Michael's blog

Jack LaLanne, visionary

Taxonomy upgrade extras: 

During a conference on obesity in Bainbridge Island, Wash., a couple of years ago, the organizers invited Jack LaLanne to come before us Saturday night and be interviewed for our benefit, after which he accepted questions from the audience. (The story I wrote for the Associated Press is here, at my other, former blog.)

To start the session off, our host showed this video, which prompted a sustained, full-throated ovation from the attendees:


Fake blueberries

Taxonomy upgrade extras: 

The LA Times reports that "blueberries" in your cereal, or bagel, or muffin might be something quite a bit less: "Nothing more than a concoction of sugar, corn syrup, starch, hydrogenated oil, artificial flavors and — of course — artificial food dye blue No. 2 and red No. 40."

The paper was reporting research by the nonprofit Consumer Wellness Center.


Oh, those little eyeballs

Another excerpt from the f.a.c.t.s. report on childhood obesity from the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale:

"Young people’s exposure to fast food TV ads has increased. Compared to 2003, preschoolers viewed 21 percent more fast food ads in 2009, children viewed 34 percent more, and teens viewed 39 percent more."


Angelo Firenze: “Real, wholesome ingredients"

Angelo FirenzeANGELO FIRENZE, 38, of Belmont is a food entrepreneur who sells gelato worthy of his still-vital Italian heritage. He delivers it by the scoop at Angelato, his Belmont restaurant, and by the tub, wholesale, to scores of eateries in Eastern Mass. In Belmont, he also sells a growing menu of deli and delicacies, and he says more innovation is on the way.

Yesterday, I put some questions to him in my usual format: questions, and answers, of 10 words or less. (Please, no counting; it’s a goal, not a rule, and not as easy as it might appear.)

What did you want to be when you grew up? “A captain of industry.”


Building Energy 11

Taxonomy upgrade extras: 

As you know, I've shifted my focus from the part of sustainability that many think of as green to the part that addresses obesity and food addiction. But I still have great fondness and concern for those topics.

When I was actively pursuing them, I found no greater source, or concentration of information, than at the annual Building Energy show put on by the Northeast Sustainable Energy Association.


The Checkup checks in on food addiction

Taxonomy upgrade extras: 

We had a bit of excitement over at "Fat Boy Thin Man" central today. Jennifer Larue Huget, "Eat, Drink and Be Healthy" column at the Washington Post, with whom I've spoken a couple of times, posted a query in The Check-up, a feature on the paper's website asking, "Is food addiction real?"


Fairburn on the DSM's shortcomings

The Oxford scholar Christopher Fairburn would have to be considered one of the world's foremost authorities on eating disorders. His bio includes:  twice a fellow at Stanford's Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences; fellow of the UK Academy of Medical Sciences; a governor of the Wellcome Trust, the largest international biomedical research foundation; recipient of the 2002 Outstanding Researcher Award by the Academy for Eating Disorders.


"The mother of sustainable food"

Do I have hope? Yes, I have hope because, as Michael Pollan wrote in "The Omnivore’s Dilemma," what it means to say that something is “unsustainable” is that it will stop. And we have an unsustainable food supply.

The speaker is Joan Dye Gussow, "the mother of the sustainable food movement," as ID'd by writer Paula Crossfield, setting up her interview on Grist (and, previously, on  Civil Eats).


Pages

Subscribe to RSS - Michael's blog