Optimism for Our (Dietary) Future

Yay! I lost a pound! Let's get triple cheese burgers!

It's easy to be cynical and see the bad side of things. Holy crap, anyone within media-ear shot of this week's Republican debates could not be blamed for thinking our democracy is being subsumed by idiots, clowns and he-man woman-haters. Despite those same right wing lunatics insisting climate change isn't real despite all evidence to the contrary, major projects at my doorstep are being planned to account for the rising sea levels, regardless of any politician's anti-science dogma.

Republican Party, circa 1930

But the thing that motivates this blog is more narrow. It's my health and the health of my children and everyone else's too, and the food that we consume that affects it. Well, maybe it's not a lost cause.

Calories consumed daily by the typical American adult, which peaked around 2003, are in the midst of their first sustained decline since federal statistics began to track the subject, more than 40 years ago. The number of calories that the average American child takes in daily has fallen even more — by at least 9 percent.

That is a mouthful, and is huge, if you believe it. Lies, damn lies, and statistics....but I'm going to go and believe it, given the seemingly credible multi-year wide-ranging studies the piece cites. Doesn't hurt that my anecdotal evidence -- which is recorded here every week for years and years, as well as my awareness of how I feed my own kids -- seems to fit neatly into the hypothesis.

The encouraging data does not mean an end to the obesity epidemic: More than a third of American adults are still considered obese, putting them at increased risk of diabetes, heart disease and cancer. Americans are still eating far too few fruits and vegetables and far too much junk food, even if they are eating somewhat less of it, experts say. 

OK, sometimes it's totally legit to hate on fruit.

As can be seen by my monthly weigh-ins and the trends that can only really be seen in annual-increments, what all this information is saying is that we might finally be past our maximum-fatness, but we still have a ways to go to get back to where we were....before sugar became cheap, plentiful and processed into a plethora of foods to make them cheaper. And there is no other source of concentrated, cheap sugar than soda.

The anti-obesity public health campaigns have focused on one subject more than any other: beverages.
Anti-soda messages hit their target. Americans, on average, purchased about 40 gallons of full-calorie soda a year in 1998, according to sales data from the industry trade publication Beverage Digest analyzed by the Center for Science in the Public Interest. That fell to 30 gallons in 2014, about the level that Americans bought in 1980, before the obesity rates took off.

If we want to get serious about the realities of what climate change is doing, it's probably too late to just cut carbon emissions -- we have to start building walls to keep the oceans out of our urban centers. And if we want to get serious about the realities of what sugar is doing, addicting people to cheap food and corporations to easy profits, there has to be a campaign similar to the one that got us hooked off of cigarettes and tobacco. Once sugar and excess calories are recognized as a addiction-manipulated health threat on the level of nicotine cancer-sticks, then maybe we'll have a change at real progress in our life times. The cause is not lost.

WEEKLY AVERAGE: 2866

OK eating week, not great but not an embarrassment. Bike riding is starting to come back to me, feeling a lot of gratitude about being healthy.

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BIKE CREDIT: 550 cal
MONDAY COUNT: 1970

SLEPT: 11pm-6am, 7 hrs

AM SNACK: 6:15 am, iced green tea

BREAKFAST 1: 10:30am, apple/beet/celery/carrot/cayenne/cucumber/ginger juice, 160 cal

BREAKFAST 2: 1pm, Fage with almonds, honey and vanilla, 450 cal

PM SNACK:  2:30pm, momma salad, cheezits, 310 cal

BIKE SNACK: 4:30pm, homemade granola bar, 350 cal

DINNER: 6:45pm, mahi mahi,  asparagus, poppa salad with dressing, 650 cal

EVENING SNACK: 7:15pm, large piece of watermelon, +/- 400 cal

EVENING SNACK: 8pm, 2 child granola bars, 200 cal
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TUESDAY COUNT: 2690 cal

SLEPT: 9pm-6am, 9hrs

AM SNACK: 6:15 am, iced green tea

BREAKFAST: 8am, apple/beet/celery/carrot/cayenne/cucumber/ginger juice, 160 cal

BREAKFAST 2: 10:15am, steel cut oatmeal 450 cal

LUNCH: 1pm, almond butter and grape jelly on whole wheat, health salad, pickes, 600 cal

PM SNACK: 4:30pm, momma salad, 100 cal

DINNER: 7pm, French Bread Pizza, poppa salad with dressing, 1080 cal

EVENING SNACK: 8pm, large piece of watermelon, +/- 300 cal

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WEDNESDAY COUNT: 3320 cal

SLEPT: 11:30pm - 5:30am, 6 hrs

AM SNACK: 5:45am, iced green tea

BREAKFAST: 8am, apple/beet/celery/carrot/cayenne/cucumber/ginger juice, 160 cal

BREAKFAST 2: 10am, fruit smoothie, 450 cal

LUNCH: 1:45pm, chicken meatballs, steamed string beans, lentil curry, pickles, 620 cal

PM SNACK: 3pm, momma salad, cheezits,310 cal

PM SNACK: 5pm, poppa salad with dressing, 200 cal

DINNER: 8pm, chipotle burrito, ice cream, 1180 cal

EVENING SNACK: 10pm, nutella, +/- 400 cal
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THURSDAY COUNT: 3440

SLEPT: 11pm-6am, 7 hours

AM SNACK: 6:15am, iced green tea

BREAKFAST 1: 10am, apple/beet/celery/carrot/cayenne/cucumber/ginger juice, 160 cal

BREAKFAST 2: 12:15pm, steel cut oatmeal, 450 cal

PM SNACK: 1:15pm, momma salad, cheezits, 310 cal

LUNCH: 4pm, poppa salad with dressing and grilled chicken, 720 cal

DINNER: 8pm, burger, fries, diet coke, +/- 1200 cal

EVENING SNACK: 10:30pm, nutella, +/- 500 cal

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FRIDAY COUNT: 2910

SLEPT: 12am-4:30am, 4.5 hours

BREAKFAST: 5am, iced green tea

BREAKFAST 1: 9:15am, apple/beet/celery/carrot/cayenne/cucumber/ginger juice, 160 cal

BREAKFAST 2: 11:15am, Fage with almonds, honey and vanilla, 450 cal

LUNCH: 2:30pm, sauteed shrimp with mushrooms, poppa salad and dressing, 630 cal

PM SNACK: 3:30pm, momma salad, cheezits, 310 cal

DINNER: 5:15pm, hot dog, fries, ice cream, +/- 1000 cal

EVENING SNACK: 8pm, beef patty, 360 cal

Another rant, imagining an ideal world.

I'm not one to fat-shame, but if your job requires you to be fit to do your duty....

I feel like there is a loop running in the back of my brain. Whenever I sit down to find a new topic to write about on this weekly blog, it gets a little louder: Regardless of right wing politicians who deny climate change to protect the interests of the energy concerns who pay their bills, insurance companies are reacting swiftly and with precision to the rising chances of losing their fortunes due to future flooding, black outs, famine and storms. And regardless of the propaganda put forward by Big Food that eating is a personal choice which government should keep from regulating or legislating, the fact is that people's habits of over consumption has caused a defined and real public health crisis. 

I've already written here about problems with child obesity and the military's problem with having a volunteer army that's fit enough to fight. Now the FBI has sounded the alarm about agents who are too fat to serve.

“The lives of your colleagues and those you protect may well depend upon your ability to run, fight and shoot, no matter what job you hold,” James B. Comey, the F.B.I. director, said in October in an internal memo to agents that was obtained by The New York Times.
The fitness tests, which started at the end of last year, are a return to a tradition begun by the F.B.I.’s first director, J. Edgar Hoover, who obsessed about his agents’ weight, as well his own considerable girth. More significantly, the tests are a response to concerns throughout the bureau about how its transformation after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, has put more stress on the agents and given them less time for fitness.

Over-consumption in our culture seems to have sneakily become synonymous with happiness, comfort, celebration, wealth and care. It should be synonymous with what it used to be associated with: gluttony, greed, sloth, laziness, waste, unfairness and imbalance. You just need to watch some commercials to see it. This feels like the same story over and over again, it's making feel a little bit batty!

In an ideal world, the culture of accountability put forward by he FBI and the military should expand to everyone -- accounts, lawyers, doctors, teachers, just about anyone will be a benefit to society if they are fit and eat right -- though it'll be at the expense of Big Food and the consumer culture. Do you want a gluttonous, overweight smoker as your primary care physician? Do you want someone who eats fast food 3 times a day teaching your child? You may be born a certain race or with a certain sexual preference, but socially shared self-destructive habits shouldn't be the basis of a protected class of people, no matter how hard manufacturers of fizzy corn syrup water try to associate their product with a vague concept of "freedom". Ill health is slavery. Those who profit from it are slave masters.

Freedom. (Feel free to replace soda cans & woman with guns and a corpse...)

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WEEKLY AVERAGE: 2667
Intense work week, in a good way. Depended on the rote eating habits to get me through,

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MONDAY COUNT: 2805

SLEPT: 11pm - 5:30am, 6.5hrs

AM SNACK: 5:45 am, iced green tea

BREAKFAST: 8am, apple/beet/celery/carrot/cayenne/cucumber/ginger juice, 160 cal

BREAKFAST 2: 11am, Steel cut oatmeal, 450 cal  

LUNCH: 2pm, falafel, split pea soup, health salad, pickle, 620 cal

PM SNACK: 4:45pm, momma salad, cheezits 310 cal

DINNER: 7pm, tilapia, asparagus,  poppa salad with dressing, 665 cal

EVENING SNACK: 7:45pm, popcorn, +/-400 cal

EVENING SNACK: 8pm, kind bar, 200 cal

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TUESDAY COUNT: 2500

SLEPT: 8:30pm- 5:15am, 8.75 hrs

AM SNACK: 5:30 am, iced green tea

BREAKFAST: 8am, apple/beet/celery/carrot/cayenne/cucumber/ginger juice, 160 cal

BREAKFAST 2: 11am, fage whole yogurt with honey, vanilla, almonds, 450 cal

LUNCH: 2pm, chicken meatballs, steamed string beans, lentil curry, pickles, 680 cal

PM SNACK: 4:45pm, momma salad, cheezits, 310 cal

DINNER: 7pm, pork tenderloin, brussel sprouts, poppa salad with dressing, ice cream, +/- 900 cal
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WEDNESDAY COUNT:3015

SLEPT: 9pm - 2am,  5 hrs

AM SNACK: 2:15 am, iced green tea

BREAKFAST 1: 7am, apple/beet/celery/carrot/cayenne/cucumber/ginger juice, 160 cal

BREAKFAST: 11am, steel cut oatmeal 450 cal

PM SNACK: 1:30pm, poppa salad with dressing, 180 cal

PM SNACK: 3pm, momma salad, cheezits 310 cal

PM SNACK: 5pm, cashews, 235 cal

DINNER: 6:15pm, Chipotle burrito, 880 cal

EVENING SNACK: 6:45pm, pint of ice cream, 800 cal
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THURSDAY COUNT: 2350

SLEPT: 8pm -3am, 3:30am- 5:30am,  9 hrs
Woke up to ride, but quickly realized I was overtired and could make myself sick without additional sleep.

AM SNACK: 5:45am, iced green tea

BREAKFAST: 6:30am, apple/beet/celery/carrot/cayenne/cucumber/ginger juice, 160 cal

BREAKFAST 2: 11am, Cabot yogurt with honey, vanilla, almonds, 500 cal

LUNCH: 2pm, work sandwich, poppa salad and dressing, +/- 480 cal

PM SNACK: 4pm, momma salad, cheezits, 310 cal

DINNER: 7pm, Meatball sangweech, salad, bruscetta, half a chocolate crepe, +/- 900 cal

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BIKE CREDIT: 320
FRIDAY COUNT: x

SLEPT: 12am-3am, 3 hours

AM SNACK: 3:15amam, iced green tea


BREAKFAST: 7:15am, apple/beet/celery/carrot/cayenne/cucumber/ginger juice, 160 cal

BREAKFAST 2: 11am, fruit smoothie, cal

LUNCH: 2pm, work sandwich, poppa salad and dressing, +/- 480 cal

PM SNACK: 4pm, momma salad, cheezits, 310 cal

DINNER: 7pm, pizza, ice scream, I don't quite remember, it's Sunday night writing this up and my brain is scrambled...

Coke Blinks

Coca Cola recently released this advert, and it is surprising. They officially and loudly profess that obesity is a thing, which is huge for one of the biggest corporations in the world. Unfortunately, that's about all they do: call it a thing, then start spinning it. As expected, they deflect responsibility by (FALSELY) claiming all calories are equal, whether from sugar, protein or fat, and put the responsibility on the consumer. Due to the Internet echo chamber, a response was crafted quickly:

Coke is seeing the future. As I've prognosticated in this forum in the past, Big Beverage and Big Food is looking ahead at a future similar to Big Tobacco, and perhaps know this cycle of correction will come ever faster so they need to get ahead of what's going to happen to their bottom line if they don't act.

It's kind of transparent what Big Bev is doing in fighting the very beginnings of real action to counter-act they damage their product does to consumers. Bloomberg's "soda ban" is going to take affect in a few months, and Big Bev has been raising (probably ineffective) court challenges to stop it, including purchasing the support of the NAACP and Hispanic Foundation. This is particularly sad, as the minorities who are supposedly represented by these groups are also more impacted by the health effects of the product Big Bev is looking to protect. Arguments that the "ban" will effect minority-owned businesses more than the exempt chain groceries like 7-11 should be an argument to close loopholes, not do-away with this progressive legislation. In the end, it's about money, and I suspect the money Big Bev gives to these groups to ensure their support is a drop in the marketing budget.

Meet Drop, the kitty who lives in a bucket!

There can be an argument that perhaps sugary soda is habit forming rather than addicting, but any one who takes the position that the empty, nutritionally void, insulin-revving calories of sugar are equivalent to all other calories are probably trying to sell you something at the expense of your health and well-being. Still, it's fascinating to watch the contortions Big Bev & Food will make in the next year as "soda bans" and increased food regulation become more accepted as common-sense.

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WEEKLY AVERAGE: 1845
Another week of a very low average, again due to flu, then to having to fast due to undergoing a colonoscopy, yick. I wonder if this hickup of low-cal weeks will hurt me, help me, or make no difference in the end.

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MONDAY COUNT: 1440
Woke up feeling OK, ended up napping noon-4:30pm, and got to bed before midnight. Clearly, this flu is on it's way out but not leaving without letting itself be known. Doesn't leave a lot of time for eating, he he. Was tempted to go out for dinner, but once I sat down and got my head straight, I realized if I had restaurant food, that would mean the majority of calories I ate would have more fat, salt, preservatives and less fiber, nutrients and water than is reasonable. Glad I stayed in.

AM SNACK: 8:30am, iced green tea, 0 cal

BREAKFAST: 10:30am, kolon bloe with whole milk, 280 cal

DINNER: 6:30pm, teryaki chicken meatballs, quinoa, chopped spinach, 7oz diet sprite, 1040 cal

EVENING SNACK: 9:45pm, pretzels, 7oz diet sprite, 120 cal

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TUESDAY COUNT: 935 cal

Had a good night's sleep, nose is 95% clear, head doesn't go fuzzy when I try to walk. However, eating was not in the cards today because....I have my 1st colonoscopy tomorrow! I usually wouldn't speak of this in public, but if I'm not going to frighten readers into thinking I have some horrible eating disorder, better just say it, he.

AM SNACK: 8:15am, iced green tea, 0 cal

BREAKFAST: 10am, fage whole yogurt with almonds, agave and vanilla, 410 cal

AM SNACK: 11am, apple/carrot/kale/beet juice, 100 cal

PM SNACK: 7-8pm, 64 oz of Gatorade with miralax powder, 425 cal

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WEDNESDAY COUNT: 1580 cal

Had a pint of water in the morning, and by the time I arrived for my colonoscopy, felt ready to go to sleep. After coming to from anesthesia, had cramps and a weird feeling of wellness, and after lying down all afternoon, my appetite didn't return until dinner. When it did, it came back with a boom, but I knew enough to not go crazy. Threw in onion rings, just because I could, and successfully fought some wicked sugar cravings in the evening.

DINNER: 5:30pm, eggplant hero with no cheese, onion rings, house salad, 7oz diet sprite, +/- 1100 cal

EVENING SNACK: 8pm, cheesy poofs, 300 cal

EVENING SNACK: 10pm, pretzel rods, 7oz diet sprite, 180 cal

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THURSDAY COUNT: 2255 cal

Finally relatively back to normal. Lifted weights after missing two sessions, felt noticeably weaker but was able to get through -- wow, it only takes a week to get weaker? Damn.

AM SNACK: 8am, iced green tea, 0 cal

BREAKFAST: 11:30am, smoothie, 375 cal

LUNCH: 2pm, sardine & avocado on whole wheat toast, roasted broccoli, baby carrots, 7oz diet coke, 640 cal

PM SNACK: 6pm, apple/carrot/ginger/beet/kale juice, 120 cal

DINNER: 8pm, grilled chicken breast, whole wheat cous cous, roasted brussel sprouts, 7oz diet sprite, 820 cal

EVENING SNACK: 8:30pm, cheesy poofs, 300 cal

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FRIDAY COUNT: 3015 cal

Woke up early, got a train out of Penn Station at 7 in the morning to get to Rochester for a cousin's kid's bar mitzvah this weekend. Packed lunch, as Amtrak food is that special blend of unhealthy, terrible and expensive. Nice catered dinner in the evening, guest snackies at the hotel. Didn't feel too bad about over-eating, as it was very social and ate ridiculously small amounts earlier in the week.

AM SNACK: 5:30am, iced green tea, 0 cal

BREAKFAST: 7:15am, multigrain bagel with cream cheese, lettuce, tomato and o ion, +/- 450 cal

BREAKFAST 2: 9:45am, 2 almond butter & jelly sandwiches on whole wheat, baby carrots, 935 cal

PM SNACK: 12:15pm, beef jerky, 120 cal

PM SNACK: 4pm, cheezits, 210 cal

DINNER: 8pm, chicken, potato, broccoli, small salad, 2 rolls, cannoli, water, tea, +/- 900 cal

EVENING SNACK: 10pm, dark chocolate bar, pretzel thins, 400 cal