Yesterday, I noted PepsiCo’s pledge to eliminate sales of sugary soft drinks in primary and secondary schools across the world by 2012. Today, yet another mega-food conglomerate stepped up to the plate… sorta.

Kraft Foods Plans to Reduce Sodium in North American Products an Average of 10 Percent by 2012 

More Than 10 Million Pounds of Salt to be Eliminated

NORTHFIELD, Ill., March 17, 2010 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ — Kraft Foods Inc. (NYSE: KFT) announced today plans to reduce sodium by an average of 10 percent across its North American portfolio over the next two years. This amounts to the elimination of more than 10 million pounds — or more than 750 million teaspoons — of salt from some of North America’s most popular foods.

“We are reducing sodium because it’s good for consumers, and, if done properly, it’s good for business,” said Rhonda Jordan, President, Health & Wellness, Kraft Foods. “A growing number of consumers are concerned about their sodium intake and we want to help them translate their intentions into actions.”

Ummm… yay… I guess… although 10% isn’t exactly a huge drop, from a health perspective. For example, an Oscar Mayer turkey frank (one of the “healthy,” lower fat alternatives), contains a hefty 510mg of sodium – 1/5th of the recommended maximum daily intake. A 10% reduction brings this down to 459mg – which is still pretty high.

But still… as noted yesterday, every little bit helps, I guess.  Baby steps in the right direction are better than none.

PepsiCo. is pledging to eliminate all sales of “full sugar soft drinks” to primary and secondary schools worldwide by 2012.

PURCHASE, N.Y., March 16 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — PepsiCo (NYSE: PEP) announced today it is voluntarily adopting a new global policy to stop sales of full-sugar soft drinks to primary and secondary schools by 2012.  The industry-leading policy establishes for the first time a consistent global approach to the sale of beverages to schools by a major beverage company.    

The policy applies in all countries outside the United States, and is generally consistent with the company’s existing U.S. policy, which remains unchanged.    

PepsiCo Chairman and CEO Indra Nooyi said:  ”We have long advocated for school settings to be made as conducive as possible to promoting the health of students, and we have programs under way with school authorities in several countries to do that.  This includes restoring or expanding physical education and promoting nutrition education.  This global policy will serve as an important part of that mission, by expanding our offerings of low-calorie and nutritious beverages.”

…The global school beverage policy continues to advance PepsiCo’s commitment to reducing calories in schools by offering students a wider range of low-calorie and nutritious beverages in appropriate portions.

PepsiCo worked with the Alliance for a Healthier Generation — a joint initiative of the American Heart Association and the William J. Clinton Foundation and other beverage industry leaders — to change the mix of beverages in U.S. schools through voluntary guidelines.  The guidelines precluded the sale of full-sugar soft drinks to students in elementary and secondary schools, permitting only low-calorie drinks and portion-controlled juices, sports drinks and waters.  In early March, three years after guidelines were announced, it was reported that 98.8% of measured schools were in compliance.

While I can’t help but be a tad suspicious about PepsiCo.’s motives (i.e., this could be more of a PR move than anything else), overall, it still looks like a (small) step in the right direction.

I have to admit, I was tempted to call this post “B***h Right 4 Your Type,” in honor of the review (”Eat Right 4 Your Type“) – and subsequent comment by “Elizabeth Victoria” – that inspired it. But since I already have a post titled “Small, Angry People,” I figured I’d turn this one into a sequel. It’s not as clevah, perhaps, but the shoe (definitely) fits.

So what’s the deal?

Here’s the background:  Like most sensible people, Paul found D’Adamo’s blood type/diet “theory” to be based on pseudoscientific BS…. so he said so in his review. And, like most sensible people who write sensible things, he drew the ire of several “true believers” confused about “cause and effect.”

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Hot off the presses: another study confirming the benefits of high-intensity cardio vs. traditional, low-moderate intensity aerobics…

The usual excuse of “lack of time” for not doing enough exercise is blown away by new research published in The Journal of Physiology.

The study, from scientists at Canada’s McMaster University, adds to the growing evidence for the benefits of short term high-intensity interval training (HIT) as a time-efficient but safe alternative to traditional types of moderate long term exercise. Astonishingly, it is possible to get more by doing less!

“We have shown that interval training does not have to be ‘all out’ in order to be effective,” says Professor Martin Gibala. “Doing 10 one-minute sprints on a standard stationary bike with about one minute of rest in between, three times a week, works as well in improving muscle as many hours of conventional long-term biking less strenuously.”

…To achieve the study’s equivalent results by endurance training you’d need to complete over 10 hours of continuous moderate bicycling exercise over a two-week period.

I’ve been a fan of interval training for a long time.  I won’t lie: it can be grueling.  But it’s also mercifully short, and – more importantly – the alternating pace makes the time seem to fly by.  Whatever else it may be, it ISN”T boring.

Less time, same benefits: works for me!

Well, I’ve finally done it!

Hubby is just recently back to work, so we are back to the 3:30am mornings and this has caused me to commit myself to getting some exercise during the wee hours before I actually HAVE to be up for work.  Some mornings are rougher than others, and although the bed doesn’t succeed at luring me back to its deliciously downy depths…. the couch turns out to be a lot more comfortable at 5am than any other time of the day it seems.

However, I’ve got my little workout setup going on upstairs, exercise ball, weights (my 5lbs are MIA) yoga mat etc etc.  And now that the weather is unseasonably warm and its light enough to be seen at 6am I can get out walking… or maybe even biking once I dig it out of my parent’s basement.

Sounds great eh? Good for me!

Not so fast….

So this morning, I was out for my morning ‘powerwalk’ and I just get to the top of the hill and a car pulls over next to me.  I live in a pretty laid back neighbourhood in the middle of nowhere country and as neighbourly as we are, cars pulling over at 6am are cause for concern.  No worries though, turns out he just needed directions because of a detour at the end of the road……

seems the POLICE had it all blocked off for some unknown reason.

So I get home from my walk and my mother calls….’Lock your doors, someone just killed 3 women the next road over from ours and the police are trying to find the guy’….. Stuff like this NEVER has happened in this sleepy little country town….  There goes my morning walks.   Great, just when I was getting motivated.

I get health and fitness e-mail updates from the Washington Post, so I can’t help but be aware of columnist Jennifer LaRue Huget’s “Me Minus 10″ quest to lose 10 pounds.  She’s using her column for motivation, which is cool, in a way. Nothing like having a nation-wide audience to help you stay accountable. 

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I’m currently working on a review of Hemo-Rage – Nutrex’s contribution to the pre-workout supplement market.  To be honest, I couldn’t help comparing this:

Nutrex takes pre-workout supplementation to another level. Beyond extreme, beyond hardcore.

From the UNDERGROUND we bring you HEMO-RAGE Black one of the meanest, strongest and cruelest pre-workout detonator this planet has ever seen. We went down to the laboratory and cooked up one of the most vicious blends of raging energy inducing, strength signaling, blood volume expanding, pump activating, extreme focus enhancing, fat detonating and muscle building compounds imaginable. This wicked formula operates in a territory no other pre-workout supplement has ever dared to go. In fact we needed extra insurance to be able to bring this explosive concoction to you. HEMO-RAGE Black gets you ready for battle when you hit the dungeon for an all-out war with the weights. Welcome to the UNDERGROUND!

Make no mistake about it HEMO-RAGE Black is not for wimps. It is a dead serious pre-workout product. If you have reached a plateau and are looking for something to take your progress & workout intensity to a whole new level we dare you to uncage your inner rage with HEMO-RAGE Black. Just try one full UNDERGROUND dose and you will never want to go back to whatever pre-workout formula you are on right now!

• Wicked Pumps
• Insane Strength
• Raging Energy
• Unparalleled Size

To this:
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…which will be an “an innovative line of vitamins and nutritional products” – natch.

Peter Cunningham, Gamma’s Chief Executive Officer, commented on the initiative, “We believe the potential of the Holyfield’s Choice brand is global and virtually limitless. Evander’s truly remarkable fitness and stamina, especially at his age, is regarded with both wonder and admiration, and we believe consumers want to participate in his coveted ‘fountain of youth.’ Working closely with Evander, Gamma has specially formulated and dosed a complete line of supplements, vitamins and energy boosters that can form an important part of a health and fitness regimen designed to try to achieve the exceptional results that Evander ‘The Real Deal’ Holyfield has enjoyed for years.

Because the world definitely needs more supps, doncha know.

I’m in throes of wrapping up a major project, so – while I was aware of the Dietary Supplement Safety Act (natch!) – I missed blogging about it (I wanted to read the text first, but couldn’t spare the time).

But it looks like Senator McCain just made this a moot point.

A Senate staffer confirmed that Sen. John McCain no longer supports a bill he introduced to significantly tighten regulatory requirements for dietary supplements.

McCain offered the Dietary Supplement Safety Act of 2010, S. 3002, in February. The Arizona Republican will now collaborate with Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, on revised legislation that allegedly provides for transparency and safety within the supplement industry but without the intensive regulatory intervention proposed in S. 3002. No timeline is set for introduction of a new bill.

Hatch thanks McCain for withdrawing his support of the original legislation in a March 4 letter.

“I’m counting on you to work with me to make sure this important industry does not fall prey to over-regulatory regimes and mounds of costly government bureaucracy,” Hatch writes.

Works for me. Personally, I don’t see anything majorly wrong with the existing regulatory framework.  As I see it, the primary problem is lax/uneven enforcement – a problem that would not be solved by giving the FDA even more power over the industry.

This NYT summary of a recent study doesn’t paint a very pretty picture of kids’ snacking habits:

A sweeping study of 31,337 children and adolescents released on Tuesday tracked snacking and meal trends from 1977 through 2006 using data from four national surveys. On average, children reach for cookies, chips and other treats about three times a day, consuming nearly 600 daily calories from snacks. That’s an increase of 168 snack calories compared with what children ate in the late 1970s.

…Overall, snacking now accounts for about 27 percent of an average child’s total daily calories.

Desserts like cookies and cakes remain the main source of snacking. Salty snacks like chips and pretzels have posted the biggest gains and are the second largest snack category. Candy and fruit drinks are also popular. One notable trend is that in the past few decades, fruit drinks have replaced whole fruit as a snack.

The fact that kids are getting fatter isn’t news, of course.  Nonetheless, it’s interesting to see some numbers and comparisons over time. While the increase in daily calorie intake (+113) doesn’t seem all that large, it’s more serious when you combine it with less physical activity. More cals coming in + fewer being burned = fatter kids.

Study abstract here.

As I’m sure y’all know, there are a number of bogus supplement “review” sites on the internet.  Of course, they’re really supp ads in disguise. Brands that the site owners get commissions for are “reviewed” positively, natch, while competing products are slammed. In fact, this “bait-and-switch” is so common, I’m not surprised to see various characters assume UltimateFatBurner.com rolls this way.

In other words, we’re presumed ”guilty until proven innocent.”

This was certainly the ‘tude that Darren Beale (Business Development Manager for Soula, Ltd) had on display last week:

“You also clearly try to portray a negative view of Proactol for your own gain (by selling your own set of products to the customer). Despite any pretences of making the review appear ‘fair’, your review is quite obviously designed to sell your own products, or direct them to an EBOOK which then sells them different products.”

This is a calumny, of course, for which Paul has yet to receive an apology.  I’m not holding my breath, however (neither is he…).

This ”presumption of guilt” works against us in other ways, too.  For example, Paul’s inbox gets littered with various ”promotional opportunities” on a regular basis. Not surprisingly, these are for products that don’t… *ahem*… quite measure up to UFB.com standards. 

Like the one he forwarded to me today…
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The New York City Dept. of Education apparently thinks so.  According to the NYT:

By the time the Panel for Educational Policy was ready to vote on bake sales during its monthly meeting on Wednesday night, it was after 11:30. By then, just one mother, Elizabeth Puccini, was waiting to speak out against the new policy, which bans most bake sales but allows students to sell premade items including Pop-Tarts and Doritos.

Apparently this was done to… combat childhood obesity.
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Just thought I’d draw attention to the fact that Paul has updated his review on a fat loss supp called “Proactol.”

It’s worth reading in full, if for no other reason than to see how low some supp company reps will go to suppress legitimate critiques of their products.  Fortunately, Paul isn’t easily intimidated.

P.S. Speaking of legal threats, this is as good a time as any to link to The Most Hilarious Response To A Legal Threat I’ve ever read.  Enjoy!

And it’s a definite thumbs down. According to the Guardian:

Today the Science and Technology Select Committee delivered its verdict on homeopathy and it was devastating. The committee has called for the complete withdrawal of NHS funding and official licensing of homeopathy.

This should come as no surprise to anyone who witnessed the almost farcical nature of the proceedings, with the elite of homeopathy mocked by their own testimony.

…Even the claims that more research is needed have been rebutted. Plenty of evidence has accumulated regarding the effectiveness of homeopathy, and a verdict has been reached. It is useless. As the report states: “It is … unethical to enter patients into trials to answer questions that have been settled already.”

Ouchie!

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This Q & A in the New York Times really made me sigh…

Q. Must you eat fruit on an empty stomach, so it won’t mix with other foods and cause fermentation and rot?

A. “The answer is a definite no,” said Dr. Mark Pochapin, director of the Monahan Center for Gastrointestinal Health at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center. “Fruit can be eaten at any time.”

Nothing can rot in the stomach, Dr. Pochapin said. Rotting, or fermentation, means bacterial action on food resulting in decomposition. And because of the presence of hydrochloric acid, the stomach has very few bacteria.

…Food takes 6 to 10 hours to reach the colon, which explains why it does not really matter when fruit is eaten, Dr. Pochapin said.

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Ah, the weird things you find on the internet. Via BoingBoing.net:

i-ramen.net is an amazingly meticulous web site that chronicles one man’s daily consumption of different kinds of instant noodles since 1997. It appears from the way they’re numbered that he is now on his 4,308th bowl. For each new type of instant noodle, he creates a thorough chart that includes a full ingredients list; comments on texture, flavor, quantity, and price; and a starred rating.

It’s in Japanese, so it’s tough to read… but the YouTube channel tells you pretty much all you need to know.

I read this in Jeannine Stein’s article on “Healthy Dining at Restaurants” in the LA Times just now, and couldn’t quite believe it… 49%???

But it really is what the American Restaurant Association claims:

So here we are today …

With 12.7 million employees, the restaurant industry is now the nation’s largest private-sector employer.

In 2010, Americans are spending about 49 percent of their food dollar at nearly 1 million restaurants.

As the industry flourishes, the National Restaurant Association continues to help restaurateurs meet new challenges. Stay tuned…

Restaurants get nearly half of every dollar spent on food, and – as Stein points out - a lot of restaurants dish out some pretty high cal fare.  Even seemingly “healthy” items like salads can clock in at over a thousand calories.

The American Restaurant Association appears to be quite happy about this, but to my mind, it’s a chilling statistic.

I thought this was a fitting tribute to ButchBakery.com, the makers of “manly cupcakes for manly men.”

Very neat… if it works the same way in humans, that is.

Scientists have confirmed that the healthful substances found in green tea — renowned for their powerful antioxidant and disease-fighting properties — do penetrate into tissues of the eye. Their new report, the first documenting how the lens, retina, and other eye tissues absorb these substances, raises the possibility that green tea may protect against glaucoma and other common eye diseases. It appears in ACS’s bi-weekly Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.

Chi Pui Pang and colleagues point out that so-called green tea “catechins” have been among a number of antioxidants thought capable of protecting the eye. Those include vitamin C, vitamin E, lutein, and zeaxanthin. Until now, however, nobody knew if the catechins in green tea actually passed from the stomach and gastrointestinal tract into the tissues of the eye.

Pang and his colleagues resolved that uncertainty in experiments with laboratory rats that drank green tea. Analysis of eye tissues showed beyond a doubt that eye structures absorbed significant amounts of individual catechins. The retina, for example, absorbed the highest levels of gallocatechin, while the aqueous humor tended to absorb epigallocatechin. The effects of green tea catechins in reducing harmful oxidative stress in the eye lasted for up to 20 hours. “Our results indicate that green tea consumption could benefit the eye against oxidative stress,” the report concludes.

Full text here.

Every once in a while, I look in on the “Photoshop Phriday” feature over at SomethingAwful.com.  While some of the stuff posted can be crass and tasteless, there are often some laugh-out-loud funny items… like this pic, which I swiped from one of the “Magazine Mayhem” threads.

At any rate, I couldn’t resist posting this, in light of this recent kerfluffle involving Italian TV chef Beppe Bigazzi:
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