Los Angles Times:: Karen Kaplan- With increasing vigor, public health experts and think tanks are calling for extra taxes on foods and drinks that are heavy in calories and light on nutrition. New York Gov. David Paterson proposed an 18% soda tax last year as a budget-balancing measure, only to abandon it three months later in the face of stiff public opposition. Lawmakers in at least five other states have gone on the record in support of the idea.
Junk-food taxes are often mentioned as a way to help fund a restructuring of the healthcare system, though no one in Congress has endorsed them.
The notion is catching on with the general public, however. A Kaiser Family Foundation poll last month found that 55% of respondents favored a tax on unhealthful snack foods, up from 52% in April. Support for a soda tax rose to 53% from 46%.
And 63% of those who opposed the idea said they would change their minds if the revenue were used to fund healthcare reform and combat health problems related to obesity.
A report this summer from the Urban Institute said such taxes are needed to ensure that rising obesity rates don’t cause the average American life expectancy to fall for the first time in history. (more…)
The 2010 Obama budget reveals the major tax hike that Pelosi, Reid, and Obama are counting on to fund the outrageous bailout and stimulus spending that is propelling federal spending to record levels-27.7 percent of GDP in 2009, an all-time record other than the four peak years of World War II.
The tax hike is a broad-based energy tax that will wallop every American who fills a gas tank, pays an electric bill, or buys any product that has to be grown, shipped, or manufactured.
The mechanism is cap-and-trade, which is like a tax on coal, oil, and natural gas but instead of being set at a specific amount, the total level of use is capped and companies are forced to pay the government for emissions permits-which Wall Street wizards at companies like AIG and Goldman Sachs can in turn trade on sophisticated exchanges and derivative markets.
White House Budget Director Peter Orzcag admitted that decreasing carbon emissions imposes costs on the economy, and “much of those costs will be passed along to consumers in the form of higher prices for energy and energy-intensive goods.” (more…)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQiC_bdiXw0 AP PHILADELPHIA—First lady Michelle Obama is set to visit Philadelphia as part of her efforts to curb childhood obesity.
The first lady will visit a North Philadelphia elementary school on Friday. Obama will discuss steps the city has taken to address the problem of so-called “food deserts.” Those are poor communities where it’s hard to find stores with healthy foods.
Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack will accompany the first lady on her visit.
Amid rising government pressure and consumer concern, food makers are taking a new tack in their long-running effort to sell products with less salt. Instead of offering foods labeled as low salt that few people eat, they are gradually reducing the salt from some of their most popular items—and not making a big fuss about it on the label.
By next summer, ConAgra Food Inc.’s Chef Boyardee canned pasta will have decreased its sodium by about 35% over the course of five years without a word on the package. Campbell Soup Co.’s original flavor of V8 100% vegetable juice also silently dropped its sodium by 32% over eight years.
For decades, new reduced-sodium products often had dramatic reductions of at least 25% from their original version to meet government regulations on advertising sodium declines. Those products often tasted different, and sales typically were slim.
So food makers in recent years have adopted a new strategy: decrease sodium so slowly that customers don’t notice it
Eat right and exercise, conventional wisdom has it, if you want to avoid joining the diabetes epidemic.
But a new study adds some muscle to a growing body of research suggesting those steps, although beneficial, might not be enough for people exposed to chemicals in the environment.
The scientists linked diabetes and people’s body burdens of DDE, a chemical produced as the body breaks down the pesticide DDT, banned in the United States more than 35 years ago.
“Even though we haven’t used DDT in decades, its metabolites are still detected in almost everyone in the country,” said lead researcher Mary Turyk, an epidemiologist at the University of Illinois-Chicago’s School of Public Health.
Since the early 1990s, researchers have monitored a group of Great Lakes charter boat captains, recreational fishermen and others to learn about the health effects of eating fish tainted with persistent organic pollutants – chemicals that remain in the environment for decades and grow more concentrated as they move up food chains.
For the new study, blood samples from the Great Lakes group showed “consistent, dose-related associations of DDE” with diabetes, the researchers wrote in the July issue of Environmental Health Perspectives.
Among 471 adults, including 36 with diabetes, there was no link to the disease based on the amount of fish consumed or exposure to other pollutants. But the higher the concentration of DDE in the blood, the more likely they were to develop diabetes.
David Zinczenko author of the “Eat This Not That! book series.
It doesn’t matter how religiously you diet. It doesn’t matter how intensely you exercise. And even if you try to make the smartest choices, pick the healthiest foods, and watch what you eat at every meal, all it takes to sabotage your weight loss goals is one simple mistake. – a little bit of awareness can make those mistakes never happen.
Today’s food marketers have loaded many of their offerings with so much fat, sugar, and sodium that any single food in this slideshow can destroy all your hard work and best intentions. Welcome any one of these nutritional neutron bombs into your diet just once a month, and you could add nearly 7 pounds of flab to your frame in the coming year.
10.WORST SANDWICH
Quizno’s Large Tuna Melt
1,760 calories/133 g fat (26 g saturated, 1.5 g trans)
2,120 mg sodium
09.WORST BURGER
Chili’s Smokehouse Bacon Triple Cheese Big Mouth Burger
with Jalapeno Ranch Dressing
1,901 calories/138 g fat (47 g saturated)
4,201 mg sodium
08.WORST APPETIZER
On the Border Firecracker Stuffed Jalapenos with Chili con
Queso
1,950 calories/134 g fat (36 g saturated)
6,540 mg sodium
07.WORST CHINESE DISH
P.F. Chang’s Combo Lo Mein
1,968 calories/96 g fat (12 g saturated)
5,860 mg sodium
06.WORST SEAFOOD DISH
Romano’s Macaroni Grill Parmesan Crusted Sole
2,190 calories/141 g fat (58 g saturated)
2,980 mg sodium/145 g carbs
What’s so bad about Palm Oil? Palm oil destroys vital ecosystems, contributes to global climate change, results in the displacement of Indigenous people and small family farmers, and is produced through exploitative labor practices. Please take time to check out the video below::
A quiz, to determine if you should see the new documentary ‘Food, Inc.’ (You start with 0 points. Total your points as you answer the questions.
Do you eat food?
1. Yes, three-square meals a day. Add 1 million points.
2. No, I’m not into that right now. Subtract 50 points.
Have you read The Ominvore’s Dilemma?
1. Yes, I loved it. I own a signed first edition, and I have a poster of Michael Pollan in my bedroom. I can probably recite the text of the 2008 Farm Bill from memory. Do you want me to try? Subtract 50 points.
2. Well, I started it. I read the bit about corn, and the crazy farmer in Virginia who slaughters his own chickens, but the chapter about Big Organic went on and on, and yeah, I decided to read The Devil Wears Prada instead. Add 1 million points.
3. No. I work for Monsanto. I’m reading this to track “organic” propaganda. You enviros are all wussies. Add 50 points.
Where does meat come from?
1. Industrial CAFOS that poison our food system, pollute toxic waste, emit greenhouse gasses, depend on fossil fuels, exploit our livestock, and damage local economies. Subtract 50 points.
2. The store! Right? Maybe the farm? Add 1 million points.
3 .A thriving agricultural system that supports our farmers, contributes to the economy, and feeds the world. Now, I’ve copied this URL into my database, and BTW, we’re scanning IP addresses too. Expect to hear from our lawyers. Add 50 points.
According to the National Gardening Association, the number of American households with edible gardens increased 19% in 2009. This trend is reflected both in urban and rural environments, with urban community, compact and/or container gardens becoming more popular than ever (more later on this). Even the Obamas made this a focus early in the administration, with their own garden on the 17 acre White House property (though I haven’t seen any photo ops of the family weeding, watering, tending, etc.), reminiscent of the victory gardens of WWII and other times in history when troubles in the economy reminded citizens of the importance of being able to feed themselves.
It’s never too late to start. For those of us in the northern hemisphere, there are still late summer and fall crops that can be planted now. For more information, see the National Gardening Association’s site or the myriad of other helpful sites on the internet or in books in your local library or bookstore.
The response to Part 1 of Bill Moyers interview with Michael Pollan was such a movement. I thought we should watch part 2 of the interview. Thank You for your support. Enjoy
