Does Slurpee signal a sign of the time?

So, I woke up to a sobering little sound bite this morning on npr. Given that most things these days are brought to me by a ‘proud corporate sponsor’, and that anything that can fit a corporate logo probably has one, I should not have been surprised to hear that Baltimore’s mounted police unit is but the latest public service to go to market. After all, this is America, where even the walls of classrooms and churches broadcast the messages of advertisers.

Facing funding deficits that would have eliminated the unit, the city of Baltimore turned to the support of private financiers to save the city’s mounted police force. According to last week’s coverage in USA Today,

“Fundraising efforts that brought in about $100,000 and included everything from a $5,000 contribution by 7-Eleven to the receipts from a lemonade stand operated by Sophia Litrenta, 9, who collected about $2,000 in August, says Anthony Guglielmi, a spokesman for the police commissioner's office.”

So while I’ve yet to hear of little Sophia’s ambition to brand herself as ‘Horse Hero of the Year,’ it appears 7-Eleven’s charity may have had a few strings (or at least naming rights) attached. Just ask Barney, Belle, Binx, Buster, Butch and Blackie, who will be known from here on out as Slurpee.

With the ubiquity of McDonald’s promotion and sponsorship these days, perhaps it’s only a matter of time before ‘Butch’ is renamed ‘French Fry’, ‘Binx’ becomes ‘BigMac’ and ‘Buster’ earns his title of “Mayor McCheese”.

Photo: By Doug Kapustin, for USA TODAY

Weigh Less Pay Less

Would you hit the gym if your employer offered you, say, a free iPod?

Corporate Wellness Programs are creating cool incentives, from cash to coupons, while helping employees improve their health and cut health care costs. America’s employers offer everything from vending machines with healthier snacks to reduced gym memberships and lunch-time walking clubs. Some companies even forbid the hiring of smokers.

Whole Foods recently implemented the Team Member Healthy Discount Incentive Program, which offers employees additional discounts on groceries purchased at the chain; if employees meet certain health related benchmarks, they can get a discount of up to 30 percent. Johnson & Johnson saw a $225 per employee per year reduction in health care costs in 2002 from their corporate wellness program. IBM has given employees more than $130 million in what are called wellness incentives: stop smoking or exercise three times a week and get an additional $150 tagged onto your paycheck.

To those who oppose shape-up programs, it’s important to remember that the programs are entirely voluntary and it’s up to the individual to choose how they will achieve their desired wellness goals. Providing financial incentive to promote healthy behavior seems like a clever way that speaks to employers’ very real concerns about health costs being high and unhealthy behaviors contributing to them.

Photo: ABC News Photo Illustration

Soda Industry Blowing Smoke

The soda industry is behaving like the tobacco industry of yesterday: marketing to innocent children, claiming the product is healthy (or harmless), and lobbying heavily to prevent change.

The soda industry's main counterclaim is that there are major differences between tobacco and soda. They assert that, in moderate quantities, soda is neither harmful nor addictive. However, the average American drinks about 50 gallons of soda per year. Plus, more and more studies support the idea that soda consumption plays an important role in the increasing levels of childhood obesity.

Attention is being paid: last week, the Obama administration announced a plan to ban candy and sweetened beverages from schools.

A tax on sugary beverages has been implemented in Arkansas, Tennessee, Virginia, Washington and West Virginia, and Chicago imposed a three percent retail tax on soft drinks. Soda taxes were proposed in at least 12 other states in 2009, although none were approved. Other ideas: tax the syrup used to sweeten soda and a penny-per-ounce tax on sugared beverages (a 75-cent can would now cost 87 cents).

The public war against tobacco worked: Americans smoke at half the rate they once did, half of all smokers have quit, and tobacco companies finance antismoking campaigns. Anti-tobacco litigators fought against Joe Camel and won, however many, such as public health advocates, view this victory as restricted marketing and are pushing for more aggressive actions urging soda advertising be treated like tobacco.

Soda, like tobacco, has no nutritional value and is harmful when consumed on a daily basis. Therefore, a tax on soda will do two things: first, it will decrease the incentive of people to purchase it and two, it will help fund the ever-growing coast of treating diet-related diseases, which today, adds up to the tune of $147 billion!

Photo: http://www.made-in-england.org/images/big.jpg

Nutrition labels – fact or fiction?

Are back-of-the-box nutrition labels lying to you?


Let’s put it this way: they aren’t telling the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Ever since companies were required to start printing nutrition labels on their products 15 years ago, they’ve added in enough tricks and half-truths to make it pretty tough to get a real sense of what went into the product they want you to buy.

The good folks at the Center for Science in the Public Interest have proposed an overhaul of the nutrition label that will help clear the air. CSPI is calling on the FDA to roll out a new set of standards that will make nutrition labels easier to read and interpret – so that they can serve as the useful nutrition tool they were meant to be. The changes being proposed wouldn’t just affect the information shown; they would also fix the way it’s displayed.

These are just a few of the big changes:

• When a product contains more than 20% of the daily recommended amount of something – sugars, fats, sodium, etc. – the percentage would be printed in red and accompanied by a “High” warning label
• Ingredients would be grouped by type (for example, all the different sugars would be clumped together) and the label would display how much of the serving was made up of those ingredients
• The label would print precisely what percentage of the grains are actually whole grains

CSPI also proposed a set of smaller changes that would help consumers read through the labels. Instead of clumping the ingredients together in all capital letters, they’d be printed normally and separated by bullets. Plus, the information currently contained on labels that simply isn’t useful for consumers would be eliminated.

The FDA is already considering other changes, like updating serving sizes and moving the nutrition label to the front of the box. It’s time for the label itself to get a makeover, too.

Chime in – do you use nutrition labels? Are they a help, or a hindrance?

Photo: http://smallbitesnutrition.blogspot.com/2007_12_01_archive.html

Brown is the New White Rice: Multicultural Cuisine at Olympic Games

With its vibrant ornamental gate, traditional garden and Shanghai-style hanging lamps, the suburb of Richmond, an enclave outside of Vancouver, lays claim to the title of Chinatown. Recent immigrants have come in waves from Hong Kong, China, and Taiwan changing the culinary makeup of the city just in time for the Olympics.

When it comes to feeding athletes from 85 countries, rice seems to be the glue that holds Vancouver’s multicultural cuisine together. The two Olympic villages in Vancouver and Whistler, B.C., will be preparing an array of ethnic foods that will be available to fuel athletes. According to Nejat Sarp, who will oversee every aspect of food in the Winter Game’s mess halls, depending on the athletes’ cultural expectations, rice will come in many forms. The Japanese will want their white rice steamed, the Chinese will go for fried rice, the Koreans will like it spicy and Middle Eastern athletes will prefer the basmati variety. For the American athletes, they go for brown rice.

These rice-loving, ethnic hot spots will be steaming and frying throughout the opening and closing ceremonies:

The Noodle Box: A South-East Asian noodle bar with spicy curries and rice-noodles for slurping. (1867 West 4th Ave Vancouver BC V6J 1M3)





Posh Restaurant: A home-grown restaurant serving Japanese Sukiyaki, a form of Hot Pot, with bubbling broth and veggies, tofu, noodles and seafood. (101-1788 West Broadway Vancouver, BC)







Mongolie Grill: Create your own stir-fry by choosing a protein, fresh vegetable and starch combo. (201-4295 Blackcomb Way Whistler, BC)







Regardless of your rice likes, it’s nice to know that there is no need to stray from healthy foods and cultural roots while enjoying the winter games.

Photo: http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1143/1469663407_768109e634_o.jpg

The Golden Arches Groping for Gold

Imagine Apolo Anton Ohno stuffing down a greasy burger then lacing up his speed skates and winning the gold. Not necessarily a picture of athletic health, ey?

Three new McDonald's have been built to accommodate and feed the 10,000 Olympic athletes and crew that will arrive in Vancouver on this week. McDonald's first infiltrated the Olympics in 1968 when they delivered hamburgers via plane to American athletes in Grenoble, France (the corporate claim: athletes craved the familiar taste of home). Since then McDonald's has provided food service to millions of athletes, their families and fans at the games, but at what price to our health?

This partnership between McDonald’s and the Olympic Games is harmful to our athletes and our children. Promotion of the Olympic Games should be a celebration of health, fitness and acculturation. McDonald’s advertisements and packaging that feature Olympians devouring junk lead kids to the wrong message. Target marketing directly aimed at kids – like Ronald McDonald – further amplifies the problem.

A controversy over allowing local foods to shine at the upcoming London Olympics sheds a spotlight on a debate completely missing in Vancouver; the Olympic committee missed a great opportunity to promote and encourage healthy eating choices at an international forum and introduce the public to the local, sustainable and delicious food alternatives that Vancouver has to offer.

Check in on Friday for delicious ethnic food found in Vancouver for the Olympics...

Photo: http://www.insidethegames.biz/~dontreg/images/stories/McDonalds%20and%20Olympic%20rings.jpg

Organizer Deployment: Chicago, San Francisco & Minneapolis here we come!

Value [the] Meal is taking off! This week, three top-notch organizers, Leila, Ruby and Sarah hit the ground running in Chicago, San Francisco and Minneapolis respectively. Leila hails from Maine and has organized around international human rights and is eager to hit the ground running in McDonald’s hometown. Ruby joined us from San Francisco and is looking forward to returning to her home turf to activate folks in her home community and Sarah, a New England native, joins us from environmental organizing and is looking forward to Retiring Ronald! These energetic, determined and passionate activists will recruit and establish Action Committees focused on rolling out and galvanizing support for Value [the] Meal!

As a refresher, Value [the] Meal: Challenging the Corporate Abuse of Our Food, calls on McDonald’s and other Fast-Food giants to:

• Stop fast food advertising, promotion and sponsorship that appeals to children and teenagers
• Stop manipulating public health policy and nutrition science
• Provide complete, accurate and non-promotional information about the health risks of fast food
• Reduce the negative health impacts of fast food
• Stop interfering with people’s right to decide whether or where fast food will be sold in their communities
• Pay the high costs of health care associated with diet-related diseases


Leila, Ruby and Sarah all say “If you live near one of our cities, please get involved!”

These hard-workers will keep us posted on events and other ways you can get involved, so keep an eye out for updates in your area! To learn more about our Action Committees, email info@stopcorporateabuse.org or click on your city: Chicago, San Francisco, Minneapolis

Mrs. Obama’s Food Campaign Backed by Burger King?

Last month Deborah Lapidus, Senior Organizer at Corporate Accountability International attended the U.S. Conference of Mayors where Mrs. Obama emphatically addressed the national epidemic of diet-related diseases. As the First Lady warned, this health crisis will have a worse toll than tobacco unless we change course now.

In terms of interest in public health and the environment, Mrs. Obama has brought national attention by planting the White House vegetable garden, joining in physical activities like hula-hooping, and visiting Sesame Street to discuss the virtues of eating right with Elmo.

The taskforce guiding Mrs. Obama’s decisions are Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Surgeon General Regina Benjamin. The team has just issued a new report The Surgeon General’s Vision for a Healthy and Fit Nation 2010 which makes general recommendations for a healthier America to combat obesity and improve quality of life.

The report is disappointingly vague in its recommendations, and raises several questions:

Can Regina Benjamin put aside her previous industry connections, as a nutritional advisor to Burger King, to call for fast food giants to be held accountable for their role in the epidemic of diet-related disease?

Even as she partners with Sesame Street characters to promote healthy eating, the show itself is sponsored by McDonald's, exposing millions of very young children to fast food branding at a vulnerable time in their development. How will Mrs. Obama deal with mixed messages like this?

And will HHS be brave enough overall to stand up to the food industry, and put our kids health before profits and the corporate agenda?

Photo: http://www3.pictures.zimbio.com/gi/Michelle+Obama+Hosts+Healthy+Kids+Fair+White+KbZUwe9Wa0Dl.jpg

Can fast food giants teach kids about healthy living?

The issue of childhood obesity is on everyone’s agenda, including the First Family. Which is why Chicago has implemented a series of programs to help combat the problem. Well before President Obama made this an issue of national concern in The State of the Union Address, the city had already teamed up with the Consortium to Lower Obesity in Chicago Children (CLOCC) to launch media campaigns and promote healthy living. I have to say great work Chicago but, I’m concerned about the organizations helping CLOCC with their efforts.

I worry because corporations like McDonald’s, Kraft Foods, and PepsiCo all sit on CLOCC’s Corporate Advisory Board. Leading me to ask; should corporations whose primary business is to sell unhealthy food be the ones leading this initiative? This is just one more way for corporations to market their unhealthy products to Chicago’s children.

Take for example McDonald’s, who promotes nutrition and physical activity on CLOCC’S website. On one hand that’s terrific, except in the other hand they’re waving a Happy Meal in front of kids faces (Yep that’s right McDonald’s has a convenient location at Children’s Memorial Hospital, a few floors below CLOCC’s office). These corporations are taking a big step forward by promoting healthier living, but giant steps backwards when they continue to market unhealthy products.

Instead of throwing money into a public awareness campaign to clean up their image, why don’t they clean up their products and stop making kids sick in the first place?