Advertising
-Fast food ads of items compared to real purchased meals
http://www.thewvsr.com/adsvsreality.htm
-Officials from both departments met with 11 major food companies, including Coca-Cola and McDonald’s, to shine a spotlight on the need for more responsible food marketing toward youth.
The public hearing was a follow up to a 2006 FTC report that found “among many factors, food and beverage marketing influences the preferences and purchase requests of children, influences consumption at least in the short term, and is a likely contributor to less healthful diets, and may contribute to negative diet-related health outcomes and risks among children and youth.”According to the Better Business Bureau the 11 companies involved in last week’s discussions represent two-thirds of the total children’s advertising market. http://www.qsrmagazine.com/articles/exclusives/0707/children-1.phtml
A startling $110 billion per year is spent in America on fast-food.
-In perhaps the most disturbing section of "Fast Food Nation," Schlosser reports on the rise in Colorado of corporate "sponsorships" to cover shortfalls in school districts' budgets: "Whether it's first graders learning to read or teenagers shopping for their first car, we can guarantee an introduction of your product and your company to these students in the traditional setting of the classroom," reads one chilling brochure for a Kids Power Marketing Conference. Fast-food companies are at the leading edge of this new marketing strategy, placing not just hallway ads and banners in schools but also targeted, branded educational materials in classrooms, produced with tax-deductible dollars. http://www.powells.com/biblio/0060838582?&PID=25450
Health
-Despite lacking evidence showing the direct linkage between television food advertising and childhood obesity, several industrialized countries such as Sweden, Norway, and Finland have banned commercial sponsorship of children’s programs. The problem of energy imbalance is not purely due to genetics, since our genes have not changed substantially during the past two decades. Researchers have tended to focus on environmental factors such as the availability of highly palatable and calorie condense fast food to promote high energy intake as well as the appeal of television, video games, and computers to discourage energy expenditure. 20 percent of US children aged 8 to 16 participated in 2 or fewer bouts of vigorous activity per week, and more than 26 percent watched at least 4 hours of television per day and 67 percent watched at least 2 hours per day. Between the years 1978 to 2000 the rate of obesity doubled for teenagers, and almost tripled for children. http://www.aeaweb.org/annual_mtg_papers/2007/0106_1015_2004.pdf
-A ban on fast food advertising to children could reduce the obesity rate of children by up to 18%. The study also reports that eliminating the tax deductibility associated with television advertising would result in a reduction of childhood obesity, though in smaller numbers. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/11/081119120149.htm
Fast food nutrition statistics”
• Stuffed Crust Meat Pizza: 490 Calories 27g Fat, 1570mg Sodium (per slice)
• Stuffed Burrito: 1100 Calories, 46g Fat, 2600mg Sodium
• Triple Cheeseburger: 1230 Calories, 82g Fat (110g Fat with fries), 1500mg Sodium
• Fried Chicken, 1 Breast and 1 Drumstick: 460 Calories, 27g Fat, 1300mg Sodium (per CalorieKing.com)
http://www.dietsinreview.com/diet_column/03/chef-roccos-recipes-for-fast-food-alternatives/
-Approximately 60% of Americans are overweight and 25% are obese. There are so many diseases that come along with being overweight or obese. Stroke, heart attack, diabetes, high blood pressure and arthritis are a few of the major problems that can occur. Partially hydrogenated oils and high saturated fats increase cholesterol and increase your risk of heart attacks or strokes. The high levels of sodium and preservatives can increase your blood pressure.
http://www.paystolivegreen.com/2009/02/cutting-back-fast-food-for-greener-lifestyle/
-Site with what ingredients make up the fast food we eat:
http://www.naturalnews.com/022194.html
Alternatives
-America’s top ten healthy fast food restaurants. They surveyed the nation’s 100 largest fast food restaurants and analyzed their menus from nutritious soups, healthy salads to fresh whole grains, and sensible desserts. Scored the chaings on factors like: healthy fats, preparations, healthy sodiums, availability of nutritional information, and the use of organic produce. Rank in order from best: panera bread, jason’s deli, Au Bon Pain, Noodles and Company, Corner Bakery Café, Chipotle, Atlanta Bread, McDonalds, Einstein’s Bros Bagels, Taco Del mar.
http://living.health.com/2009/02/19/americas-healthiest-fast-food-restaurants/5/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/02/20/americas-top-10-healthies_n_168642.html
-ways to avoid fast food
1. keep a cooler in back of car with snacks
2. healthy meals at home- like cereal, omlets, baked potato, chicken, black bean soup, veggie soup, pasta, frozen foods, fast snacks, fresh foots and veggies with healthy dips, and salads.
3. Cook big portions and save for later
http://www.webmd.com/diet/features/what-to-eat-instead-fast-food
-ways to order healthier items at fast food restaurants
http://www.move.va.gov/download/NewHandouts/Nutrition/N07_FastFoodAlternatives.pdf
- 5 organic meals alternatives-
1. Whole Foods organic to go meals, they also have salad bars, cold bars, hot bars and even a pizza bar for when you’re feeling naughty.
2, Organic-To-Go, a new fast food restaurant of organic meals popping up around country.
3. Gusto Organics, meals for everyone - vegans, carnivores, vegetarians and those who can’t do gluten.
4. Chipotle, The company is the country’s largest restaurant buyer of naturally raised meats and 30 percent of their beans are organic. They’re sour cream is also free of any growth hormones.
5. Dunkin Donuts, for their coffee. Back in 2003, Dunkin Donuts starting using fair trade beans in all of their espresso drinks.
- Recreating fast food items but with healthy natural ingredients. They used fresh, lean, wholesome ingredients to recreate these fast-food favorites - but they had to taste good and have low calories and low fat. They made: a whole wheat pizza, fried chicken, beef burgers and sweet potato fries, and turkey corn tacos.
http://www.dietsinreview.com/diet_column/03/chef-roccos-recipes-for-fast-food-alternatives/
-sites with easy/cheap recipes:
http://www.cheapcooking.com/easy-recipes.htm
http://dinner-recipes.suite101.com/article.cfm/meals_in_under_30_minutes
http://busycooks.about.com/od/dinnerrecipes/a/tendollarmeals.htm
http://www.thriftyfun.com/tf000892.tip.html
http://www.frugallawstudent.com/2007/09/05/12-meals-that-are-easy-cheap-and-healthy/ (aimed at busy college student)
http://www.bloglander.com/cheapeats/category/recipes/
Environment
- Everything they sell seems to be over-packaged and often made from non-recyclable materials. It’s surprising that foamed polystyrene is still heavily being used in fast food restaurants. The foam plastic is a burden on our landfills. It just never goes away and has some major negative impacts on marine wildlife. Even the materials that can be recycled are still ending up in landfills. So much so that only 35% of cardboard and plastics end up going to recycling facilities.
http://www.paystolivegreen.com/2009/02/cutting-back-fast-food-for-greener-lifestyle/
-The Sierra Club is doing a good job right now in terms of [working to mitigate] the environmental impact of factory farms. The runoff from these farms is one of the leading causes of water pollution in the United States. The hormones that they're giving to these cattle are excreted in their manure and are winding up in streams. And they're finding fish that are weirdly deformed -- their sexual organs are deformed -- downstream of these feedlots. The same system that is treating workers like they're disposable is treating [land and] animals like they're industrial commodities. There's no sense of stewardship. There's no long-term vision about what is sustainable or what's not. This is about short-term profits, pure and simple. There's a connection between a system that's poisoning the land and really sickening the people who eat the food.
-What's in all those hamburgers? They're most likely made from the meat of worn-out dairy cows (generally the least healthy cattle stock), which spend their days packed in feedlots full of pools of manure. Each burger contains parts of dozens or even hundreds of cows, increasing the likelihood that a sick one will spread its pathogens widely.Until 1997, those cows, by nature designed to be herbivorous, were fed "livestock waste" — rendered remains of dead sheep and cattle, along with the remains of millions of dead cats and dogs purchased every year from animal shelters. Thank God the law was changed: Now they're fed only the remains of horses, pigs and poultry. And if you think your fries are animal-free, guess again. While McDonald's no longer cooks them in beef tallow, a process that until 1990 gave the chain's french fries more saturated fat per ounce than its burgers, McDonald's still acknowledges that some of the flavor comes from "animal products." http://www.grist.org/news/maindish/2006/11/17/schlosser/
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