Good for Oshine, Good for You

A steady diet of processed foods and sweets, to include jelly and marshmallows, has caused Oshine to put on a few pounds. In fact, Oshine weighs in at twice the proper weight for someone her size. What is a girl to do? Give up the junk and dine on fresh fruits, vegetables and a few weekly servings of lean protein (chicken breasts and eggs). Plus, lots of exercise!

Oshine is in her breeding years and it is wise for her to get a bit more healthy before she conceives. None of this is at all surprising. Each of us, if on a regime of processed food and no exercise, will quickly put on the pounds. And, it is (unfortunately) not all that unusual for someone to be two times their natural weight.

What makes Oshine so special? She's an orangutan. A beautiful, orange, furry girl with a bit of a belly. We'll keep track of Oshine and her progress now that she's living the healthful life. If she can do it, so can you!

Meatless Monday Mania

There is a growing movement encouraging people to adopt a lifestyle of consuming less meat. The most famous of supporters is Sir Paul McCartney who has put his considerable influence behind Meat Free Monday. There is a great little website titled Part-Time Carnivore which encourages you to commit to a level of meat-free living. And, NPR has an article today about Sid Lerner (advertising guru) and his effort to make a meatless day cool.

Do you meat? There are many reasons people choose to reduce or eliminate meat from their diet. The top three are:

• Health
• Environment
• Animal Welfare

Ultimately, the decision to eat meat is a personal one each of us has to make. There isn't one prescribed way of eating that is good for every human on Earth. Some people are more healthy with a regular diet of meat; others do much better to eliminate or drastically reduce their animal protein consumption. The  secret to lifelong wellness is for you to figure out what works best for you. And, keep in mind, what works best for you may not be the best diet for your spouse, partner or children. 

Life is generally more sweet when we respect, and embrace, each others' differences. The idea of meatless Monday is great because it raises our collective awareness. If you ultimately choose to stop eating meat, or eat it only occasionally, good for you if it is what makes you happy and healthy. Don't join any movement because it is the cool, hip thing to do. Know yourself, respect yourself and make good choices each day. 

Salt. The New Evil.

The USDA's draft dietary guidelines include a reduction in salt intake. According to this article in the Los Angeles Times, Americans consume an average of 3,400 milligrams of salt on a daily basis. The new dietary guidelines recommend no more than 1,500 milligrams per day (the current guidelines published in 2005 says 2,300 milligrams).

While I agree we could all likely do with a little less salt in our diet, I fear the consequences of labeling salt the new evil. Let us simply recall what happened when we named fat evil in the 80s. A huge influx of low-fat food hit the grocery store shelves. Most of it fake food, almost none of it food for you. But we were sold a story that low-fat meant you could eat it and it wouldn't make you fat. And we bought it. By the billions and billions. And, obesity trends track right along with the influx of low-fat foods. If you want to read more about that coincidence, click here.

I promise you there are people sitting in conference rooms right now deciding on which "Low Salt" label will appear on the front of food boxes. I give it 30 days before we see such labels on grocery store shelves.

Our bodies need some salt. Don't believe me, believe The Mayo Clinic. Because the creation of our dietary guidelines is a political process (yes, I'm sorry, too) and because salt doesn't have a hugely powerful and wealthy lobby, we could very well end up in a place where salt is blacklisted. Worse yet, we'll end up with a whole new industry of fake salts which are marketed as "much better" for us (I would wager there are food manufacturers also sitting around in conference rooms making up new snazzy names for the "Anti-Salt" products they are about to create).

Don't get me wrong, I think we should all reduce the salt in our diet. The best way to do so? Stop eating processed foods. The vast majority of salt in the American diet comes from fake foods sold in boxes and at fast food places. If the new dietary guidelines came out and said "Processed Foods: Used Sparingly" I suspect the salt problem would take care of itself.

Princess Soup?

Last week, I had the opportunity to spend some time with my favorite three year old. We visited the local grocery store to pick up a few items and, since this three year old is my niece, I was willing to oblige her requests when I asked her, "What would you like to eat?" Her response, "Princess Soup." I told her I didn't know what princess soup was, assuming this was her name for something she enjoys (she is a princess, after all) and not something one could actually identify on the grocery store shelves. And...

I was sad to discover "Princess Soup" actually exists. Apparently Disney and Campbell's Soup have combined forces to sell food to children. Sigh.

Foxes and Houses of Hen

We here at Cybercise are all about helping people to make better food choices. And, we're not particularly concerned with who is delivering the message as long as the message is unbiased. When people begin to publish messages without altruistic intent, we can all get in trouble, especially when the innocent reader is unaware of the bias.
The LA Times reported in this blog yesterday that several of the very large processed food manufacturers have started a new foundation called the "Healthy Weight Communities Foundation." As a person who has spent a great deal of time in other arenas thinking up names for things, they get a kudos for this name. One could even start to believe that they are committed to ensuring people in communities are of healthy weight.
I am not one to impugn something before it happens, but I will admit being a bit of a skeptic here. The contributors to this foundation are publicly traded companies that create processed foods. Just about everything on the grocery store shelves in the aisles in the middle of the store is produced by these companies. Do they (and their stockholders) really want us to stop eating the things that caused the unhealthy weight in the first place? I suspect some public relations folks suggested they had to do something before they were accused (or sued) for causing these problems to begin with. Starting a foundation, forking over several million dollars and releasing some press about how they care. Yeah! That's the ticket - then we'll look like the good guys.
I think if they were really committed to ensuring our communities were of healthy weight they would stop producing processed foods and use their muscle and money to figure out how to get affordable, whole, natural and non-processed food to all Americans.