NEWS ABOUT: junk food
junk food stories: 17 news briefs
TV ads may play a role in the trend
Reuters Feb 11, 09 3:07 PM CST
(Newser Summary) -
Teenage couch potatoes grow into adults who consume more junk food than their peers, Reuters reports. Kids who reported watching 5 or more hours of TV daily later ate more fast food and fewer fruits and veggies than teens who tuned in for 2 hours or less. The lead researcher speculates that more tube time leads to more snacking—and to exposure to more ads for less-healthy snacks.
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Jamie Oliver, grilled on epidemic, rips lack of cooking skills
Guardian (UK) Nov 6, 08 4:50 AM CST
(Newser Summary) -
Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver, widely known as the "Naked Chef" after his hit TV series, blames the obesity crisis on schools for failing to teach students how to cook. Oliver told a British government panel exploring the growing crisis that the inability to cook has driven families to turn to fast food as a primary source of nutrition, reports the Guardian .
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Maybe the typical American will have trouble identifying with a 'beanpole'
Wall Street Journal Aug 1, 08 4:42 PM CDT
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No matter how long the 2008 campaign drags on, we'll never see Barack Obama as we did Bill Clinton in 1992: drenched in sweat and jogging into a McDonald's. Obama's fit—skinny, even—and a bit of a gym rat. The Wall Street Journal takes a look at the notion of presidential fitness and wonders if the typical American might find a "beanpole guy," as one voter described him, a little alienating.
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Opinion
Spray-on variety a bit much, but writer thinks meat can't ever get too full of itself
Salon Jul 10, 08 8:33 PM CDT
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Everywhere Peter Meehan looks, he sees bacon. Fatty, salty, bombastic, and blissfully delicious bacon. The Salon writer tries to figure out "where we are in the bacon bonanza"—he cites bacon spray, scented candles, trendy recipes, even a bacon-of-the-month club—and reaches out to experts "to see if there's relief from or more fervent bacon mania on the horizon." The upshot: Bet on the bacon.
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Maker of the chip—sorry, snack—wins case, avoids tax
Reuters Jul 4, 08 2:43 PM CDT
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It’s official: Pringles are legally no longer considered potato chips in England—and manufacturer Procter & Gamble couldn’t be happier, Reuters reports. In an effort to avoid the UK's tax on chips, P&G went to court to argue the tube-dwelling snacks were actually more like cakes or biscuits. It turns out Pringles aren’t even made of potatoes.
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Health problems may stem from mom's junk food diet, study says
Guardian (UK) Jul 1, 08 9:18 AM CDT
(Newser Summary) -
Long-term health problems such as obesity, diabetes, and heart disease may begin in the womb with mothers who eat junk food during pregnancy, the Guardian reports. A new study suggests expectant mothers who eat unhealthy diets not only risk the health of their newborns, but may set the child up for a lifetime of health problems.
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Children honor food scientist's wishes to be buried in chip container he developed
Cincinnati Enquirer Jun 2, 08 3:10 PM CDT
(Newser Summary) -
The man who invented the Pringles can is taking the chips' "Once you pop, you can't stop" slogan to eternity, the Cincinnati Enquirer reports. Dr. Fredric J. Baur patented the iconic container in 1970 while working for Procter & Gamble, and had long wished to be buried in one; after he died last month at 89, his survivors obliged, interring some ashes in a can and an urn and giving the rest to a grandson.
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Pediatrician slams
Indy film's
junk food tie-ins
Salon May 21, 08 5:21 AM CDT
(Newser Summary) -
Indiana Jones has a new enemy. Pediatrician Rahul Parikh is irritated about Indy's marketing tie-ins to high-calorie foods like Burger King's "Indy Double Whopper" and Snicker's "Adventure Bar." Parikh has been enjoying the films of George Lucas and Steven Spielberg for decades, but he's also watching kids grow obese, thanks in part to fatty food marketing, he writes in Salon.
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Obesity expands south of the border
McClatchy Newspapers Mar 24, 08 11:23 AM CDT
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Mexico is the second-fattest nation after the US, and it could top the list within 10 years if waistlines continue to expand at the current rate. Nearly three-quarters of Mexican women and two-thirds of men are overweight, and diabetes is now the main cause of death. Health officials are launching anti-junk-food campaigns, but industry lobbyists aren't about to throw in the towel.
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Pupils poor at behaving, good at manipulating adults
Daily Telegraph (UK) Mar 22, 08 3:50 PM CDT
(Newser Summary) -
UK teachers complain that classrooms are getting tougher to control because kids throw more tantrums—and parents are to blame, the Daily Telegraph reports. A Cambridge University study says that parents are letting children indulge in video games, junk food, and TV. "Teachers described highly permissive parents who admitted to indulging their children, often for the sake of peace or simply because they had run out of alternative incentives or sanctions," the report said.
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Alarming rise linked to wider waistlines
Associated Press Feb 21, 08 7:41 AM CST
(Newser Summary) -
Strokes have tripled among middle-aged American women in an alarming development experts attribute to obesity. Despite the increased use of blood pressure and cholesterol medication, 2% of women aged 35 to 54 suffered a stroke between 1999 and 2004. That's a three-fold increase over earlier studies.
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Cafeteria replaces
ice cream with fruit,
to mixed reviews
CBS News Jan 11, 08 11:55 AM CST
(Newser Summary) -
Hoping to curb the trend toward obesity and diabetes in children, one Connecticut school has taken a drastic measure: It no longer serves sweets. The ice cream and cookies that drew huge cafeteria crowds twice a week have been replaced with fruit and yogurt, reports CBS 2 New York. The move makes parents happy, but many students are less than thrilled.
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Poverty, limited grocery options have rural America in diet 'deserts'
Newsweek Dec 13, 07 11:23 AM CST
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Rural America isn’t all hearty farmland, Newsweek writes: Many country areas are “food deserts,” supplied mainly by convenience stores. With supermarkets distant and healthy food more expensive than junk, impoverished residents often become unhealthy—hungry and fat. “A nutritionist will just say, 'Buy more fruits and vegetables,' when, in fact, the buying part is not simple,” says one epidemiologist.
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Europe's fattest nation could rack up millions in health care
Christian Science Monitor Oct 25, 07 3:49 AM CDT
(Newser Summary) -
Two sobering reports have frantic Brits casting about for ways to combat their obesity epidemic, reports the Christian Science Monitor . England is the fattest country in Europe and half of its population could be obese by 2050, the reports warn. Now the country is looking into everything from regulating junk food to requiring workplaces to provide daily exercise hours.
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British study links chemicals to disruptive behavior; government issues warning
Guardian (UK) Sep 6, 07 6:39 AM CDT
(Newser Summary) -
Adding fuel to a long-simmering debate, a British study has found that additives in sweets and soft drinks can indeed produce hyperactivity and disruptive behavior in children. The findings were so dramatic that the British government is issuing guidelines warning parents of kids with behavioral problems to avoid foods containing the additives, the Guardian reports.
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Willy Wonka may be a fictional persona, but these ten real-life fun-food factories will bring out the kid in anyone.
Discovery Channel Aug 26, 07 5:10 PM CDT
(Newser Summary) -
Travel & Leisure takes you on a tour of a fun-food factories, where delights range from twisting your own pretzel to sampling donuts hot off the line. Some factory tours can even be experienced from home. Twinkie: Twinkies.com Tootsie Pop: Tootsie.com Ben and Jerry's: Waterbury, Vt.
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More than one a day increases metabolic syndrome
HealthDay News Jul 24, 07 5:37 AM CDT
(Newser Summary) -
People who drink more than one soda a day—even diet soda—face an increased risk of heart trouble, a new study has found. Consumption of soda was linked to metabolic syndrome, a group of symptoms that are risk factors for heart disease, in a new analysis of the 6,000 participants in the Framingham Heart Study.
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