, questioning whether the claims go too far and outwardly misleading to parents with H1N1 concerns.  The Rudd Center pointedly noted:

Of all claims on cereal boxes, “this one belongs in the hall of fame,” says Kelly Brownell, director of Yale University’s Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity. “By their logic, you can spray vitamins on a pile of leaves, and it will boost immunity.”

No sooner did Smart Choices fade from prominence, Big Food came up with something equally devious and absurd.  Food labeling lies - its like playing wack-a-mole at the grocery store.

Candidates running unflattering photos of their competition in negative ads is nothing new in electoral politics.  Heck, even a certain cable network has been found to take certain liberties with the photoshop. However, campaigning hit a new low this season when Jon Corzine put up an ad disparaging Chris Christie for his exceptional girth.  The “throwing his weight around” ad has kicked up quite a bit of dust and poses an interesting question.  How fat is too fat to get elected?

While we now have a president who is splashed across countless magazine covers, including one where he appears shirtless, the public at large is getting larger and larger.  Yet there is increasing expectations on our elected officials to not just have pleasing policy positions, but to be easy on the eyes as well.

In a country where over 64% of the population is either over weight of obese, one would think we would see the opposite trend - a public that votes for heftier and heftier candidates that look just like them.  Instead we see the rise of the politicians that look more and more like Hollywood.  While New Jerseyans are slim by today’s standards, clocking in with a 22% obesity rate while states like Mississippi sport an eye popping 32%, that still means that one in five of the state’s citizens are tipping the scale. Yet Corzine is doubling down on his calculation that voters will pull the lever for the fittest candidate.  Even while editorial pages are calling for an apology,  the governor broke out the jogging shorts to run a 5K through the streets of Newark with Mayor Cory Booker.

While unseemly, the ad has been effective, and the fat label is sticking:

But, it appears the message might be working, for now. A new poll from Monmouth University revealed that when voters were asked to say the first thing that came to mind about Christie,“fat” was one of the most frequent responses.  A political analyst told the Times that the ad seems to try to link Christie’s weight with his political ability — subliminally telling voters that he lacks self control.

One would think that overtly mocking one fifth of the state’s population would have consequences, and many political watchers predicted a backlash.  Yet, in the past few weeks, Corzine has been making a comeback in the polls, gaining 5 points.  Perhaps the lessoned to be learned is that voters don’t so much choose a candidate that is most like themselves, but rather most like who they want to be.

We have an embarassment of holiday riches this week. Just three days after National Coming Out Day, today we are blessed with World Food Day. Nom nom nom.

More seriously, the point of World Food Day is to bring attention to food insecurity around the world. Learn more about world hunger at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.

A new report out from Harvard this week claims to have highly accurate numbers on obesity and diabetes in the country, and things do no t look good for our southern friends.

Colorado, Minnesota, Montana and Vermont have low rates, with Vermont the lowest at 6.1 percent for people 30 to 59 and 19.9 percent for people over 60. Southeastern states have the highest rates, and Mississippi, where 11.4 percent of people 30 to 59 and 27.7 percent of those over 60 are diabetic, has the highest of all.

Perhaps most shocking is the clear differential between men and women.  While men tend to have higher levels of alcoholism and therefore are more suseptible to diabetes, I had expected that women would roughly the same level of diabetes due to how difficult it is to shed excess pregnancy weight.

More men than women have diabetes in every state, and the gap is sometimes large. In Minnesota, for example, almost 12 percent of men have the disease, but only 8 percent of women. The variation among races is also stark. Nationally, about 18 percent of blacks and 16 percent of Hispanics have diabetes, compared with 11 percent of whites.

The Rudd Center has a great little calculator that estimates how much revenue a city or state could generate with a tax on sugar sweetened beverages.  On the low end with a tax of 1 cent per ounce, Washington, DC could generate $25 million per year:

The big winner? California with an estimated intake of $1.8 billion per year.  And we all know they could use the money.

(H/T Bitten)

Ham sandwiches and chicken mcnuggets no more.

I love the food network.  The crazy food scientists, the Secret Life of Tootsie Rolls, the fact that they just rolled out an show called ” What Would Brian Boitano Make”. I even love Emeril, with his cheesy grin and overused “Bam!”

But Emeril does not love me, and neither does the Food Network.  In fact the entire food establishment seems to scorn people like me, with maybe one exception.  See, I don’t like meat.

I know this is shocking and crazy sounding after all the bacon posting I do here.  But the bacon posting is really for you dear reader, because I am afraid that you won’t love me for my meat-less ways.  I kid, but there is a certain amount of truth here.  Non-meat eaters tend to be persona non grata around foodies.  Could you imagine if a Top Chef contestant refused to cook meat? Colicchio would laugh them off the stage. Could you imagine “Cooking Manly Man Style” Emeril Lagasse being told that he had to forego the pork belly to feed the likes of me? “Bam” would not encompass that temper tantrum.

Even Boitano invites “bacon-crazed” roller derby girls over for 4 course bacon extravanganza. It’s lonely being veggie.  The one bright spot in all of this is Mark Bittman, who actually wrote a cookbook for us of the non-meat variety.  Boston’s Vegetarian Festival has gotten so popular they’re expanding it to 2 days.  And Meat-less Mondays are gaining steam.

Yet, we are still the fringe.  I’m not saying the Food Network should take Emeril’s meat away.  But a veggie friendly show is badly needed.  Or even better yet - instituting Meat-less Mondays on the channel would be a phenomenal way to get all their shows to be a little more accepting of the non-carnivore foodies out there.

photo courtesy of flickr user jessicafm

World, I give you deep fried butter.  Only in Texas.

How those arteries feeling now? (H/T Chris Cassidy)

When the Great Recession hit here, people lose their McMansions.  When a  global economic crisis hits the developing world, people starve to death.

Worldwide, the number of hungry people is estimated to have reached 1.02 billion — up 11 percent from last year’s 915 million, FAO has said.

from Ali Savino <XXX@gmail.com> to mommy savino <XXX@aol.com> date Thu, Sep 17, 2009 at 5:15 PM subject It’s EVIL mailed-by gmail.com

http://www.sacbee.com/topstories/story/2188612.html

My mother drinks Coke with dinner every night, and I admit, it grosses me out. No, she’s not overweight, but it’s still not good for her.  What can I say? I care, can’t you tell?

And yes, she does sign her name as “mommy savino”.  I wonder if she remembers doing that.  I further wonder whether she uses this email for work.