Dr. Neal Barnard of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine was recently made fun of by for insisting that hot dogs are addictive. And recent research coming by way of universities and government facilities suggests there may actually be more truth to the claim than The Daily Show gave the PCRM credit for; and even adding to the list a number of processed and sugary foods and beverages that can cause addictive behaviors on par with alcohol, tobacco and other serious drugs like cocaine.

Californians may have just spotted a gem amidst the rubble of America's crumbling economy: The California FreshWorks Fund is a $200 million public-private partnership aimed at increasing healthy and affordable food for the state's most challenged communities.

A story appearing on the ABC news website on June 21 reveals that major U.S. snack companies are paying experts to "debunk" scientific research studies linking their products to negative health effects like the rising number of cases of childhood obesity and diabetes.

Anyone wondering why more than 23 million U.S. children and adolescents are overweight or obese can find the answer in a study published this month in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association.

Researchers from the National Cancer Institute can sum it up in two words: empty calories.

Here are the basic findings:

Adults tend to consume less pizza and soda when prices increase, and their body weight and overall calorie intake also appear to decrease, according to a report in yesterday’s edition of Archives of Internal Medicine.

“To compensate for food environments where healthful foods (i.e., fresh fruits and vegetables) tend to cost more, public health professionals and politicians have suggested that foods high in calories, saturated fat or added sugar be subject to added taxes and/or that healthier foods be subsidized,” the authors write as background information in the article. “Such manipulation of food prices has been a mainstay of global agricultural and food policy, used as a means to increase availability of animal foods and basic commodities, but it has not been readily used as a mechanism to promote public health and chronic disease prevention efforts.”

Between 1985 and 2005, a 10% price increase was associated with a 7% decrease in calories consumed from soda and a 12% decrease in calories consumed from pizza, according to lead researcher Kiyah J. Duffey, PhD, and colleagues at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

A $1 increase in the cost of soda or pizza was also associated with a lower overall daily calorie intake, lower body weight and improved insulin resistance score. A $1 increase in the cost of both soda and pizza was associated with even greater changes.

The researchers estimate an 18% tax on these foods would result in a decline of roughly 56 calories per person per day—the equivalent of 5 pounds per person per year—with corresponding reductions in the risk of obesity-related diseases.

“In conclusion, our findings suggest that national, state or local policies to alter the price of less healthful foods and beverages may be one possible mechanism for steering U.S. adults toward a more healthful diet,” the authors write. “While such policies will not solve the obesity epidemic in its entirety and may face considerable opposition from food manufacturers and sellers, they could prove an important strategy to address overconsumption, help reduce energy intake, and potentially aid in weight loss and reduced rates of diabetes among U.S. adults.”

For Your Organic Bookshelf: Appetite for Profit: How the Food Industry Undermines Our Health and How to Fight Back

If your children enjoy Nickelodeon shows like SpongeBob SquarePants, Rugrats, Drake & Josh or iCarly, they’re getting more than an entertainment break. 

As I reported in June 2007, 88% of Nick’s advertising (TV, magazine, character-related) promoted junk food, according to a study conducted by the Center for Science in the Public Interest. A new CSPI study reveals a negligible improvement: 80% of Nick’s ads encourage consumption of nutritionally poor foods. 

While advertisers have pledged to produce more responsible advertising campaigns, their efforts remain lackluster, and studies show children are heavily influenced by fast-food branding.

“While industry self-regulation is providing some useful benchmarks, it’s clearly not shielding children from junk-food advertising, on Nick and elsewhere,” says Dr. Margo G. Wootan, CSPI’s nutrition policy director. “It’s a modest start, but not sufficient to address children’s poor eating habits and the sky-high rates of childhood obesity.

“Nickelodeon should be ashamed that it earns so much money from carrying commercials that promote obesity, diabetes and other health problems in young children,” she adds. “If media and food companies don’t do a better job exercising corporate responsibility when they market foods to children, Congress and the FTC will need to step in to protect kids’ health.”

For Your Child’s Organic Bookshelf

1. Janey Junkfood’s Fresh Adventure
2. Johnny’s Journey with His Junk Food
3. Junk Food June
4. The Race Against Junk Food

Sugary soft drinks are nutritionally bankrupt beverages that contribute to obesity, diabetes and rotting teeth. So, why is the American Academy of Family Physicians—a professional organization that boasts of representing more than 94,600 U.S. doctors—crawling into bed with Coca-Cola?

As reported Thursday by Associated Press Medical Writer Lindsey Tanner, the AAFP has signed a six-figure deal with Coke dealers to “fund educational materials about soft drinks.”

“We’ve made a conscious choice to diversify our revenue,” said AAFP President-Elect Lori Heim, MD,  in a press statement.

As a result, some family doctors are canceling their memberships—the only sane bit of news in this story. One can only hope the rest of America’s family docs will protest the alliance and, if rebuffed, follow suit.

FYI: Coca-Cola CEO Muhtar Kent thinks his carbonated cans of empty calories are fine and dandy, and he protested proposed “sin taxes” on soft drinks in an Oct. 7 Wall Street Journal op-ed piece. I can't wait to see his "educational" materials.

Many of our nation’s neighborhoods simply don’t have access to supermarkets, let alone fresh organic fruits and veggies. Chips, soda and other packaged, chemical-filled, unhealthy ‘convenience foods’ are cheap and readily available at the corner store…a far cry from the nourishment our body naturally craves, and a key contributor to the obesity epidemic.

The term for geographic food inequity is ‘food desert,’ and it’s defined as a district with little or no access to foods needed to maintain a healthy diet…but often served by plenty of fast food restaurants.  It was coined by Mari Gallagher, a researcher who has delved deep into the topic and found that food deserts exist in every type of community across the U.S — urban, rural and suburban.

I was moved by a profile on Chicago-based Graffiti and Grub and its founder, La Donna Redmond, on CNN last week. Her community garden and store focuses on supplying several low-income Chicago communities with sustainable, organic and locally-grown food. This quote says it all…

“You could find drugs in my community, you could find a gun in my community, but you couldn’t find a tomato.”
-LaDonna Redmond

One of the critical areas of good eating habits is education – ideally from an early age as so brilliantly executed in Alice Waters’ inspirational Edible Schoolyard project. In a similar vein, Graffiti and Grub is focused on ‘providing the hip hop generation with the tools needed for maintaining a healthy lifestyle.’

Kudos to those hard-working advocates committed to changing the food desert into an organic food oasis.

Are you familiar with ‘food deserts’? I’m curious to know whether there is awareness of this issue. Let me know!

And all this food means a lot of waste. Go to any public park or look outside any restaurant and you’ll find a ton of discarded food strewn about.

But crows love it! These crafty little scavengers snatch up garbage like a feast, but a diet of fast food and pastries is bad, even for crows.

Leftover junk food isn’t nutritious and the chicks of urban crows are smaller and deficient in protein and calcium, compared to crows living in rural areas. Suburban crows eating natural food grow up bigger and stronger.

Here’s the problem. Crows are opportunists and scientists suspect they’ll feed their young with whatever is easier to find and cities are hotbeds for scraps of junk.

Via Discoblog.