Sigh. Next they will be concern trolling that secret police will be raiding the kitchens of apple pie baking grandmas everywhere.
For the record - no one sane has proposed any kind of food ban (with the exception of extremely endangered species, but that’s not health concern related). People should be free to eat as many jelly donuts as they like. Of course, the it would be nice if the health costs were reflected in the food prices.
New York City has a new, rather disgusting ad out trying to convince New Yorkers to chug less sugar.
It took me a little while to recognize that it was human fat which was being poured out of the bottle. The Ethicurean wonders if the $277,000 price tag on these ads is worth it, but considering that 3.2 million New Yorkers are over-weight or obese, it might be too expensive NOT to run these ads.
There’s a proposal in Nassau County, New York to tax fast food items an extra 2%. The new tax is projected to bring in $12 million for the county next year should it be enacted. They have a very complicated system to determine what constitutes fast food:
He defines fast-food restaurant as “any franchised outlet of a restaurant chain that derives 30 percent or more of its revenues from the sale of prepared, ready-to-eat food, and which serves one or more menu items that contain more than 0.5 grams of trans fat or 5 grams of saturated fat per serving.”
The one or more menu item definition is a little odd. By this definition, the tax would able to things like apple sslices and salads as well as big macs. Of course, some of those salads can pack in a scary amount of fat. The good thing is it would not apply to small independent non-chain restaurants, like you local pizza shop. Still the focus primarily centers on fats and not sugar or sodium. If the goal was to apply a sin tax like alcohol, then shouldn’t the tax be on any food that harbors more than say 20% of fat, sugar, and/or sodium?
Looks like somebody made a boo-boo. Some brits take a look at what’s in baby food, and the results are not pretty:
LONDON (Reuters) - Some baby foods contain as much sugar and saturated fats as chocolate biscuits or cheeseburgers, a British food pressure group said on Monday.
Publishing results of a survey of more than 100 foods for babies and toddlers, the Children’s Food Campaign said Farley’s rusks were 29 percent sugar and some Cow & Gate toddler biscuits contained trans fats, which have been linked to heart disease.
“The results of this survey are staggering,” said Christine Haigh, spokeswoman for the CFC.
JayInPortland links to a great article by Dan Neil at the LATimes about the sexualization of food. Because nothing says sex like a fatty, greasy, dull gray, flabby burger patty larded up with Bacon! and condiments. Using sex to sell any item will leave many women feeling slightly slimy and used, but using sex to sell food is kinda like have a quickie with Karl Rove and him leaving crumbs and bbq sauce in the sheets.
And its becoming more prevalent. Witness the new Carl, Jr. ad with Top Chef’s Padma. The don’t-mess-with-me food judge hikes up her skirt, pops-a-squat and gorges herself with a 700 calorie monstrosity called the Western Bacon CheeseBurger, suggestively licking away the sauce from various parts of her body.
Neil had this to say about the advertising agency that came up with the soft porn spot:
All future correspondence to Mendelsohn Zien and Applebaum should be addressed to the Eighth Circle of Hell.
I cannot pretend to be offended by these ads. Young men are coarse, callow, emotional imbeciles with suicidal dietary habits. In other words, from a marketing perspective, these ads are perfection itself, practically verite. Meanwhile, if I put on my magic deconstructing spectacles, I can see neo-feminist subversion in these messages. Note the tagline of the Padma Lakshmi commercial: “More than a piece of meat.” This was the cri de coeur of feminism back in the day, and though it refers to the burger, it is also a tweak of conscience to males slobbering over the accomplished actress-author-chef. Take that, you objectifying pig.
The trend of intermingling sex and food will only get worse as the fast food and HFCS industries desperately thrash around, looking for the ever elusive next customer that is stupid enough to ingest their poison. As we mentioned in the post about the Heart Attack Grill:
This combination of sex-sells and death-defying heroism are clearly aimed at red-blooded American men dying to prove how manly they really are. But is scarfing down enough fat to make your arteries seize up mid-meal really what Americans think makes you a tough guy? Sadly, the Heart Attack Grill patrons seem to think so.
Looks like they found their perfect victim in young men who think with body parts other than their brains and their stomachs.
The Heart Attack Grill has been making the rounds on the interwebs and has become enough of a phenomenon that CBS sent a poor newscaster down to document the carnage. As our society has become more health conscious over the years, its only natural that there has been a backlash of sorts that has begun in recent years. From bacon obsession to Burger King Cologne, people have been festishizing all things bad for you.
The cornerstone of the Heart Attack Grill menu, the Quadrupal Bypass packs 8,000 calories, or 4 days worth of food in one sandwich. As the owner says, “this is bad for you, and its going to kill you”. Scantily clad servers wear nurse uniforms revealing enough to make Hooters waitresses blush. This combination of sex-sells and death-defying heroism are clearly aimed at red-blooded American men dying to prove how manly they really are. But is scarfing down enough fat to make your areteries seize up mid-meal really what Americans think makes you a tough guy? Sadly, the Heart Attack Grill patrons seem to think so.
A little bit long, but watch through til the end when he brings it full circle.
Confession: Primarily, I am a veggie, but I am a sucker for the exotic. Every once in a while I’ll treat myself to some foie gras, ie. I think I’ve had it 3 times in my life. Some day I will make it to Eduard’s farm in Spain, and I will find out how foie gras is supposed to taste.
