December 27th, 2012

s we start 2013, many people will be thinking about plans and promises to improve their diet and health. But we think a broader collection of farmers, policy-makers, and eaters need new, bigger resolutions for fixing the food system – real changes with long-term impacts in fields, boardrooms, and on plates all over the world. These are resolutions that the world can’t afford to break with nearly one billion still hungry and more than one billion suffering from the effects of being overweight and obese. We have the tools—let’s use them in 2013!

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July 5th, 2012

Breakfast is important. You’ve likely heard this before, and now, the evidence is growing.

Research shows that the 18 percent of Americans older than 2 who regularly skip breakfast tend to weigh more and have other unhealthy habits, like eating too many sugary drinks or snacks, according to food experts speaking at the Institute of Food Technologists 2012 annual meeting in Las Vegas.

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May 2nd, 2012

There’s been a lot of talk about the billions of dollars we spend in the US for healthcare, and how so much of that money goes toward treating illnesses that could have been prevented, such as heart disease or diabetes, which are closely associated with overeating and a sedentary lifestyle. But there’s another major preventable medical condition that contributes to the healthcare drain on our society.

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March 20th, 2012

Obesity contributes to diabetes, hypertension and heart disease.
This we know from numerous studies and clinical observations.
Soon, however, another major illness may be confirmed on the list of those triggered or worsened by obesity: Colon cancer, the second leading cancer killer in the United States (after lung cancer).

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July 19th, 2011

A mozzarella stick grilled cheese sandwich? A burger topped with pork belly smoked cheese AND a fried egg?

What will American restaurants not do to entice us to belly up, literally?
Apparently, despite all the warning bells about American obesity, shortened lifespans and soaring health care costs, they won’t tone it down, or help you tone up.
The Center for Science in the Public Interest has turned a spotlight on menu trends, discovering that mainstream American eateries continue to roll out over-stuffed, grease-packed new concoctions in an apparent competition to out fat the competition.

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October 1st, 2010

Reading Scientific American this week, I became transfixed with a little graphic the editors included at the back of the magazine.
It showed how the number of Americans who are seriously overweight has doubled over the past 30 years. Thirty four percent of Americans are now considered obese (meaning they have a body mass index over 30), compared with 15 percent who met that criteria in 1980.

The number of Americans who are overweight (with a BMI of 25 to 30) has remained almost steady; but that still means that the overweight and the obese together now comprise a hefty 68 percent of the population.

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March 31st, 2010

From Green Right Now Reports

We’d all like to have our cake, and eat it too. But while that’s impossible, it may soon be true that we can eat our cake with fewer calories and have it taste as good.

Possibly.

The USDA’s National Center for Agricultural Utilization Research in Peoria is developing cake mixes that zap fat and calories, but without stripping the dessert of its flavor and texture.

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May 14th, 2009

By Barbara Kessler
Green Right Now

Veggie advocates want American omnivores to adopt a day without meat. Well, some of them want us to just give up meat totally, but I’m talking about the Meatless Monday campaign here, which argues that if we’d cut out the steaks and pork chops on just this one day, we’d reduce the saturated fat that we consume and make a big dent in the greenhouse gas emissions produced by the livestock industry.

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January 23rd, 2009

By Paula Minahan
Green Right Now

Piles of cracked and broken shells. Gnawed bones pushed aside. Remnants of what tempted with shameless excess. And in the background, a young Army recruit observes, “This is what we fight for, you know. Not so you can waste food, but so you can have plenty.”

It’s just another day at one of Sin City’s copious casino buffets as depicted in the award-winning documentary, Buffet: All You Can Eat Las Vegas. The film, shown on PBS and at indie festivals nationwide, is MIT cultural anthropology professor and filmmaker Dr. Natasha Dow Schüll’s sometimes humorous, often outrageous look at American indulgence.

“Las Vegas is a great exemplification of things that are shared, that are afoot in American culture in a very extreme way,” says Schüll. “All over America, the buffet amplifies things endemic to our society. It doesn’t surprise me this kind of waste, which is celebrated as a public ritual at the buffet, is carrying over to the more private domain of the household. It’s very OK to throw out food.”

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