Clipmarks | Marcariel's 'food' clips

AMA Calls For Reduced Sodium in U.S. Foods

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 16:55:14 GMT

clipped by: Marcariel
clipper's remarks: I stopped salting my food years ago. It's about time someone regulated the food industry so we can live longer and be healthier, and still enjoy canned foods, eating out at restaurants, and purchasing convenient frozen foods without the added worry of killer sodium added to these foods.

Clip Source: www.ama-assn.org

In an effort to reduce the burden of cardiovascular disease, the American Medical Association (AMA) today passed new policies to help change the way Americans think about salt with the goal of reducing sodium intake throughout America.

Cardiovascular disease remains the number one killer of Americans. People who reduce dietary sodium intake are taking an important step in preventing future health problems

"We hope these recommendations will encourage food manufacturers and restaurants to modify their current practices of adding unhealthy amounts of sodium to their products."

most Americans consume two to three times the amount of sodium that is healthy, with an estimated 75 to 80 percent of the daily intake of sodium coming from processed and restaurant foods.

recommendations adopted

minimum 50 percent reduction in the amount of sodium in processed foods, fast food products and restaurant meals

improve labeling

eventually lower the incidence of hypertension and cardiovascular disease

Tags: sodium, food, salt, ama, diets

Biofuel Craze Could Starve Millions

Thu, 08 May 2008 07:24:40 GMT

clipped by: Marcariel
clipper's remarks: Joachim von Braun, director general of the U.S.-based International Food Policy Research Institute supports a moratorium on grain- and oilseed-based biofuels but not for sugar-cane-based fuels.

Sugar-cane is the source of many sweeteners used in breakfast cereals and soft drinks. We should start seeing those prices begin to shoot up.

I looks like we are just going to have to find another alternative to the biofuels sources.

Clip Source: dsc.discovery.com

A "biofuels frenzy" and other misguided policies have led to the global food crisis in which rice consumption is outpacing production, threatening a billion people with malnutrition

International agriculture researchers warned that farmers will need to double global food production by 2030 to meet rising demand, and said countries should impose a moratorium on grain-based ethanol and biodiesel to rein in skyrocketing prices for corn, rice, soybeans and wheat.

For the first time, it's been clear that we are consuming more rice than we are producing globally

Joachim von Braun, director general of the U.S.-based International Food Policy Research Institute, cited "major policy failures" at the core of the crisis, in which recent food price spikes have led to violent riots and threats of starvation in poor nations, and prompted United Nation calls to lift export bans.

Clip Source: dsc.discovery.com

high prices could force a billion people to limit their food consumption, leading to drastic malnutrition.

Tags: starvation, biofuels, grain, malnutrition, food

Can-struction Fights Hunger with Sculpture

Thu, 25 Oct 2007 02:26:59 GMT

clipped by: Marcariel
clipper's remarks: You have to see these sculptures to believe them!! Look at the winning sculptures in each division and see the creativity and engineering skills that went into each design.

What a wonderful way to give ... to the hungry and to amaze our eyes and minds!

Clip Source: www.canstruction.org

Canstruction^® is the most unique food charity in the world!

A foundation of the Society for Design Administration (SDA), Canstruction^® is a design/build competition currently held in cities throughout North America. Teams of architects, engineers, and students mentored by these professionals, compete to design and build giant structures made entirely from full cans of food.

Clip Source: www.canstruction.org

The results are displayed to the public as magnificent sculpture exhibits in each city where a competition is held. At the close of the exhibitions all of the canned food used in the structures is donated to local food banks for distribution to emergency feeding programs that include pantries, soup kitchens, elderly and day care centers.

Since its inception, ten million pounds of food has been donated to aid in the fight against hunger.

Tags: food bank, hunger, charity, donated, sculpture, canned food

Children "Fattened Up Before Ritual Killing

Fri, 05 Oct 2007 20:29:10 GMT

clipped by: Marcariel
clipper's remarks: We may never really know the full reasoning behind all of the ritualistic killing in native cultures. If there are no written documents to shed light on what we view as pagan, cruel rituals, we can only study and continue to speculate on the religious significance.

These killings, or sacrifices to the religious powers (gods or goddesses), are in evidence world wide, on every continent. Interesting reading.

Clip Source: news.nationalgeographic.com

Children selected for Inca ritual sacrifice were "fattened up" with high-protein diets in the months leading up to their deaths, a new study has found.

By studying the ratios of chemicals present in the hair, the team helped show how victims were prepared for death as far as a year in advance, sent on grueling highland journeys, and drugged before the sacrificial ceremonies.

"It is chilling that the children themselves, through their own tissue, give us graphic details and evidence that they were not killed on a whim but were part of a complex process for which they were selected some considerable time before,"

One extremely well preserved mummy—a 15-year-old girl known as "La Doncella" or the "Llullaillaco Maiden"—appears to have been selected for sacrifice a year in advance

12 months before her death, her diet becomes protein rich," Wilson said, adding that she was likely fed "elite" food such as maize and llama meat.

insights into the preparatory stages leading to Inca ritual killing

Tags: inca, ritual killing, children, food, drugs

Tainted Beef - Putting Poison on Your Table

Mon, 01 Oct 2007 14:25:57 GMT

clipped by: Marcariel
clipper's remarks: I hate it that we can't be safe from poison food no matter where it comes from. China is a major player, but there can be tainted food coming from your own country, and even caused by your own thawing, preparing, and cooking practices.

Clip Source: abcnews.go.com

The Topps Meat Co.'s massive frozen hamburger beef recall has many shoppers worried about the safety of their meat, after it may have sickened 25 people in eight states.

The recall, which includes 21.7 million pounds of meat, is enough to make a McDonald's regular hamburger for every adult in America.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture, which oversees the industry, said there were no recall delays. However, when the first recall went out Tuesday, only a small amount was recalled. By the weekend, the recall was expanded by more than 600 times.

If you find any of the recalled meat in your freezer, the safest thing to do is throw it away. Of the nine brands recalled, the ones affected have a sell-by date between Sept. 25, 2007, and Sept. 25, 2008, along with a package number of 9748.

Clip Source: abcnews.go.com

To prevent E. coli from developing in meat when you prepare it at home always cook it to at least 155 degrees. Also, don't defrost meat on the counter. Use a refrigerator or microwave.

Tags: recall, beef, e coli.bacteria, usda, meat

"Obesity" Olympics? China Joins the Cola Wars

Thu, 13 Sep 2007 15:14:55 GMT

clipped by: Marcariel
clipper's remarks: Here we are sending our corn syrup laden, fat producing colas to China, and they send their poison food over here. Fair trade? Our product makes them fat (which in the long run can kill you from obesity and poor health) and theirs kills outright. Fair Trade?

Seriously ... I feel sorry for their children being introduced to Western culture by destroying their health and becoming addicted to colas. Soft drinks are not one of our better representatives!

Clip Source: blog.healthpolitics.org

One thing is pretty clear if you’re a developing nation, and that is that multi-national marketers have you in their cross-hairs. And for China or India -- with huge populations -- that goes double.

China, of course, is a special case. Whether it be tobacco consumption, an electrical grid fired by dirty coal, a marred food and product safety chain, or infrastructure expansion at rates that make it difficult to manage quality -- in all of these cases, success (translation: economic growth) in the present is being mortgaged with the health of future populations.

One small measure of growth in the wrong direction is the increased ingestion by Chinese citizens of "liquid corn” -- that is, carbonated beverages whose major additive, beyond water, is high fructose corn syrup.

But in the Cola Wars, these things are not taken lightly. There's a lot at stake here: 8 to 10 billion liters in sales by the time the Olympics roll around.

Tags: china, obesity, cola, corn syrup, pepsi, coke

Biodiesel - Run Your Car on Used Fast Food Oil

Mon, 10 Sep 2007 14:19:39 GMT

clipped by: Marcariel
clipper's remarks: What a surprise to discover that the diesel engine was invented 100 years ago to run on vegetable oil!! Daryl Hannah says she runs her car on used french fry oil she gets from a local fast food restaurant! She takes it to a local processor who filters it for use in her car.

Daryl Hannah says, "we’re a consumer nation and you have the power to influence these big corporations who are running the world right now through what you chose to, or not to, purchase." I'd switch ... wouldn't you?

Clip Source: www.sustainablestyle.org

Actor and biodiesel enthusiast Daryl Hannah has been using biodiesel for over five years.

It made sense to me as soon as I found out it was even a possibility because it’s so much cleaner burning. It gets us off of our dependency on fossil fuels and foreign oil as well so we don’t have to go to war for oil.

I live in a place where they are constantly threatening to destroy the landscape for the mining of our natural resources, (so) it’s just something I’ve always been really aware of. The combination of trying to offset both the pollution and devastating our natural resources

Most people are really stunned to find out that the technology has been around for more than 100 years, and that the diesel engine was in fact invented to run on vegetable oil.

It has a toxicity level somewhere between table salt and maple syrup. You can carry it around because it’s not flammable, and it’s vegetable oil.

to get 90 miles to one gallon of vegetable oil, that’d be phenomenal.

Tags: biodiesel, fuel, cooking oil, vegetable oil

Silent Crisis - We Need More Food Now Than In Recorded History

Fri, 31 Aug 2007 01:22:47 GMT

clipped by: Marcariel
clipper's remarks: More food production needed in next 50 years than in all recorded history. The planet needs to produce more food over the coming 50 years than it did in the last 10,000 years combined.

Clip Source: www.infoshop.org

To meet the needs of a rapidly rising human population, the planet needs to produce more food over the coming 50 years than it did in the last 10,000 years combined, warn experts organizing a major world forum on the critical need to restore and protect Earth’s precious soil resources. While demand for soil’s services are growing, however, the problems of land degradation and desertification are intensifying in many parts of the world -- a creeping environmental crisis affecting one-third of all people on Earth today and worsened by the effects of warming global temperatures.

'More Food Needed Now Than in All Recorded History'

Tags: food, water, crisis

Fast Food Menu Survival

Tue, 21 Aug 2007 15:49:59 GMT

clipped by: Marcariel
clipper's remarks: Healthy eating habits start in childhood. It's hard to teach the "old dogs" new food tricks. It's up to the young mothers and fathers to help redirect their children to healthier eating habits ... and the fast food chains are trying to keep pace with this for an improved image and "bottom line".

Clip Source: www.webmd.com

Take-Out Food Tips

Take-out doesn’t have to mean the end of a healthy diet. Try some suggestions on how to trim trouble out of your take-out.

Tags: fast food, diet, fat, lean, choices, healthy

There's Corn in My Hamburger?

Fri, 11 May 2007 16:01:09 GMT

clipped by: Marcariel
clipper's remarks: Here we are fast food nation. Sweeteners invading almost every food we eat.

Clip Source: blog.healthpolitics.org

The subject of this week’s Health Politics program might come as quite a shock to you. The gist? There’s corn in nearly every processed food we eat.

This might not sound like such a big deal at first. Corn is good for us, right? Yes … and no. Corn in its natural state can be a sound, healthy element of anyone’s diet -- corn itself is not harmful. But what man does with corn -- such as force-feed it to cows to get more marbleized, less healthy meat, or process it into high-fructose corn syrup that shows up in everything from soft drinks to bread – is the problem.

In fact, the pervasiveness of corn and corn byproducts in our processed foods is likely a significant contributor to our obesity problem.

Want to know more? Take a look at this week’s program and let me know what you think.

Tags: obesity, hamburgers, corn syrup, food additives

Corn in Your McDonald's = Prices Up

Fri, 11 May 2007 15:44:50 GMT

clipped by: Marcariel
clipper's remarks: This is why fast food is so high calorie ... lots of corn (fruit sugars) and corn sweeteners. Fast food equals fat people.

Clip Source: blog.healthpolitics.org

A recent Wall Street Journal article made a direct connection between corn prices and McDonald's pricing and profitability. And well they should. As outlined in this week's Health Politics, a visit to fast food outlets in the U.S. and around the world means that you'll be eating corn (from which the beef, the bun and the condiments are derived) and washing it down with more corn (in the form of high-fructose corn syrup, the sweeteners in both Coke and Pepsi).

Projections are that McDonald's won't see the pinch from high corn prices for another quarter since it advance purchases large quantities of materials. But analyst Steven Kron from Goldman Sachs says, "As we move through the year, and those contracts start to get renewed" their costs will move higher. As the WSJ put it, "That could ultimately give the food chain a bad case of indigestion."

Tags: mcdonald's, corn, prices