Why does it have to be all about obesity?

This post (from a blog I actually like and don’t mean to put down!) quite correctly criticizes Coke for pretending to take action against obesity while actually contributing to it. No surprises there. It’s a story to work up any anti-corporate activist into a seething ball of righteous indignation, and I’m glad someone is covering it.

But the post did make me think: is it possible that, in focusing so heavily on obesity specifically, we’re crippling our own arguments? After all, Coke can always show up with the perfectly legitimate studies showing that sugar water is no more obesogenic than any other food with the same number of calories, and defend themselves with all the familiar language about “moderation” and “portion control.”

I navel-gaze because it's my blog and I can

I've been putting together some things in my head lately...

While we're talking about food label reform...

...can we have some more of these?

Not as a substitute for actual regulations that cut down on the amount of deception that can be smeared all over a Captain Krunch box, but in addition to them.

Maybe more people would be willing to buy and cook healthy food if they didn't have to go through the extra step to look up a recipe. For me, that's a lot of fun, but if you're wondering "do I want to take a chance on this strange new vegetable?" and you're still at the point where vegetables are new and kind of scary, I can see how a label like this would be very reassuring: it isn't any more complicated than nuking a frozen pizza! Well done, E. Miedema & Sons.

Psychology bonus points: it's very much a step in favor of "promote the good" rather than "demonize/fear the bad."

Mealworm Recipe: Eggs Gone Fishing

A Truly Paleo Recipe: Mealworm Meatballs

 (Look, I can do pretty blog graphics, too!)

The 99/1 Principle

I just got hooked on the blog Exuberant Animal, and spent about an hour compulsively reading posts, because I couldn't stop. That blog is the blog I wanted to write, but I wasn't good enough. It's the blog that my hypothetical self-who-has-her-shit-together would write.

And now I'm simultaneously incredibly inspired and incredibly frustrated.

The Paleo Canoe Trip

So I went canoeing. On Lake Superior. 11 lonely days far, far away from my oven and slow-cooker and beloved jar of coconut oil. We were not allowed to bring any glass containers or aluminum cans, due to the regulations of the park we were camping in, so there was no jarred/canned food. And I actually stayed mostly Paleo in the process (by my own relatively relaxed standards of "Paleo"). Here's what I ate:

Food and The Great Gatsby

I went to see The Great Gatsby today - a movie where the characters spend a lot of time in typical social eating environments, but rarely actually consume any food. They go to parties (and drink); they go to bars and clubs (and drink), but I don't recall them eating much at all.

Nick is the exception, but his food (the cupcakes for tea with Gatsby and Daisy) is a sign of exactly how maladapted to this particular world he is. It's played as funny: the "innocent outsider" character trying to participate in a culture that's ultimately beyond him. The other characters don't seem to eat at all; even when Nick comes to lunch at the end, all they seem to have is booze and cigarettes.

I've read the book a couple times but can't remember if the same is true in the actual novel, or if it's just the movie. But either way, I like it as an aspect of the story, as an outer sign of how emotionally and psychologically malnourished everyone in the novel seems to be. It reminds me a lot of The Sun Also Rises and the desperate expats drinking absinthe for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.