Green Options » junk food

Will the Feds Finally Boot Junk Food From Public Schools?

Derek Markham — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 05:26:53 +0000

Representative Lynn Woolsey (D-CA) is introducing a bill to Congress that would finally get junk foods out of our schools, addressing skyrocketing childhood obesity rates and bringing school nutrition standards forward 40 years.

“Despite pockets of progress in some states and school systems, most schools make junk food readily available to children. But junk food in schools helps fuel an epidemic of obesity and diabetes in children. And, it undercuts the considerable federal investment we make in the healthy school lunch program.” - Margo Wootan, Center for Science in the Public Interest nutrition policy director

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Kids Who Watch Too Much TV Become Junk Food Adults

Jennifer Lance — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 04:25:35 +0000

The negative effects on children of watching too much television are well known, and the American Academy of Pediatrics has recommended children not watch more than two hours a day.

New research from the University of Minnesota has found that teens who watch more than five hours of TV a day are more likely to become fast food junkies when they grow up.

The study published in the International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity followed 1,366 high school students and 564 middle school students. Data was collected on the number of hours spent watching TV every day, which was then compared to their dietary habits five years later. According to Natural News:

The researchers found that high school students who watched over 5 hours of TV each day consumed less fruits, vegetables, whole grains and calcium-rich foods as young adults, and instead had a higher intake of fast food, fried foods, snack foods, sugary drinks as well as foods with trans fats.

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Little Debbie Adds Snack Food to Salmonella Peanut Butter Recall

Jennifer Lance — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 17:05:33 +0000

I would never in a million years feed my children Little Debbie products, but I remember eating them as a child.

Yesterday, Little Debbie announced the recall of its snack products containing peanut butter due to concerns of salmonella contamination.

Salmonella can be deadly, especially to children, and the company has responded with a voluntary recall of cookies, cakes, ice cream and other foods with peanut butter. The focus of the recall is peanut paste, in addition to peanut butter, produced at Peanut Corp.’s Blakely, Ga., facility. The peanut paste, made from roasted peanuts, which is often an ingredient in cookies, cakes and other products. Little Debbie has included its Peanut Butter Cheese sandwich cookies and Peanut Butter Toasty sandwich crackers in the recall.

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Another Reason to Eat Healthy: Clean Fingerprints

Shirley Siluk Gregory — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 15:41:39 +0000

OK, looking for ways to keep your fingerprints from giving you away at a crime scene isn’t really a valid reason for eating well. But it does give one pause to learn that criminals who eat lots of junk food leave behind sweatier, saltier and easier-to-detect fingerprints.

You can learn more about this fascinating discovery at the University of Leicester’s news pages.

Image credit: Jeffrey O. Gustafson at Wikimedia Commons.

Seven Eco-friendly Options for Less Junky Junk Food

Sharon Troy — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 17:27:24 +0000

I confess: as much as I wish I could say every meal I eat is as healthy as my quinoa and kale salad, sometimes I just have a craving for junk food. Ya know?

When I first went vegetarian seven years ago I quickly realized how easy it was to replace meat with junk food. After all, I’d sacrificed so much my giving up chicken that I should reward myself with donuts, right? They’re vegetarian! And so are potato chips, and candy bars, and french fries…

But not only are these instant gratification foods loaded with calories, sodium, and often trans fats, but they’re not particularly eco-friendly. Consider even “healthy” choices like Nabisco’s 100 Calorie Packs of Oreos, Chips Ahoy, and the like. All come individually wrapped, and I’ve made it clear how I feel about overpackaging.

So what’s an eco-conscious consumer to do when you just want a quick bite? I’ve done you the favor of sampling some of the finest junk foods my co-op had to offer. (The things you do for research.) Consider some of these alternatives:

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Junky! So Junky! Healthy Children, Healthy Planet Week 4

Ali Benjamin — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 03:40:37 +0000

This post reflects on the fourth week of my seven-part “Healthy Children, Healthy Planet” curriculum, a fantastic discussion group by the Northwest Earth Institute.

So far, our Healthy Children, Healthy Planet discussion group has tackled family dinners, consumer-free holidays, the over-programming of children’s activities, advertisements, and whether parents deserve a Bill of Rights, and what kind of moments can be used to pass down values. This week, the conversation turns to everyone’s favorite enemy: junk food.

Ah, junk food. It’s true what they say: we have become a junk food nation. We are a nation of processed food, of food in boxes, of omnipresent vending machines, of gas stations that stop selling gas, because the real money is in snacks.

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