Make America Responsible Again.  To make America healthy again, as Robert F. Kennedy Jr. promises to do, he will have to take on this conceit that obesity is newly in our genes, not in our behavior.  Whether he will do so is unclear.  Kennedy's background in environmental litigation is always on display.  Environmental litigation focuses obsessively on chemicals.  Kennedy ties Americans' worsening health to those chemicals.  He is fixated on the dyes that make processed junk food more brilliant.  He wants to get rid of the artificial coloring in Froot Loops.  He wants more regulation of preservatives and pesticides.  But chemicals, like plastic bags, are our friends, responsible for far more good than harm.  Chemicals are not responsible for the obesity epidemic (though preservatives do enable the phalanx of packaged snacks that surround Americans in every transportation hub and nearly every retail environment).  It is also absurd to imply that American environmental agencies have been lax in their regulation of chemicals.  Rather than coloring Froot Loops with "natural" dyes, as Kennedy suggests, a better course would be to persuade parents not to feed their children Froot Loops in the first place.

How Dumb Can Government Get?  We live in a world where food wrappers have warnings on them telling you not to eat, ladders are plastered with warnings so numerous that you can barely see the aluminum underneath, and packages of nuts have warnings that tell you that this bag of almonds contains nuts.  In the spirit of this stupidity, I present to you this gem of a news story:  Costco is being forced to recall packages of butter that do not warn purchasers that the butter contains milk.  They even have given instructions to people on how best to dispose of their dangerously milk-containing butter.  Apparently people who buy butter might be surprised that the butter is made of milkfat.  Personally, I picked up this bit of trivia somewhere along the path of my life, and the information stuck in my head.  This, it turns out, is a rare thing according to the federal government.  Consumers must be protected from the dreaded cream-derived substance lest a rash of milk-allergic people die of ignorance that butter is not on the safe list.

The Editor says...
How many people die of butter poisoning?  Or rather, how many people have died because they didn't know there was milk in their butter?

FDA Recalls 80K Pounds of Costco Butter from Costco [because the] Label Didn't Say 'Contains Milk'.  The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) ordered the recall of nearly 80,000 pounds of butter produced in Texas for Costco.  The agency ordered the recall because the product packaging contained no "Contains Milk" allergy statement.  Food & Wine reported that the FDA issued a Class II recall on November 7 for 79,200 pounds of Kirkland Signature Sweet Cream Butter (salted and unsalted).  The FDA claimed the butter packaging lists "cream" as an ingredient but does not bear the "Contains Milk" allergy statement.

The Costco butter disaster illustrates why big government must go.  Few regulatory agencies seem familiar with the expression, "The perfect is the enemy of the good."  Common sense also seems alien to them.  How else can one explain that the FDA pushed Costco to recall 80,000 pounds of butter because the packaging didn't have an allergy warning saying that the "cream" listed on the ingredients is a form of milk?  Although few know it, the FDA's genesis was one of the better things to come out of the progressive movement.  When it was founded in 1906, pharmacists and food and cosmetics manufacturers were dumping anything into their products, whether to bulk them up for more profit or to make them look or taste better.  Even by the mid-1930s, it was a relatively toothless organization.  That's how, in 1937, the premodern antibiotic Elixir Sulfanilamide killed over 100 Americans.  The resulting Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act of 1938 gave the FDA some teeth. [...] However, a little regulation can go a long way — and it's gone way too long when it results in the complete absence of common sense.  That's what happened when the FDA saw a Costco butter package: [...]

The Issue That Drove the Amish to the Polls in Pennsylvania.  The Amish are not a politically engaged community, but the 2024 election was different.  There was one issue that prompted these Pennsylvania residents to register to vote in "unprecedented numbers" — milk.  Earlier this year, there was a federal raid on a raw milk farm, Bird in Hand, that angered the community over the government's heavy-handed response following reports of illness from consumers.  [Tweets] [...] Last year, Mia reported on another case of Big Government trying to destroy an Amish farmer's livelihood in Virginia.  [More tweets]

It's All About Control:  The Elite Plan for the Great Food Reset.  Besides 'degrowth' and 'net zero,' one other dangerous buzz phrase being bandied about by proponents of the Great Reset is "nature-positive food systems." The stated goal of moving to new food systems is to reduce nitrogen emissions, livestock production, and meat consumption.  This is to be achieved by consuming plant-based products, lab-grown foods, and insects (as a source of protein).  The moot question, however, is whether such a change is at all necessary? [...] Their plan to "transition to net zero, nature-positive food systems by 2030" translates into a war on traditional farmers.  Unable to absorb the added costs of new regulations and controls, small, independent producers are being squeezed out of farming.  Their place is being taken by multinational agribusinesses.  Unchecked, these multinationals will dominate farming in a decade or two.

Leftists hate American traditions and customs.  And America in general.
PETA to Kick Off National Tour to Harass People Into Avoiding Turkey on Thanksgiving.  Thanksgiving is less than a month away, which means that the public will once again be subject to vegan schoolmarming from the People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA).  After all, would it really be Thanksgiving without these people showing up to badger us into foregoing our customary turkey dinner?  PETA plans to bring its "Hell on Wheels" turkey transport truck to Bristol Farms in Santa Barbara, California.  The vehicle is covered with pictures of turkeys stuffed into crates.  It will blare out recorded sounds of turkey's cries when they are slaughtered for human consumption, according to a press release.  The truck will "bombard" shoppers with "subliminal messages every 10 seconds suggesting that people go vegan" as part of a 30-state tour to "raise awareness of the 46 million turkeys who are killed every year for Thanksgiving."

NHS bosses want chippy to sell fruit and veg.  Plans for a new chippy have come up against a health board's demands for fruit and veg on the menu.  Betsi Cadwaladr health board wants the proposed takeaway in Morfa Bychan, Gwynedd, to sell a "good selection" of fruit and veg.  It wants the menu to have less fat, salt and sugar and is worried an increase in fast food outlets is "detrimental" to people's health.  It is unclear whether customers would relish the prospect of cod and broccoli on the menu.  The board said the location of the proposed new business was popular among holidaymakers, adding: "The food in these areas is targeted to meet the needs of tourists as opposed to local residents.  "This is of particular concern for local permanent residents where this food is available throughout the year and not just during holiday periods."

Seeking to Cut Food Waste, California Bans 'Sell By' Labeling on Products.  Food products sold in California will no longer have a "sell by" stamp after July 1, 2026, after Gov. Gavin Newsom approved the nation's first law governing food labeling.  When it goes into effect, Assembly Bill 660 will require the use of two standard terms for food products that choose to use a date label — "best if used by" to indicate the quality date of food, or "use by" to indicate the safety of food.  Newsom said in a statement he also believed the new law, which he signed on Sept. 28, would better inform consumers and "significantly reduce food waste."

Cotton candy burrito, newest food at Arizona Cardinals home games, filled with 'fun'.  One of the newest food items greeting fans of the Arizona Cardinals this season at State Farm Stadium is sure to give dentists a headache:  a cotton candy burrito.  Craft Culinary Creations executive chef Sean Kavanaugh told Fox News Digital the creation was inspired by a similar item he spotted in Las Vegas.  "I wish I could say I invented it, but I saw it in an ice cream shop in Las Vegas," he said in a telephone interview.

In England:
Ban on junk food advertising online and on TV before 9 pm beginning late next year.  Junk food advertising will be banned online and on TV until after the 9 pm watershed[,] but not until next year.  Ministers have confirmed they are pressing ahead with the policy, despite complaints about 'nanny state' curbs and the impact on broadcasters.  The move is intended to tackle the 'crisis' in childhood obesity, with alarm that a third of youngsters are overweight by the end of secondary school.

The Editor says...
Maybe junk food is unhealthy, maybe it's not; but it is a legal product and the consumers can make their own decisions.

To save the planet, Bill Gates declares war on butter.  Bill Gates claims he can change the climate by getting rid of cows. [...] He's got it all figured out:  Get rid of the cows and all their butter and the planet will heal.  It's as stupid an idea as anything a leftist can cook up.  Dietitions [sic] warn about ultra-processed plant-based foods as leading to early deaths.  Maybe a few questions can be asked about this strange new butter-food product he's touting.  Meanwhile, if we get rid of cows, the climate will not change because cows never had any impact on the climate in the first place.  Gates will probably also pretend that the factories that produce this processed substitute for butter he's touting will be carbon zero.

Slightly off-topic:
Many Substances Used For Food Processing Are Never Listed On Ingredient Labels.  The long list of unfamiliar names on ingredient labels of processed foods is already a cause for concern.  However, many people are unaware of another category of additives never listed on these labels.  These "invisible" additives are known as processing aids.  Processing aids serve various roles in food production.  They can soak and wash ingredients, filter beverages like wine or juice to make them clearer, or improve the texture of bread to make it softer and more elastic.  During the production process, these aids are consumed, transformed, or removed, rendering them virtually undetectable in the final product.

Why Are Climate Change Activists Targeting The Beef Industry When Data Doesn't Back Their Claims?  The Climate Change religious zealots are targeting birds, cows and virtually anything that has been put on the earth by our Creator to sustain us and keep our eco-culture in balance.  Sadly, too many people are falling for it and allowing, without a shred of evidence, entire herds and flocks to be culled in the name of "health safety."  Whether it's birds or cows doesn't make a difference to these people.

Somewhat related:
Idaho Farmers: "We're All Going to Fail".  Idaho farmers are in danger of having their water shut off.  The water shutoff order affects half a million acres of farmland and about 6,400 people who use the water.  Without water, their farmland is worthless.  The state of Idaho has put a water curtailment order, which is basically a water shutoff order on literally a half million acres of farmland.  Many farming this land have already invested in thousands of acres, thousands of dollars per acre, to grow potatoes.  It's too late for them to survive without water.  Why is the water being cut off?  Essentially, this curtailment represents a battle of wills between the Idaho Department of Water Resources and the groundwater districts in eastern Idaho.

The Editor says...
The Idaho farmers made the mistake of relying on the government for their water supply. It was once a reasonable assumption that the government would always make rational decisions that would benefit the most people, but those days are over.

Government Raid Seizes $90,000 of Healthy Food Grown by Nourish Cooperative.  There is a lot of fearmongering circulating in mainstream media about the "Avian Influenza".  In parallel to the fearmongering, there has been a large increase in the number of inspections and surveillance.  Creating fear would certainly help better maintain control of the food system, wouldn't it?  On Tuesday, May 28th, our farm co-op was randomly "inspected" (raided), and over $90,000 worth of product was put under "cease and desist" by the state of Michigan, including all raw dairy.  As this is an evolving story, I will share what we know to be true thus far.  Nourish Cooperative is a farm cooperative that my sister, Sarah, and I started with a few other first generation regenerative farmers in September 2023.  After several years of a steadily increasing demand for our farm fresh products (such as our raw milk, sourdough, and "needle-free" grass fed and/or corn- and soy-free meat), we simply could not keep up with the demand ourselves, which led us to create a "cooperative" (co-op) of several small, local regenerative farms.

The Enemies of Food Freedom.  Bayer merged with Monsanto in 2018, combining the companies responsible for Agent Orange and pioneering chemical warfare.  In 1999, Monsanto's CEO Robert Shapiro bragged that the company planned to control "three of the largest industries in the world — agriculture, food, and health — that now operate as separate businesses.  But there are a set of changes that will lead to their integration."  Today these chemical manufacturers control a huge percentage of the world's food supply.  [¶]  Cargill is a World Economic Forum partner and the largest private company in the United States.  This behemoth monopolizes unimaginably vast swaths of the global food industry, including meat processing in the United States.  Cargill's business practices, along with bigger-is-better policies enforced by their cronies at the United States Department of Agriculture, have led to the closures of many local abattoirs which forced farmers to depend on a few corporate mega-slaughterhouses.  This leaves farmers waiting 14 months or longer for butchering slots, for which they often must transport their animals hundreds of miles — indeed, farmers and ranchers must book processing dates up to a year before the animal is even born.

The Global War on Food.  The battle starts with how food is cooked.  We're all familiar with the government's war on gas stoves, one of the most popular methods for cooking food.  Knowing full well that outright bans won't work, the Biden administration is rolling out increased "efficiency" standards for new models that are effectively impossible to achieve.  The push is to electrify everything, despite the increased strain this agenda places on an already fragile grid.  Now it's being hinted that cooking food itself is bad.  According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), a quarter of all air pollution comes from cooking food.  "If you can smell it, there's a good chance it's impacting air quality," we're told.  At fault are "primarily oxygenated VOCs, or volatile organic compounds."  It's not far-fetched to conclude that if a government agency says something is impacting air quality, then soon it will be under tighter regulation.

The Government's War on "Backyard" Farms.  [Scroll down]  Out of 330 million people in the USA in 2024, 109 have gotten sick from Salmonella and have some association with backyard poultry this year.  A further dig into the CDC archives reveals that for the past six years, the CDC has conducted successive investigative "reports" on Salmonella outbreaks linked to backyard poultry.  In fact, they write numerous articles on the subject each year.  [Illustration, not shown here.]  Something fishy is going on here...  A search for poultry and salmonella on the CDC website reveals no such investigations or public reports for commercial poultry operations.  There are NO reports for 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020 or 2019 (the archives stop at 2019).  The CDC estimates that Salmonella bacteria cause about 1 million illnesses, 19,000 hospitalizations, and 380 deaths each year in the U.S[.] [...] An extensive search on the CDC website could not find how many people are sickened by commercial poultry each year.  So I went to various AI services, which spat out answers about risk of transmission and statistics about being sickened backyard poultry.  The exact same pablum that I had found on the CDC website.

Somewhat related:
More Than 4 Million Chickens Will Be Culled at Iowa Farm Where Bird Flu Was Found.  More than 4 million chickens will be slaughtered to prevent the spread of bird flu after the virus was detected at a commercial egg-laying facility in Iowa, the state announced on May 28.  The Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship said in a statement that a coordinated effort with the U.S. Department of Agriculture led to the detection of a highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) case of the H5N1 strain, also known as bird flu, at a large farm in Sioux County.  It was the first avian influenza case detected in a large commercial flock of chickens in the Hawkeye State this year.

They lie because they get away with it.  The death of Morgan Spurlock showed why people in the media lie.  They get away with it and it pays well.  He made a movie for $65,000 called Super Size Me and collected a hefty share of its $22 million gross at the box office.  The premise was he ate nothing but McDonald's food for 30 days and it ruined his health.  The food did not.  He died of cancer not obesity.  His liver likely was in bad shape but it wasn't from milkshakes and Big Macs.  It was from 40 years of drinking, going back to when he was 13.  Nevertheless, the media sold the lie for 20 years, and continued the lie in his obituaries, although a few outlets included a paragraph or two buried in the story that put his lie in perspective. [...] The media heavily promoted him and his movie when it debuted 20 years ago.  Overnight, journalists became instant dietitians — just like they became instant virologists 4 years ago when covid 19 arrived from Wuhan.

Covid Fearmongering Worked So Well, The Government Is Now Creating A Poultry Panic.  In 2020, the supply chain experienced disruptions that no one in my generation had ever seen.  It became even more apparent to those who believe in the power of self-reliance that it is up to us to take care of ourselves.  Backyard farming began booming, along with an increased interest in raising chickens.  Since then, efforts to balance self-sustainable lifestyles have been threatened.  Government interference in normal healthy practices continues to grow amid concerns over "public safety." [...] In 2022, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) unveiled its "People's Garden Initiative."  This encouraged Americans to register their backyard, school, and community gardens and is still being presented as a beneficial collaboration.  But if you read the full breakdown, it advances "equity" and other "DEI" and Green New Deal initiatives that reek of a government takeover.

Now a coffee ban?  The WEF is eyeing coffee.  Roughly 75% of Americans drink coffee every day.  That won't be the case for long, apparently, if the elites at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, have their way.  Did anyone notice what they were talking about back in January during the 2024 World Economic Forum's Davos get-together?  During a recent WEF panel discussion, a reporter for Moneywise, in an item posted on Yahoo!  Finance, reported that one speaker, some banker named Hubert Keller, remarked, "The coffee that we all drink emits between 15 and 20 tons of CO2 per ton of coffee."  Ominously, he added, "so we should all know that."  Keller also noted, "Every time we drink coffee, we are basically putting CO2 into the atmosphere."  What's more, the production of coffee additives such as sugar and milk also puts large amounts of CO2 into the atmosphere.

The Editor says...
When you exhale, you put CO2 into the atmosphere.  So what?  That's where CO2 belongs.  Carbon dioxide is plant food.  It is not a pollutant.  Emissions of carbon dioxide cannot be avoided, nor should they be.  Most carbon dioxide contributions to the atmosphere are natural and unstoppable.  Don't let tyrants tell you what to do based on their fear of carbon dioxide.  You won't wreck the Earth by drinking coffee or driving a car.

A judge ruled that tacos and burritos are sandwiches.  If there's one thing you can count on, it's that people will never tire of arguing about what does and doesn't constitute a sandwich.  A judge in Fort Wayne, Indiana, contributed to the ongoing debate on May 13 by ruling that tacos and burritos are indeed sandwiches after a years-long court case, WISH-TV reports.  "Tacos and burritos are Mexican-style sandwiches," Allen County Superior Court Judge Craig J. Bobay wrote in his ruling.  The legal case started in 2022 when restaurateur Martin Quintana announced plans to open The Famous Taco Mexican Grill in a Fort Wayne strip mall.  The local planning commission rejected Quintana's bid, citing a prior agreement that only restaurants selling "made-to-order or subway-style sandwiches" without outdoor seating or alcohol would be permitted, CBS 4 reports.

New government study: 'Cooking emissions' the missing piece of the climate change puzzle, will impact 'air quality management' policy.  The smell of meat on the grill is a "pleasing aroma" or a "sweet savour" to the God of the Torah and the Holy Bible, but to the climate "scientists" at the NOAA's Chemical Sciences Laboratory, it's indicative of "volatile" compounds in the air, a sign of "urban air pollution" that needs regulating, and they're calling it: "cooking emissions."  A little over a week ago, the NOAA published a report that summarized the results of a years-long taxpayer-funded study which ostensibly solved a mystery behind "unrecognized and underappreciated" sources of air pollution in the cities — too many people cooking their food before they eat it, and no, I'm not joking; [...]

EPA Rule Could Put Small Meat Processors Out of Business — and Leave Consumers Out in the Cold.  The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is proposing new limits on how much nitrogen, phosphate and other pollutants meat processing facilities can discharge into surface waters.  The EPA said the proposed rule change will "improve water quality and protect human health and the environment."  But some critics argue it also will hurt small processing facilities that won't be able to afford the upgrades required to comply with the new rule.  Small facilities will either shut down, resulting in fewer local meat sources for consumers.  Or they'll sell out larger corporations, contributing to even greater consolidation in the meat industry.  Describing it as "a direct attack on the buy local foods movement" and local meat producers, American Stewards of Liberty, the Kansas Natural Resource Coalition and other organizations submitted comments opposing the proposed rule.

Why Real American Beef Is Under Attack.  Beef is unique in three ways.  First, it is among the only foods that are high in crucial protein, zinc, and iron. [...] Second, beef is challenging to acquire if it's not purchased from retailers or directly from ranchers.  Americans can grow a garden for vegetables and grains.  Raising chickens is neither difficult nor expensive and does not require a large plot of land.  Fish can be caught in accessible bodies of water.  But acquiring and raising cattle is expensive and requires land, equipment, and expertise.  Third, the beef industry would be the hardest to rebuild if it crumbles under the various crises.  Chickens can be slaughtered as early as six weeks after hatching.  Cattle are typically slaughtered after 14-20 months.  If the beef industry is crippled, it would take far longer to replenish than chickens, fish, or pigs.

Generating the "national will" to give up our civil and human rights on the altar of pandemic safety.  Avian flu is said to have caused 463 deaths total in the entire world over the past 20 years, according to the WHO.  Only 2 Americans have been identified as having an illness associated with avian flu, and both were very minor.  Not a single American has died from avian flu.  The recent case of conjunctivitis is recovering.  The CDC and mainstream media claim that avian flu has killed over 100 million chickens.  It has not.  USDA rules have forced growers to cull over 100 million chickens.  When one chicken has a positive PCR test for bird flu, every chicken in the chicken house (and sometimes all those on the farm) must be killed.  Was that test even accurate?  But expansive claims like these are what gets the public going, and putting up with incursions on their freedoms.

Complacency is a Poison Taken One Drop at a Time - I'm Saying 'Enough' to Chick-fil-A.  When Chick-fil-A first opened in my state, people raved about the purity of the food.  I admit, I was impressed with my first meal there — the chicken nuggets were actually chicken!  But then I saw the ingredients in their famed Chick-fil-A sauce.  Ugh.  It's full of high fructose corn syrup.  To me, this was a compromise of quality.  Still, people told me they were otherwise a healthy place to eat, and one can just avoid the sauce.  They use peanut oil instead of seed oils for deep frying (seed oils = highly inflammatory), and repeatedly I was told, "They don't serve chicken that's been injected with anti-biotics."  The latter may have been true, but it's true no longer.  Under pressure to keep up with demand, Chick-fil-A recently shifted its quality standards and they are now buying chicken that may have been treated with antibiotics.  Again, ugh.  The company is now implementing "No Antibiotics Important To Human Medicine" (NAIHM) chicken.

The Editor says...
Don't ruin it for everybody.  If you don't like Chick-Fil-A, don't eat there.  If you don't like Whataburger, keep it to yourself.  If you used to work at the factory that supplies meat patties to McDonald's, I don't want to hear about it.  If you don't like carbonated beverages, leave them alone.

War on food is spreading in U.S. through land-use restrictions, geoengineering and waves of propaganda.  Remember, it really is all about depopulation[.]  The World Economic Forum warned us several years ago that its ultimate goal was to destroy the middle class. [...] Small farmers are under attack in the Beaver State, which has begun shutting down family farms throughout the state under the guise of water conservation and groundwater protection.  The owner of Yanasa Ama Ranch shared a 20-minute video explaining what is going on in Oregon as bureaucrats erroneously classify small family farms and homesteads as "concentrated animal feeding operations," or CAFOs, in order to shut them down.  Any feeding area that has a concrete, rock or gravel floor falls into this category, which would include most small dairy or egg farms.

PETA Pressures Jill Biden to Switch Eggs for Potatoes at Annual White House Easter Egg Roll.  People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) is pressuring Jill Biden to forego eggs this Easter but instead use potatoes for the White House's annual Easter Egg Roll event.  In a statement, PETA wrote, "Ahead of the annual White House Easter Egg Roll, PETA sent a letter to Dr. Jill Biden today asking the first lady to modernize the celebration by replacing eggs with dyed Easter potatoes."  "Children love animals and would be sad to learn that the eggs used for fun and games at the White House come from tormented hens whose lives are spent in cages that afford them less space than a standard sheet of typing paper," added PETA.  The White House has yet to respond to PETA's request.

PETA Demands White House Officials Switch 'Eggs For Potatoes' At Annual Easter Egg Event.  People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) is urging the White House to swap chicken eggs for potatoes at their annual Easter Egg Roll this year.  The controversial organization wrote in a letter to First Lady Jill Biden that it wants to "suggest an appealing way to modernize the White House Easter Egg Roll," which is set for April 1st on the South Lawn.

The Editor says...
The PETA people apparently don't know Easter Eggs are candy, or plastic capsules full of candy, not chicken eggs.  Since they apparently don't know this, I am encouraged, because it means the PETA people don't have children!

NYC burns pizzerias with new rule cutting smoky pollutants by 75%.  New York City has quietly approved a controversial green plan to require pizzerias and matzah bakeries using decades-old wood- and coal-fired stoves to cut their smoky pollutants by 75%.  Mayor Eric Adams' Department of Environmental Protection said the fresh edict takes effect April 27, with some city businesses having already coughed up more than $600,000 for new smoke-eating systems in anticipation of the expected mandate.  "You are going after pizza?  Glorious New York pizza?" groused Mike Dabin in a recent online comment to the city DEP.  "Can't you go after Diesel Trucks instead of pizza ovens?"

Letitia James vs. Beef:  The War on Food.  New York Attorney General Letitia James, of Trump prosecution fame, has turned her lawfare sights on one of the country's, and in fact one of the world's, largest meat producers.

Experts say there's 'no such thing' as healthy chocolate.  The idea that one chocolate bar can be 'healthier' than another is a 'fallacy' — regardless of how dark it is, a top nutritionist has claimed.  In recent years, newfangled products have popped up on the snacks market brandishing labels such as 'raw', 'better-for-you' and 'no added sugar'.  There's also varieties costing up to $20 per pack such as cacao (cold, pressed raw cocoa beans) and 'raw' chocolate — which usually means little sugar has been added.

Globalists Will Use Carbon Controls To Stop You From Growing Your Own Food.  In early 2020 in the midst of the covid lockdowns, blue states run by leftist governors pursued mandates with extreme prejudice.  In red states like Montana, after the first month or two most of us simply ignored the restrictions and went on with life as usual.  It was clear that covid was not the threat federal authorities made it out to be.  However, in states like Michigan the vice was squeezed tighter and tighter under the direction of shady leaders like Gretchen Whitmer.  Whitmer used covid as an opportunity to institute some bizarre limitations on the public, including a mandate barring larger stores from selling seeds and garden supplies to customers.  "If you're not buying food or medicine or other essential items, you should not be going to the store," Whitmer said when announcing her order.  The leftist governor was fine with purchases of lottery tickets and liquor, but not gardening tools and seeds.  She never gave a logical reason why she targeted garden supplies, but most people in the preparedness community understood very well what this was all about:  This was a beta-test for wider restrictions on food independence.

All Their Stupid Ideas Can be Reversed and We Will Make the Deserts Bloom.  Recently, Netflix released — just in time for the Season of the Diet — "You Are What You Eat," a series that via hectoring, pleasure-starved, women, tells us why we should all be vegan.  But that ship has sailed.  Vegan may work for pre-modern peasants, or for the ill, but the innovators and forerunners in food have embraced full fat dairy, grass fed beef, pasture raised chicken, free range eggs and local vegetables.  They don't even eat supermarket organic anymore, because it is grown wrong.  Did the WEF drones really think those people were going to eat bugs and fake meat?  Jordan Peterson may have made the all-meat diet breakthrough, but he has shown that the nutrients we most need today, are within meat, within traditional food.  The beefcake community, gym rats, performance addicts, the ambitious have all followed suit.  Even the Gwyneth people are re-integrating healthy meats, full-fat dairy, preferably raw.  Supermarket milk is called dead milk.  That means, according to the marketing curve, that within ten years, every middle class person on earth will be eating that way.  And what does that mean for the land?

"Growing your own vegetables is bad for the planet".  Have you ever made a prediction and wished you'd recorded it?  Last week, in a phone conversation with a family member, they happened to mention growing their own vegetables, and I said in reply "Enjoy it while you can, they're gonna start claiming it's causing climate change soon."  Literally four days later...  [Headline]  Apparently, a new study from the University of Michigan has found that "urban gardening" is 5 (or maybe 6, they're not sure) times worse for the environment than "conventional crops".  I don't know how they calculated it, and it doesn't really matter.  If you read the bodies of the articles they even say it only applies to some vegetables in some places and it all depends on how the "infrastructure" is put together.  The details aren't the point.  The point is yet another weapon in the war on food.  More regulation, more commercialization, less freedom, all in the name of "fighting climate change".

Kerry calls for greenie restrictions on farming, or people will starve.  Does Joe Biden's climate czar, John Kerry, ever listen to himself?  He made this dunderheaded speech at the World Economic Forum, unwittingly contradicting himself as he sought applause from the elites. [Tweet] [...] Fewer farms, all to prevent people from going hungry.  Does this clown know where food comes from?  Does he understand that more production of food means more emissions of oxygen and less production of food means fewer emissions?  Or does he really think that food has nothing to do with the farms that produce it, but comes solely from a grocery store?

An Amish Farmer's Food Rights Battle.  The January 4th raid on Amish farmer Amos Miller's Pennsylvania establishment, reflects a growing tension between government regulation of food safety and liberty-minded individualists distrusting industrial food production.  Pennsylvania State Police secured Miller's farming premises for search by the state's Department of Agriculture for "illegal raw milk and raw milk products, including eggnog," following reported cases of E. coli in New York and Michigan, allegedly linked to Miller's products. [...] [Attorney David] Berg argues that the right to purchase food directly from a farmer, sans mandatory government inspection, is a fundamental right.  The federal government has failed to halt atrazine, glyphosate, neonicotinoids, and other chemicals, and subsidizes corn (and thus high-fructose corn syrup) and other questionable foods.  More recently, public trust has been compromised by dubious claims about the "safety and effectiveness" of certain medications that proved to be neither.

Texas Rancher Says US Government Facilitating Plans For a Planned Food Shortage and Depopulation.  [Transcript]nbsp; "Hey, everybody.  This is Shad Sullivan coming to you from the headwaters of Bitter Creek, Archer County, North Texas.  We have to talk.  State officials will be assisting to help identify potential alternative markets if a producer is unable to move animals and if necessary, advise and assist on depopulation and disposal methods.  Ladies and gentlemen, we are plowing under vegetable crops from coast to coast.  We are euthanizing millions of chickens.  We are aborting sows and burying feeder pigs.  We are dumping milk by the hundreds of thousands of gallons, and now they are preparing us to depopulate the fat cattle ready to harvest.  [Video clip]

The Head Monster Of The WHO, Tedros, Says Food Is A Threat To Our Planet.  WHO head, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, declares war on meat and traditional agriculture, in the name of fighting "climate change":  "Our food systems are harming the health of people and the planet.  Food systems contribute to over 30% of greenhouse gas emissions, and account for almost one third of the global burden of disease."  "Transforming food systems is therefore essential, by shifting towards healthier, diversified and more plant-based diets."  Does anyone remember electing this clown to dictate what kind of agriculture and diets are permissable?  [Video clip]

Amish Farm Raided by Government in Move Described as 'Lawless ... Patently Illegal'.  State employees, including members of the Pennsylvania State Police, raided Amos Miller's Lancaster County farm Thursday, reportedly as a result of an investigation into the farmer's supposed violations of state food safety codes.  The raid was conducted under the authority of the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, along with the state police, according to the Lancaster Patriot.  Miller, the farmer, has been involved in a long dispute with both the state and federal governments over food and meat inspection and health safety guidelines after officials have accused him of selling dangerous food that doesn't meet inspection standards.

The Distortion of Science To Support the Globalists' Climate Change Agenda.  Starting in the mid-20th century, companies began distorting and manpulating science to favor specific commercial interests. [...] No longer satisfied with oppressing climate change scientists, climate change narrative enforcers have moved into the nutritional sciences.  This trend of crossing disciplines portends death for the overall independence of any scientific endeavors.  A creeping corruption into adjacent disciplines.  Because climate change activists, world leaders, research institutions, universities and governments are distorting another branch of science outside of climate science.  They are using the bio-sciences, specifically nutrition science, to support the climate change agenda.  It is another whole-of-government response to the crisis, just like with COVID-19.  Just like with the tobacco industry's scientific disinformation campaign, they are distorting health research to make the case that eating meat is dangerous to humans.  Normal standards for publication have been set aside.  The propaganda is thick and easily spotted.

WHO's Tedros Declares War on Meat, Traditional Farming.  World Health Organization (WHO) head, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus declared war on meat and traditional farming.  "Our food systems are harming the health of people and planet.  Food systems contribute to over 30% of greenhouse gas emissions, and account for almost one-third of the global burden of disease.  Transforming food systems is therefore essential," Tedros said in a video message published last Thursday for the COP28 official event.  Earlier this month the United Nations Food & Agriculture Organization (FAO) rolled out its food guidance for first-world countries in an effort to reduce carbon emissions.

The Editor says...
People who are starving don't care about greenhouse gases.  One would think a WHO official would understand something as elementary as that.

U.S. Dietary Committee considers if the potato a vegetable or a grain.  Potatoes are the base for some of the most popular foods around the world, including french fries, potato chips and hash browns.  They are considered a vegetable, but could that change to becoming a grain?  The answer should be decided soon, as the U.S. Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee prepares its dietary guidelines for 2025 and could revise the American food staple's designation.

Eggs are not created equal.  When I started this essay, I planned to focus on the benefits of organic, backyard or small farm produced eggs.  And yes, this is very important to a healthy diet.  But as I went farther down the "rabbit hole," what evolved was more evidence of the dangers of glyphosate-based herbicides.  That the nutritional studies performed in poultry have helped give rise to studies of these chemicals on humans.  The conclusions of these studies are devastating.

Now the Left Is Going to War Against a 'Sandwich Shop Monopoly'.  Senator Elizabeth Warren is sounding the alarm.  No, there's nothing particularly unusual about that.  Warren "sounds the alarm" on anything that disturbs the natural order of the liberal universe.  But this time, she's on to something.  Warren is warning about a "sandwich shop monopoly."  It seems that Subway, the home of above average subway sandwiches, is being bought by the same company that owns Jimmy Johns and McAlister's Deli, among other sandwich emporiums.  Subway, which is family-owned, agreed to sell its business to private equity firm Roark Capital in a blockbuster (good name for a sandwich) deal worth $9 billion.  Along with Jimmy Johns and McAlister's, Roark also owns Baskin-Robbins, Dunkin Brands, Buffalo Wild Wings, and Sonic.  It's an empire, and Warren wants it rein it in.  I wonder how many Americans are vitally concerned about whether Subway is owned by a family or Roark Capital.

Elizabeth Warren Now Coming for Your Sandwiches.  Yes, these big, corporate sandwiches of war are going to put peaceful, small sandwich shops out of existence.  Sandwich control, now!  And $5 foot-longs, begone!  In a Monday Op-Ed titled "Elizabeth Warren wants to break up Big Sandwich," Tom Joyce of the Washington Examiner noted that Warren was striking back at the fact that private equity firm Roark Capital is purchasing Subway.  What's the big deal?  Well, Roark already owns several sandwich joints:  Arby's, Jimmy John's, McAlister's Deli and Schlotzky's.

People Who Were Arrested For Eating Food.  Back in 2000, 12-year-old Ansche Hedgepeth got handcuffed for eating in a Washington, D.C., subway station.  At the time, police were cracking down on people eating in the metro.  Over a short amount of time, they arrested or cited 35 people, almost all of whom were minors.  Hedgepeth, a seventh grader, was searched, handcuffed, booked, and fingerprinted after school for unlawful snacking in public.  While the preteen knew she was not supposed to eat at the metro, she didn't believe it would lead to her arrest. [...] The transit police initially had no remorse for the arrest, citing its zero-tolerance policy.  However, Ansche Hedgepeth's arrest led to a lawsuit, leading the Metro Transit Police to change its no-food policy enforcement policy from arrests to warnings.  In her case, Hedgepeth requested her record be expunged because her Fourth Amendment rights were violated.

The Food Insecurity Lie.  President Joe Biden says 24 million Americans "suffer from food insecurity!"  News anchors were shocked that there is "food insecurity in the richest country in the world!"  ABC hosts turned "insecurity" into "hunger."  But in my new video, Rachel Sheffield, who researches welfare policy at the Heritage Foundation, explains, "Food insecurity is not the same thing as hunger.  It just means that they had to rely on cheaper foods, store-brand alternatives ... or reduce variety."  Really?  The alarm about "food insecurity" is based on that?  Well, yes.

Cigarette-style Warnings on Meat to Prevent Climate Change.  Get out your cricket flour and vegetarian meat substitutes, the war on meat continues.  A research team at Durham University in the UK has come up with a new way to guilt people out of eating meat:  slap graphic warning labels on meat products warning that consuming them will harm the planet.  [Tweet]  According to this study, putting warning labels on meat products does change behavior, and in a real twist, it turns out that warning people about the effects of meat consumption on poor Gaia had a larger impact than health-related warnings on cigarette packaging.  In the UK the warnings are extremely graphic, but apparently don't change behavior that much.

A look back at the Philly soda tax.  Want a soda?  You'll pay more for one in Philadelphia, because five years ago, local politicians decided to tax it.  They're "protecting" people, they said.  The tax would "reduce obesity" and "lower diabetes rates."  But their main goal was to bring in more money, which they said would "fund early childhood education" and "help a lot of families." [...] Store owners hated the new tax.  "Bad tax!" said Melvin Robinson, who runs Bruno's Pizza.  He says few customers now buy soda from him. [...] As with most taxes, the soda tax had an unintended consequence:  Alcohol sales rose 5%.  "People buy more liquor," I shout at Greenlee.  "Less Coke, more liquor!"  Greenlee laughs and says, "We have a liquor tax, too!"

They Want You To Stop Eating Meat And Dairy, But The Gavin Newsoms Of the World Will Always Be Able To Eat At The French Laundry.  When radical leftwing city officials push insane, impossible policies, are they merely engaging in virtue signaling, hope to profit off graft for the issue, or want to inflict as much pain on ordinary Americans as possible?  That's the question to ask about Houston and Austin signing on to an agenda to eliminate meat and dairy consumption by 2030. [...] Of course, the idea that a large city in Texas is going to give up meat is absolutely bonkers.  Barbecue is one of the biggest civil religions in Texas, only slightly behind football.  You might as well ask Frenchmen to give up wine.  And I'd really like to see leftwing apparatchiks attempt to close down every taqueria in Houston, as the beat-downs they'd receive would be epic.

Amazon tech guru: Eating less beef, more fish good for the planet, and AI helps us get there.  Amazon's top technology officer told the United Nations this week that people will need to eat more fish and less beef if they want to protect the environment, and said artificial intelligence is a tool that is already helping to make that happen.  Dr. Werner Vogels, chief technology officer and vice president of Amazon, told the "AI for Good" global summit in Geneva this week that AI is helping rice farmers and other food producers around the world be much more efficient.  However, he said AI will also play an important role in making sure food comes at a lower cost to the environment.  In his remarks to the conference on July 6, Vogels showed a graphic that said it takes seven times more feed to produce a given amount of protein from a cattle farm compared to a fish farm.

The Editor says...
Count the red flags in the excerpt above:  Do you think an Amazon guru is watching out for your well-being?  No, he's in cahoots with the U.N.  He wants to put artificial intelligence in charge of your food supply.  He doesn't like beef.  And what happened to the Left's great concern about over-fishing?

What happened to "live and let live?"  What happened to the diversity of ideas?
Group promoting plant-based eating wants a new name for Macon Bacon baseball team.  A doctors' group that promotes animal rights is makin' a fuss over the Macon Bacon baseball team.  The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine wrote to the president of the Georgia collegiate team urging him to change its name.  Committee nutritional educator Anna Herby wrote that the team's name amounts to a "glorification" of a meat that increases risks of cancer and other diseases.  WMAZ-TV reports that the Macon Bacon's concession menu includes foods such as bacon-wrapped bacon, steak-cut bacon and bacon-loaded cheese fries.

NYC Bans Delicious Pizza for Climate Change.  There are many things on this Earth are said to be contributing to global warming; cars, planes, plastic, and apparently pizza.  New York City has ordered pizzerias that use coal and wood fired ovens to crack down their carbon emissions by 75%.  Wood and coal fired stoves are apparently one of the largest contributors to air pollution and that this is just a "common sense rule" according to NYC Department of Environmental Protection spokesman, Ted Timbers.  This regulation will require pizzeria owners to buy expensive emission control devices, with one Brooklyn owner already paying $20,000 for an air filter.  About 100 restaurants will be affected by this new rule.  These restaurants have to hire engineers or architects so that they can determine whether or not they can actually install these controlled emission devices.  If the restaurant cannot bring 75% of their carbon emissions down, they either need to bring it down by 25% through practice or provide a reason as to why they cannot install emission controls.

Green madness: You'd have to burn a pizza stove 849 years to equal one year of John Kerry's private jet.  Environmental bureaucrats are out to save you from pizza.  The city government is set to restrict emissions from coal- and wood-fired pizza ovens in restaurants in the city.  New Yorkers are once again suffering at the hands of the unelected food police in the name of public health and climate change.  New Yorkers have already endured former Mayor Michael Bloomberg's attempts to ban soda sales of over 16 ounces for their own good and are facing Gov. Kathy Hochul's gas stove and furnace bans in the state, all in the name of climate change.  And now, another one bites the crust as New York City officials are going after pizzerias using the century-old cooking methods, citing the ovens' allegedly excessive carbon emissions.

Atlantic writer complains about too many choices at the grocery store.  Leave it up to The Atlantic to tell us we've got too many food choices in a grocery store, and for our own good, we ought to have less.  That's pretty much what writer Adam Fleming wrote in his plaintive cry against too much choice at the grocery store. [...] We have this thing known as "Google" and we have subcriptions to publications such as Consumer Reports, which help consumers pare down to the best choices if that's a big deal to him.  I guess he's never heard of them.  He does tout his preference for "single option stores" such as Aldi and Trader Joe's, which are great options for people with this problem.

Wood-fired pizza ovens are destroying the planet.  First, the climate alarmists in the government said they were coming for your gas stoves.  Then they said they weren't coming for them.  Then they came after them anyway.  So given this crowd's recent track record, we should probably take them seriously when they say that they're going to crack down on wood-burning pizza ovens.  Oh, and coal-fired ovens also.  Thus far this is only happening in New York City, but a "great idea" like this will no doubt be spreading to liberal circles across the land in no time.  And if you run a pizza shop that uses such a stove, you can either spend an arm and a leg for a new filtration system or the city will fine you huge amounts of money until you shut up and comply.

New NYC Mandate Threatens Future and Taste of New York Pizza.  If you only ate Chicago pizza, this would be not an issue.  The city of New York is cracking down on pizzerias, threatening their futures.  The New York City Department of Environmental Protection has drafted new rules that would order pizza joints using the decades-old baking method to slice carbon emissions by up to 75 percent, reports the New York Post.  "All New Yorkers deserve to breathe healthy air and wood and coal-fired stoves are among the largest contributors of harmful pollutants in neighborhoods with poor air quality," DEP spokesman Ted Timbers said.  "This common-sense rule, developed with restaurant and environmental justice groups, requires a professional review of whether installing emission controls is feasible."  The rule would force pizzerias with such ovens installed prior to May 2016 to buy [e]mission-control devices that could send local joints over their budgets.

These are the same people who oppose natural gas appliances.
NYC to Crack Down on Wood-Fired Pizza Joints to Reduce Carbon Emissions by Up to 75%.  New York City will be cracking down on wood-fired pizza joints to reduce carbon emissions by up to 75%.  "All New Yorkers deserve to breathe healthy air and wood and coal-fired stoves are among the largest contributors of harmful pollutants in neighborhoods with poor air quality," Department of Environmental Protection spokesman Ted Timbers said in a statement to the New York Post on Sunday.  "This common-sense rule, developed with restaurant and environmental justice groups, requires a professional review of whether installing emission controls is feasible."

The Editor says...
[#1] It isn't a "common-sense rule."  The tail is wagging the dog, as usual.  The "environmental justice groups" are anti-capitalist troublemakers, solving problems that nobody has.  Making pizza in a wood-fired oven is not an "environmental [in]justice," whatever that is.  [#2] While all this nit-picking is underway in New York, China and India are building coal-fired power plants as if carbon dioxide is not a problem.  Because it isn't!  [#3] The air in an overcrowded city may not be entirely fresh, but it's not necessarily unhealthy, and if you don't like the air in a big city, you're free to move!

Meat is in the climate crosshairs.  America and the rest of the world are headed for food shortages if policymakers enact laws based on climate change.  The effort to "decarbonize" or to achieve "net zero" carbon emissions has led to deliberate policies to reduce consumption of fossil fuel energy, that is, oil, natural gas and coal.  It also is leading to policies to reduce livestock, namely cows since they emit methane, and nitrogen gas, which is essential to produce fertilizer for farming and food production.  The climate industrial complex comprised of non-governmental organizations, the United Nations, the Biden administration, government-funded scientists, activists, and virtue-signaling billionaires are relentless about wielding power and control over the global population, especially in the United States.  The ostensible purpose for their tyrannical impulse is to address a supposed "climate emergency" affecting the planet they claim is inexorably turning warmer to the point of an "existential threat" to human life itself.  The climate alarmists' delusional idea of controlling Earth's climate means controlling Earth's inhabitants, including what kind of energy we can use and what we can eat.

Elise Stefanik, Republicans Push Back on Biden's War on Chocolate Milk.  House Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik (R-NY) and other House Republicans have pushed back against a Biden administration proposal that would limit children's access to chocolate milk and other drinks in schools across America.  The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is considering limiting certain foods and drinks such as chocolate milk to "reduce children's risk of chronic disease."  The proposal would limit flavored milk such as chocolate milk to high school.

The Editor says...
I challenge you to find one doctor who will publicly attribute anyone's chronic disease exclusively to the ingestion of chocolate milk.

New York to Track Residents' Food Purchases and Place 'Caps on Meat' Served by Public Institutions.  New York City will begin tracking the carbon footprint of household food consumption and putting caps on how much red meat can be served in public institutions as part of a sweeping initiative to achieve a 33% reduction in carbon emissions from food by 2030. Mayor Eric Adams and representatives from the Mayor's Office of Food Policy and Mayor's Office of Climate & Environmental Justice announced the new programs last month at a Brooklyn culinary center run by NYC Health + Hospitals, the city's public healthcare system, just before Earth Day.  At the event, the Mayor's Office of Climate & Environmental Justice shared a new chart to be included in the city's annual greenhouse gas inventory that publicly tracks the carbon footprint created by household food consumption, the Gothamist reported.

Biden Admin: Chocolate Milk is Too Dangerous for Kids but Puberty Blockers Are Fine.  As if President Joe Biden and his administration haven't already done enough to make life more difficult and usher in more hardship for the American people, his band of merry muck-ups are now setting their sights on school lunches and toying around with a ban on chocolate milk — as well as strawberry milk and other flavor alternatives — over concerns about added sugars.  Yes, the same administration that called it "outrageous" and "immoral" to prevent children from taking life-altering hormones to prevent puberty for the purpose of "transitioning" is worried that milk provided at school might have ill effects on their health.  This potentially devastating news for America's students came courtesy of a scoop in The Wall Street Journal this week on what the United States Department of Agriculture is weighing as it works on revamping federal standards for school-provided meals.

New York's Eric Adams goes obnoxious touting his plant-based diet.  [Scroll down]  What's obnoxious is that Adams says it's the only diet as mayor of America's largest and most diverse city — where some cultures like a lot of meat (Brazilians, Argentines, Koreans, Mongolians), some cultures like just a little meat (Mediterraneans), and some like none (many South Asians).  None of these cultures are famous for their fat people.  So for Adams to tout a one-size-fits-all diet is unseemly.  Whatever happened to 'celebrate diversity?'  And while we are at it, where does he stand on bug consumption, which some climate activists are trying to promote?  Bugs are "meat," after all.  Is Adams all in for 'save the bugs'?

New York City to Track Personal Food Choices Using Credit Card Data.  Remember the crazy right-wing conspiracy theory alleging that our food purchases will be tracked to reduce our CO2 consumption?  That one is turning out to be true!  Yesterday, New York City announced its plan to track the "food choices" of New Yorkers using credit card data from individual store purchases.  According to the mayor, tracking individual food choices is a step towards "reducing the CO2 output" of New Yorkers. [...] You would think such a plan would only be made after a conversation with New Yorkers, right?  After all, the mayor of New York is supposed to serve New Yorkers, not the other way around.  However, the reality is that there was no consultation and no "conversation" because New York's mayor Eric Adams is sure that people do not even want to have a "conversation" about interrogating their food choices.

NYC's Vegan Mayor Eric Adams to Limit Amount of Meat People Can Eat to Combat Climate Change.  New York City's vegan mayor Eric Adams wants to limit the amount of meat people can eat in an effort to combat climate change.  Adams wants to reduce food-based gas emissions by 33% in the next 7 years.  "Food is the third-biggest source of cities' emissions right after buildings and transportation.  But all food is not created equal.  The vast majority of food that is contributing to our emission crises lies in meat and dairy products," Adams said.  "According to new data released by the city, 20% of the Big Apple's greenhouse gas emissions come from food production and consumption.  The mayor is now vowing to reduce the city's food-based emissions at agencies by 33% in the next seven years and challenging the private sector to follow suit."

The Editor says...
[#1] That's okay, the tourism industry in New York is dead already.  [#2]  Since the mayor is opposed to eating, because it's wrecking the earth, would he prefer to oversee a city with no restaurants?

Canadian Government Forces Dairy Farmer to Dump 30,000 Liters of Milk Because He Exceeded His Quota.  A dairy farmer from Southern Ontario, Canada has spoken out about how the Canadian government makes farms dump thousands of liters of fresh milk because they have gone over the quota.  In a video shared on TikTok by Travis Huigen and widely shared by Bushels Per Acre on Twitter, Canadian dairy farmer Jerry Human expresses his outrage at the Canadian government and the Dairy Farmers of Ontario (DFO) for wasting hundreds of liters of fresh milk despite inflation.  "Right now, during the winter months, you milk quite a bit more milk because the feed is very consistent.  And if you do a good job, you will produce quite a bit of milk.  But right now, we're over our quota, and it's regulated by the government, and [implemented] by the DFO," said Human.  "Look at this milk running away.  It's the end of the month [and] I dump 30,000 liters of milk and it breaks my heart.  This year Canadian milk is $7 a liter."

The Climate Faithful Have Developed Religious Dietary Restrictions.  Jews eat kosher, Muslims have halal, Hindus eschew meat, and many Christians fast during Lent.  So naturally, the fastest-growing religion today — earth and climate worship — is developing its own faith-based dietary restrictions. "Climatarians" (also called "reducitarians" or "climavores") are people who make their food choices based on how what they eat will impact the earth, with the aim of reducing their carbon "foodprint."  The Earthist version of original sin is that, simply by living, people commit climate sin every time they eat, breathe, travel, and heat or cool their homes.  Naturally, the younger generations are the most pious Earthists, having been recently exposed to the most evangelical Earthist education system yet.

'Tons' of food gets tossed daily by NYC hotel because migrants won't eat it.  Nearly a ton of taxpayer-provided food gets tossed in the trash every day at a massive Manhattan hotel being used to house migrants — because they'd rather secretly cook their own meals on dangerous hot plates, a whistleblowing worker has revealed.  Disturbing photos show garbage bags full of sandwiches and bagels awaiting disposal at the four-star Row NYC hotel near Times Square, where the city pays a daily rate as high as $500 per room, hotel employee Felipe Rodriguez told The [New York] Post.  "It's a crime to be throwing out so much food," he said.  Other images show a hotel room littered with empty beer cans and bottles following a wild World Cup viewing party in November, Rodriguez said.  That gathering — in a room whose occupant "gave the key to a cousin" while she "was in the Bronx, hanging out" — erupted into a fight over the match that left one man with a "big knot on his head," Rodriguez said.

The Editor says...
The solution is obvious:  Don't prepare, deliver, or supply any food until somebody asks for it, and asserts their intention to pay for it.  If they order food and then they don't pay up, throw them out.  In the snow.  At night.  The word will get around quickly.  Even if the city is paying the rent, at some point you have the right to protect your business and your property.

Push to eat bugs: The creepy, crawly alternative to eating meat.  As many are making New Year's resolutions to eat healthier, would you try adding bugs to your diet?  In many cultures, eating insects is a part of their diet.  In Asia, bugs are invading street food markets in Thailand and Vietnam.  From cricket soup to worms you can get fried, battered, or sauteed with peppers, edible bugs are crawling into a popular nightcap snack.  In Colombia, one region has a species of ant called Atta laevigata, and one of the local names of the ant in Spanish roughly translates to "big-butt ant."  These expensive delicacies are deep-fried to give a crispy, crunchy outside paired with a juicy inside.  Bill Gates and big names in Hollywood are pushing to eat bugs as a way to prevent climate change.

The Editor says...
Thailand, Vietnam, and Colombia are not models for other countries.  Eat bugs if that's all you can find, but eating beef and chicken is not even a minor cause of climate change.  The output power of the Sun changes from one year to the next.  That's a good starting point.  Termites and volcanos have more impact on the climate than your diet.

More about insects as food.

Amish farmer wins court battle for 'food freedom,' can return to selling raw meat and milk.  An Amish farmer is back to be able to sell raw milk and meat after a US Appeals Court dropped a $300,000 fine against him is allowing him to resume selling raw milk meat.  Amos Miller does not use antibacterial chemicals to sterilize his products, which means it is considered "adulterated," by the USDA.  According to Food Safety News, in a deal negotiated by Miller's lawyer last week, the $300,000 in fines was negotiated down to $55,000 payable over the next six months and Miller's contempt of court hearing has been canceled, with the case having been put in stay and abeyance, provided that the farmer makes the payments.

Whole Foods pulls Maine lobster from its shelves because the industry threatens right whales with fishing gear.  Environmental groups are once again at odds with politicians and fishermen in New England in the wake of a decision by high-end retail giant Whole Foods to stop selling Maine lobster.  Whole Foods recently said that it will stop selling lobster from the Gulf of Maine at hundreds of its stores around the country.  The 'woke' company cited decisions by a pair of sustainability organizations to take away their endorsements of the U.S. lobster fishing industry.

Supreme Court to decide if CA can use pigs to impose its left-wing agenda on America.  The state of California simply refuses to leave the rest of us alone.  Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court heard more than two hours of oral arguments (more than in the case overturning Roe v. Wade) concerning pigs and how much space should be allotted for a sow to give birth and wean her piglets.  In 2018, California voters approved a proposition that banned the sale of any pork not produced at a farm that provided at least 24 square feet of space per sow.  While there is always an argument to be made against animal cruelty, the problem here is a matter of practicality.  Only four percent of pig farms currently meet California's new standard.  Boutique pork — as it were — is available at stores like Whole Foods for around $8 a pound.  If applied nationwide, California's law would raise the price of pork by an estimated 9.2 percent; current record inflation and already-high food prices [notwithstanding].  Believe it or not, the Biden regime is reportedly siding with the pork farmers, not California.

Texas Pete hot sauce faces lawsuit for being made in North Carolina.  A man in California is suing the popular hot sauce brand after he learned it was manufactured in North Carolina rather than the Lone Star State.  Philip White bought a bottle of Texas Pete at Ralph's supermarket in September 2021, believing it was made, as its label suggests, in Texas, according to the complaint filed in Los Angeles federal court.  The suit alleges White wouldn't have purchased the sauce if he knew that it is actually made in North Carolina, where manufacturer TW Garner Food Company has its headquarters in Winston-Salem.  While the manufacturing location is not a secret since it's printed on the bottle's back label, the lawsuit alleges that a consumer would likely not notice.

L.A. School District Shares Video from 'Nutritionist' Who Says Eating Right Is Racist  Your dreams have come true, kids: French fries and pizza are now good for you, so eat up, or else:  if you don't, you might be suspected of "white supremacism."  If you thought things couldn't possibly get any crazier, forget it:  a "nutritionist" has proclaimed that "nutrition standards are rooted in whiteness," and so like Robert E. Lee and Bull Connor, they've got to go.  Nor is the nutritionist in question, Kéra Nyemb-Diop, some nut raving on the streetcorner; she works for Mondelez International, which is so concerned about nutrition that it produces Oreos and Chips Ahoy!

Dutch city bans ads for meat.  Things are getting stranger in Harlem.  Well, actually, Haarlem — a city in the Netherlands.  The Dutch city of 160,000 people, located near Amsterdam, has agreed to outlaw ads for intensively farmed meat on public places such as buses, shelters and screens, starting in 2024.  The move was approved by the city council last fall, but a councilor only recently announced that he had officially notified advertising agencies of the ban.  Ziggy Klazes, councilor for the GroenLinks (Green-Left) party who drafted the motion, proudly told the Agence France-Presse (AFP):  "It will be the first city in the Netherlands — and in fact Europe and indeed the world — to ban 'bad' meat ads in public places."  Ms. Ziggy sniffed to the Trouw newspaper, "Meat is very harmful to the environment.  We cannot tell people that there is a climate crisis and encourage them to buy products that are part of it."

The Editor says...
Before you ban meat, you should first prove the existence of a "climate crisis" that is caused by eating meat.  How can you be so sure there's a problem, when it only shows up on computer simulations and TV shows?

Having eliminated all the major crimes, they're down to this level:
It's now illegal for anyone under 21 to buy canned whipped cream in New York.  It is illegal for New Yorkers under age 21 to purchase a can of whipped cream, according to recently-passed state law.  The law, which went into effect in November 2021, is meant to prevent teenagers from using canned whipped cream to inhale nitrous oxide, otherwise known as "whippets."  "Inhalants are invisible, volatile substances found in common household products that produce chemical vapors that are inhaled to induce psychoactive or mind-altering effects," according to a US Drug Enforcement Administration factsheet.

Biden administration's farcical climate policies to devastate farmers, exacerbate food shortages.  There has been much talk of food shortages recently.  You ain't seen nothing yet.  Or so say folks like Stephanie Nash, a fourth generation dairy farmer.  She and many other farmers are warning that President Biden's new climate plans will jeopardize our food supply and eventually force many of them out of business.  Deliberately.  This at a time when food prices are rapidly rising and food processing plants are rapidly disappearing.  Does it make sense to punish the people who grow our food?  Especially when there are already shortages?

Elites at the World Economic Forum now want us to Eat Expired Food to Save the Planet.  First they told us to eat bugs and everyone in the western world was like... how about nope.  Then they came out with this disgusting fake meat that has Bill Gates looking like he's pregnant, again, everyone was like... pass!  Now they're telling you to just eat expired food.

Where's the Beef?  How can it be that with so much cattle in America, we sometimes can't buy meat?  At the beginning of the pandemic, Costco, Wegmans and Kroger limited purchases of beef.  Hundreds of Wendy's outlets ran out of hamburgers.  "How [...] can this be?" says Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., in my new video.  "They (Wendy's) were out of hamburger, yet you could see cattle from the drive-thru!"  It happens because of stupid government rules.  Massie owns a small farm in Kentucky.  "I'd rather deal with cattle than congressmen," he jokes.  "At least (cattle) exhibit learned behavior."  But politicians often don't.  "You're born with the right to eat what you want," says Massie.  "Why is the government getting in the middle and saying, 'No, you can't buy that'?"  "To keep you safe," I push back.  "They're not keeping you safe," Massie responds.  "They're keeping you away from good, healthy food."

Climate Alarmist Explains Policy Targeting Farmers to end all Beef, Pork and Chicken from Human Diet.  A few years ago, we might have just brushed this type of ideological policy aside and called the guy a nut.  However, he might indeed be a nut, but more and more countries are adopting the climate change farming policy he is advocating.  [Video clip]

Amish Farmer Faces $250K Fine, Jail Time and Losing His Sustainable Farm for Processing His Own Meat.  Slaughtering and processing the meat he raises on his own farm and selling it fresh-frozen to members of his private food buying club, who've all signed contracts stating they understand the meat is not processed in USDA-inspected plants, or treated with USDA-required chemical preservatives... because that's how they want it, and the very reason they are willing to go to such great lengths to get it.  But the USDA thinks his customers are too stupid to think for themselves and need them to come in and protect them from themselves.  You probably don't know (because I didn't until Miller told me) that all USDA-licensed processing plants are required to treat ALL meat (even the local, grass-fed, organic variety) with synthetic preservatives.  "Often they use citric acid, which you'd think comes from oranges or lemons, but it's a modified substance made from corn... and they don't even have to label it on the meat," Miller said.

Snack and Die Early.  [Scroll down]  All you need to do to verify this point is look around you to see what the overconsumption of processed, highly refined foods has done.  It has led to a pandemic of chronic illness, autoimmune problems, heart disease, diabetes and more.  Mix this ingestion of inflammatory chemicals with putting 70+ doses of different vaccines into every school age child's arm, encouraging mothers to formula feed (when they can find and buy the product), and surrounding ourselves with new powerful electromagnetic fields and you begin to see the danger.  Big pharma has contributed to this new world of chemical engineering by providing and advertising a drug for every ailment.  And many of the largest pharmaceutical companies are also in the food business as well.

The Plan to Destroy the Beef Industry is Underway.  The anti-meat totalitarians, using health and environment as an excuse, are stepping up their demand that the beef industry curtail their operations.  The extremists actually think it's immoral to eat meat on a small planet, or they say that's what they believe.  They have a solution to "fix" the beef industry — "sustainable certification".  All the cattle growers have to do, they are assured, is follow a few simple rules and all will be well.  The extremists involved are the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), the Global Roundtable for Sustainable Beef (GRSB), and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.  The reasons they give for having a problem with cattle is they are not sustainable.  Cattle eat and drink too much, they exude too much C02, they create too much waste, they absorb too much energy, they destroy grassland, they are the root cause of lifestyle diseases, and they limit food production.

Norway launches new monitoring scheme to track all food purchases of private citizens.  Statistics Norway (SSB), which operates the Nordic country's data collection operations, now has a new task that involves tracking the food purchasing habits of Norwegians.  According to reports, the SSB will force all private companies — not just public ones — to hand over data on what foods people in Norway are buying, and in what quantities.  NRK says that the SSB, which collects, produces and communicates statistics related to the Norwegian economy at the national, regional and local levels, will essentially become a Big Brother entity to surveil, track and report on what Norwegians are doing at the grocery store.  "In Norway every citizen is linked to their fødselnummer (birth number), and thus the SSB is well-informed about what individuals earn, their taxes due and their criminal records," reports Free West Media.

California's greenie 'food waste' law hits the reality wall.  In their never-ending quest to remake and remodel California into a greenie socialist paradise, the tsentral planners running California have once again blundered like boobs again, failing to anticipate the unintended consequences of their feel-good 'food waste' law.  The law, which went into effect this year, forbids restaurants and groceries, no matter where [...] they are, from discarding unused food and legally binds them to donate it to food banks instead.  No word from the report on whether the items are old or expired or unfit for human consumption.  We'll just have to take the greenie word for it that it's all a good thing.  But as usual, there are problems they didn't expect from all this virtue-signalling in the name of saving the earth: [...] The report states that just the cost of driving around and picking up unused food in rural areas is a monster money-eater in the era of Joe Biden's "I did that" gasoline costs, piled on top of California's huge fuel mandates and taxes that were all in place earlier.

Food waste becomes California's newest climate change target.  Banana peels, chicken bones and leftover veggies won't have a place in California trashcans under the nation's largest mandatory residential food waste recycling program that's set to take effect in January.  The effort is designed to keep landfills in the most populous U.S. state clear of food waste that damages the atmosphere as it decays.  When food scraps and other organic materials break down they emit methane, a greenhouse gas more potent and damaging in the short-term than carbon emissions from fossil fuels.

The Editor says...
[#1] If your garbage rots in your garden, or it rots in the landfill, what's the difference?  [#2] Rotting garbage is nothing new.  If decaying food scraps cause global warming (and they don't), the process didn't start in the last few years.  Decaying vegetation can be found all over the world.

Brainwashed Teens Show Up to Harass People Eating — Claims Eating Fish Contributes to the Fish Holocaust.  If you're curious what kids these days are being taught in school, take a look at these children who showed up to a restaurant to harass the people eating.  One girl even claims eating fish is contributing to the fish holocaust.  [Video clip]

FDA Announces Plan to Heavily Reduce Salt in Prepared Foods.  Food companies are coming under renewed pressure to use less salt after U.S. regulators spelled out long-awaited guidelines aimed at reducing sodium levels in dozens of foods including condiments, cereals, french fries and potato chips.  The voluntary goals finalized Wednesday [10/13/2021] for 163 foods are intended to help lower the amount of salt people eat.  A majority of the sodium in U.S. diets comes from packaged or restaurant foods — not the salt added to meals at home — making it hard for people to make changes on their own.

FDA wants to radically reduce salt in the nation's food supply.  Health officials are urging food manufacturers and services to take drastic action against America's insatiable appetite for salt.  The Food and Drug Administration has asked food-producing companies to slash the amount of salt in their products by at least 12%, giving businesses 2½ years to hit the mark, according to a statement made Wednesday [10/13/2021].  "What we'd like to see is the food industry gradually lower the sodium content," Acting FDA Commissioner Dr. Janet Woodcock told NBC News, targeting conventionally purchased foods and groceries — namely, processed and prepackaged foods, such as condiments, snacks and frozen dinners, as well as dishes from chain restaurants.

The Freedom to Be Left Alone.  [Scroll down]  One driver of this is socialism.  The systematic corruption of Christian charity into social welfare programs started with good intentions, but before long the tragedy of the commons kicked in and attitudes changed.  Once everyone is on the hook for everyone's lifestyle choices, then your choices become community property.  Everyone now feels they have an economic claim against your choices in life.  What start off as complaints about paying for the fat guy's health care soon become a demand that the government put the fat guy on a diet.  The former mayor of New York City, Michael Bloomberg, claimed he had a duty to watch your salt intake because of health-care costs.  He banned certain sugary drinks on the grounds that he had a duty to mind your business for your own good.

LOW IQ Snowflake Says White People Food Isn't As Healthy As Non-White Food But Blames Crappy Black Food On Racism.  Yes, it's another episode of WTF is this snowflake smoking!  This mumbling snowflake tries to explain that white people's food is so bad for people and when those who eat cultural food, whatever that is, they tend to eat healthier.  She must have missed all the fried foods in Hispanic eating or sugars in Asian cuisine.  And of course, no diet is less healthy than black Americans but she has the tried and true answer to this.  [Video clip]

Every hotdog eaten shortens life by 36 minutes.  Every hotdog a person eats shortens their life by 36 minutes, according to a new study.  However, a person can also add minutes to their healthy life expectancy by eating better foods.  A portion of nuts, for example, adds almost 26 minutes, while a peanut butter and jam sandwich gives a person more than half an hour extra life.  The findings come from experts at the University of Michigan who created a standardised way of assessing the carbon footprint and nutritional impact of almost 6,000 foods.  Their Health Nutritional Index was centred around finding a way to calculate the direct influence of various meals, snacks and drinks.  It works by calculating the health burden of one gram of any food, and then scaling this up to a standard serving size.

The Editor says...
I suppose Joey Chestnut was unavailable for comment.

State orders restaurants to collect private info of customers, keep logs to open for table service.  Washington Gov. Jay Inslee is facing criticism for demanding that, as part of their upcoming reopening, restaurants begin collecting private information from their customers, including their names, their telephone numbers and their email addresses.  "If the establishment offers table service, create a daily log of all customers and maintain that daily log for 30 days, including telephone/email contact information, and time in.  This will facilitate any contact tracing that might need to occur," a "Phase 2 Restaurant/Tavern Reopening" guidance issued by his office on Monday [5/11/2020] reads.

Cities Interfere in Free Market by Restricting Dollar Stores.  Adam Smith famously described the power of the free market's "invisible hand" in his monumental tome, The Wealth of Nations.  In it, Smith said that the butcher does not provide us our supper for our benefit, but in the process of acting in his own self-interest, he does provide us with our supper.  Apparently, the Oklahoma City Council — joining several such cities across the country, including Tulsa, Fort Worth, Birmingham, and DeKalb County in Georgia — has little regard for Smith's "invisible hand" (presuming they have ever even heard of it).  This week, the Oklahoma City Council passed restrictions on the establishment of "dollar stores" in areas of the city that are statistically less healthy.

Nannied from Dawn to Dusk.  Last fall, the United Kingdom's outgoing Chief Medical Officer, Sally Davies, published a report on childhood obesity.  Among her proposals for "bold action" were measures to "allow children to grow up free from marketing signals and incentives to consume unhealthy food and drinks," including the suggestion that the government "prohibit eating and drinking on urban public transport, except fresh water, breastfeeding and for medical conditions."  Such intrusiveness into everyday life, and its tenuous justification — that adults must not set a bad example for children by, say, snacking on the go — made the announcement a watershed in the growing British habit of taxing, banning, and tut-tutting an ever-longer list of perfectly ordinary activities.  In 2016, the government announced a nationwide tax on sugary soft drinks.  London's Mayor Sadiq Khan has banned junk-food advertising on public transport in the capital.

Making the Planet Fit for Food:  Climate Protesters Attack Vermont's Dairy Farms.  The Vermont Governor's annual "State of the State" address was interrupted this year by a loud group of protesters, who refused to stop screaming bizarre slogans until the Vermont State House session was closed so they could be physically escorted from the building.  Amidst their shouts of "I'm afraid I'm going to die!" and "Climate justice is migrant justice!," were repeated condemnations of Vermont's "dairy industry."  This vague "industry" boogeyman is actually nonexistent in Vermont.  The state's dairy farms have steadily declined, and even its largest operations are puny in contrast to the mega-dairies elsewhere.

MSU Student gov Bans Cafeteria Trays.  According to the Associated Students of Michigan State University's (ASMSU) Bill 56-30, doing away with trays will decrease food waste, energy waste, and water usage.  The bill points that "MSU prides itself on sustainability," but lacks this "key policy."  The bill further aims to help shape student diets, stating "reducing tray usage would improve the health of students by encouraging conscious portion sizes."

Don't ever change your diet based on irrational fear.
Panera plans to slash meat from half of its menu as customers seek vegetarian options and fear of climate change heats up.  Panera wants half of its menu to be plant-based, as customers ditch meat and climate change molds strategy.  CEO Niren Chaudhary told Business Insider that, over the next several years, Panera plans to have at least 50% of its menu be made up of plant-based offerings.  Chaudhary said the company plans to have plant-based innovation in every category in 2021.  "We already have strong credentials on plant-based," Chaudhary said in an interview on Thursday [1/9/2020].  "25% of our menu items are plant-based.  With just one customization, 60% of our menu is plant-based."

Unjust Deserts.  About 20 years ago, academic researchers began describing poor urban neighborhoods without supermarkets as "food deserts."  The term captured the attention of elected officials, activists, and the media.  They mapped these nutritional wastelands, blamed them on the rise of suburban shopping centers and the decline of mass transit, linked them to chronic health problems suffered by the poor, and encouraged government subsidies to lure food stores to these communities.  Despite these efforts, which led to hundreds of new stores opening around the country, community health outcomes haven't changed significantly, and activists think that they know why.  The culprits, they say, are the dollar-discount stores in poor neighborhoods that — or so they claim — drive out supermarkets and sell junk food. [...] Behind the sudden disdain for these retailers — typically discount variety stores smaller than 10,000 square feet — are claims by advocacy groups that they saturate poor neighborhoods with cheap, over-processed food, undercutting other retailers and lowering the quality of offerings in poorer communities.

The Editor says...
I see.  The "activists" and "advocacy groups," also known as agitators, want discount stores to offer high-quality fresh food, just like supermarkets, at rock-bottom prices, and they want the stores to accept the responsibility for the health and longevity of the neighborhood residents, even though many of those residents are likely to hold up the store someday and take all the profits.  That only works if there are no other stores in the neighborhood that sell junk food, candy, lottery tickets, and cigarettes.  In reality, stores are located where the demand is, and stocked with the items that the customers are most likely to buy.  Gas stations sell incidental retail items because customers buy whatever their hunger or their greed tells them to buy.

Scientists Counter Claims That 'Meat Is Evil'.  A team of UK scholars have fired back at unscientific claims by PETA and other groups that veganism is a "greener" option that eating meat, insisting that meat has "massive social benefits."  Speaking at a panel in central London, scientists from the University of Edinburgh and Scotland's Rural College argued that eating meat is crucial for the physical and mental health of children, especially in developing countries, adding that that alternatives to livestock farming would not improve land use.

Snowflakes: An Educational Problem.  In Britain, foreign students at Cambridge University have made clear that the world cuisine dishes the colleges offered were nothing more than cultural appropriation.  Pembroke College, Cambridge, in 2017 reviewed its menus after foreign students complained the food that was served "misrepresented" their foreign culture, especially Jamaican stew and Tunisian rice, which were not typical of the dishes they ate at home.  The students demanded Pembroke stop mixing mango and beef, and calling it "Jamaican stew."  The menus were changed because the college wanted, "all our students of diverse background to feel a valued part of our community." [...] Goldsmiths College, London, has become a no-burger institution in its attempt to save the planet.  In 2019 it banned the sale of all beef products on campus in response to calls for tackling the climate emergency, stating we should be more environmentally friendly.

Painting removed from Cambridge University dining room after complaints from vegetarians.  A Cambridge college has removed a 17th century painting from the wall of its dining hall after students complained it was putting them off their food.  Hughes Hall reportedly received complaints from vegetarians students about The Fowl Market, which shows a collection of dead animals hanging from hooks.  The painting, by Flemish artist Frans Snyders, was on long-term loan from the university's Fitzwilliam Museum but has now been taken down.

Lawsuit: Ben & Jerry lying about their "happy cows".  Since most of this week in Washington is already shaping up to be a festival of the ridiculous, we may as well toss a few more logs on the bonfire.  Up in Vermont, Ben & Jerry's, the famously liberal ice cream company, is being taken to court over fraudulent advertising, along with its parent company, Unilever.  But this suit has nothing to do with the quality or safety of their product.  An environmentalist is suing them because of their advertisements claiming that their creamy products are made from milk from "happy cows."  Not so, says the plaintiff!  Apparently, many of the cows are simply miserable.

Lawsuit claims Burger King's Impossible Whoppers are contaminated by meat.  Burger King was sued on Monday by a vegan customer who accused the fast-food chain of contaminating its meatless "Impossible" Whoppers by cooking them on the same grills as its traditional meat burgers.

The Editor says...
If you hate meat so much, why would you enter Burger King?

High cholesterol associated with longer life.  Highly educated "experts" rule today's advanced societies, but their advice on how the rest of us should live — often enforced by government coercion — is increasingly exposed as premature at best and mistaken, incomplete, ignorant, or fraudulent at worst.  Yet another bit of diet advice from "experts" is turning out to be an exploding cigar.  High cholesterol, particularly LDL cholesterol, has been demonized for allegedly bringing on heart attack deaths.  But an intriguing analysis of data published at Medium.com seems to show that total mortality risk is reduced by high cholesterol levels, even LDL cholesterol.

Four decades of bad nutrition advice based on 'settled science' was contradicted by rigorous study of the time — but it was largely suppressed.  Newly unearthed data from 4 decades ago contradicted gospel that animal fats were worse than vegetable fats — and was ignored.  All those climate alarmists who proclaim that they "believe in science" fail to understand that science is created by flawed human beings who are susceptible to ignoring findings that don't confirm their hypotheses.  Or generate future grants for more research in the field.  Today, the "settled science" of nutrition as it stood decades ago is being questioned, in part because Americans have become obese after decades of following federal guidelines that turn out to be poppycock.

The Press Fans Overblown Fears About Diet Soda — Again.  Here's what the paper in JAMA Internal Medicine actually found about drinks containing artificial sweeteners:  People who consumed two or more per day were slightly more likely than those who abstained from all soda to die from diseases related to circulatory problems. (Consuming one or more sugar-sweetened soda per day, meanwhile, was associated with increase risk of dying from liver, appendix, pancreas, and intestinal diseases.) Whether these circulatory problems are directly related to diet soda is unknown — and there are good reasons to suspect they are not.  "Researchers cautioned that elevated soft-drink consumption may be a marker for an overall unhealthy lifestyle," the Post points out.  That is, people who consume sodas daily may also be more likely to eat out at restaurants, consume processed snacks, or engage in other dietary habits that up their disease risk.

Germany [is] Looking at a Meat Tax to Battle Climate Change.  Last week German lawmakers proposed slapping a tax on meat in order to "help" the climate and improve animal welfare.  The new tax would raise the current tax from 7% to the standard 20%.  Environmentally superior Germans point out that the livestock sector is responsible for 14.5% of global greenhouse emissions.  The hope is that the tax will prevent Germans from consuming the offending food items.

Hyped-Up Fake Meat Product Finds Stock Tanking.  "Beyond Meat" is a newly marketed meat substitute that is all the rage.  Everywhere you turn, there's a story hyping up this unnatural, processed product meant to replace good old American meat.  One iteration of the fake meat product, the "impossible burger," is even available in fast food form at Burger King in an "Impossible Whopper."  Self Magazine tells you that this item is convincing meat eaters to eat plant burgers (not this meat eater.)  CNN comforts you with the news that the "impossible burger" shortage is over.

Food Labeling Follies.  California's Office of Administrative Law (OAL) recently made it official:  Your morning cup of coffee won't give you cancer.  Next week's newsflash probably will be, swallowing an orange seed doesn't cause a tree to grow in your stomach.  After more than a year of legal wrangling, OAL signed off on a proposed rule exempting coffee from Proposition 65, a decades-old voter-approved measure that requires warning labels on products that contain chemicals the state has deemed potentially carcinogenic.  So that means cancer warning labels and the universally ignored coffee shop warnings can be removed at long last.

McDonald's and Burger King are facing calls to scrap plastic toys in kids' meal deals.  The plastic toys given away with children's fast food meals are under fire.  McDonald's and Burger King are the target of a petition started by two British school children who criticize the companies for giving away the toys that they say are put in the trash after only being used briefly.  McDonald's Happy Meal and Burger King's Kids' Meal include a main meal, side, drink and a toy, which is often linked to movie releases.

Arby's creates 'Megetables' in response to fake meat trend.  Ever feel like you should eat more vegetables, but just want to eat meat instead?  Well, Arby's has the solution.  In a strange gimmick targeted at the recent popularity of fake meat options — like Beyond and Impossible — the home of "the meats" has rolled out its own version of faux-food:  Megetables.  The chain's first Megetable, known as the "Marrot," is a meat-based carrot lookalike conceptualized by Neville Craw, the vice president of culinary innovation and a brand executive at Arby's.  It was introduced as part of a category of meat "vegetables" the brand is both "inventing and exploring," according to a spokesperson for the brand.

Investigation Finds Thousands of Regulations Issued By Career Bureaucrats In Violation of the Constitution.  [Scroll down]  Recognizing that career bureaucrats signing off on rules is Constitutionally problematic, PLF investigated the rule-making process at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).  Looking at all rules issued by HHS from 2001 to 2017, we found that 71 percent of the 2,952 rules we reviewed were unconstitutional.  The worst offender within HHS is FDA, where 98 percent of rules are unconstitutional.  Many of these are highly technical rules that govern scientific drug and food development; others are significant regulations that carry huge costs and have a substantive impact felt by businesses and consumers.  But in virtually all cases, these rules were enacted by government employees who lacked the proper Constitutional authority to do so.  What this practice represents is an erosion of government accountability, which paves the way to an erosion of liberty and, ultimately, government abuse.

The United States of Gluttony.  Research shows that Americans have, by far, the worst diet in the developed world.  According to recent calorie intake data released by The Food and Agriculture Organization, the average Americans eats around 3,600 calories a day.  There are 78 million obese adults living in America.  That's almost a quarter of the population.  Furthermore, less than a quarter of Americans are meeting all national physical activity guidelines, according to a 2018 report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS).

Beto O'Rourke calls for ethical farm-to-table restaurants in every community.  Former Rep. Beto O'Rourke called for the establishment of farm-to-table restaurants in every community to combat poor nutrition.  Farm-to-table restaurants are part of a socially-conscious movement favored by wealthy urbanites that often feature small, elaborately designed fare from local farms and are typically very expensive.  The Democratic presidential candidate made the gaffe at a Friday [4/26/2019] event hosted at a brewery by the Nevada State Democratic Party in Henderson, a Las Vegas suburb.

The Editor says...
There would already be "ethical farm-to-table restaurants in every community" if such an idea were commercially feasible.  Obviously they are not, so Beto's proposal is to have the government set up and maintain unprofitable restaurants everywhere.  Brilliant!

California restaurants may add climate change surcharge: 'We as chefs want to do the right thing'.  Dining out may get more expensive in California.  As part of an initiative aimed at combating climate change, restaurants will have the option to adhere to the Restore California Renewable Restaurant program and add a one percent surcharge to diners' bills.  The extra money will go to support environmentally friendly farming practices.

New York City Wants to Ban Hot Dogs to Stop Global Warming.  The City of New York is banning hot dogs from government facilities in order to save the earth from global warming.  No, they are serious.  Bill de Blasio's jack-booted city authorities are moving to ban all processed meats from schools, and government-run cafeterias to save the earf.

NYC Considering Banning Hot Dogs and Other Processed Meats Over Climate Change.  New York City may be on the verge of outlawing its signature encased meat, the hot dog, alongside other "processed meats," in a bid to make New Yorkers more climate conscious.  Radio station Z100 reports that Mayor Bill de Blaiso signed into law New York's own version of the "Green New Deal" last week, and part of the NYC GND involves teaching New Yorkers to make healthy, environmentally friendly food choices by banning specific, "problematic" dishes from city menus.

Beware: PC scolds are invading America's restaurants.  This week, the Milk Bar dessert chain caved to a handful of complaints over their Crack Pie — a sweet, oat-crusted confection that's been their most popular item for 11 years.  Why?  "Crack" is a word forbidden to use outside of its literal meaning lest it offend "largely poor, largely black communities" that suffered from the crack-cocaine epidemic and violence of the 1980s.  None of Milk Bar's 16 outlets in six American and Canadian cities is known to have been picketed, boycotted or otherwise condemned by members of poor and/or black communities.  The purported fury emanated from a very, very few food critics who evidently believe that the oppressed class needs protection from supposedly racist restaurateurs — notably The Boston Globe's Devra First, who wrote a piece headlined "There's nothing cute about Crack Pie."

California State Legislators Abandon Ban on 'Big Gulp'-Style Sodas — for Now.  Californians who love "Big Gulp"-style sodas can rest easy for the moment — the state legislature will not outlaw the oversize drinks just yet.  On Wednesday [4/10/2019], Assemblyman David Chiu, a Democrat from San Francisco who sponsored a provision to ban the large sodas, pulled the proposal from a legislative package aimed at combating obesity amid opposition from businesses and trade groups including the 7-Eleven corporation, the American Beverage Association, and the California Retailers Association.

White people's diets are killing the environment: study.  Caucasian populations are disproportionately contributing to climate change through their eating habits, which uses up more food — and emits more greenhouse gases — than the typical diets of black and Latinx communities, according to a new report published in the Journal of Industrial Ecology.  Researchers tracked information from multiple databases to identify foods considered "environmentally intense" by requiring more precious resources such as water, land and energy to produce — and, as a result, releasing more greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide through production and distribution.  Potatoes, beef, apples and milk are some of the worst offenders.

NYC Mayor Bill De Blasio Announces 'Meatless Mondays' In Public Schools To 'Save The Earth'.  New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Monday [3/11/2019] that NYC's public schools will be going vegetarian one day per week in order to save the Earth.  Local New York media reports that the "Meatless Mondays" pilot program, which brought vegetarian meals to around 15 Brooklyn schools, will expand city-wide for the 2019-2020 school year, and "all schools will serve vegetarian menus on Mondays" to the city's 1.1 million students.  De Blasio told a press conference Monday that the change will help improve the health of New York's students, and will hopefully have an impact on climate change.

In New York City schools it's goodbye chicken nuggets, hello bean curd.  Thanks, Mayor De Blasio.  The mayor of the nation's largest city says the only way to save the planet from an environmental calamity is to force school children to eat twigs and berries.  New York City Mayor Bill De Blasio has issued an edict declaring all public schools to be meat-free zones on at least one day of the week.  "Meatless Mondays" is a national propaganda campaign that purports to promote healthy and environmentally friendly meal options.  Goodbye hot dogs, hello bean curd.

Salt Awareness Week 2019: Is it really as bad as we're led to believe?  How much salt do you consume every day?  Government guidelines say we should limit our intake to no more than 6g per day, but if you're like me, that doesn't mean a lot.  So I got out my kitchen scales and weighed it.  Turns out 6g is the equivalent of 1 teaspoon.  I looked at the small pile of white crystals, and imagined sprinkling salt over my fried eggs in the morning or whisking some into a vinaigrette or seasoning a steak before grilling.  Suddenly 6g didn't seem like a lot.  But Action on Salt — the group behind Salt Awareness Week, which runs from 4 to 10 March — wants us to meet that 6g target and more.  We average around 8.1g a day, so we're looking at just over a 25 percent reduction.

Class Action Food Lawsuits Are Booming.  Class-action litigation targeting food companies is still a growth industry.  That's the conclusion reached by attorneys with Perkins Coie, a law firm that defends many food companies facing class-action lawsuits, in its annual report on class-action food litigation, published last month.  The report, Food Litigation: 2018 Year in Review, notes 2018 was "one of the most active years on record" for food class actions (or "FCAs" as I've dubbed them).  That's not a good thing.  Last year, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's Institute for Legal Reform (ILR) reported that food "class actions result from lawyers shopping for cases, not consumer fraud."

Khan's London:  Bacon, Jam, Butter Ad Banned from Public Transport.  A supermarket ad containing mostly fresh produce but that contained butter, bacon, and jam was banned after London's Mayor Sadiq Khan introduced a prohibition on advertising 'junk food' on the Underground.  Online food retailer Farmdrop, which aims to deliver "fresher, fairer groceries," has claimed that Transport for London (TfL) rejected their advert because it contained items including "free-range eggs and butter from local farmers" in contravention of the war on "high fat, sugar and salt" foods.

Leftists Aren't Religious?  Ask Them about Food.  If you move to a politically blue part of the country, you will experience the cultural shift the minute your kids enter preschool.  School picnics, snack time and birthday parties can become an anxiety-inducing strain as you try to determine what you can bring that all the children can eat.  The parents are generally nice people who would never expect you to consider their dietary rules, but you will nonetheless feel a twinge of guilt if you bring that batch of traditionally-made cupcakes and accidentally feed it to a kid who is not allowed to experience it.

'Medicare for All' would require obesity laws.  Proponents of "Medicare for All" often point towards European nations with universal healthcare systems to prove that single-payer could work here.  The global ramifications of inevitably immolating our medical research and development aside, there's just one, massive elephant in the room that progressives love to ignore:  obesity.  At 36.2 percent, the American obesity rate is the 12th-highest in the world and first among OECD countries.  Of every European nation with universal healthcare, only the United Kingdom (27.8 percent) and Hungary (26.4 percent) come within 10 percent of the American obesity rate.

Hits Keep Piling Up Against Philadelphia Soda Tax.  A Philadelphia ShopRite convenience store will close, with the owner citing lost business related to the city's soda tax as the primary reason for its closure.  The store is located near Philadelphia's city limits, where local residents appear to have taken a good portion of their business across the border to avoid paying the tax.  Jeff Brown, the store's owner, whose efforts in bringing supermarkets into impoverished areas of Philadelphia was lauded by President Obama in his 2010 State of the Union address, indicated that reduced sales at all his stores since the soda tax went into effect has cumulatively reduced his total payroll by about 200 jobs, which he has achieved through attrition rather than through layoffs.  The store closure is expected to add another 100 jobs to that running total of attrition.

New Food Policy Report Calls for a Global War on Meat and Sugar.  A Lancet Commission Report released this week calls for a global campaign to combat obesity, malnutrition, and climate change.  The report, The Global Syndemic of Obesity, Undernutrition, and Climate Change, claims these problems share a common cause and, hence, may be fixed with a common solution.  The concept of a "syndemic" — basically, two or more related pandemics — is pretty novel.  So is tying climate change to both the overconsumption and underconsumption of calories.  But the solution the authors propose will sound frustratingly familiar.  In short, their big fix is to treat food companies like tobacco companies and tax meats and sugary food and drink.  Some members of the media love the report. [...] Some things in the report jump right out.  For example, the article doesn't waste any time making some rather astonishing claims.  For example, the third sentence argues that climate change is a pandemic.

Trump Triggers the Liberal Food Scolds.  President Trump today [1/14/2019] hosted the Clemson Tigers NCAA football championship team, and served them fast food in the Oval Office:  [Illustration]  Trump really is a genius, because faster than you can say C. Everett Koop, a leftist was triggered. [...] As I have said many times, All Day Breakfast at McDonald's was the only good thing to come out of the Obama years.

City Council bill would require chains to post warnings for sugary foods.  Fast-food fans are going to have to slow down to read all the warning labels on the menu if legislation introduced Wednesday in the City Council becomes law.  A bill authored by Councilmember Mark Levine would require chain restaurants to post warning notices next to each food item that contains more than 12 grams of added sugar.  That's in addition to the postings already on the books for high sodium content and calorie counts.  "No city has done this yet, but New York is backsliding in the fight against obesity and diabetes, and helping people improve their diet is key to getting those trends moving in the right direction," said Levine (D-Manhattan), who chairs the council's Health Committee.

A Soda Tax and Consequences.  When Philadelphia became the first major U.S. city to pass a soda tax in 2016, Mayor Jim Kenney said it would improve public health while funding universal pre-K.  Two years in, the policy hasn't delivered on that elite ideological goal.  But the tax has come at the expense of working people and other vulnerable Philadelphians.  Proponents say the soda levy is technically a tax on distribution, but it functions like a regressive consumption tax as retailers pass the cost onto consumers.

The Biggest Junk Science of 2018.  [#5] In California, Coffee Is a Carcinogen. Coffee contains a tiny amount of the chemical acrylamide (on average, a half a millionth of a gram in a cup of roasted coffee).  Based mostly on animal and in vitro studies, acrylamide has been found to be a potential risk factor for cancer in very high doses.  Therefore coffee causes cancer and requires a warning label.  Such was the apparent logic of California Superior Court Judge Elihu Berle in a ruling this past spring.  Scientists and experts almost universally decried the move as a gross overextension of the precautionary principle, but to no avail.  Coffee is immensely unlikely to cause cancer, but in California, the popular drink now comes accompanied by a scary and misleading warning label.

Latest coffee study is nonsense — leave my morning ritual alone!.  After an exhaustive study, scientists tell us that the best time to drink coffee might NOT actually be first thing in the morning but actually an hour after you wake up.  This is because in the hour after you wake up, your body's production of cortisol is at one of its three daily peaks.  This mysterious cortisol is known as the "alertness hormone," so in order to achieve maximum alertness, we should delay the intake of caffeine, according to researchers.  Which researchers?  The kind who like to tell us what to do.

McDonald's being sued for marketing Happy Meals to kids.  McDonald's in Canada is being sued for allegedly advertising Happy Meals to children.  Justice Pierre-C. Gagnon of the Quebec Superior Court authorized the suit Wednesday [11/14/2018], which is being overseen by Montreal lawyer Joey Zukran, Global News reports.  The lawsuit claims that promotions for the popular kid's menu item inside McDonald's restaurants violate the province's consumer protection law, which prohibits commercial advertising toward children under 13.  The ads reportedly show pictures of the toys that come with the meal.

The case for the government 'food pyramid' takes another blow.  Poor Dr. Robert Atkins, the diabetes expert who discovered in the early 1970s that low carb diets help patients lose weight better than low fat diets, has always had the worst time being believed.  He's been debunked, lied about, and treated as a pariah by the diet establishment, despite the obvious merits of his findings.  Study after study affirms them, researchers such as Gary Taubes confirm his claims, and similar low-carb regimens to the Atkins Diet, such as Keto, have large followings, but the high-carb government food pyramid and an entire diet industry built around those earlier postulations about low-fat diets carry on, pretending he doesn't exist.  Now a big and very rigorously tested study has come out from a couple of Harvard researchers, and well, is Dr. Atkins vindicated again.

Food Gentrification on the Ballot.  In San Francisco, where a 385-square-feet studio apartment went for $537,000 earlier this year, residents know the value of space — and the perils of gentrification.  But San Franciscans overwhelmingly support a state ballot initiative prohibiting the sale of eggs, bacon, veal, and other products that come from farms not providing expansive square-footage to hens, pigs, and cows.  "A business owner or operator shall not knowingly engage in the sale within the State of California," Proposition 12 reads, of any "pork," "veal," or "eggs" from animals "confined in a cruel manner."  What California defines as "cruel" others characterize as the norm in agriculture.  Business owners guilty of violating the law face maximum penalties of six months in jail and a $1,000 fine.  But how would a restauranteur or meat market proprietors know, precisely, the conditions of the animals sold at their establishments back at the farm?

Texas ban on throwing away food received with praise, outrage.  A Texas city has banned restaurants from throwing away food and its receiving mixed reviews online.  Austin announced the new city ordinance Monday [10/1/2018], requiring restaurants and food-permitted businesses to find alternative methods to discarding organic material other than throwing it away.  "The [Universal Recycling Ordinance] URO requires convenient access for employees to divert discarded organic material, such as food scraps or soiled paper products, from landfills.  Options include donating extra food to feed people (preferred), sending food scraps to local animal farms or ranches, developing customized solutions and composting, either on-site or with a private organic collection provider," the ordinance read.

The Organic Food Industry Gets Fat on Lies.  In "The Wealth of Nations," the 18th century economist and philosopher Adam Smith observed about the chicanery of some businessmen, "People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices."  Nowhere is that truer than in today's organic agriculture and food industries.  In an August Wall Street Journal op-ed entitled, "The Organic Industry Is Lying to You," I described the ways those industries misrepresent the benefits of their products and broadcast spurious concerns about modern genetic engineering of crop plants — in other words, mendaciously trashing the competition.  The Journal published two responses to my op-ed from representatives of the organic industry that perfectly illustrate my thesis:  Like tobacco industry executives before them, they have to lie in order to defend a flawed product.

The Left Is Hoping to Eliminate Steak, Hamburgers, and Bacon.  For a time in my life, I was a vegan and a member of PETA.  Since then, I have changed a lot, but I still understand how animal rights activists think and what they want.  In a nutshell, and quite simply, they think that meat eaters are moral monsters and they want to ensure that no humans eat meat.  That being said, they're not afraid to think of new ways to accomplish their goals.  An article in The Atlantic touting meat grown in laboratories as a substitute for meat from animals is a case in point.  Derek Thompson begins his article with the provocative claim, "There are two big truths about eating meat from animals."  If I didn't know better, I would've assumed that the two big truths are:  1. meat is delicious, and, 2. humans are designed to eat meat.

Scientific studies behind Michelle Obama school lunch program retracted.  We all know that the nutrition industry has more than its share of fakes, charlatans, and snake oil salesmen.  But it was thought that scientific studies published in the prestigious Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) had the advantage of being peer-reviewed and critiqued by objective experts.  That may be so.  But the scandal involving one of the most popular — and most published — nutrition researchers in the world should make us question everything we've been told about how to eat healthy.  JAMA announced that it is retracting (removing from publication) six studies on nutrition by Cornell University food scientist Brian Wansink.  That brings the total number of studies by Wansink that have been pulled to 13.  And there are 15 other studies by the good doctor that are under review.

This Ivy League food scientist was a media darling.  Now his studies are being retracted.  A prestigious family of medical journals has retracted multiple articles authored by Cornell professor Brian Wansink, a food researcher and onetime media darling whose work has increasingly been questioned by critics in recent years.  The American Medical Association's JAMA Network said it retracted six papers, including those about how serving bowl size affected food consumption, how fasting changed people's food preferences and how action-packed television programs increased food intake.  The articles now appear online with a note at the top in red that says "article alert" and directs readers to a retraction note.  The buzzy and accessible studies helped Wansink become a regular feature of the media circuit, his work spawning countless news stories.  He published a study showing that people who ate from "bottomless" bowls of soup continue to eat as their bowls are refilled, as a parable about the potential health effects of large portion sizes.

Sweden lists milk as a hate symbol.  In a new report on "the white hatred" in Sweden, by the Total Defense Research Institute (Foi) commissioned by the government to map comments written on sites on the internet, milk is listed as a hate symbol and a symbol of "white power," along with the okay-symbol much used by Donald Trump.  The stated purpose of the report is to "provide an insight into some digital environments whose common denominator is that they are all xenophobic". Expressing threats or profanity is considered to be an example of hatred, but expressions of anxiety or fear are also considered to be hatred, according to the report.

Students Fight Oppressive Ice Cream Marginalizing Muslims, Vegans.  Students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison are taking action against discriminatory and marginalizing ice cream on campus, since some of the flavors use a beef gelatin.  Yes, we've become so far removed from reality on college campuses that students are now fighting against oppressive ice cream.  Talk about First World problems.  Students have crafted legislation, titled "Ice Cream for All," demanding the ice cream at university-owned Babcock Dairy use more "inclusive" ingredients, thus ceasing the "marginalization" of "Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, Jewish, Vegetarian, and Vegan students."

The Editor says...
Wow, I never knew ice cream was so mean!

Student council members:  Ice cream is not 'inclusive' enough.  Student council members at the University of Wisconsin-Madison are asking the school to change the ingredients in its official ice cream to be more 'inclusive.'  The students say that minority students of certain religious backgrounds cannot enjoy the ice cream, which contains beef gelatin, without violating their religious beliefs. [...] UW-M's official ice cream, the Babcock, contains a beef gelatin additive, which according to the legislation, "renders certain communities such as the Jewish, Hindu, Buddhist, and vegetarian unable to enjoy it without violating their beliefs."

The Editor says...
This is America.  Assimilate or leave.

Missouri becomes first state to regulate use of the word 'meat'.  This week, Missouri became the first state in the country to have a law on the books that prohibits food makers from using the word "meat" to refer to anything other than animal flesh.  This takes aim at manufacturers of what has been dubbed fake or nontraditional meat.  Clean meat — also known as lab-grown meat — is made of cultured animal tissue cells, while plant-based meat is generally from ingredients such as soy, tempeh and seitan.  The state law forbids "misrepresenting a product as meat that is not derived from harvested production livestock or poultry."  Violators may be fined $1,000 and imprisoned for a year.

Just Another Word for Nothing Left to Lose.  [Scroll down]  It's easy to roll one's eyes at San Francisco, but a bill that would forbid restaurants from handing out plastic straws unless requested by the customer has just landed on the governor's desk.  Furthermore, a second bill that just landed on his desk requires fast-food restaurants to offer water or milk as the default option on any children's meals.  Advocates for the latter see it as a strike against childhood obesity, but it's really just a means to meddle in parents' minor life decisions.  Parents can still order soda for their kids, but restaurants could face $500 fines for providing a soda with the meal.  This is an almost literal example of the "nanny state."

Milk Or Water:  California Bill Aims To Curb Kids' Soda Drinking At Restaurants.  A new state bill would give kids two options with their meals at restaurants — water or milk.  Senate Bill 1192 would make water or milk the default drink for kids meals in a push to reduce obesity and access to sugary drinks for children.  The bill passed the Assembly and is on its way to Gov. Jerry Brown's desk.  If he signs it, California would be the first state in the nation to have such a law.

Know anyone who relies on menu nutrition info to order?  Remember all that debating in Washington over requiring every single eating establishment in these United States to post nutrition information by every single food item you might conceivably order?  The rules, which took effect in May, required rewriting every menu anywhere.  But it was being implemented long before.  These rules were biggies for Michelle Obama, who liked to order french fries anyway.  This was another of those possibly well-meaning federal edicts designed to force Americans to eat healthier than they want because many of us don't.  The former first lady and others thought the federal government has a major role to play in forcing the population to eat what experts think they should eat, right down to reformulating school lunches that didn't go over so well.  Mrs. Obama even wanted restaurants to scrap the most popular menu items if their health formula did not pass her muster.  Look around on the sidewalk at lunch hour, see how well that's working.

New Yorker's lawsuit says Florida's Natural OJ 'not natural'.  A Brooklyn woman has fired a legal arrow straight toward the heart of Florida's Natural Growers.  Alexandra Axon has challenged the Lake Wales juice processor's claim that its premium product, Florida's Natural Growers orange juice, is indeed "natural" as declared in its name and images on the OJ carton.  Axon claims the acts of processing the juice and trace levels of a common herbicide in it mean the product cannot claim to be natural.

A customer couldn't find any ginger in Canada Dry ginger ale, so she's suing.  Ginger ale seems different from other sodas.  Some people consider it to be a remedy for stomach upset, so it's basically medicine, right?  It has the word ginger — a popular herbal remedy — right there in the name.  Now one lawsuit says customers have been misled all along.

New York woman sues Canada Dry, claims its ginger ale soda doesn't contain actual ginger.  A western New York woman has decided to sue soft drink maker Canada Dry after she discovered the drink isn't made with actual ginger.  Yes, this is real.  Julie Fletcher filed a federal lawsuit in Buffalo, New York, earlier this month, claiming that Dr Pepper Snapple Group, the parent company that owns Canada Dry, misled customers by allegedly advertising its ginger ale soda as containing real ginger.  Because of Canada Dry's advertising, Fletcher believed the soda was a "healthier alternative" to other sodas.  Turns out, that's not true.

The Editor says...
Guess what.  Cream Soda doesn't have any cream.  Root Beer isn't beer.  Mountain Dew doesn't come from the mountains.  Dr Pepper (with no period) isn't really a doctor.  Get over it.

San Francisco:  The City of Bans.  Who would have guessed that cafeterias would even be a public-policy issue?  I've worked at companies with them and without them.  But I would have found it more likely for lefties to require such things rather than prohibit them.  Many workers, even in well-paid industries where such cafeterias are common, struggle financially given the high cost of living in the Bay Area.  Here's a chance for the city to help assure that they get a healthy meal while they work those long hours doing whatever IT people do.  What did I miss?  "The supervisors introduced the legislation because they say tech companies' employees are hurting local restaurants by taking advantage of the perk and eating in-house, rather than patronizing neighborhood eating establishments," reported Smart Cities Dive.

Proposal in San Francisco would ban free cafeterias to encourage workers to eat out.  Two restaurant supervisors in San Francisco introduced new legislation Tuesday [7/24/2018] to prohibit new office buildings from offering free lunch.  Ryan Corridor, a local restaurant owner, told KPIX that they can't compete against big tech campuses and workplaces that offer employee-provided lunch.  "We see it in our business," Corridor said.  "We see thousands of employees in a block radius that don't go out to lunch and don't go out in support of restaurants every day — it's because they don't have to."

The Editor says...
Apparently Mr. Corridor wants to ban brown-bag lunches and have the government require all employees (presumably under the threat of fine or imprisonment) to purchase food at the retail level, where Mr. Corridor will be waiting.  In other words, he wants the government to bring him customers.  And he's probably one of the people who complains about "corporate welfare."

Cow's milk was added to Almond Breeze, FDA says, sparking a recall in 28 states.  In the decadeslong war over milk — with purveyors of cow juice vs. the people who make an array of plant- and nut-based drinks — this is as close to consorting with the enemy as it gets.  The manufacturer of popular Almond Breeze announced a recall for what some would say is a sacrilegious act:  Somehow, cow's milk got into their almond milk.

Your almond milk might be tainted with actual milk.  Health nuts, back away from your smoothies.  The Food and Drug Administration recently announced a recall of dairy-free Blue Diamond Almond Breeze almond milk over reports of contamination with ... actual milk.  The popular dairy-free brand, produced by HP Hood LLC — a New England-based dairy — will pull more than 145,000 half-gallon cartons of their refrigerated vanilla variety from stores and wholesalers in 28 states, including New Jersey, NJ.com reports.  The recall applies to Vanilla Almond Breeze with a use-by date of September 2, 2018.

Don't have a cow over almond milk.  "An almond doesn't lactate, I will confess," Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said.  This wasn't part of a comedy sketch, but instead part of a threat by the federal government to crack down on anyone who misuses the word "milk."  Humor isn't the FDA's strong suit, but its definition of milk is comical.  To the government, the only products that can be called milk are "the lacteal secretion, practically free from colostrum, obtained by the complete milking of one or more healthy cows."

"An almond doesn't lactate:"  FDA to crack down on use of the word "milk".  The US Food and Drug Administration seems to have soured on nondairy milk-alternative products that use the term "milk" in their marketing and labeling — like popular soy and almond milk products.  In a talk hosted by Politico, FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb announced Tuesday [7/17/2018] that the FDA will soon issue a new guidance on the use of the term.  But he added that products aren't abiding by FDA policies as they stand now.  He referenced a so-called "standard of identity" policy that regulates how milk is defined and should be identified.

Subway worker 'shattered' vegan customer's 'world' by explaining mayonnaise has eggs in it.  A Subway restaurant worker is claiming that he educated a vegan customer about how mayonnaise was made after she ordered her sandwich with the condiment.  But her response to the lesson is what is confusing some people.  The worker — identified as Gabriel Caulfield-Bohlken — said a customer walked into his store and ordered a Veggie Delight sandwich.  "As I went to get the bread she asked me if I could change my gloves cause (sic) she was vegan and I had been handling meat.  I did that, no problem, perfectly reasonable request," Caulfield-Bohlken said in a Facebook post that has 66K likes and more than 43K shares.

Baltimore restaurants banned from including sodas, sugary drinks on kids' menus.  Restaurants in Baltimore are now officially barred from including sodas and other sugary drinks on kids' menus, according to a city ordinance that went into effect Wednesday [7/18/2018].

California governor signs soda tax ban into law.  California cities and counties are banned from taxing sodas and other sugary drinks for the next 12 years under a bill signed into law by Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown.  The deal was rushed through the legislature and to the governor's desk on Thursday.  In exchange for the law, the nonalcoholic beverage industry is withdrawing a ballot measure that had been slated for November.  It would have raised the voter threshold to approve local sales tax increases on any item, not just soda taxes, from a majority vote to a supermajority vote.  Signatures were gathered for the ballot through a campaign funded by the beverage industry.

Snack attack:  It's time to kick vending machines out of the workplace.  In the middle of a nationwide obesity epidemic, a handy device dripping with temptation often lurks around the workplace corner — the vending machine.  America's vending machine industry earned $21.6 billion last year, according to Vending Watch magazine.  There are 7 million vending machines in the U.S. and 100 million Americans use them each day, the National Automatic Merchandising Association reports.  The machines mostly promote sugary beverages, candy, cookies and chips.  In other words, foods that only increase the risk of obesity. [...] Given that about 70 percent of American adults are overweight or obese, vending machines could be one more place where employers can help Americans avoid junk, whether that means filling the machines with truly healthy options or eliminating them in the workplace altogether.

The Editor says...
Obviously, if "100 million Americans use them each day," there is a demand for this service.  With individual liberty comes responsibility.  If you can't stay away from the Pop Tarts in the vending machine at work, that's entirely your problem.  Don't make it my problem.

This state has the most fast food restaurants in the country.  According to a recent study by Datafiniti, there are 6.3 restaurants per 10,000 residents in Alabama[,] making it the state with the most fast food restaurants in America per capita.  Nebraska and West Virginia follow with 5.4 and 5.3 restaurants per capita, respectively.

A French Grocer Protested Stupid EU Food Regulations and Won.  [Scroll down]  Last month, the grocer also announced it would become the first French grocery to ensure all of its store-brand packaging is recyclable, reusable, or compostable by 2025.  And it reported this month that it was swapping out plastic bags for biodegradable ones in all of its Romanian stores by next year.  While these recent announcements by Carrefour paint a pretty cool picture, the company made perhaps its biggest impact recently by openly flouting a set of ridiculous EU regulations that caused millions of farm seed varieties to be banned.  These longstanding and mind-numbingly stupid EU seed rules were as awful as they sound.  Under the rules, legal seeds were listed in the suitably nefarious sounding Official Catalogue of Authorized Species, which "dictates which seeds are eligible for sale and cultivation" in the EU.  (Notably, such controversies aren't uniquely European.)

The U.S. diet is a climate disaster.  If your household is anything like the American average, your diet generates lots of greenhouse gas emissions: roughly the same amount in a single week, a new study finds, as a drive from D.C. to Trenton. [...] But consumers can make small daily changes to bring that number down, said Rebecca Boehm, a postdoctoral fellow at the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at the University of Connecticut and lead author of the study.  It's a simple matter of watching your budget, your "food miles" and — most important — your consumption of meat and dairy.  "If people reduced their spending on protein foods by 18 percent, they'd see almost a tenfold reduction in household greenhouse gas emissions," Boehm said.  "That is pretty significant."

The Editor says...
If you can't eat, what's the point of reducing greenhouse gas emissions?  Even if we all stop eating meat, the termites and volcanos and brush fires around the world will continue to produce unstoppable greenhouse gases.  Double cheeseburger, please.

KFC Will Test Vegetarian 'Fried Chicken,' Original Herbs and Spices Included.  KFC says it's cooking up a new, healthier recipe, one that will be missing the restaurant chain's most famous ingredient:  chicken.  The company famous for its "finger lickin' " Southern fried chicken announced this week that it was testing chicken-like "vegetarian options" in Britain with its signature blend of herbs and spices.  "Development of the recipe is still in its very early stages, and so the options we're exploring in our kitchen are still top secret," a spokesman for KFC said in a statement.

WaPo gets the relentless pounding it deserves for suggesting this 'welcome guest' to your next cookout.  The great thing about a hot dog is that, healthy or not, it's a hot dog.  But our liberal friends at the Washington Post think they have a better alternative:  carrot dogs.

You Won't Believe What McDonald's Is Being Sued For Now.  There are more than 1.3 million lawyers in the United States today, and it is estimated that those lawyers produce more than 40 million lawsuits each year.  Many of those lawsuits are completely frivolous, but frivolous lawsuits are often settled because it can be much cheaper to settle them than to defend against them in court.  So it is essentially a form of "legal extortion" that has gotten wildly out of control.  Earlier today I came across another shocking example of this phenomenon.

McDonald's customers suing for $5M over unwanted Quarter Pounder cheese.  Two McDonald's customers in Florida are suing the fast-food giant for a hefty sum of $5 million because they say they're being unfairly charged for cheese they don't want on their burgers.  Cynthia Kissner and Leonard Werner argue that hamburgers and cheeseburgers are different prices on the McDonald's menu, but when they order a Quarter Pounder without the extra dairy, they're still forced to pay the same amount.

The Obamacare Food Cops Are Here.  If you thought Michelle Obama's departure from the White House meant there would be less government meddling with your meals, you were mistaken.  Beginning Monday, Obamacare's menu labeling requirements became effective for fast-food chains, family restaurants, pizza delivery companies, grocery chains, convenience stores, movie theaters, and any other food retailer with 20 or more locations.  Ironically, the uncongenial task of implementing this regulation falls to a longtime critic of the "Affordable Care Act," Scott Gottlieb.

Vegetarians and Meat Eaters are Trying to Stifle Interstate Commerce.  Nearly a decade ago, vegetarian and vegan activists in California scored a policy victory that raised the stakes for meat consumers across the country.  Assembly Bill No. 1437, signed by then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, prohibited California poultry farmers from housing their hens in subjectively small cages.  This was a huge policy change in and of itself, but the law contained an even more far-reaching provision:  an eventual ban on the sale of all eggs laid in such a cage, even if the chickens were raised in another state.  These types of laws can cut the opposite way as well.  In Missouri, legislators are currently considering a ban on labelling products as "meat" if they come from plant matter or were grown in a lab, regardless of how closely they resemble actual animal meat.

Here are 1,366 well sourced examples of Barack Obama's lies, lawbreaking, corruption, cronyism, hypocrisy, waste, etc..  [#43] [Obama fined a] public school $15,000 for selling soda.  The Obama administration fined a high school $15,000 for selling soda to students during lunch. [...] [#116] In 2011, in Lake County, Florida, Obama's new school lunch program caused $75,000 of perfectly good fruits and vegetables to be thrown into the garbage. [...] [#257] In December 2010, Obama signed the "Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act," which limited school lunches to a maximum of 850 calories.  Students complained that this so-called "hunger-free" program left them feeling hungry.

Feds studying adding warning labels to soda.  The National Institutes of Health is spending over $150,000 to study adding warning labels to soda.  The University of California, Davis, is conducting the study, which will test warning labels akin to those found on cigarettes at the campus cafeteria.  The study aims to determine whether the warning labels can "'nudge' consumers toward healthier dietary choices."

Fired cooks at NYU demonstrate the impossibility of culinary commemoration of Black History Month.  Two people who work to prepare food for students at New York University have lost their jobs for serving a meal featuring food and beverages believed to be stereotypically associated with black cuisine. [...] The only safe course for anyone associated with preparing food for a population that includes any blacks would seem to be to ignore Black History Month.  Would that lead to protests?  That works for me, but it no doubt would be considered racist as well by those with a need to be offended.  So we are left with a full descent into rule by dining hall commissars who must approve every menu.  You can count on that to produce cuisine that will both taste bad and be boring.

Congress Takes First Step In Undoing Obama's Nutrition Rules.  The House passed a bill undoing many of former President Barack Obama's restrictive menu labeling rules Tuesday, giving hope to restaurants that they won't have to label the calories for every variation of items on their menu.  The Common Sense Nutrition Disclosure Act, proposed by Republican Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington and Democratic Rep. Tony Cárdenas of California, cleared the House 266-157, with 32 Democrats voting for the measure.

House Passes Bill to Change Obamacare Nutrition Rules.  A bill intended to clarify and alter a set of long-delayed Obamacare menu labeling rules passed the House Tuesday [2/6/2018], as restaurant owners continue to prepare for a May 7 compliance deadline.  Titled the "Common Sense Nutrition Disclosure Act," the legislation would address concerns raised by some members of the food industry who have opposed aspects of the Affordable Care Act's nutrition guidelines since the law was first passed.  It passed the chamber on a vote of 266-157.  Over 30 Democrats voted for the bill.  Under current law, chain restaurants, convenience stores, movie theaters, and supermarkets with at least 20 locations will have to add important nutrition information to their in-store menu boards to comply with the mandate.

'Settled Science' Just Got Blown Up.  For decades, the federal government has been telling people to cut fats and increase carbs in their diet, relying on supposedly settled nutrition science.  A new study shows that the advice has been completely wrong.

Seattle Tax Killing local Business so Let's Make it Statewide!  It's amusing to watch Seattle tell us that this tax is designed to get people to drink less sugary drinks, that is, to change their eating behavior, while at the same time saying that it won't change people's shopping behavior when it comes to shopping.  However that's not what local businesses are reporting.

Pizza shop owner says Seattle's soda tax is costing him business.  It hasn't been a full month since Seattle implemented its soda and sugary beverages tax, and one Seattle business owner has said that the tax is costing him his business.  Businesses and consumers saw sticker shock immediately when the tax went into effect in early January.

Get Ready for a Meat Tax Push.  A story in The Atlantic suggests that meat taxes are "inevitable."  So does The Independent and The Guardian.  These folk are serious.  PETA wants to tax meat toward the end of outlawing all eating meat — and eventually all animal husbandry — because, you know, "a rat, is a pig, is a dog, is a boy."  Global warming hysterics want to end meat because of animal flatulence.  An industry investment research group report warns that a meat tax is likely due to the Paris Accords.

Enviros Push Meat Tax.  Environmentalists are targeting your hamburgers and buffalo wings with a "Meat Tax."  And they claim they have "never been closer to a meat tax."

Fanta Is Healthier Than Fascism.  Seattle's 1.75-cent per ounce tax on sugary drinks went into effect earlier this month. [...] Stores selling liquid deliciousness in bulk suffer the consequences.  At Costco, which specializes in bulk, the tax — Seattle insists on calling it a fee — hits hard.  A 35-pack of Gatorade, the beverage favored by the healthiest people in society, cost $15.99 at Costco before the "fee" and $26.33 after it.  Social media posts noting the price explosion also highlight Costco's advice for consumers to shop at their locations outside of Seattle.

Soda Tax Sticker Shock Grips Seattle.  On January 1, Seattle had several new progressive laws go into effect.  Along with mandatory paid sick leave, mandates for employers to post work schedules 14 days in advance, and severe restrictions on short-term rental platforms (Airbnb, VRBO, etc.), Seattle imposed a massive new soda tax — 1.75 cents per OUNCE on sugary drinks.  In response, at least one major retailer advertised in detail the reason for the significant increase in prices.

Consumers Find Seattle Soda Tax Distasteful.  The [Seattle] city council signed off on a 1.75 cent per-ounce sweetened beverage tax last summer, which became effective on Jan. 1.  This tax encompasses anything from sodas to sports drinks.  According to The Seattle Times, tax advocates — no doubt in addition to yearning for more city revenue — reasoned that stretching wallets thin by utilizing the now-fashionable health-by-legislation model would prompt massive consumer turnoff.  As Mosqueda went on to say, her team aspired to "impact norms and behaviors for folks in term of choice and consumption."  There were certainly impacts — and they were directed against the "leadership" of city council members.  Just days into the new tax, Twitter users began venting their frustration.  One picture, taken at a local Costco, revealed a staggering price of $17.55 for a case of three dozen 12 oz. Dr. Pepper cans.  Costco took the liberty of revealing both its price ($9.99) and the cutely named "City of Seattle Sweetened Beverage Recovery Fee" ($7.56).

Costco price labels perfectly expose the absurdity of Seattle's new sugary drink tax.  To ring in the new year, Seattle implemented a new tax on its residents:  the dreaded sugary drink tax.  Now, we know just how much the tax will hurt consumers.

Trump administration scraps organic food regulations.  The Trump administration has stuck a fork in new regulations requiring that "certified organic" cows and chickens have enough room to spread their wings and hooves.  The Obama-era rules required that organic poultry have enough room to run around, while livestock sold under the label had to have year-round access to an outdoor space and comfy indoor pens, The Hill reports.  The regulations were supposed to go into effect March 20, but the Department of Agriculture delayed them three times and on Friday officially announced its intention to put them out to pasture — arguing they will "hamper market-driven innovation and evolution and impose unnecessary regulatory burdens."

Jail Time for Too Much Meat on a Sandwich?  Time and time again, the federal government has encroached into a sector of the economy and imposed a one-size-fits-all regulation that stifles competition, hurts small businesses, and creates troubling criminal penalties for lack of compliance.  This is epitomized in federal involvement in menu labeling — regulations and requirements for private businesses to disclose caloric information on physical menus.  Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.) is leading the charge on rolling back this overreach through the Common Sense Nutrition Disclosure Act, H.R.772, to provide relief for convenience stores, restaurants, coffee shops, and pizza chains alike.

Obama's Trans Fat Ban May Force Iconic Cookie Company To Close.  The makers of Berger Cookies in Baltimore, Md., are concerned that that new rules will force them to discontinue their iconic cookie due to federal rules.  Under current proposed rules, companies will no longer be allowed to sell food containing partially hydrogenated oils, which contain trans fats, after June 18, 2018.  That rule will make it difficult for Charlie DeBaufre, president of DeBaufre Bakeries, to continue making the chocolate covered soft German-inspired cookies because the recipe contains trans fats.  DeBaufre has not been able to create the Berger cookie taste without the using trans-fat-free ingredients.

Dump The ObamaCare Calorie Rule, And Put Big Gov't On A Diet Instead.  This Tuesday, the FDA released a "guidance document" on its calorie count regulations that is meant to help restaurants, delis, pizza joints, buffets and the like figure out how to comply with this ObamaCare mandate.  All it did was show how ridiculous the whole effort is.  Democrats added the calorie mandate to ObamaCare on the assumption that forcing restaurant chains to put calorie counts on their menus would help tackle the nation's obesity problem.  Sounds simple enough to enact.  But life is always far more complicated that Washington bureaucrats think.

You Can't Hide From Calorie Counts:  FDA Will Implement Obama-Era Rule.  Scott Gottlieb, the Food and Drug Administration commissioner appointed by the Trump administration, has this in common with Michelle Obama:  He wants to know what's in the food he eats.  And this, it seems, includes calorie counts.  Now, the FDA has released its guidance on implementing an Obama-era rule that requires chain restaurants and other food establishments to post calories on menus or menu boards.  The mandate was written into the Affordable Care Act back in 2010.

The Editor says...
No matter how you vote, Republican or Democrat, Obamacare is apparently here to stay, because that's what the Uni-party Establishment wants.  These nanny-state menu rules are just one of Obamacare's tentacles.  The goal of Obamacare is to expand the government and make all of us more dependent on it.

How the Administrative State Serves Clients and Hurts Citizens:  The Case of the Non-Organic, Organic Food.  The late economist and Nobel Laureate Milton Friedman used to say that only in government, when a program or project fails dismally, the instinctive response is to make it bigger. [...] We're seeing Friedman's observation validated yet again in the congressional response to an exposé of the pervasive dishonesty in the organic agriculture industry.  Following a scathing report by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's inspector general that details fraud, mismanagement, and negligence throughout the global organic agriculture/food supply chain, Congress wants to throw yet more money at the problem.

Long quiet Chicago area taxpayers push back and win in soda tax battle.  Overtaxed residents of Cook County, where Chicago is, are finally waking up.  After decades of being slapped by tax after tax[,] folks are fighting back.  Last week the Cook County Board of Commissioners voted to repeal a hated penny-per-ounce sweetened beverage tax, one that until the repeal takes effect on December 1, places a 39 percent tax on a $4.88 12-pack of soda pop.  "The pop tax is dead, but the issue is bigger than the pop tax," Cook County Commissioner John Fritchey (D-Chicago) told the Chicago Tribune's John Kass last week.  "The issue here is that the people of Chicago and Cook County are not used to having their voices heard and making a difference, with public outrage forcing an elected body to reverse course.  This is something."  Cook County Board President Toni "Taxwinkle" Preckwinkle (D-Chicago) last year had to issue a rare tie-breaking vote last year to enact the soda tax, which took effect two months ago.  Last week commissioners voted 15-2 to kill it.

The Progressive Machine Takes a Big Hit in Cook Country, Illinois.  Yesterday [10/11/2017], something extraordinary happened:  a progressive racket just got busted in a place notorious for one-party, corrupt, and highly taxed Democrat governance.  As you may have heard, the Board of Cook County, Illinois repealed its penny-per-ounce tax on sweetened beverages, by a vote of 15 to 2, after passing it last July.  This isn't just about people who guzzle Coke and Pepsi; it is about the progressive racket that follows a battle plan aimed at the state controlling more and more aspects of citizens' lives, while it consumes more and more of their income.

Coffee and bread is not breakfast, German court rules.  Coffee and a bread roll is a common morning meal in Germany, but a tax court just officially ruled that it does not actually count as breakfast unless the bread has cold cuts, cheese, or at least butter on it.  According to The Local, the definition of "breakfast" came before a tax court in Muenster recently because a local tech company had been offering free coffee and putting free rolls out in the company canteen every morning.  The rolls and drinks were available to customers, guests, and the company's employees.

Rest Easy, America, The FDA Is Keeping 'Love' Off Our Food Labels.  Bloomberg reports that an artisan baker in Massachusetts got a warning letter from the FDA last Tuesday complaining, among other thing, about an ingredient listed on the label of a bag of its granola.  "Your Nashoba Granola label lists ingredient 'Love,'" the letter reads.  It goes on to inform the baker that "Ingredients required to be declared on the label or labeling of food must be listed by their common or usual name (21 CFR 101.4(a)(1)).  'Love' is not a common or usual name of an ingredient, and is considered to be intervening material because it is not part of the common or usual name of the ingredient."  Translation:  Your attempt at light humor isn't funny to us rule-enforcing bureaucrats down in the bowels of some dreary federal building.

A bakery listed 'love' in the ingredients.  The food cops had something to say about it.  Among the myriad problems the FDA listed after inspecting Nashoba Brook Bakery's manufacturing facility:  Love in the granola.  Deep in a Sept. 22 warning letter by Food and Drug Administration to the Concord, Massachusetts, manufacturer is this admonishment:  "Your Nashoba Granola label lists ingredient 'Love.'  Ingredients required to be declared on the label or labeling of food must be listed by their common or usual name [21 CFR 101.4(a)(1).  'Love' is not a common or usual name of an ingredient, and is considered to be intervening material because it is not part of the common or usual name of the ingredient."

FDA Delays New Nutrition Facts Label Unveiled by Michelle Obama.  The Trump administration is delaying a regulation championed by former first lady Michelle Obama to redesign the Nutrition Facts label.  The Food and Drug Administration on Friday issued a rule delaying until 2020 the compliance date for regulations that will make listed calories on food larger in an attempt to fight obesity.  Mrs. Obama unveiled the new label in May 2016 as part of her anti-obesity "Let's Move" campaign.  Aside from increasing the font size of calories and the addition of "added sugars" on the label, the regulations even dealt with how to label dinner mints.  The regulations will cost food manufacturers an estimated $640 million.

Coffee could soon carry cancer warnings on packaging.  Starbucks and a host of other coffee sellers are fighting a lawsuit that alleges roasted coffee beans contain low levels of a carcinogen — and therefore coffee products sold in California, from lattes to packaged beans, should carry Surgeon General-like warnings.  A bench trial on the 7-year-old suit kicked off on Tuesday [9/5/2017].  A little-known public interest group, the Council for Education and Research on Toxics, or CERT, sued roughly 70 companies, claiming the state's Proposition 65, which requires warning labels on anything that contains materials that cause cancer, should apply to coffee.

U.S. judge tosses lawsuits about labels on Parmesan cheese.  A U.S. judge on Thursday [8/24/2017] dismissed lawsuits by consumers who had sued food manufacturers and retailers over their "100% grated Parmesan cheese" labels, alleging they were deceiving buyers because the products actually contained cellulose filling.

Philly's Soda-Tax Fiasco.  So-called sin taxes, intended to make people pay extra for their unhealthy or socially undesirable habits, have always been popular.  Since people often feel guilty about their bad or unhealthful habits, it's often easy to tax them more for their "sins."  It was in this spirit that Philadelphia raised the tax on soda sky-high.  What taxpayers got was a lesson in unintended consequences.

Study: Philadelphia Tax Makes Soda More Expensive Than Beer.  Philadelphia's tax on sugary drinks has made soda more expensive than beer in the city.  The Tax Foundation released a new study on the excise tax last week, finding that the 1.5-cent per ounce tax has fallen short of revenue projections, cost jobs, and has forced some Philadelphians to drive outside the city to buy groceries.  The study finds that the tax is 24 times higher than the Pennsylvania tax rate on beer.

PETA Says Eating Cheese is Sexist.  From the same people who declared that milk was a symbol of white supremacy comes this blisteringly-hot take:  cheese is the most sexist food there is, cows are regularly raped on farms, and the act of eating cheese is failing to combat sexism.

Illinois' bubbling soda tax rebellion.  Could it be that the deep-blue residents of America's second-most populous county, Cook County — Chicago is the county seat — have had enough?  Probably not, at least yet.  But serious dissent may be bubbling as the effects of Cook County's unpopular soda tax sink to the bottom of the glass.  Cook County Board President Toni "Taxwinkle" Preckwinkle, a former Chicago alderman who represented the University of Chicago area — the Obamas were among her constituents — touted that tax as a public health measure.  The new tax covers not just soda but also many other sweetened beverages including those with corn syrup, such as diet sodas, some iced teas, and bottled sweetened Starbucks coffee — but not, for instance, cavity-causing Frappuccinos prepared at a Starbucks location by a barista.  Even "free refills" are taxed now.

Cook County Continues to Tax Itself Into Oblivion.  The leftists who dominate Chicago have been spending the entire state of Illinois into insolvency.  But for true believers in liberalism, all is not lost so long as the moonbats responsible can still find new things to tax: [...] Liberals sell soda taxes with sugar hysteria.  The gullible dutifully believe that sugar is a drug and even a poison.  Note that the tax applies even to drinks that contain no sugar.  The taxes will remain, long after sugar hysteria has gone the way of fretting about global cooling and the hole in the ozone.

Taxes Will Account For Nearly One-Third of Chicago Soda Prices.  A new tax on sugary drinks designed to generate revenue for cash-strapped Cook County will be the third burdensome tax applied to soda prices in Chicago, making a $4 12-pack of soda in the city cost $5.97.  Beginning July 1, residents of Cook County may notice their grocery bills growing as a penny-per-ounce tax on artificially sweetened beverages takes effect.  The new tax will be added on top of Chicago's highest in the nation sales tax of 10.25 percent and the city's 3 percent tax on non-alcoholic beverages.

San Francisco bans chocolate milk ... because anything enjoyable is obviously evil.  In the battle to provide nutritional choices for schoolchildren, isn't chocolate milk better than no milk at all?  According to San Francisco legislators and school officials, the answer. apparently. is no.  Students from elementary through high school grades will no longer be able to enjoy this cafeteria staple in the coming school year, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

Why Everything We Know About Salt May Be Wrong.  New studies of Russian cosmonauts, held in isolation to simulate space travel, show that eating more salt made them less thirsty but somehow hungrier.  Subsequent experiments found that mice burned more calories when they got more salt, eating 25 percent more just to maintain their weight.  The research, published recently in two dense papers in The Journal of Clinical Investigation, contradicts much of the conventional wisdom about how the body handles salt and suggests that high levels may play a role in weight loss.

Soda tax goes flat in Santa Fe.  A national trend in favor of so-called "soda tax" initiatives took a hit Tuesday when Santa Fe voters soundly rejected a proposed 2-cents-per-ounce tax on the distributors of sugar-sweetened beverages in a special election unlike anything New Mexico's capital city has seen before.  A record 37.6 percent of registered voters turned out for the election — more than the hotly contested 2014 three-way race for mayor won by Javier Gonzales, who proposed the tax — and 58 percent voted "no."  The final tally was 11,533 against the soda tax and 8,382 in favor.

California Hails Soda Tax As Necessary Measure, Citizens Furious After True Use Of Money Revealed.  In Oakland, CA, council members are upset with the Mayor Libby Schaaf for pulling a "bait and switch" on its voters.  A Soda tax measure that was passed last year, which is also known as Measure HH, was sold to voters as a measure to help combat obesity and fight the big soda lobby.  During the campaign, Mayor Schaaf was a strong proponent of the measure that was pushed to voters on the premise that the money would be used to help fight against the epidemics of childhood obesity and diabetes.  Measure HH, which passed with 61 percent support, is a penny-per-ounce tax on the distribution of sugar-sweetened beverages.  It is projected to generate up to $8 million in revenue annually.

Teaching Obesity, Selling Sickness.  Approximately one-third of total U.S. health-care spending is on diseases related to excess sugar consumption alone.  The simple fact is that a very large percentage — maybe even a majority — of U.S. health-care spending is on entirely preventable diseases.  The role of personal dietary choice in these abysmal health statistics cannot be overlooked, and paternalistic laws monkeying with the size of soda bottles are not the answer.  However, our food system is dominated by a relatively small handful of large, well-connected, and well-protected industrial agricultural firms and food manufacturers.

Here Come the Pizza Gestapo.  The nation's franchise restaurants are about one month away from the imposition of new nutritional-labeling rules dreamed up by the Obama administration, another gift of the grievously misnamed Affordable Care Act.  For outlets of brands with 20 or more locations, that means posting signs in the shop with calorie counts for every item on the menu and for every variation on that item.  That's probably not such a big deal if you are, say, Raising Cane's, and your menu ranges from one chicken finger to 100 chicken fingers.  It's a little different if you are a pizza shop, because pizza has a lot of variables.

Coke, Pepsi fight soda tax with smaller bottles.  Stung by falling sales at Philadelphia stores since the city started taxing soda and other soft drinks last fall, Pepsi and Coca-Cola are selling smaller containers that incur less tax.  Pepsi will be replacing 2-liter bottles with 1-liter bottles, which it called an example of the "products and package sizes working families are more able to afford," spokeswoman Jennifer Ryan told me.  "We believe this will give our retail and foodservice partners the best chance to succeed in this challenging environment and will minimize the chance of product going out-of-date," she added.

Experts Again Say High-fat Diet Can Be Beneficial.  Trimming the fat in government is great, but you may want to think twice before cutting it out of your diet.  For an increasing body of research indicates that a more traditional menu — replete with foods such as butter and whole milk — is more healthful than the lean fare prescribed during the last few decades.  The latest study concerns one particular disease, cystic fibrosis (CF), and finds that Canadians suffering from it live on average 10 years longer than their American counterparts.  Among the reasons for this difference, say researchers, is the "high fat diet, emphasizing cheeses, fish and nuts, recommended for Canadians with cystic fibrosis since the 1970s," writes CBC News.  The United States didn't prescribe the higher fat diet for CS patients until the 1980s.

Philly's soda tax is crushing the city's beverage business.  If you live in Philadelphia, that bloated feeling you get from consuming carbonated beverages may be coming from the soda price itself.  Last summer, the city passed a Bloomberg-esque 1.5 cent per ounce tax on soda and other sweetened and diet beverages, a move opposed by beverage distributors and retailers.  Since this tax has gone into effect on Jan. 1, consumption of the sweet drinks is off by as much as 50 percent, according to retailers, and companies involved in getting these drinks to consumers are reporting huge losses and announcing layoffs.

Soda companies, supermarkets report 30-50 pct. sales drop from soda tax.  Two months into the city's sweetened-beverage tax, supermarkets and distributors are reporting a 30 percent to 50 percent drop in beverage sales and are planning for layoffs.  One of the city's largest distributors says it will cut 20 percent of its workforce in March, and an owner of six ShopRite stores in Philadelphia says he expects to shed 300 workers this spring.  "People are seeing sales decline larger than anything they've seen up to this point in the city," said Alex Baloga, vice president of external relations at the Pennsylvania Food Merchants Association.

Philadelphia Goes Over the Tax Cliff.  Starting January 1st, Philadelphia implemented the first ever tax on all sweetened beverages, including those sweetened with artificial sweeteners.  The $0.015 tax is being levied on distributors of these beverages, even if the distributor is outside the city of Philadelphia. [...] To put this in context, if you buy a 12 pack of 12-ounce sodas you will be paying an additional $2.16 for the privilege — even if it's diet soda and contains no sugar.  Most of these beverages have an additional Pennsylvania Sales Tax of 6%.  If you are lucky enough to find a 12 pack of soda on sale for $3.00, your total cost will be $5.34.  Protein shakes which many seniors on fixed incomes drink to supplement their diet also contain sugar and will include this onerous tax.

Philly's Drink Tax Is Hurting Consumers, Businesses, and the Poor.  Philadelphians are experiencing considerable sticker shock as the prices of their favorite beverages skyrocket because of the largest soda tax in U.S. history going into effect.  It will be hard for Philadelphians to avoid these price hikes because the city's tax covers more than just sugar-sweetened sodas.  It also applies to fruit drinks, sports and energy drinks, sweetened water, pre-sweetened coffee and teas (although coffee confections such as those created at Starbucks are excluded), and drinks used as mixers in alcoholic drinks (although the alcohol, which is high in both natural sugars and calories, is exempted from the tax).

Soda tax still catches shoppers by surprise.  Philadelphians have known a new soda tax was coming since June, when Mayor Kenney signed into law a bill placing a 1.5-cent-per-ounce levy on sugary drinks, including diet beverages.  That tax, which is levied at the distributor level but was expected to be passed on to consumers, went into effect Sunday at the start of the new year.  As 2016 ended, outreach teams were making stops around the city to alert store owners about the new tax.  But despite those efforts and the months of contentious debate that preceded City Council's vote passing the tax, many consumers have still been surprised this week when they were charged higher prices for sweetened beverages.

Michelle Obama partners with left-wing food activists.  First lady Michelle Obama is once again under fire for politicizing food and nutrition in the dying days of her husband's administration, partnering with an activist group with a hyper-partisan agenda.  Obama was featured in a commercial Wednesday [1/4/2017] as part of a new, national anti-hunger campaign launched by Food Policy Action Education Fund, the sister organization of Food Policy Action.

Philadelphia Democrats Enact Sugary Drink Tax: $6 Case Of Cola Now Costs $9.  The world the Democrats want us living in is getting more and more expensive, with Philadelphia Democrats recently implementing their Sugary Drink Tax.

USDA Demands Holiday Snacks (and Parents) Be Removed from Schools.  Starting next year, bringing a dozen homemade cupcakes to your child's classroom to celebrate his or her birthday will be tantamount to lighting up a cigarette on the blacktop.  Candy canes and gingerbread men people will be verboten during the school's Christmas party winter celebration.  And this spring, don't expect any candy in the classroom; the Easter fuzzy bunny is strictly prohibited from entering school grounds.  As for next year's Halloween fall festivities:  Kids should brace for water and carrots (hey, they're orange!).  What fun!  This is all good news to writer Bettina Elias Siegel, who recently covered this important school-based cookie crisis for a story in the New York Times.

The Culinary Cult.  Modern American society features many, many Americans choosing to embrace all kinds of dietary restrictions.  Millions more have dietary restrictions imposed upon them by their health.  Just contemplating holiday meals in the coming days, I'm realizing that at our house we'll have at least two pescataraians (no meat, but eat fish), several lactose-intolerant folks, at least one gluten-free attendee and several kids who are picky eaters.  Oh, and every once in a while I try to avoid carbs.  (God bless my wife preparing Christmas dinner with this set of Byzantine culinary expectations.  Also, I notice everybody drinks.)  Everybody's chosen the diet that makes the most sense for them.  If everyone around the extended family dinner table tried to persuade everyone else to change what they choose to eat, we would have... well, an even more chaotic Christmas day than usual.

Study Tied to Food Industry Tries to Discredit Sugar Guidelines.  A prominent medical journal on Monday [12/19/2016] published a scathing attack on global health advice to eat less sugar.  Warnings to cut sugar, the study argued, are based on weak evidence and cannot be trusted.  But the review, published in The Annals of Internal Medicine, quickly elicited sharp criticism from public health experts because the authors have ties to the food and sugar industries.

The Editor says...
It doesn't matter who funded the study, if their conclusions are true and correct.  If the sugary-drinks industry funded a study that claimed sugar makes you smart, that would be a problem.

Under threat in Washington, first lady's food legacy may live on elsewhere.  When President-elect Donald Trump and a Republican-controlled Congress take over on Jan. 20, lawmakers are expected to take aim at what one of them has called "burdensome new rules" on food.  School lunches and menu labeling standards are likely to be among the changes that may come under fire.  Trump, a self-professed fan of junk food, has not been explicit on what he plans to do with food policy, although he campaigned for the Nov. 8 election on a broad promise to undo regulations on business.

Pepsi Company Wants More Healthy Snacks, But Do Consumers?  Actions speak louder than words — or at least that's what Pepsi's latest endeavor to expand into the health food department seems to suggest.  People say they want healthier foods, but Pepsi has found that people prefer taste over nutritional information.  Pepsi CEO Indra Nooyi wants to make the company a "health juggernaut," but to keep up with the consumer wants, the company has increased the sugar content of its products.

Red Meat, Egg Yolks, and Fat.  [Scroll down to page 6]  In 1970 and for years after later, the government urged us to avoid red meat, egg yolks, and whole milk (too much fat).  We complied with the food pyramid.  From 1970 to 2005, the Department of Agriculture reported, proudly, that consumption of eggs and red meat fell by 17% and whole milk by 73%. [...] The people believed in the food pyramid and followed the government's advice.  Bad idea.  During that same period (1970-2005), when the public followed the food pyramid, the incidence of diabetes doubled!  Studies now show that people eating dairy products such as whole milk have less of a problem with heart disease than those who do not.  The government's certainty in its food pyramid was wrong.  Dairy producers and cattle ranchers were right.

Ag Secretary to America:  Stop Wasting Food, Cut Back Portions.  Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said America needs to stop wasting food, even if that means teaching people to cut back on the amount of food on their plates.  Speaking at the National Press Club on Monday [10/3/2016], the former Iowa governor said long-term food insecurity "is a challenge, because we're going to have to increase food production — I've seen anywhere from 50 to 70 percent in the next 35 years — to meet a growing world population."

The Editor says...
Is it the sole responsibility of the United States to provide food for the whole world?

Heinz Ketchup Is Why We Can Kill FDA Food Regulations.  On Thursday [9/15/2016] the Trump campaign released a document that discussed, recommended even, killing off certain regulations that hamper the US economy.  One of these referred to the FDA Food Police — the idea that we're not all going to be poisoned by unscrupulous capitalists if we have just a little bit less of bureaucratic oversight of their actions.

New nutrition labels will do little to bring quality to American diet.  [Scroll down]  Research has shown that the point of purchase is the most important risk factor for diet-related chronic diseases.  At the checkout counter, people are challenged to either follow through on their long-term goals to stay healthy or tempted by impulse-marketing strategies to buy and consume junk foods that can lead to weight gain and increased risk of hypertension, diabetes and cancer.  Even those dedicated to a healthy diet can often be undermined by point-of-purchase marketing intended to disrupt cognitive, thoughtful decision-making and promote instant gratification.

Maine Gov. LePage threatens to halt food stamp program amid sugar crackdown.  Maine Gov. Paul LePage is ramping up a battle over Mars bars and Mountain Dew, warning the Obama administration he'll move to ban food stamp recipients in his state from buying such sugary sweets with taxpayer money — or halt the program entirely.  The warning comes after the Obama administration shot down his request for a waiver to institute the ban on candy and sugary drinks.  The firebrand Republican wrote to U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack objecting vociferously to the agency's decision.  In the June 17 letter, LePage called the ban "a commonsense proposition."

The FDA's Foolish War on Salt.  Earlier this month, as I touched on briefly in a recent column, the FDA issued a "voluntary" sodium "guidance" for the food industry.  The agency is seeking to pressure companies to reduce the salt content of their foods.  It establishes and applies to 150 categories of food.  It also creates two- and 10-year salt-reduction goals, with an eye to allowing time for "American palates to adapt to new tastes and manufacturers to reformulate products."  The FDA claims the guidance is "intended to address the excessive intake of sodium in the current population and promote improvements in public health."  But the plan, I wrote, has "faced sharp criticism."  So what's wrong with this voluntary guidance?  Many things.  Here are three.  First, it's not based on scientific consensus. [...]

Soda tax passes, Philadelphia becomes first big city in nation to enact one.  Looking to raise millions for a bold expansion of early childhood education, Philadelphia City Council on Thursday [6/16/2016] approved a 1.5-cent-per-ounce tax on sugar-sweetened and diet beverages, the first such tax imposed in a major U.S. city.  The 13-4 vote put to bed months of speculation and at-times-bitter negotiations, but also ensured that the national spotlight will stay turned on Philadelphia for months, if not years.  Critics quickly vowed a court challenge.

High cholesterol 'does not cause heart disease' new research finds.  Cholesterol does not cause heart disease in the elderly and trying to reduce it with drugs like statins is a waste of time, an international group of experts has claimed.  A review of research involving nearly 70,000 people found there was no link between what has traditionally been considered "bad" cholesterol and the premature deaths of over 60-year-olds from cardiovascular disease.  Published in the BMJ Open journal, the new study found that 92 percent of people with a high cholesterol level lived longer.

Philadelphia set to pass 1.5 cent-per-ounce soda tax.  Philadelphia could soon become the first major U.S. city with a sugary drinks tax after a city council committee voted Wednesday [6/8/2016] to approve an amended version of a soda tax proposal that would set a 1.5 cent-per-ounce tax on sugary and diet drinks.

The 'War On Salt' Is Bad Policy Based on Bad Science.  The Center for Science in the Public Interest, one of the few openly authoritarian organizations functioning in the United States, once sued the Food and Drug Administration for refusing to regulate Americans' salt intake.  No worries.  This week, the Obama administration finally embraced CSPI's junk science and allowed the FDA to set new "guidelines" to "nudge" companies into treating a perfectly harmless ingredient as if it were a dangerous chemical.

FDA calls for sharp reduction in salt added to foods.  More than 70 percent of the salt in the average diet comes in the form of processed and prepared food.  The FDA's goal is to lower sodium in those foods and give consumers the choice to add salt later if they want to.

The Editor says...
Here's my prediction:  After the government takes salt out of prepared foods, the FDA will outlaw saltshakers in restaurants.

Move Over Big Gulps, Here Come the 'High Sodium' Fines in NYC.  New York City's Democratic Mayor Bill de Blasio is beaming with big government pride after getting his way in forcing chain restaurants to post "high sodium" icons next to salty items on menus and fining those that don't.  A court battle has ensued between the city and the National Restaurant Association who are currently in appeals court awaiting the final verdict.  But a judge lifted a temporary ban on hitting restaurant owners with fines up to $600 for non-compliance.

NYC gets OK to issue salt fines during appeal.  New York City plans to start enforcing a first-of-its-kind requirement for chain restaurants to use icons to warn patrons of salty foods after getting an appeals court's go-ahead Thursday [5/26/2016] to start issuing fines.  But it's not the final word on whether the regulation will stand.

High salt warning labels to pop up on some New York City restaurant menus.  The city's plan to make New York City restaurants post warnings on menu items with high salt content can go ahead, an appellate court decided Thursday [5/26/2016].  The Appellate Division in Manhattan lifted an interim stay that one of its judges had imposed just as the city was going to start enforcing the controversial new rule in February.  The decision was quickly hailed by Mayor deBlasio.  "New Yorkers deserve to know a whole day's worth of sodium could be in one menu item," the mayor said in a statement.  He said he was pleased that the appellate judges appear to agree with a lower court judge who said the city's Board of Health had the power to adopt the rule.

New U.S. food label rules to require added sugars to be detailed.  The United States plans a major overhaul of the way packaged foods are labeled, the Food and Drug Administration announced on Friday [5/20/2016].  Serving sizes will be adjusted to reflect how much people actually eat, and for the first time labels will list added sugars.  These are the first significant changes since the Nutrition Facts label was introduced more than 20 years ago.

USDA Awards $746,827 to Improve 'Shopping Practices of Adolescents'.  Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack announced Thursday [5/19/2016] six universities have been awarded nearly $3.8 million in funding by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) for programs designed to help fight obesity.  The USDA's program descriptions for the six grants include:
  •   $746,827 to the University of Kentucky for the testing of the program "Smart Shopping."  According to the program description, Smart Shopping is "aimed at improving the shopping practices of adolescents with the ultimate goal of increasing fruit and vegetable intake."
  •   $797,995 was awarded to the University of New England, Biddeford, Maine for the "Supermarket Science: Multipronged Approaches to Increasing Fresh, Frozen and Canned Fruit and Vegetable Purchases" program.
  •   The University of Maryland received $943,287 for a program designed to enhance implementation of school wellness policies.  The efforts['] goal "is to create health promoting school environments that support healthy growth/development of children to prevent obesity."

Michelle Obama wins food fight.  Michelle Obama scored a major victory in her nutrition label crusade on Friday [5/20/2016].  In a major overhaul that has been years in the making, labels on packaged foods will now feature calories listed in bigger and bolder type, a new line for 'Added Sugars', and serving sizes that are more accurate and uniform among similar products.  The changes were proposed by the Food and Drug Administration two years ago and are the first major update of the labels since their creation in 1994.  The labels are now found on over 800,000 foods.

Eat This Now, Before They Tell You Not To.  One day eggs are bad, next day they're good.  Or good in moderation.  Who knows?  One reason what to eat is so hotly debated is all the money tied up in it.  The dietary guidelines the U.S. government issues every five years are the culmination of a process that involves not only nutritionists, doctors, and other health professionals but also the food industry and its many lobbyists.  In the latest guidelines, issued early this year, the expert panel's preliminary report included advice to lower consumption of red and processed meats, for the environment as well as for your health.  The meat industry weighed in, and in the final version only men and teenage boys were urged to eat less protein.  The environment was cut out of the equation altogether.  The U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services have said that the guidelines are based on a rigorous review of scientific evidence and consideration of comments from the public and federal agencies.

Scientists:  Michelle Obama's Nutrition Facts Label Not Based on Science.  A controversial regulation to update the nutrition facts label that is part of the first lady's Let's Move push was finalized by the Food and Drug Administration on Friday, and scientists are warning the new label is not based on sound science.  The changes to the nutrition facts label, which first lady Michelle Obama will announce Friday when she speaks at the Let's Move-aligned Partnership for a Healthier America, requires food manufacturers to list added sugars, which scientists say lacks "scientific rigor."  The label will also cost companies at least $640 million to update, and a net social cost of $1.4 billion.

5 Huge Stories the Media Ignored While Arguing Over Which Bathroom to Use.  [#4] Rat DNA, Human DNA, and Pathogenic Germs — in your hamburgers: [...] Rat DNA was found in three vegetarian burger samples while human DNA was found in one — but those were not the most concerning findings, the researchers noted, because though their presence is revolting, they are not necessarily considered dangerous to humans.  More worthy of alarm, they explained, was the mislabeling of vegetarian products, the presence of meat in some of those purportedly meatless burgers, and the total absence of black beans in a black bean burger.

Feds spend $3,071 for kids to raise red paddles to protest donuts.  A group of children was gathered around the exhibit, paddles in hand eager to denounce another food deemed unhealthy by the National Institutes of Health.  The game is called "Go, Slow, and Whoa!  Think Red Light, Green Light, but for educating kids on the danger of white bread.

McDonald's restaurant testing out all-you-can-eat french fries.  cDonald's fry lovers rejoice — the chain is trying out bottomless french fries.  McDonald's announced Tuesday [4/19/2016] it is opening a new restaurant in Missouri that will include new menu items such as all-you-can-eat french fries.

This study 40 years ago could have reshaped the American diet.  But it was never fully published.  The story begins in the late 1960s and early '70s, when researchers in Minnesota engaged thousands of institutionalized mental patients to compare the effects of two diets.  One group of patients was fed a diet intended to lower blood cholesterol and reduce heart disease.  It contained less saturated fat, less cholesterol and more vegetable oil.  The other group was fed a more typical American diet.  Just as researchers expected, the special diet reduced blood cholesterol in patients. [... But] Patients who lowered their cholesterol, presumably because of the special diet, actually suffered more heart-related deaths than those who did not.

How 'Settled Science' Helped Create A Massive Public Health Crisis.  Anyone who thinks it's enough to rest an argument on "settled science" or a "scientific consensus" ought to read about John Yudkin.  Yudkin was a British professor of nutrition who, in 1972, sounded the alarm about sugar in diets, saying that if sugar were treated like any other food additive "that material would be promptly banned.  He said sugar, not fat, was the more likely cause of obesity, heart disease and diabetes.  For his efforts, Yudkin was branded a shill for the meat and dairy industries.  His work was dismissed as "emotional assertions," "science fiction" and "a mountain of nonsense.  Journals refused to publish his papers.  He was uninvited from nutrition conferences and was ridiculed by the scientific community.

Benefits of switch from saturated fat to corn oil for longer life challenged.  Despite years of claims that unsaturated fats like corn oil are healthier, at the time the findings of a gold-standard randomized controlled trial weren't fully published.  Now Christopher Ramsden at the U.S. National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md., and his team have analyzed data from the Minnesota coronary experiment. [...] "We were able to find that actually those that lowered their cholesterol more actually had increased rather than reduced risk of death," Ramsden said in an interview.  "It was surprising."

Government Nannies Say New Salt Guidelines [are] Imminent.  The Obama administration plans to continue its war on food and food manufacturers with proposed guidelines for sodium consumption.  According to Politico, new sodium guidelines are set to be released as early as this summer...although the science behind the regulation is confused.  The government effort to get Americans to lower their sodium consumption has stalled on several fronts due to recent studies that contradict the conventional wisdom that sodium is a "pressing health threat."  A new lawsuit filed by the left-wing Center for Science in the Public Interest should fast-track the voluntary guidelines that were written two years ago but never released, the FDA says.  The suit alleges that the government violated the law by not forcing companies to label certain products with high-sodium warnings.

Obama's latest food crackdown: Salt.  Reducing salt consumption has long been part of the administration's push to get Americans to eat healthier.  But a plan to nudge food companies to take steps to voluntarily reduce sodium in their products, launched seven years ago, has been stalled amid concerns about political blowback and new studies questioning whether salt is actually a pressing health threat.

Also posted under environmental false alarms.

Tiny Vermont brings food industry to its knees on GMO labels.  General Mills' announcement on Friday [3/18/2016] that it will start labeling products that contain genetically modified ingredients to comply with a Vermont law shows food companies might be throwing in the towel, even as they hold out hope Congress will find a national solution.

"So it turns out that fat is not the enemy, and sugar is."
The Truth About Fat and Sugar: A Cardiologist Explains That FAT is the Best Medicine.  There are a lot of Americans desperate to find out why it is they can't lose weight.  One cardiologist says it's because they don't know the truth about fat and sugar.

USDA: Retailers That Accept SNAP Must Expand 'Healthy Food' Choices; 168 Items Per Store.  The U.S. Agriculture Department on Tuesday [2/16/2016] announced a proposed rule intended to give food stamp (SNAP) recipients increased access to healthy foods, by requiring stores that accept SNAP to stock a wider variety of healthy food choices.  "USDA is committed to expanding access for SNAP participants to the types of foods that are important to a healthy diet," USDA Under Secretary for Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services Kevin Concannon said in a news release.  "This proposed rule ensures that retailers who accept SNAP benefits offer a variety of products to support healthy choices for those participating in the program."

The Editor says...
Instead of putting the burden on small businesses and dictating to the stores what they must put on the shelves, why not restrict the use of the food stamp card to the most basic staples, like bread, cheese, milk, and peanut butter?  And why not put sensible limits on the use of such a card, or food stamps in general, like a six month expiration date, and a maximum throughput of $150 a week?

House votes to ease calorie disclosure rules for pizzerias, delis, grocers.  The House voted Friday [2/12/2016] to make it easier for you to avoid the harsh truth of how many calories you're devouring as you scarf down that pizza.  House members voted 266-144 to gut a proposed Food and Drug Administration rule requiring chain pizzerias, delis, and convenience stores to list the calorie content of their meals on menus or menu boards prominently displayed on the premises.  Instead, takeout restaurants and grocers could choose to disclose calories only on their websites.  The White House opposes the Common Sense Nutrition Disclosure Act, saying it will leave Americans — who consume a third of their calories away from home — with less information to make healthy choices.

The Editor says...
Common sense, indeed.  Common sense will tell you that if your goal is consistently healthy eating, you don't buy dinner at a pizza parlor or a convenience store, except on rare occasions.  And if you make an occasional excursion to a donut shop or an ice cream store, common sense will tell you that it shouldn't be a routine part of your diet.  You don't need the government to quantify the fat and calorie contents for you, especially since that information is available on demand in most restaurants.

Why a top food poisoning expert won't ever eat these foods.  The way in which the American food system works is often perplexing, if not entirely nonsensical, according to [Bill] Marler.  For this reason, he takes precautions people less familiar with food safety oversight might find absurd.  In a recent piece, published in Bottom Line Health, he lists six foods he no longer eats, because he believes the risk of eating them is simply too large.

No food is healthy — Not even kale.  Not long ago, I watched a woman set a carton of Land O' Lakes Fat-Free Half-and-Half on the conveyor belt at a supermarket.  "Can I ask you why you're buying fat-free half-and-half?" I said.  Half-and-half is defined by its fat content:  about 10 percent, more than milk, less than cream.  "Because it's fat-free?" she responded.  "Do you know what they replace the fat with?" I asked.  "Hmm," she said, then lifted the carton and read the second ingredient on the label after skim milk:  "Corn syrup."  She frowned at me.  Then she set the carton back on the conveyor belt to be scanned along with the rest of her groceries.

The Editor says...
There are many, many things worse than unhealthy foods — for example, supermarket busybodies.  If the customer ahead of you in line is buying nothing but candy and ice cream, that's none of your concern; however, if the customer ahead of you has obviously never missed a meal, and is paying for her groceries with a food stamp card, you should probably say something to make her feel guilty about it.  Guilty of theft, for indeed, the money she's spending came out of your paycheck.  Welfare handouts without any stigma attached are called entitlements, because the recipients begin to believe they are entitled to them.

Government revises Dietary Guidelines for Americans: Go ahead and have some eggs.  The federal government on Thursday [1/7/2016] told Americans not to worry so much about cholesterol in their diets, that lots of coffee is fine and that skipping breakfast is no longer considered a health hazard.  The recommendations were part of a new "Dietary Guidelines for Americans," the influential nutrition advice book that, updated every five years, expresses official thinking about what constitutes a nutritious meal.  In what may be the most striking change, the new version drops the strict limit on dietary cholesterol, stepping back from one of most prominent public health messages since the '60s.

In Rat-Infested New York, Only Chick-fil-A Gets Shut Down For Health Code Violations.  Last year, 77 out of 154, or about half, of New York's restaurants were rat-infested — and that's on the ritzy Upper East Side, where a meal can run into hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars.  Residents take great pride in filming YouTubes of New York's restaurants through their windows at night, cameras on as the vermin scurry around.  There are even interactive rat maps showing where Manhattan's vermin roam.  So it's more than a little passing strange that the city targeted the city's only Chick-fil-A for health code violations just months after it opened its doors.

Another 'Scientific Consensus' Bites the Dust.  [Scroll down]  We have heard for a long time now that the so-called "caveman diet" rich in lean meat and low in carbohydrate is a good heart disease preventive.  Well throw out the ground buffalo and kale and make up a plate of spaghetti carbonara — it's not likely to make a big difference in your susceptibility to heart disease.  The same thing is true with the fish oil theory, which is bad news for the diet supplement industry.  Neolithic people with diets rich in aquatic fats still suffered from heart disease.

EPA Warning: Holiday Leftovers Contribute to Climate Change.  The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) posted a video on its website to tell Americans that they should think about how much food they waste during the holiday season if they want to help save the planet.  The video is part of the EPA's "Fight Food Waste" campaign.  In the video posted on YouTube and in the text accompanying it, EPA claims that food waste contributes to climate change.

Food Fads: Make Mine Gluten-Full.  When the federal government's 1980 "Dietary Guidelines for Americans" warned about the baleful effects of saturated fats, public-interest activists joined the fight and managed to persuade major food companies to switch to the shiny new alternative:  trans fats.  Thirty-five years later, the Food and Drug Administration finally determined that trans fats are not just useless but unsafe, and ordered them removed from all foods.  Oops.  So much for settled science.  To tell the truth, I never paid much attention to the fat fights in the first place.

The Growing Food Fight over the Government's Nutrition Guidelines.  For decades, the government has advised Americans on what they should eat.  The advice isn't just advisory; it drives everything from school lunches and agricultural subsidies to marketing for those bowls of candy we call breakfast cereal.  But the science behind this enterprise has always been shaky.  In Good Calories, Bad Calories, Gary Taubes chronicled how the federal government went all-in for a low-fat, high-carbohydrate food pyramid.  The man most responsible, nutritionist and epidemiologist Ancel Keys, was convinced that America's fat-rich diet explained the rise in heart disease in the U.S.  It was a plausible theory, but there was scarce evidence it was true.  In 1957, the American Heart Association concluded that the correlation between fat and heart disease "does not stand up to critical examination."  Three years later, the AHA reversed course, without any new evidence.

Why you can't call nuts, avocados, olives, or salmon "healthy".  Earlier this year, the FDA sent the maker of Kind Bars a stern message.  The company, which sells granola bars, among other things, was using the the word "healthy" on its packaging.  And that wasn't going to fly.  "The labels of the aforementioned products bear the claim 'Healthy and tasty, convenient and wholesome,'" the warning, which is available online, said.  "However, none of your products listed above meet the requirements for use of the nutrient content claim 'healthy.'"

New York City brings in salt warnings on menus to tackle heart disease.  A symbol of a tiny salt shaker warning that certain meals are high in sodium will appear on menus in chain restaurants in New York City from this week.  The move makes New York the first US city to use salt labelling in an effort to combat heart disease and stroke.  Any menu item containing more than one teaspoon of salt must display the emblem of a salt shaker in a black triangle.

Scientists Discover What Is Really Inside Chicken Nuggets.  Richard deShazo, professor of medicine, pediatrics and immunology at UMMC said:  "I was floored.  I had read what other reports have said is in them and I didn't believe it.  I was astonished actually seeing it under the microscope.  What has happened is that some companies have chosen to use an artificial mixture of chicken parts rather than low-fat chicken white meat, batter it up and fry it, and still call it chicken.  It is really a chicken by-product high in calories, salt, sugar and fat that is a very unhealthy choice.  Even worse, it tastes great and kids love it and it is marketed to them."

The Editor says...
People have been eating cooked and fried animals for centuries, and selling freshly prepared food to one another at unreasonably high prices for millennia.  (For example, Jacob and Esau.)  Yes, if you examine your food at a microscopic level, you'll see blood vessels and nerves and gristle that you ordinarily would overlook.  That means nothing.  You have a digestive system that tears your food apart into something even more revolting in a matter of minutes.  Yes, it may be true that chicken nuggets are the left over parts and scraps that can't be marketed any other way (like fish tacos), but fast food is a matter of supply and demand.  The customers want their hunger abated, usually without regard to the ugly details of how that food was raised, slaughtered and fried.

450 illegal tamales from Mexico seized at LAX.  Apparently there are illegal tamales.  A passenger at Los Angeles International Airport learned that the hard way earlier this month when he tried to bring pork tamales into the U.S. from Mexico.  The passenger arrived from Mexico on Nov. 2 and was stopped by U.S. Customs and Border Protection agriculture specialists, who found 450 pork tamales wrapped in plastic bags in the passenger's luggage.

Junk Food Isn't To Blame for America's Obesity Epidemic.  Soda and sweets aren't making Americans fat.  In fact, underweight Americans consume more junk food than those who are morbidly obese.  In a new study in the journal Obesity Science & Practice, Cornell professors analyzed the food intake of about 6,000 people, according to MarketWatch.  The study found that consuming more fast food, candy and soda was not correlated with higher body mass indexes — "While a diet of chocolate bars and cheeseburgers washed down with a Coke is inadvisable from a nutritional standpoint, these foods are not likely to be a leading cause of obesity."

Gov't Attacks A Vegan Mayo, Ends Up With Egg On Its Face.  Why would the government-run American Egg Council, or the USDA for that matter, care about a little company in San Francisco?  Because Hampton Creek's egg-free spread was starting to catch on.  And to the extent that its sales increased, egg sales might decline.  In one email, [Joanne] Ivy described Just Mayo as "a crisis and a major threat" to the egg industry.  Now, as a result of this scandal, Ivy is gone from the American Egg Board, and the USDA is investigating whether that organization violated federal law in its campaign to thwart competition.  Instead of investigating the American Egg Board, why not dismantle it, along with the USDA positions that meddle in this industry?

If bacon is so bad, I don't want to live.  The International Agency for Research on Cancer, in analyzing the risks of these comestibles, placed processed meats in the fearsome "Group 1" of noxious substances guaranteed to negatively affect human heath, such as asbestos, alcohol and cigarettes.  Non-processed red meats narrowly dodged this onus; the scientists conceded that "eating red meat has not yet been established as a cause of cancer."

Extra Bacon on My Hot Dog, Please!  If you were around the news yesterday [10/26/2015], you heard the breathless news that processed meats significantly increase cancer risk, especially colon cancer.  PBS initially reported that processed meats were as dangerous as smoking, but backed off under reader criticism.  As they should have.  Still, expect the usual censors to ratchet up their hectoring against the fondness for red meat that all red-blooded Americans share.

First They Came for My Bacon.  I feel like I'm being trolled.  This announcement has all the ingredients to make me furious:  it's a "health" message in the New York Times, from a UN-ish Non-Governmental Busybody, aimed at governments around the world who interest themselves with their citizens' eating habits.

The World Health Organization Says Bacon And Processed Meat Is As Bad For You As Cigarettes.  You are officially excused from [caring] what the World Health Organization says ever again.

So why did federal prisons remove all pork from the menu?  Did inmates stop liking bacon, or something?  Did pork products spike in price so much that the pork-laden government had to cut back?  Why in the world would the federal prison system eliminate all pork products?

Finally, the government has decided to eliminate pork — from the menu in federal prisons.  The nation's pork producers are in an uproar after the federal government abruptly removed bacon, pork chops, pork links, ham and all other pig products from the national menu for 206,000 federal inmates.  The ban started with the new fiscal year last week.  The Bureau of Prisons, which is responsible for running 122 federal penitentiaries and feeding their inmates three meals a day, said the decision was based on a survey of prisoners' food preferences:  They just don't like the taste of pork.

The Editor says...
Since when has it mattered if prisoners enjoy their meals?  Prison time is punishment, it's not a picnic.  And since when have grown men developed a distaste for bacon?  Exactly the reverse trend is underway, if popular television advertising is any indication.  No, the official cover story is transparently false.  This change has nothing to do with the prisoners' preferences.  What we see here is the Obama administration appeasing the Muslims, applying halal rules to the prisoners' diet, and then lying about it.

Update:
After firestorm, pork roast is back on the menu at federal prisons.  After a week of controversy surrounding its abrupt removal of pork dishes from the national menu for federal inmates, the government did an about-face Thursday [10/15/2015] and put pork roast back on the prison bill of fare.  The Bureau of Prisons disclosed the decision to The Post hours after a Republican Senate leader expressed dismay at what he implied was a wasteful survey of inmates' food preferences and a lack of transparency in the decision.

Federal prisons reverse pork menu ban after outcry.  The Federal Bureau of Prisons may have bitten off more than it could chew by banning pork from prison menus earlier this month — and apparently has reversed course on the decision.  After the bureau drew complaints from the American pork industry and most recently from Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley for the ban, the senator's office tells FoxNews.com that the bureau informed them they're backing off the decision and returning pork to the menu.

Prison pork prohibition pulled promptly.  Last week we told you about the menu change at federal prisons where pork products disappeared from the table back on October 1st.  What was up with that?  At the time I wondered whether it had to do with pressure from religious groups who don't eat pork or perhaps some sort of political shenanigans between the administration and the pork industry.  We don't have all of those answers yet, but the resulting uproar spurred somebody to action and the ban on pork in prison has apparently been ended... at least in part.

The Federal Gov't Has Misled Public About Milk For Decades.  If you look up "whole milk" in the government's official Dietary Guidelines, it states pretty definitively that people should only drink skim or 1% milk.  "If you currently drink whole milk," it says, "gradually switch to lower fat versions."  This is the same advice the government has been issuing for many years.  And it's wrong.  Research published in recent years shows that people "might have been better off had they stuck with whole milk," according to a front-page story in the Washington Post on Wednesday [10/7/2015].  "People who consumed more milk fat had lower incidence of heart disease."

Inmates, industry decry feds pulling pork from menus.  The Federal Bureau of Prisons is going whole hog in cutting pork from its menu.  With this month's start of fiscal year 2016, there will be no bacon, no pork chops, no pork roast, no pork sausage — no pork-related food at all — served to the nation's 205,723 federal inmates, including those at FCI Fort Worth or FMC Carswell.  While there have been grumblings from some inmates' family members that the prohibition had to do with Muslim or Jewish dietary restrictions, Bureau of Prisons spokesman Ed Ross said that isn't the case.  A woman whose son is in federal prison in Fort Worth says he has complained about the lack of pork, saying he had heard it was because of complaints from Muslim inmates.

For decades, the government steered millions away from whole milk. Was that wrong?  U.S. dietary guidelines have long recommended that people steer clear of whole milk, and for decades, Americans have obeyed.  Whole milk sales shrunk.  It was banned from school lunch programs.  Purchases of low-fat dairy climbed.  "Replace whole milk and full-fat milk products with fat-free or low-fat choices," says the the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, the federal government's influential advice book, citing the role of dairy fat in heart disease.  Whether this massive shift in eating habits has made anyone healthier is an open question among scientists, however.  In fact, research published in recent years indicates that the opposite might be true:  millions might have been better off had they stuck with whole milk.

Is The Government's War On Trans-Fat Misguided, Too?  Later this year, the federal government is expected to remove dietary cholesterol from its list of bad foods.  The expert panel that advises the government on these guidelines concluded there's no reason to be concerned about "overconsumption."  In other words, all those federal warnings stretching over the past four decades about how eating eggs and other cholesterol-rich food would clog your arteries were wrong.  Now the federal government could be making the same mistake with trans-fat.

Big Pizza fights ObamaCare menu mandate.  The pizza lobby is mounting a double-extra-large battle against looming government regulations that would force their franchises to post a dizzying array of calorie counts on their menus.  Under ObamaCare, a Food and Drug Administration rule would require restaurants and food retail shops with over 20 locations, like pizza delivery chains, to post in-store menus displaying nutritional information.  Pizza chains argue this would be particularly tough for them, and take extraordinarily large menu boards

Why salad is so overrated.  As the world population grows, we have a pressing need to eat better and farm better, and those of us trying to figure out how to do those things have pointed at lots of different foods as problematic.  Almonds, for their water use.  Corn, for the monoculture.  Beef, for its greenhouse gases.  In each of those cases, there's some truth in the finger-pointing, but none of them is a clear-cut villain.  There's one food, though, that has almost nothing going for it.  It occupies precious crop acreage, requires fossil fuels to be shipped, refrigerated, around the world, and adds nothing but crunch to the plate.

No, You Do Not Have to Drink 8 Glasses of Water a Day.  If there is one health myth that will not die, it is this:  You should drink eight glasses of water a day.  It's just not true.  There is no science behind it.  And yet every summer we are inundated with news media reports warning that dehydration is dangerous and also ubiquitous.  These reports work up a fear that otherwise healthy adults and children are walking around dehydrated, even that dehydration has reached epidemic proportions.  Let's put these claims under scrutiny.

Health Tip: The Next Time Government Gives You Dietary Advice, Do the Opposite.  We already know that government recommendations regarding health are often driven by a bunch of Chicken Littles.  The leading organ of American scaremongering, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has gotten so much wrong over the years.  There was the outrageous contention that 400,000 Americans were dropping dead from obesity every year.  (They weren't.)  And then there were all the over-the-top warnings about the alleged risks of secondhand smoke.  (They don't really exist.)

The science of skipping breakfast: How government nutritionists may have gotten it wrong.  Researchers at a New York City hospital several years ago conducted a test of the widely accepted notion that skipping breakfast can make you fat.  For some nutritionists, this idea is an article of faith.  Indeed, it is enshrined in the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, the federal government's advice book, which recommends having breakfast every day because "not eating breakfast has been associated with excess body weight."  As with many nutrition tips, though, including some offered by the Dietary Guidelines, the tidbit about skipping breakfast is based on scientific speculation, not certainty, and indeed, it may be completely unfounded, as the experiment in New York indicated.

How to get food carts and trucks under control.  Vendors are supposed to steer clear of crosswalks, fire hydrants, bus stops, building entrances, and the like, and they can't store their food on the sidewalk.  Cart workers must complete an eight-hour class to get a personal vending license, and if you want to sell "frozen desserts," you need a "frozen-dessert permit," too.  And vendors are supposed to bring their carts to a commissary every night for scrubbing.  Food trucks must adhere to all the same rules, and metered parking spaces are off limits.  The biggest aggravation for street vendors is the city's restrictive licensing system, which, much like its licensing of taxi medallions, favors people who got there first over those trying to make a living today.  Like medallion licensing, too, the city's system favors capital over labor.

Kellogg's to dump artificial ingredients from cereal by 2018.  Amid declining sales and growing customer concern over processed foods, Kellogg's has announced it will eliminate artificial ingredients from its products within the next three years.  Paul Norman, the president of Kellogg North America, announced the company's decision on Tuesday [8/4/2015] during a call with investors.  "We have been working to remove artificial colors and flavors across Kellogg's branded cereals and a variety of Kellogg's branded snack bars as well as Eggo frozen foods," Norman said in a transcript released from the call.  "Our goal is to complete this transition by the end of 2018."

The Trans-Fat Ban Deals A Blow To Kosher Keepers.  An unintended victim of the new crusade to banish trans fats from our diet may be kosher-keepers.  The laws governing what Orthodox Jews can and cannot eat are varied, but there are some old standards that virtually everyone knows:  Don't eat pork, for example, or shellfish.  We also don't mix meat and dairy.  Most Orthodox Jews wait several hours after they eat meat to eat anything with dairy in it (the number of hours depends on individuals' customs).  If I had chicken for dinner, I can't have a cake made with real butter for dessert.

Freedom fries no more: Sailors angry after Navy bans fried food.  The Navy is going on a health kick and removing all fried food from dining hall menus.  In an effort to kick up its healthy eating "Go for Green" campaign, it will stop frying foods like chicken and french fries and bake them instead.  It is also axing whole milk and replacing it with skim and soy, reports Navy Times.

Navy to Ban Fried Food.  Sailors are blaming First Lady Michelle Obama after a report revealed that the Navy is preparing a full ban on fried food.

Sailors Blame Michelle Obama For Navy's Fried Food Ban.  Sailors outraged over the Navy's plan to phase out fried foods from its menus have found the perfect vessel for their anger in First Lady Michelle Obama.  The First Lady doesn't set nutrition policy for the nation's fleets.  But that hasn't stopped more than two dozen critics — many of them current and former Navy personnel — from flooding a Navy Times Facebook thread to blame FLOTUS, who has made combating obesity and promoting healthy eating her signature issues.

The government wants you to grill fruit for the Fourth of July.  Forget hamburgers and hotdogs — the U.S. Department of Agriculture is pushing people to grill up pineapple slices, peaches, nectarines and other fruit for their big July 4th feast.  "Throw some grilled pineapple on the grill & get ready to enjoy nature's candy," USDA's "MyPlate" website tweeted out this week.

Sugar and Salt Under Assault.  The one-time hippies — now graying city councilmen and women of San Francisco — are not so sweet on the sugary drink.  In fact, they would like to teach the world a thing or two about regulation.  The council just passed a new ordinance forcing Coke and purveyors of other soft drinks to display health advice — yes, very similar to the language on cigarette boxes — warning would-be consumers of the deadly dangers of sugar.

The pope, the globe and the facts.  The government now wants to ban trans fats from our food, but 50 years ago people were told to switch from butter to margarine because it was thought the trans fats in margarine lowered cholesterol levels.  Foods such as coffee and chocolate have either been good or bad for us, depending on the "scientific" study of the moment.

5 Reasons Why The FDA Should Not Ban Trans Fats.  [W]e see no compelling reason for the ban.  In fact, we can think of five reasons it shouldn't be imposed:  [#1] If government can ban trans fats, is there anything that it can't ban?  Will it stop there?  Absolutely not.  Government regulators have long dreamed of restricting, and in some cases outright banning, sugar, salt, red meat, alcohol, caffeine and raw milk.  [#2] Consumption of trans fats fell 80% from 2003 to 2012.  There's no reason for the federal government to step in when Americans have already decided for themselves they don't want trans fats in their diets.  [#3] The FDA already requires food product labels to list trans fat content.  [#4] Government doesn't exist to manage people's lives. [...]

'Uncle Sucker' falls for another food scare.  Reason Magazine recently interviewed the author of a paper showing that none of the federal nutrition guidelines are based on reliable or useful data.  The problem is that the data come from self-reporting of people's diets over long periods they could not have possibly remembered.  Frequently, study subjects reported living on diets that no human could survive on.  To draw conclusions from such flawed memories is a fool's errand.  The Food and Drug Administration's strongest exhortations about what to eat and avoid are not terribly reliable, either.  Remember cholesterol?  After five decades of fear-mongering, the Food and Drug Administration has only recently reversed itself on dietary cholesterol, acknowledging in its draft of new dietary guidelines that it "is not considered a nutrient of concern for overconsumption."  The FDA may have to make a similar U-turn on its recommendations for avoiding salt, which have been laid bare in recent medical studies as completely unfounded.

Trans fat facts can beat Nanny State bans.  Mention trans fat, and while many people might not know exactly what it is, odds are they know it's bad for them.  That knowledge, along with labeling requirements and market forces, cut trans fat consumption by nearly 80% since 2003.  Quite a public health coup.  On Tuesday [6/16/2015], seeking to build on that success and get rid of even more artificial trans fat, the Food and Drug Administration outlawed its most common source — partially hydrogenated oil — and gave companies three years to eliminate it from their products.  Restaurants will have to do the same.

F.D.A. Gives Food Industry 3 Years to Eliminate Trans Fats.  The Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday gave the food industry three years to eliminate artery-clogging artificial trans fats from the food supply, a long-awaited step that capped years of effort by consumer groups and is expected to save thousands of lives a year.  Trans fats — a major contributor to heart disease in the United States — have already been substantially reduced in foods, but they still lurk in many popular products, including frostings, microwave popcorn, packaged pies, frozen pizzas, margarines and coffee creamers.

A brief history of the federal government's love-hate relationship with trans-fats.  In the late 19th century, the Margarine Act of 1886 taxed the entire burgeoning margarine industry nearly out of business.  Margarine, invented by French chemist Hippolyte Mege-Mouries in the 1860s, was considered a cheaper and tasty alternative to butter. [...] And, the dairy lobby quickly took to the levers of power to sink their new competition.  Butter producers suggested margarine was made of tainted fat and masquerading as butter.

Obama Administration Bans Artificial Trans Fats.  In an effort to curtail heart disease, the Obama administration said Tuesday [6/16/2015] it's cracking down on artificial trans fats.  The Food and Drug Administration will require companies to phase out the partially hydrogenated oils almost entirely over the course of three years, calling them not "generally recognized as safe."  The action comes a year and a half after the FDA first made that determination, in 2013.

House votes to repeal country-of-origin labeling on meat.  Under threat of trade retaliation from Canada and Mexico, the House has voted to to repeal a law requiring country-of-origin labels on packages of beef, pork and poultry.

NYC Health Department proposes high-sodium warning on menus.  New York City's Health Department wants all chain restaurants to warn customers about products that are high in salt.

With Little Regard for Science, Obama Targets Livestock and Meat.  The Obama administration on June 2 convened the White House Forum on Antibiotic Stewardship, "to bring together key human and animal health constituencies involved in antibiotic stewardship." [...] The veterinary feed directive was an edict from the Food and Drug Administration, which oversees animal and livestock feed.  It was issued in December 2013 and finalized in conjunction with the White House Summit.  Its goal is to phase out the use of medically important antibiotics in livestock production by 2016.  Indeed, curbing the sub-therapeutic use of antibiotics in livestock feed has been a cause celebre for the administration and the food nanny crowd for decades.

Five years in, pizza chains find ObamaCare menu mandate still half-baked.  Five years ago, we discovered one of those hidden items in ObamaCare that Nancy Pelosi promised we'd only see after the bill got passed — and she was correct.  The bill included a federal mandate for restaurants with 20 or more locations to post calorie counts on menu items, even though research since passage of ObamaCare suggest that calorie counts on menus don't change consumer behavior at all.  It does change the overhead for restaurants and their ability to expand and change their menu offerings, and nowhere is that problem greater than in the pizza industry.

S'mores no more? Feds wage war of culinary aggression.  The USDA wants Americans to remove chocolate and marshmallows and fire from our summertime s'mores.  Instead[,] the USDA is suggesting we load up the graham crackers with strawberries and low-fat yogurt.  That's not a s'more.  That's a fruit salad with an oversized graham cracker crouton.

Now Michelle Obama goes after s'mores.  Michelle Obama and her crusade against unhealthy food appears have a new target in its sights — s'mores.  Her officially endorsed MyPlate Twitter account is proposing a makeover for the classic American summer campfire treat by replacing the indulgent chocolate and marshmallow with Strawberry and yogurt — low fat of course.  Appalled, social media was up in arms at the very suggestion that s'mores could ever be tampered with and angry commenters let fly at the health conscious First Lady.

Government s'mores: Strawberries instead of chocolate, yogurt instead of marshmallows.  Anyone headed toward the final round of their Memorial Day cookout still has a chance to eat a healthy dessert, by making USDA-recommended strawberry s'mores.  The U.S. Department of Agriculture's "MyPlate" service handed out that advice on Sunday [5/24/2015], and said strawberry s'mores are a treat that "kids will love."  But expectations for the kids might need to be set in advance, since these s'mores don't have any chocolate or marshmallows in them.

The Editor says...
They may be tasty and somewhat healthy, but this recipe sounds a lot more expensive to make than traditional s'mores.

Target is making a big shift away from sugary cereals, canned foods and mac and cheese.  Target recently gathered some of the country's largest food companies in the country to tell them that many of their products would no longer be featured or promoted in the same way they have in recent years.  The news, first reported by the Wall Street Journal, comes on the heels of what has been a trying stretch for American food manufacturers.  And it could have a sizable impact on the health of the packaged food industry.

Food industry braces for Obama trans fat ban.  The Obama administration is expected to all but ban trans fat in a final ruling that could drop as soon as next week, killing most uses of an ingredient that has been put in everything from frozen pizza to Reese's Pieces but since deemed harmful to human health.  The agency may create some very limited exemptions, but the ruling could force food companies to cut trans fat use beyond the 85 percent reduction already achieved over the past decade — a key piece of the Obama administration's broader agenda to nudge Americans toward a healthier diet.

Dairy Queen is the latest food chain to drop soda on kids' menus.  Dairy Queen is the latest restaurant chain to remove soft drinks from its kids' menus, a move that follows other fast-food giants, including McDonald's, Burger King and Wendy's.  Subway, Panera Bread and Chipotle already don't offer soft drinks to kids.  The ice-cream chain will remove soft drinks, including the neon colored Arctic Rush frozen beverage, and replace them with healthier options such as bottled water and milk.  There is also the choice of one of DQ's signature treats, a kids cone or Dilly Bar.

How the gluten-free movement is ruining our relationship with food.  Gluten, which gives bread, pizza dough and other starchy foods their chewiness, is one of the most beloved proteins in the world.  But it's also quickly becoming one of the most feared — at least here in the United States.  An estimated 20 million Americans believe that eating it causes them distress.  And 100 million people, meanwhile, say that they are actively working to eliminate gluten from their diet.  Roughly 1 percent of humans suffer from celiac disease, an autoimmune disease that damages the body's small intestine when gluten is digested.  But the gluten-free movement has gone far beyond those who suffer from celiac, becoming a pervasive part of how Americans eat.

Kraft Mac & Cheese just got duller.  You can thank (or blame) 'The Food Babe.'.  For many Americans, the color of Kraft Macaroni & Cheese is the color of childhood.  Nothing triggers nostalgia like the sight of a steaming plate of sticky pasta, as unnaturally orange as a nuclear dawn.  Almost 80 years after its invention, however, Kraft Mac & Cheese is about to change.  Under pressure from "healthier" competitors and a controversial food blogger, the company says it is stripping all artificial preservatives and synthetic colors from its most iconic item.

USDA app aims to stop Americans from wasting 36 lbs. food a month.  The Agriculture Department has determined that 36 pounds of food per person is wasted every month, about 21 percent of the available food in the United States.  And one big reason:  those expiration dates are wrong or overly cautious.  The solution.  Hold your nose and just eat it.  Even if it is 18 months past the expiration date.

Feds urge eating expired food, even if 18 months past throwaway date.  The Agriculture Department has determined that 36 pounds of food per person is wasted every month, about 21 percent of the available food in the United States.  And one big reason:  those expiration dates are wrong or overly cautious.  The solution.  Hold your nose and just eat it.  Even if it is 18 months past the expiration date.

The Editor says...
[#1] After I buy food (with my own money that I earned by actually working), it becomes my property and I can do with it as I see fit.  [#2] Does anyone believe for even a second that the Secretary of Agriculture — whose department issued this nanny-state scold — eats anything other than the freshest food?  [#3] Does anyone believe for a millisecond that Americans waste 36 pounds of edible food per capita every month?  That's impossible.  The total weight of all household trash (at least at my house) is a lot less than that.  [#4] Anyone who has ever experienced food poisoning knows better than to ingest anything of dubious edibility.  The disposal of expired food is not waste. 

USDA Removes Beef From Healthy Diet, Now Promotes Organically Fed Fish.  The USDA is proposing regulations for seafood, following its controversial regulation proposal on beef.  The Agriculture Department is set to propose new standards for farmed organic fish within a year.  "That means the seafood could be available in as few as two years — but only if USDA moves quickly to complete the rules and seafood companies decide to embrace them," Associated Press reports.

The "Food Babe" Blogger Is [In Error].  How many companies or products do you think it would make sense to crusade against in the course of a career?  One?  Three?  A dozen?  Hari has declared, to date, more than 610 products and companies to be unsafe over the course of four years.  According to Hari, the problem with most of them, including Girl Scout Cookies:  GMOs and pesticides.  She's even alleged that an apple can be worse for you than a hot fudge sundae, if it's not organic.  And is there even a shred of truth to this?  Not in the least.  Hari claims going organic will save you from pesticides, but organic farming uses pesticides too.  Some of them are far more toxic than conventional pesticides.

It's Time To Flush Federal Dietary Guidelines Down the Drain.  As the federal government wrestles with how much meat and cholesterol it will recommend in its updated dietary guidelines, the public should be asking why the government is involved in this issue at all.

Here's 8 Of The Unhealthiest Items Being Sold At Baseball Games This Summer.  On Wednesday [3/25/2015], the Milwaukee Brewers announced they would be selling "Doritos-crusted" nachos on a stick, and I'm not sure if I'm supposed to be horrified or in awe of this monstrosity.

Parents Must Sign Permission Slip Before Kids Can Eat Oreos.  There are 18-wheelers with brake problems, hungry bears just stumbling out of hibernation, and lawnmowers that suddenly shift into reverse.  And then there's the unparalleled danger of Double Stuf Oreos.  Thank goodness this teacher requires parents to sign off on cookie consumption — if they dare.

Feds Spend $149,890 on 'Mindful Eating Intervention' for Third Graders.  The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is spending nearly $150,000 to test a "mindful eating intervention" on third graders in California.  A grant awarded earlier this month outlined the project that will use the methods of a Zen teacher to try to fight childhood obesity and turn kids into "change agents" to teach others how to eat healthily. [...] Mindfulness is a New Age meditation technique that traces its origins from Buddhism.  People engaging in mindfulness are encouraged to focus on the present moment "non-judgmentally."

Mrs. Obama: Americans Should Drink Unsweetened Tea.  The First Lady of these United States is now urging Americans to stop drinking sweet tea.  Yes, friends, you heard correctly.  Mrs. Obama has declared war on the House Wine of the South.  It's all part of her anti-obesity campaign, called Let's Move.  The website Free Beacon was the first to report on her latest culinary atrocities, urging us to wash down our lettuce and bean sprouts with unsweetened tea.

Nanny state failure:
Ban on fast-food eateries in South L.A. hasn't cut obesity, study says.  Seven years ago, Los Angeles made national headlines with a novel attempt to reduce obesity in South L.A. by banning new fast-food restaurants.  But a new study found the effort has not achieved its intended goal.  A Rand Corp. report released Thursday [3/19/2015] says that from 2007 to 2012, the percentage of people who were overweight or obese increased everywhere in L.A., but the increase was significantly greater in areas covered by the fast-food ordinance, including Baldwin Hills and Leimert Park.  The study also found fast-food consumption went up in South L.A. as well as across the county during that time.

LA's fast food ban didn't lower obesity in poor areas because people just went elsewhere for unhealthy food, study finds.  In 2008, a dietary ordinance targeted a 32-square-mile area south of Interstate 10 that struggles with high obesity rates and other health problems.  The ban went into effect in South Los Angeles and restricted the opening or expansion of standalone fast-food restaurants.  However, the law, believed to be the first effort of its kind by a major city to improve public health, did not ban new fast food restaurants in strip malls.

Another Government Diet Disaster In The Making.  From the same people who brought you four decades of increasing obesity based on their nutritional "science," comes new guidelines that include taxes on dessert, plant-based diets, demonization of meat and electronic monitoring of your habits.  Never fear, the food police are here.  This list of intrusive, big-government insanity is brought to you courtesy of The Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee, a group formed to advise the federal government on new dietary guidelines.  In its massive 571-page report, it calls on America to "transform the food system."  Gee, last time someone used that word — "transform" — it didn't turn out so well.  (Hint:  He now lives in the White House.)

Beef producers say Obama is trying to kill their industry.  Lawmakers from cattle producing states are seeing red following a 571-page federal report that that encourages Americans to go green.  A panel of nutrition experts recruited by the Obama administration to craft the newest dietary guidelines suggested last week that the government should consider the environment when deciding what people should eat.  The report, which was presented to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, bills itself as a way to "transform the food system" and that's got a lot of people in the heartland and those elected to represent them in Washington fuming.

Attack on meat has industry seeing red.  The meat industry is sharpening its knives over a small federal committee that issued sweeping nutrition advice that essentially told Americans to drop the burger and grab a handful of kale.  The beef and pork associations spent months sweating as the 2015 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee worked on developing a large book of nutrition advice that would not only encourage Americans to eat less red meat but single out the livestock industry for contributing to environmental problems.

Feds: America Should Adopt 'Plant-Based' Diet.  The federal committee responsible for nutrition guidelines is calling for the adoption of "plant-based" diets, taxes on dessert, trained obesity "interventionists" at worksites, and electronic monitoring of how long Americans sit in front of the television.  The Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee (DGAC) released its far-reaching 571-page report of recommendations to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Thursday, which detailed its plans to "transform the food system."

Think of Earth, not just your stomach, panel advises.  The nation's top nutritional panel is recommending for the first time that Americans consider the impact on the environment when they are choosing what to eat, a move that defied a warning from Congress and, if enacted, could discourage people from eating red meat.  Members of Congress had sought in December to keep the group from even discussing the issue, asserting that while advising the government on federal dietary guidelines, the committee should steer clear of extraneous issues and stick to nutritional advice.

NY assemblyman wants cigarette-like labels on soft drinks.  A New York State assemblyman wants to label soda and other sugary drinks with cigarette-like health warnings.  Assemblyman Jeff Dinowitz (D-Bronx) has introduced a "Sugar-Sweetened Beverages Safety Warning Act", according to the New York Post.  The act would require vendors to put labels on all sugary drinks [...]

Eggs Are In After Nutrition Panel Lifts Cholesterol Warning.  Something many of us have been trying to avoid is now okay to eat.  The nation's top nutrition panel is dropping its guidelines about avoiding foods that are high in cholesterol.  The new finding by the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee means that cholesterol is no longer listed as a "nutrient of concern."

So butter is good for you. Just like global warming, then..  The big story in all the papers this week is that butter is good for you, after all.  I say "after all" because for most of my life butter has been widely touted by the Health Establishment as the dietary equivalent of Polonium-210.  That's why, when you go to the supermarket, every other product on the shelves screams at you about how healthily "low fat" it is; why, at some high-street coffee chains, you can't get your latte made with full-fat milk even if you ask because they only do "skimmed" or "semi-skimmed"; and why, perhaps most damningly, we're currently experiencing an epidemic of obesity and type 2 diabetes.  It all goes back to some now discredited 'research' conducted in the 1950s by an American dietician called Ancel Keys.

The U.S. government is poised to withdraw longstanding warnings about cholesterol.  The nation's top nutrition advisory panel has decided to drop its caution about eating cholesterol-laden food, a move that could undo almost 40 years of government warnings about its consumption.  The group's finding that cholesterol in the diet need no longer be considered a "nutrient of concern" stands in contrast to the committee's findings five years ago, the last time it convened.  During those proceedings, as in previous years, the panel deemed the issue of excess cholesterol in the American diet a public health concern.  The finding follows an evolution of thinking among many nutritionists who now believe that, for healthy adults, eating foods high in cholesterol may not significantly affect the level of cholesterol in the blood or increase the risk of heart disease.

What else are the "experts" wrong about?
Butter ISN'T bad for you after all: Major study says 80s advice on dairy fats was flawed.  Guidelines that told millions of people to avoid butter and full-fat milk should never have been introduced, say experts.  The startling assertion challenges advice that has been followed by the medical profession for 30 years.  The experts say the advice from 1983, aimed at reducing deaths from heart disease, lacked any solid trial evidence to back it up.

Also posted under Environmental false alarms.

A Handful of Cheese Dust.  Shunning convenience foods is easy when you've got a taxpayer-subsidized cooking staff whipping up four-course feasts every night.  Those boxed meals you spit upon are affordable and easy to store, and last a long time.  For someone who pretends to be sympathetic to working-class and middle-class families, Her Royal Highness sure has a funny way of showing it.

Michelle Obama's Personal Fight Against Boxed Macaroni And Cheese.  Celebrating the fifth anniversary of "Let's Move!" First Lady Michelle Obama explains to Cooking Light magazine that she had to get empowered in her own household to eliminate processed food.  Part of that experience was her personal fight against boxed macaroni and cheese, which, she admits, her kids loved.

Michelle Obama Says Ditch Your Boxed Mac & Cheese.  According to the company's website, Kraft Mac & Cheese is not only "The Cheesiest" mac and cheese type product out there, it's also "part of a balanced meal," if you add in some veggies and force your child to drink milk. [...] But because the box meal is enjoyable, practical, low-cost, filling and nutritionally viable, it has clearly come under fire from the White House, whose matriarch has banned it from the kitchen outright.

Jonathan Gruber: The Gift That Keeps On Giving.  Thought you'd heard the last of Jonathan Gruber, did you?  Check this out, from the end of a paper he delivered in 2010 to the National Institute for Health Care Management entitled "Taxing Sin to Modify Behavior and Raise Revenue": ["]Ultimately, what may be needed to address the obesity problem are direct taxes on body weight. [...]["]

Domino's to Obama Admin: Calorie Rule is 'Unworkable'.  The final Obamacare regulation forcing restaurant chains to display calorie information is causing headaches for companies who say it is "impossible to comply" with the new rule.  Domino's Pizza, one of the regulation's most outspoken critics, said the rule from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is vaguely written and carries the possibility of jail time.

Experts zero in on pizza as prime target in war on childhood obesity.  On days when children eat pizza, they consume an average of 408 additional calories, three additional grams of fat and 134 additional milligrams of salt compared with their regular diet.  For teens, putting pizza on the day's menu adds 624 calories, five grams of fat and 484 milligrams of salt.  The analysis, published online Monday [1/19/2015] by the journal Pediatrics, examines pizza's contribution to the childhood obesity crisis because it is so widely consumed.

The Editor says...
The article above appears in the liberal LA Times, which is one of the principal supporters of the nanny state and big government in general.  The writer seems to be horrified that kids are being served pizza — something they prefer to eat — instead of broccoli and carrots.  Let the kids eat pizza, I say, if they pay for it with their own money.  Let those who eat from Big Brother's hand be content with whatever Big Brother puts on the menu.  This would serve as an important lesson about free markets:  about the haves and have-nots.  Especially when the kids who are fed by the government are the have-nots, and everyone else is eating pizza.

Feds target fried food, juice at day cares.  The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is proposing strict new dietary guidelines for day cares that would prohibit them from frying food that is served to children.  Child care providers would also be formally required to provide children with water upon request, though they would face restrictions on how much apple juice and orange juice they serve.  The proposed nutrition standards are intended to promote the "health and wellness of children" at day cares that participate in government-funded meal programs, the USDA's Food and Nutrition Service said Wednesday [1/14/2015].

Here we go: Feds move to ban all fried foods at day care centers.  Fear not, citizens!  The government is here to save you from yourselves.  And in keeping with the Remember the Children theme, the Department of Agriculture is submitting new guidelines for food served at any day care facility (including some private homes) which qualify for federal funding.

New Let's Move Executive Director is a 'Food Justice' Activist.  First Lady Michelle Obama named the new Executive Director of Let's Move on Thursday, Debra Eschmeyer, a self-described "food justice" activist who believes that all aspects of food production and consumption should be "shared fairly."  Eschmeyer, who grew up on a dairy farm in Ohio and is now an organic vegetable farmer, previously campaigned for "school lunch reform" and has been involved in anti-obesity and school gardening initiatives.

WH picks new director for healthy eating campaign.  The White House on Thursday [1/8/2015] announced first lady Michelle Obama's pick to lead her campaign for kids to eat healthier, saying Debra Eschmeyer would take over a post that has increasingly come under fire in Republican circles.  "For more than a decade, Deb has been leading the way in teaching kids about the importance of healthy eating," the first lady said.  "From classrooms and gardens to kitchens and farms, Deb has made learning about nutrition fun and accessible for kids across the country."

Guide For Heatlthy Eating May Consider Environment.  The beef and agriculture industries are crying foul, saying an environmental agenda has no place in what has always been a practical blueprint for a healthy lifestyle.

Obamacare Calorie Posting Regulations to Cost Industry $1.7 Billion.  The federal government formally completed regulations that will force vending machines and restaurants to display calorie information, which can lead to businesses being fined thousands of dollars for not including the number of calories in a mayonnaise packet.  The regulations, which originated in Obamacare, total 319 pages and will cost industry $1.7 billion to comply.  The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) published the final rules last week just before the Thanksgiving holiday, arguing the rules are "an important step for public health."

You can keep your popcorn. Period.  Conservatives warned America that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act was a merely a power grab by the federal bureaucracy?  We said you would not keep your doctor, you would not keep your plan, and you certainly would not save $2,500.  In fact, a record number of Americans can no longer afford health care because of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.  It was all so predictable.  We were right.  Don't ever forget that.  Label every one of their power grabs "Obamacare."  Immigration reform is the Obamacare of border control.  Et cetera.  Having screwed up health care, now we learn Obamacare is screwing up movie theater popcorn.

White House Thanksgiving; turkey, ham, 6 pies and more.  President Obama is spending a quiet Thanksgiving at the White House where the belly-stuffing menu featured all the holiday's basics.

FDA Unveils National Calorie Labeling Rules So You Can Now Feel Super Guilty About That Second Margarita.  The sort of nutritional information that has long been mandatory in New York City — and long-resisted by convenience stores, pizza chains, and grocery stores — will now be required at everything from fast food restaurants to movie theaters.

'Let them eat cake' updated for modern elitists.  Body type has become a class marker.  The fashionable upper classes starve themselves and work out at gyms.  Ectomorphs are the new natural aristocracy. For most of history, fat was fashionable, indicating wealth.  Now that humble folk can afford obesity, why the enlightened classes pursue the opposite.  And if others don't share their dietary preferences in the current fashion, why they are just stupid: [...]

Calorie counts: Coming to a restaurant, movie theater, vending machine near you.  Chain restaurants, vending machines, grocery stores, coffee shops and pizza joints will soon have to display detailed calorie information on their menus under long-awaited rules to be issued Tuesday [11/25/2014] by the Food and Drug Administration.  The calorie-posting requirements extend to an array of foods that Americans consume in their daily lives:  popcorn at the movie theater, muffins at a bakery, a deli sandwich, a milkshake at an ice cream shop, a drive-through cheeseburger, a hot dog at Costco or Target.

'Fizzy drinks are the new smoking'.  Experts have called for sugar-laden fizzy drinks to carry warning labels similar to those found on cigarette packets, in a bid to combat the adverse health effects.  New York assemblyman Karim Camara has introduced a bill that will require health warning labels on certain drinks with added sugar.

Feds Spent $10 Million on a Video Game About Escaping a Fat Town.  The federal government has invested over $10 million developing and promoting a video game about a young teen that must escape a town full of fat people, as a method to fight obesity.  The National Institutes of Health (NIH) paid for the development of two video games that promote healthier eating, including "Escape from Diab," a "nightmare" fictional city where people are only allowed to eat junk food.  "The story centers around five children who must get healthy enough to escape the evil King Etes," explains Archimage, Inc., a computer game company that received $9,091,409 to develop the games.  King Etes is a fat ruler who forces his people to eat out of vending machines.

Berkeley to impose first soda 'sin' tax.  Voters in Berkeley, Calif., made history Tuesday [11/4/2014], approving the nation's first soda tax.  Berkeley's Measure D imposes a 1 cent per ounce tax on sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs)and flavored drinks for residents in this city of 117,000.  That will increase the price of a can of soda in Berkeley by 12 cents, and 68 cents for a 2-liter bottle.  A referendum in San Francisco on a 2 cent per ounce tax fizzled.

Big Brother versus Big Soda in Berkeley.  The elitists who think it is their job to tell the great unwashed what to eat and to drink are at work in my hometown of Berkeley, California, with an initiative measure on the ballot that would tax sugary soda one cent per ounce.  Measure D is being fought with a full court press by the soft drink industry, which has pouted millions of dollars into pervasive advertising on local cable TV and billboards, and hiring canvassers to visit every home (ours has been visited twice).

Minneapolis Is Micromanaging the Food Supply.  Minneapolis has become a focal point for testing out policies designed to force people to eat healthier.  Or else.  A law on the books, which voters may very well repeal next month, requires restaurants to prove that food sales make up at least 70 percent of their total food and beverage sales.  The law also bans restaurants from serving alcohol to customers who are waiting for a table in the restaurant.  Earlier this year, the city council adopted a City Healthy Food Policy that mandates "healthful food in vending machines, in city cafeterias and at meetings with city-funded food."  The vote was by no means unanimous.

De Blasio Pushes Forward on Soda Ban.  Mayor Bill de Blasio's administration is exploring new ways to regulate the size of large sugary drinks in New York City, holding high-level meetings behind closed doors with health advocates and beverage industry executives.  "Mayor de Blasio has made clear he supports a ban on large sugary drinks," his spokesman, Phil Walzak, said on Thursday [10/16/2014].  "The administration is currently considering plans on the best way to reach that goal."

The life of the party:
Michelle Obama: Just Eat One or Two Pieces of Candy on Halloween.  First Lady Michelle Obama shared some advice for trick-or-treaters this Halloween advising them to only eat one or two pieces of candy per night.  "Trick-or-treating can be a lot of fun, but just remember, don't try to eat all your candy at once, just have one or two pieces every night for a little while," she explained to a little girl during an online Q-and-A.

Obama's USDA to Spend $31.5 Million on 'Healthy' Food Stamp Program.  The Department of Agriculture, the agency that administers the food stamp program, has announced that it will spend $31.5 million on a new program that will promote a healthy diet for recipients of the assistance.  The National Institute of Food and Agriculture, a division of the Department of Agriculture, is developing the program to urge recipients of the SNAP food stamp program to choose more fruits and fresh foods.

Seattle Passes Laws to Keep Residents From Wasting Food.  The City of Seattle just passed a new trash ordinance that would fine residents and businesses for throwing away too much food.  The new rules would allow garbage collectors to inspect trash cans and ticket offending parties if food and compostable material makes up 10 percent or more of the trash.

This One Little Secret Could Sink the Hillary Campaign.  It is unclear whether or not Hillary herself is putting her health at risk with a meat-free diet.  What is clear is that she's putting her political future at risk with such anti-carnivore flirtations.  Who wants to have a beer with someone that might scoff at them for eating a burger with their suds?

Now Feds assail salt: No pizza, chips, Mexican food, chicken tenders, sandwiches.  First fatty foods, then sugary drinks, now President Obama's food police are gunning for salt in their effort to upend the typical kiddy diet.  The latest evidence came Tuesday [9/9/2014] when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a report that school-aged children are eating a mountain of salt.  The intake is so high, that the CDC is recommending a 50 percent cut within eight years.

Feds Developing Technology to Detect Obesity from Your Picture.  The federal government is developing a body mass index (BMI) detector intended to be available to every American "anywhere and anytime," according to a grant awarded by the National Science Foundation (NSF).  The detector is expected to rely on the analysis of facial and body imagery.  The project has been awarded $200,113 thus far to create the system under the notion that too many obese individuals are unaware of their BMI.

Vermont bans brownies, turns kids on to kale, gluten-free paleo lemon bars.  It's a best-seller at bake sales, a king of American confections, even a mandatory munchie of marijuana users.  But the iconic chocolate brownie, that perfect blend of cake and cookie, is banned in Vermont schools.  In its place are new hoped-for kid favorites like fruit shish kebab, kale and even gluten-free paleo lemon bars.  The switch stems from nutrition mandates required under the new Smart-Snacks-in-Schools program in effect for public schools.

Your weekly reminder the nanny scold coalition can't be trusted on nutrition.  Surprise!  Fat probably isn't what's making you fat, despite a decades-old attempt by the government, media, and anyone with a nanny-state inclination to tell you to put down the bacon and butter, or worse, ban it.  Recently, Time ran a cover story entitled "Ending the War on Fat."  Which is nice, considering they've not been shy about going after nutritional bogeymen in the past.

Now EU bureaucrats tell us we can't eat toast.  An EU watchdog says toast should be eaten only when it is a light brown colour or it could increase the risk of cancer.  The European Food Safety Authority warned of a chemical, acrylamide, found in some foods cooked at high temperatures.  It is mainly found in crisps, savoury snacks, chips, soft and crispy breads, biscuits, crackers, cakes, cereals and coffee.  But dark roasted potatoes, jacket potatoes and slightly burned toast could also contain it.

Forest Service says drop chocolate, add fruit to your s'mores.  The U.S. Forest Service wants Americans to make healthier S'mores by replacing the chocolate with fruit, according to a blog post meant to commemorate National Roasted Marshmallow Day (apparently there is such a thing, it was observed on August 30 this year).

Whole Foods sued for 'understating' amount of sugar in yogurt.  Customers are suing Whole Foods Market for "vastly understating" the amount of sugar in its store-brand yogurt.  A class-action lawsuit filed Friday [8/29/2014] in Manhattan federal court cites six tests by Consumer Reports in a July report on the supermarket chain's Whole Foods 365 Everyday Value Plain Greek Yogurt, revealing it actually contains 11.4 grams of sugar per 170-gram serving instead of the 2 grams listed on the label.

Now Michelle Obama Has Caused America's 'Best Cafeteria Cookie' To Be Outlawed.  An eruption of aggravation about what American schoolchildren can no longer eat in school cafeterias is never far away in the Obama era.  Now, thanks to federal intervention that first lady Michelle has made her signature issue, students in all 11 taxpayer-funded public schools in Elyria, Ohio cannot enjoy the famous Elyria pink cookie anymore.  This cookie is no ordinary cookie, according to The Chronicle-Telegram, the Cleveland suburb's local newspaper.  It's a velvety, cake-like, scrumptious delicacy glazed with a huge dollop of sugary pink icing.  Cleveland magazine dubbed the Elyria pink cookie the "Best Cafeteria Cookie" in 2009.  Locals will even call up asking for special bulk orders of the tasty treat.

Feds Ban School's Beloved "Pink Cookie".  School children in Elyria, Ohio are mourning the demise of a 40-year tradition — the loss of their beloved pink cookie.  The fabled cookie, long served in local school cafeterias, was done in by a pound of butter, six cups of powdered sugar and the Obama administration's food police.  "It no longer meets the national school lunch program guidelines for snacks," said Amy Higgins, the spokesperson for Elyria City Schools.  "It has too many calories."  The USDA "Smart Snacks in School" standards mandate that all snacks must contain less than 200 calories.

Cincinnati Enquirer Keeps Michelle Obama's Name Out of Story on District Ending Federal School Lunches.  Fort Thomas Independent Schools in Northern Kentucky have decided to get out of the federal school lunch program, specifically because of the requirements imposed in the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act championed by First Lady Michelle Obama.  Simply put, the district is tired of being forced to give kids food they won't eat.  Until it ran into problems, HHFA was seen as Mrs. Obama's signature achievement, and the press fawned over its alleged awesomeness.  Now that the program has encountered fierce real-world resistance, her association with it seems to have vanished from many press reports.

School District Bans Birthday Cupcakes Because They Aren't Fair.  An elementary school in the outer suburbs of Atlanta has outlawed birthday cupcakes, cookies and, in fact, all food from birthday parties over fears that some kids with food allergies could feel sad and left out.  Officials at Brooks Elementary School in Newnan, Ga. announced the draconian new policy for the upcoming school year via a letter to parents, reports The Newnan Times-Herald.

Back to school: No snacks for you, Michelle Obama says.  Michelle Obama's push to stop kids from eating snacks and buying sugary drinks will be realized when kids go back to school. [...] Stories have already started to pop up.  Public schools can't have bake sales anymore to raise money to pay for their music programs.  The Girl Scouts can't sell their cookies on school grounds.  You won't be able to get a decent snack that happens to be over 200 calories.  The school lunches will be basically inedible.  As for soda pop?  Forget about it.  This stems from a law passed in 2010, called the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Schools Act.

Put Down the Cupcake: New Ban Hits School Bake Sales.  A federal law that aims to curb childhood obesity means that, in dozens of states, bake sales must adhere to nutrition requirements that could replace cupcakes and brownies with fruit cups and granola bars.  Jeff Ellsworth, principal of the kindergarten through eighth-grade school in Chapman, Neb., isn't quite sure how to break the news to the kids.  "The chocolate bars are a big seller," said Mr. Ellsworth.

Rep. DeLauro Wants SWEET New Soda Tax.  Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) introduced this week the Sugar-Sweetened Beverages Tax (SWEET Act), which aims to institute a tax of one cent per teaspoon — 4.2 grams — of sugar, high fructose corn syrup or caloric sweetener.  The measure (HB 5279), introduced Wednesday [7/30/2014] says, "A 20-ounce bottle of soda contains about 16 teaspoons of sugars.  Yet, the American Heart Association recommends that Americans consume no more than six to nine teaspoons of sugar per day."  Even though the manufacturers' of the sweet drinks are targeted to pay the tax, the text of the bill itself notes that the goal is to reduce public consumption through a price increase.

Michelle Obama expands push to get Americans to drink more water.  First lady Michelle Obama took to the White House lawn on Tuesday [7/22/2014] along with children from a local YMCA and summer camp to expand the country's "Drink Up" campaign aimed at getting Americans to drink more water.

Welcome to a government we'll-tell-you-what-to-eat world.  The supermarket 'talking' shopping cart Michelle Obama will use to push her over-the-top approved food list is a power push over unsuspecting masses, but would serve as the perfect replacement for her husband's omnipresent rising sun logo. [...] Michelle Obama's specialized supermarket carts that will notify shoppers when they've selected the right amount of healthy foods, described in a new 80-page report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.  Now that they've lured almost 50 percent of Americans onto food stamps, they feel they have the right to tell them what they can eat.

The food police trying to arrest soda, again.  Mr. Bloomberg's attempt to ban the Big Gulp fizzled in the courts, so the pious left has turned to the thing they like best, a tax.  San Francisco will ask voters this fall to approve an increase in the price of a 12-ounce can of the likes of Pepsi-Cola or Dr Pepper by nearly a quarter.  Berkeley will ask to add 67 cents to the cost of a 2-liter bottle of belly wash.  All drinks sweetened with sugar, including energy drinks and sports drinks of whatever size, would be subjected to the levies.

Obama tries to connect with ordinary Americans — through junk food.  Has food — especially junk food — played as large a role in the messaging of any other presidential administration as it has in that of President Obama?  Obama has long complained about feeling hemmed in by the presidency, and has made a habit lately of escaping the White House by walking down the street, skipping town and meeting with regular Americans who have written him letters or have some connection to an issue he plans to discuss.  The common thread in almost all of these excursions?  Food or drink.  And nothing fancy.

Now Michelle Obama Wants to Control How You Shop for Groceries.  Michelle Obama has been on a quest to change the way Americans eat, like it or not.  Her nutritional guidelines for schools has resulted in kids throwing away massive amounts of food, a reduction in school lunch program participation, students, especially athletes, complaining that the food isn't enough to sustain them during the day, and Special Education programs losing their main fundraising program.

USDA Suggests Changes to Grocery Stores to 'Nudge' Consumers to Eat Healthy.  The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is suggesting major changes to grocery stores to "nudge" Americans to purchase healthier foods when they shop.  The agency commissioned an "expert panel" to make recommendations on how to guide the more than 47 million Americans on food stamps into spending their benefits on fruits and vegetables.  The group released an 80-page report this month presenting their ideas, which include talking shopping carts and a marketing strategy for grocery chains that would feature better store lighting for healthier items.

Scrapbook Photos: Obama's Summer Road Trips.  A restless President Barack Obama has ventured out on an array of field trips, stopping at local hotspots when he travels and ambling around Washington, D.C.  He's dined on burgers, pizza, barbecue, ice cream and a Chipotle burrito bowl on recent outings.  And last week, he shot pool and drank beer during a stop in Denver.  White House officials say the forays into Americans' everyday lives help re-energize the president and connect him with average folks.

Mrs. Obama Declares War on Chick-fil-A.  It seems the home of plump juicy breasts and hot buttered buns has run afoul of the new Smart Snacks in School program.  The program is a component of Mrs. Obama's Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010.  The new government regulations require snack items served in public schools to have less than two hundred calories.  That includes vending machines, lunch rooms and other campus food venues.  And that's really bad news for kids at South Carolina's Socastee High School.  They've just learned they will no longer be allowed to buy Chick-fil-A sandwiches at school.

The Editor says...
What does Michelle Obama have against Chick-Fil-A?

Michelle Obama and School Nutrition Association Battle over Meal Program.  An internecine battle has broken out between the Obama administration and the School Nutrition Association (SNA) over the federal government's requirements for school meal programs.  The fight has gotten so nasty that Michelle Obama's food policy czar, celebrity chef Sam Kass, who handed out awards at the SNA's annual convention in 2012, was refused permission to speak at this year's convention, held in Boston this week and attended by approximately 6,500 school nutrition workers.  According to Politico, the brouhaha arose from the different goals each group has for the $11 billion school lunch program; some food companies "want to build brand loyalty early and even the legacy of the first lady," while Michelle Obama and her supporters, intent on controlling children's food intake, try to impose their views on the program.

USDA Hires Environmentalist Food Activist to Oversee Dietary Guidelines.  The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has hired an environmental nutrition consultant to oversee its Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee, which has already faced criticism for introducing climate change into nutrition policy.  Angela Tagtow was named executive director of the USDA's Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion, which oversees the committee in charge of creating new federal nutrition standards.  A "good food" activist, Tagtow founded Environmental Nutrition Solutions, whose mission is to change the food system by making it more "sustainable, ecologically sound, [and] socially acceptable."  She formerly was the endowed chair for the Minnesota Institute for Sustainable Agriculture.

School Lunches Weren't Enough: Michelle Targets School Bake Sales.  In order to comply with federal regulations, the State Board of Education in Tennessee has announced that schools are only allowed to host club bake sales, cook-offs, or any other food-based fundraiser on each campus 30 days per school-year.  The board chose this specific number because if a maximum number of days are not set, schools are not allowed to host any food-related fundraisers at all, according to The Tennessean.  Administrators across the state are lamenting the effect this will have on school club funds.

On Air Force One, No Lightening Up on Burgers and Cake.  A blue-cheese burger with lettuce, tomato and garlic aioli, accompanied by Parmesan-sprinkled fries.  Chocolate fudge cake.  Pasta shells stuffed with four cheeses, topped with meat sauce and shredded mozzarella, and served with a garlic breadstick.  Cake infused with limoncello. Buffalo wings with celery, carrots and homemade ranch dip.  Such was the fare served to passengers aboard Air Force One during a particularly grueling three-state day on the campaign trail just before the 2012 election.  Not much has changed since.

Court Won't Reinstate New York City's Big-Soda Ban.  Guzzlers prevailed Thursday [6/26/2014] as New York's highest court refused to reinstate New York City's ban on the sale of big sodas, ruling that the city's health department overstepped its bounds when approved the 16-ounce cap on sugary beverages.

When Barry Met Shelly: Authoritarian and Totalitarian Psychology of the Obamas.  [Scroll down]  Mrs. Obama's "cause" is to tell everybody what to eat for lunch.  Sameness and oneness.  The American people are too stupid to feed their own kids.

Obama Administration To Tackle Pressing International Crisis — Mislabeled Seafood.  Secretary of State John Kerry is directing federal agencies to work together to develop a program to combat seafood fraud.  Since there isn't even a program yet, just a directive to create a program, it will be 10 years before various agencies 'work together' to hilarious effect, like when the federal Endangered Species Act tried to restore the Paiute cutthroat trout but was blocked by by the Wilderness Act because the location is so remote it requires a gas-powered generator for the auger — which can't be used in wilderness areas.  Seafood fraud is an issue — last year the advocacy group Oceana found that 39 percent of seafood in stores was mislabeled.  That's bad because if people are paying for grouper and getting Asian catfish, they are being bilked, the same way homeopathy and organic food people are being duped by hucksters.

As Al Qaeda Approaches Baghdad, Obama Orders Department of, Defense to Fight "Seafood Fraud".  Al Qaeda in Iraq has nothing to worry about.  Not unless it starts mislabeling fish caught in protected maritime zones.  Or fails to state the supply chain for its seafood. [...] More regulations for controlling the supply chain will make it more expensive to catch and sell fish... and that will make it harder for working families to eat.  Not that Obama cares about working families except when he's reading from a teleprompter.

John Kerry Discusses Whether Iraq is Aware of Global Warming.  While Al Qaeda has been taking over Iraq, Obama and Kerry have kept a laser focus on oceans.  Obama ordered the Department of Defense to fight mislabeled seafood and Kerry kept tweeting about Leonardo DeCaprio and the oceans.  Then he opened up for questions on Twitter and the ones he got, he didn't like much.

Al Qaeda Hits Baghdad  — — Obama Hits the Beach.  With Al Qaeda pressing in on Baghdad, Obama ruled out air strikes.  He did however order the Department of Defense to assign a senior official to the vital task of fighting mislabeled seafood.  While the Iraqi government was begging for air support, Obama instead issued an order in the name of the authority vested in him "by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America" to "ensure that seafood sold in the United States is legally and sustainably caught."  The United States Constitution does not have much to say about sustainable seafood.  The Founders liked their flounder and they disliked kings and emperors telling them where to fish.

The FDA's Science-Free Anti-Salt Crusade.  It seems that Michael Jacobson, watch commander of the food police and executive director of the anti-corporate Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), hates food.  On any given day, he is battling with berries, clams, fat free and fat laden foods.  A strict vegetarian, Jacobson has made a lucrative career of attacking America's nutritional products and scaring hungry consumers.  In its last IRS filing, CSPI claimed a budget of nearly $20 million, not including Jacobson's speaking, writing, and appearance fees.  Their latest target is salt, and his agenda-driven scare tactics have influenced government bureaucrats who share his vendetta against U.S. corporate food producers.  This is especially true of the FDA.

The "guidelines" will be "voluntary" unless you don't comply.
The Obama Administration Wants Americans To Stop Eating So Much Salt.  The FDA, perhaps still smarting from the recent artisanal cheese kerfuffle, is setting its sights on a bigger target:  salt.  "The current level of [sodium] consumption is really higher than it should be," said FDA commissioner Margaret Hamburg.  That's why they're preparing "voluntary guidelines" for the food industry encouraging them to stay below certain salt levels.  While the guidelines will initially be voluntary, health groups are lobbying for mandatory standards — lobbying that will only grow more intense if businesses refuse to comply once the standards are released.

Michelle Obama: I Couldn't Feed My Kids Right — Even with a Harvard Degree.  "I thought to myself, if a Princeton and Harvard-educated professional woman doesn't know how to adequately feed her kids, then what are other parents going through who don't have access to the information I have?" she recalled.  Her personal struggle helped her launch her mission to address childhood obesity, she explains, especially passing a law requiring schools to provide healthier meals for kids.  The First Lady recommended that schools make decisions for children because their parents struggle to feed their children well.

Rebuttal:
Michelle Obama Neatly Summarizes the Entire Progressive Agenda During a Nutrition Interview.  Is it really that hard?  As a parent of five, it didn't take a pediatrician consult for me to figure out what to put in my kiddo's pie holes.  In fact, many parents have successfully fed their offspring without Princeton and Harvard degrees, in addition to not needing "access to information."  Lastly, as most "working" moms don't earn $316,912 a year, in addition to a husband who was earning $162,100 as a Senator, perhaps the First Lady protesteth a tad too much.

FDA decision puts cheese making in peril.  In what the agency called a clarification, the FDA declared that wooden racks similar to the one Vella [Cheese Co.] uses "cannot be adequately cleaned and sanitized."  That, in effect, would make [Gabe] Luddy's cheese impossible to sell.  While the FDA late Tuesday issued a statement indicating there is room for compromise, if the original clarification holds, it may affect more than Sonoma Jack.  The Parmesan you grate over your pasta might also be declared illegal.

Study: Michelle Obama anti-fat group treats obese as 'idiots'.  Two major national anti-obesity campaigns supported by first lady Michelle Obama and former President Clinton treat overweight Americans as "idiots" too dumb to figure out what's good for them, according to a new academic study.  Worse, said the study from a George Washington University professor, the Obama-backed Partnership for a Healthier America and Clinton supported Alliance for a Healthier Generation blame consumers and not the makers of unhealthy food for the obesity epidemic.

Are butter, cheese and meat that bad?  For the past four decades, we've been told to stay away from red meat, dairy and cheese — foods high in saturated fats — because saturated fat is bad for the heart.  But investigative reporter Nina Teicholz says that isn't the case.  "When the dietary recommendations came out in 1961 saying that saturated fat causes heart disease, that was based on total cholesterol," Teicholz said.  "But our understanding of heart disease has evolved enormously."

USDA Creating $1.9 Million Research Center Devoted to Changing American's Food Choices.  The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is creating a $2 million research center to study how the government can "nudge" Americans toward making healthier eating habits.  The agency is currently accepting grant applications to establish a "Center for Behavioral Economics and Healthy Food Choice Research," which will facilitate studies such as how breaking up combo meals at fast food restaurants would influence customers.

Also posted under Money Down the Drain.

Michelle Obama's 'Let's Move!' goes too far.  [A]s is often the case with mammoth federal programs, one size does not fit all.  Many school districts have inadequate funding to meet the new nutrition standards and have had to borrow from educational programs, in some cases shutting them down.  Moreover, the kids detest the food and are tossing their lunches, so to speak, into the dumpster.  Some school districts report having to purchase or lease more trash cans to accommodate the extra garbage, increasing their waste-collection costs as well.

Federal Dietary Guidelines Committee Criticized as Politically Motivated.  Experts criticized the federal government committee currently crafting the nation's dietary guidelines as politically motivated and said it was putting environmentalism over food science.  The Hudson Institute hosted a panel discussion on the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee (DGAC) on Capitol Hill Thursday, analyzing the incorporation of climate change and "sustainability" into the recommendations that are used to set standards for government food programs.

More than a million children abandon school meals after Michelle's healthy eating initiative.  First Lady Michelle Obama's healthy eating initiatives have been so unpopular among young people that more than a million students have stopped buying school lunches.  The Agriculture Department set new standards for what types of foods schools can serve students that have been phased in over the last three school years in response to Obama's push for healthier school lunches, and even more changes are coming in 2014.  Already, data from the department shows that a total of 1.1 million children abandoned the National School Lunch program between the 2011 and 2013 school years after Obama went to war over what's on their trays.

The First Lady's food-fight debacle.  Progressives blame kid-hating Republicans and greedy businesses for the revolt against Mrs. Obama's failed policies.  But the truth is right around the corner in your students' cafeterias.  Districts are losing money.  Discarded food is piling high.  Kids are going off-campus to fill their tummies or just going hungry.  According to the School Nutrition Association, almost half of school-meal programs reported declines in revenue in the 2012-13 school year, and 90 percent said food costs were up.

Official WH Press Pool: Obama, Biden Ordered Burgers, Fries, Milk Shake.  President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden ordered burgers and French fries for lunch on Friday at the Shake Shack on Dupont Circle in Washington, D.C., according to the White House Press Office pool press report.  Biden also ordered a black-and-white milk shake at the restaurant, read the report.

What Fed Up Gets Wrong About the Food Industry.  There's enough to dislike about Fed Up — a New York Daily News critic gives the film two stars — that I suspect viewers like you will find it is the film you don't want you to see.  Fed Up features a who's who of well-known supporters of increased food regulations, including Marion Nestle, Kelly Brownell, and Michael Pollan.  That's to be expected.  But it gives little screen time to opponents of increased regulation.  And when it does, the treatment they receive is unfair by any objective measure.  The film's brief gotcha moment, for example, centers on Professor David Allison of the University of Alabama at Birmingham, whose public-health research the filmmakers targeted because, the filmmakers say, it's been funded by food companies.

Connecticut proposes chocolate milk ban in schools.  School children in Connecticut may soon be forced to go without their midday chocolate kick.  Connecticut lawmakers are awaiting Gov. Dannel Malloy's signature on a bill that would ban chocolate milk and some juices from school cafeterias in the state.  If he signs it, Connecticut would be the first state in the country — not just a single school district — to ban chocolate milk in school cafeterias.  The law would go into effect next September.

Connecticut Considers Day Care Ban on Whole, 2% Milk.  Operating under the presumption that milk is bad for you, potentially contributing to obesity, the Connecticut state legislature is considering banning day care centers from serving whole milk or 2% milk to children.  The American Academy of Pediatrics did produce "a 2008 recommendation that children switch to low-fat milk after the age of 2 because they don't need the fat content."  However, others assert that whole Milk isn't the problem some would like to make it out to be when it comes to childhood obesity.  Despite the lack of a clear consensus on the science, the bill being considered is seen as a strict one.  The European Journal of Nutrition claimed that high-fat dairy was actually linked to a lower risk of obesity, not a higher one.

Proposed ban on whole milk: When lawmakers get nutrition and diet all wrong.  A new bill making its way through the Connecticut legislature would ban daycare centers and home childcare providers from serving whole milk or 2% milk to the kids in their care.  Setting aside for a moment the sheer lunacy of the proposed law's premise, I'd like to point out that it's also based on an incredibly faulty understanding of nutrition.  I rarely drink dairy, but when I do I reach for whole or 2% milk before skim or nonfat varieties.  Whole milk is the least processed.

Where will calorie labels appear?  Not just menus Diners could soon see calorie counts on the menus of chain restaurants.  But will they be able to get that same clear information at grocery stores, convenience stores, movie theaters or airplanes?

Michelle Obama's Favorite Food: Pizza and Fries.  First lady Michelle Obama told children at the White House's Annual Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day on Thursday [4/24/2014] that her favorite healthy food was pizza and her favorite junk food was French fries.  "So I'm gonna give you my favorite healthy thing to eat, which actually is my favorite thing to eat — pizza.  Yes, but usually when I have pizza — alright don't get mad at me — I do veggie pizzas," she said in response to a question about her favorite food.

Washington Elite Nutritionist Goes After Bubba Watson For Celebrating Masters Win at Waffle House.  After his Masters victory, pro golfer Bubba Watson celebrated with his family at a Waffle House.  Pictures tweeted from there went viral.  Waffle House appreciated the appreciation.  What's not to like about this great story?  Apparently some self-appointed nanny state-loving guardians of nutrition like Katherine Tallmadge believe that Watson set a bad example for Americans by eating there.  Oh, and with her powers of telepathy, she just knows that Watson's a complete phony about what he really eats.

Meal Sickens People at Food Safety Summit.  Maryland health officials are investigating possible cases of food poisoning at what may be the worst-ever venue — a gathering of government and industry leaders attending a national Food Safety Summit.  At least four people called the Baltimore City Health Department this week to report that they developed diarrhea, nausea and other symptoms about 12 hours after eating a meal April 9 during the conference at the Baltimore Convention Center.

ObamaCare coming to vending machines, next to the chips and nuts.  It's already disrupted the health-care marketplace.  Now, the Affordable Care Act is infiltrating vending machines.  Yep, a provision in the Affordable Care Act requires vending machines to display the calorie content of all food items.  The FDA finalized the regulations April 3.  If you know the calorie content of an item, you might make a more healthy choice.  Or so the thinking goes.

Texas Students Launch Movement to Stand Up to FLOTUS Over School Lunch.  Students are fed up with the meager portion sizes and bland taste of Michelle Obama-mandated school lunches. [...] The Healthy, Hunger-free Kids Act has been in effect for a few years now.  Yet, it seems to have done just the opposite of its stated intent.  Kids aren't getting enough to eat thanks to the law's stringent requirements; others are skipping lunch altogether because it tastes so bad.  What's more, obesity among school-aged children is still on the rise.

Feds to Ban Junk Food in Schools.  The government is putting its (big) foot down.  No more junk food in schools.

Michelle Obama's Food Program Is Non-Nutritious Waste Of Money.  The $12 billion federal student lunch program, which serves 30.7 million kids, is losing participants fast — more than a million just last year, according to a recent Government Accountability Office report.  The reason:  the first lady's Healthy Hunger-free Kids Act, an act that has accomplished exactly the opposite of what it claimed it would — leaving hungry, angry, disgusted kids and dumpsters full of wasted food.  Kids have taken to Twitter to post photographs of the wretched results of the new federal guidelines that any school participating in the National School Lunch Program must follow to comply with the government-knows-best program for nutrition.

If you're fat, stand-by for federal text messages to change your eating habits.  The federal Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee — these are the folks who brought us the carb-heavy food pyramid now deemed erroneous — is meeting these days to update nutritional guidelines to conform with new scientific evidence and with the determination of First Lady Michelle Obama to change America's eating habits.  Among new ideas under consideration are federal phone texts to obese citizens warning of their unhealthy eating behavior.  Seriously.

USDA to Grandparents: Read Government Bedtime Stories to Encourage Healthy Eating.  The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is giving advice to grandparents on how they can get their grandkids to eat healthier, including instructions to give them "hugs" instead of treats, and read government bedtime stories.  "Take time to share and listen to your grandchild — the time you spend together offers wonderful opportunities to understand one another," a USDA blog post entitled, "Grandparents Help Kids Develop Good Eating Habits," said on Monday [3/31/2014].

Why are Ivory Tower types in charge of food choices for millions of Americans?  Frank Hu, professor of Nutrition and Epidemiology at Harvard School of Public Health and professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, a noted critic of meat, proclaimed in 2012 that "we should switch from a red-meat based diet to a plant-based diet," which delighted vegan-advocacy groups but didn't make much of an impression on the rest of the population.  But now Hu is one of 15 lifelong academics who have set the federal government's official dietary guidelines which will determine how much meat (and other foods) children, soldiers and thousands of others will have access to.  Unfortunately, many of these professors seem to have an agenda that reaches far beyond sound food science.

Study Questions Fat and Heart Disease Link.  For decades, health officials have urged the public to avoid saturated fat as much as possible, saying it should be replaced with the unsaturated fats in foods like nuts, fish, seeds and vegetable oils.  But the new research, published on Monday [3/17/2014] in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine, did not find that people who ate higher levels of saturated fat had more heart disease than those who ate less. Nor did it find less disease in those eating higher amounts of unsaturated fat, including monounsaturated fat like olive oil or polyunsaturated fat like corn oil.

A plunge in US preschool obesity? Not so fast, experts say.  If the news last month that the prevalence of obesity among American preschoolers had plunged 43 percent in a decade sounded too good to be true, that's because it probably was, researchers say.

Michelle Obama Throwing Food onto Global Warming List.  With most public focus on her husband's stridently anti-American policies, unelected Michelle Obama, has found her way into peoples' homes by surreptitiously adding the everyday food the masses eat to the Global Warming list.  It should go without saying that who ever controls the food and water supply controls the entire population.  Making the food supply subject to Global Warming through new dietary guidelines to be mandated by Congress is the latest move for control by the Obama regime.

Meet the Radicals Creating the New Federal Dietary Guidelines.  The federal committee crafting the 2015 "Dietary Guidelines for Americans" features radical nutritionists who favor Americans moving to "plant-based" diets and a vice chair that laughs about sending Ronald McDonald to the guillotine.  The Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee (DGAC) is responsible for creating new nutrition standards that are used to create policy at the federal level.  The committee will meet for the third time on Friday, and though the group has not yet released an agenda, past meetings have heavily focused on climate change.

Obama administration pollutes guidelines for healthy eating with unhealthy ideologies.  When "Big Food" and "Big Food Police" congratulate each other for coming together with the White House, as they did when new food nutrition labels were unveiled last week, consumers and small businesses should be very nervous.  But the controversial new labels are small potatoes compared to what the Obama administration is now cooking up.  At a closed-door meeting Friday [3/14/2014], administration officials and their advisers will plot to insert the global warming agenda into dietary guidelines mandated by Congress.

Supermarket alert: Michelle Obama on the nutrition label.  Michelle Obama's feigned concern that nutrition labels on food packages make grocery shopping a difficult and trying experience for the moms of America, is no different than her televised dancing gig with giant anthropomorphic vegetables that kicked off the fourth anniversary of her 'Let's Move' campaign on Jimmy Fallon's all too accommodating The Tonight Show.

First lady Michelle Obama thinks you're too dumb to read a nutrition label.  First lady Michelle Obama unveiled a proposed new nutrition label Thursday, claiming the labels would make it easier for families to tell whether food is healthy.  Because math is hard, or something.  If your "nanny-state" radar is going off, it should.

Michelle Obama: America's Moms Are 'Confused and Bewildered,' 'Defeated' by Grocery Shopping.  Apparently it's not the price of the groceries, but the nutrition labels on food packages that make grocery shopping such a difficult and trying experience for the moms of America.  In pitching new, improved nutrition labels at the White House on Thursday, first lady Michelle Obama tried to identify with women who do the grocery shopping for their families.

Michelle Obama's Childhood-Obesity Myth.  A decade-long drumbeat of bad news about childhood obesity is now officially wrong.  Michelle Obama is wrong, too.  America is not in the grip of a childhood-obesity epidemic and, consequently, the first lady's much-ballyhooed anti-obesity strategy is redundant, at best.

Food Labels Set for New Look.  Nutritional labels have remained essentially unchanged since 1994, except for an addition in 2006 of heart-risky trans fats, which appear in some prepared baked goods and microwave popcorn but have been phased out by many companies in recent years.

Federal rules will reportedly limit marketing unhealthy food in schools.  [Scroll down]  That means a scoreboard at a high school football or basketball game eventually wouldn't be allowed to advertise Coca-Cola, for example, but it could advertise Diet Coke or Dasani water, which is also owned by Coca-Cola Co.

Marketing is an even mixture of free speech and capitalism, and she apparently opposes both.
Michelle Obama pushes ban on marketing junk food in schools.  First lady Michelle Obama on Tuesday [2/25/2014] called for the federal government to end the marketing of junk foods in schools, a proposal that would eliminate vending machines advertising soda and other promotional material for items not deemed healthy.  "The idea here is simple — our classrooms should be healthy places where kids aren't bombarded with ads for junk food," the first lady said in an announcement.  "Because when parents are working hard to teach their kids healthy habits at home, their work shouldn't be undone by unhealthy messages at school."

The Editor says...
If the children are taught by their  parents  unwed mothers to make sensible choices, it won't matter what products are offered at school.  If there had been cigarette vending machines in the schools I attended, I still wouldn't have started smoking, and I suspect only the kids whose parents were smokers would have given it any consideration.  Come to think of it, there might have been a cigarette machine in the teachers' lounge when I was in Junior High.  The teachers smoked like locomotives, but only when they thought they were out of sight.  The issue here is junk food, which is something to be avoided, but even so, it's almost completely harmless.

Uproar over ObamaCare's menu rules.  The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is close to finalizing a rule requiring calorie labels on vending machines and at restaurants and "similar retail food establishments."  Proposed in 2011, the regulations stem from the Affordable Care Act and are designed to combat obesity by helping consumers make healthier choices.  But [a] group of 24 lawmakers said the draft regulations, which apply to restaurants with 20 or more locations, go beyond Congress' intent and would create painful new expenses for certain businesses, including delivery joints and eateries that specialize in made-to-order dishes

Trial Lawyers Line Up Their Next Target: Big Food.  When lawyers were shaking down the tobacco industry in the 1990's, it was clear that it was just a matter of when they'd loot again.  The only question was who would be the next mark.  That picture is clearing up.

California bill would require warning labels on sugary drinks.  A California state senator wants to make his state the first in the nation to require warning labels on soda and other sugary drinks, a proposal called "misleading" by beverage industry officials.  Democratic Sen. William Monning's bill proposed Thursday would require the warning on the front of all beverage containers with added sweeteners that have 75 or more calories in every 12 ounces.

All Mrs. Obama's calories.  That was some spread Barack and Michelle Obama put out the other night for François Hollande — a feast fit for the leader of a nation that gave the world haute cuisine.  Even so, it has one Republican congressman steaming.  Illinois Rep. Rodney Davis wants to know what example the White House is setting with a 2,500-calorie dinner (with 153 grams of fat to boot).  Because that's a day's worth of calories the USDA recommends for an average man.  And it's three times the calories the USDA allows American students in the school lunch program.

Obama's state dinner for France: Let them eat beef, caviar, fudge and cotton candy.  Tuesday's state dinner was the usual self-indulgent Washington lavishness oblivious to the unemployed, food-stamped lives of millions of back-country Americans.  The 350 strutting attendees playing dress-up were a combination of Obama cronies, B-level Hollywood types, media, campaign bundlers and assorted beltway politicos who can consider themselves D.C. royalty until Jan. 20, 2017.  They were over-fed and entertained in what passes for the Palace of Versailles in Washington, a heated tent on the White House lawn decorated like a Monet spring painting.

When Socialists gorge at the White House.  Obesity isn't a factor when it's dinner for poo-bahs and not for school cafeteria menus.

Sacrebleu! Obamas to serve gut-busting 2,500-calorie state dinner for Hollande.  Rep. Rodney Davis, Illinois Republican and a critic of the administration's school-lunch requirements, called the high-calorie State Dinner menu "the height of hypocrisy." "Even if you're estimating a small cut of steak, this is a menu where you're talking 2,500 calories, which is almost three times as much as what the first lady and the USDA allow our school kids to eat in the school lunch program," Mr. Davis said.

'Food desert' fallacy shocks liberals.  It turns out that you can bring produce sections to poor neighborhoods, but you can't get poor people to eat healthier food.  This comes as a shock to liberals who believe in the comprehensive theory of victimology — that all problems afflicting people who fall into ethnic, sexual, or other identities regarded as victims are due to external factors, not to their own choices.

Bad News for Obama's Antiobesity Effort.  With the obesity epidemic in full swing and millions of American living in neighborhoods where fruits and vegetables are hard to come by, the Obama administration thought it saw a solution:  fund stores that will stock fresh, affordable produce in these deprived areas.  But now, three years and $500 million into the federal Healthy Food Financing Initiative, there's a problem:  A study suggests it's not working.

Health groups call on fast-food to drop soda from kids' menu.  Health organizations and U.S. nutrition experts say they are calling on fast-food restaurant chains to take sugary drinks off their children's menus.

Glove law has many chefs steamed.  For decades, Toshiaki Toyoshima has followed the same ritual each morning at his downtown restaurant:  He ties on his indigo happi — a short-sleeved Japanese chef's jacket — and dons a white cap before he begins cutting fish for nearly 500 customers who dine at Sushi Gen daily.  But in January, Toyoshima's tradition-bound routine was upset.  He had to add a step:  A new law now forces him to snap on a pair of thin vinyl gloves before he can touch the fish.

Congress wants more potatoes in gov't program.  Lawmakers are encouraging the agriculture secretary to allow low-income pregnant and nursing mothers to buy white potatoes with the vouchers they receive as part of a government program.

Fifty States of Obamacare Confusion, Stress, and Aggravation.  No matter where you live in the United States, Obamacare is causing headaches, stress, and aggravation for someone near you.  In New Hampshire, vending-machine manufacturers are gasping at the new law's requirements that calorie information be displayed on roughly 5 million vending machines — not just on the packaging of the food inside, but on the vending machine itself: [...]

Portion control — how the government plans to dictate what's on your dinner table in 2014.  Would you rather sip on unpasteurized milk or a cold glass of soda? Do you prefer Saturday lunch at a fast food joint or a farmers market?  Regardless of your choices, your food freedom — your right to grow, raise, produce, buy, sell, share, cook, eat, and drink the foods you want — is under attack.

Health law to put calorie info on vending machines.  Office workers in search of snacks will be counting calories along with their change under new labeling regulations for vending machines included in President Barack Obama's health care overhaul law.

High-Fructose Corn Syrup: Separating Myths from Facts.  Since the 1970s, the use of high-fructose corn syrup in the U.S. food supply has increased dramatically — typically as a replacement for sucrose (table sugar) in soft drinks and many food products.  The prevalence of obesity has also increased substantially between the 1970s and the early 2000s.  Because of this coincidental timing, HFCS has been erroneously demonized as a unique cause of the obesity epidemic in the United States.  Sucrose and HFCS have essentially the same composition, and thus it would be highly unlikely for them to have different effects on body weight or metabolism.

Mom who baked cookies for school bus riders for 15 years shut down by [one anonymous] complaint.  She received a phone call from the school this week telling her someone had complained and that she should cease and desist the dispensing of cookies.

President Obama has nine different types of pie for White House Thanksgiving dinner.  President Barack Obama is celebrating Thanksgiving with a quiet family dinner at the White House — where he will be feasting on a choice of nine pies.

The Top 10 Unfounded Health Scares of 2012.  [#6] Caramel coloring in Coke: A caramel coloring ingredient found in sodas, 4-methylimidazole (4-MI or 4-MEI), was labeled as a carcinogen under California's ridiculous Proposition 65.  This chemical has been under attack previously by the same Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), which is bringing it to the forefront again. [...] The doses of 4-MI necessary to kill rodents are so high, that this chemical should not have been attacked in the first place.  Although the soda industry is reformulating products, the previous recipe with 4-MI does not pose a risk to humans and this scare was simply blown out of proportion by the "food police" at CSPI.

New survey: Despite Michelle Obama, Americans are eating less healthy.  According to the Obama White House, the first family consumed a Thanksgiving dinner of turkey, honey-baked ham, cornbread stuffing, oyster stuffing, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, greens, green bean casserole, dinner rolls and macaroni and cheese.  Then, the family washed all that down with nine kinds of pies:  huckleberry, pecan, sweet potato, peach, apple, pumpkin, banana cream, coconut cream and chocolate cream.

America after Obama.  Obama has substantially enlarged the American "nanny state."  Government regulates more and more of our daily lives, and the central authority's control of even minuscule facets of our existence has been greatly expanded.  Consider, for example, the Food and Drug Administration's recent decision to ban polyunsaturated fats, claiming they constitute health risks.  First, where in the Constitution is the central government given such authority?  Second, the scientific evidence for the claim that transfats are harmful is dubious, at best.  Remember when we were told that polyunsaturated fats were safe to consume?

America once banned slavery and segregation; now it bans trans fats and light bulbs.  The fallacy of the nanny state lies not only in its lack of limiting principles, but in its false choice between liberty and security.  For the past few years, after the atrocious nature of trans fats had been made a national obsession, both consumers and businesses in the United States began taking steps to avoid them, without state intervention.  (New York City, being New York City, banned them in restaurants.)  Many packages now proudly bear the label of "no trans fats", and informed citizens boast of their hatred of partially hydrogenated molecules.  Freedom responded and provided its own form of security:  knowledge.  And yet for the past week I have read reports that the US Food and Drug Administration will ban trans fats.  Can the state not see that freedom has rendered it unnecessary on this one?

First Crony Michelle Obama's Big Business Bonanza.  On Wednesday, Mrs. Obama announced an agreement by the Sesame Workshop and the Produce Marketing Association (PMA) to join her nonprofit Partnership for a Healthier America (PHA) in a two-year agreement to help promote fresh fruit and vegetable consumption to kids. [...] Joining her for the rollout of that initiative:  Hollywood actress Eva Longoria, who gets paid to promote sugary soda pop Pepsi when she's not standing by Michelle Obama telling the rest of us to drink more healthy water.  Mrs. Obama's nonprofit reportedly has assets of $4.5 million.  It doesn't have to disclose its donors.  So much for the "most transparent administration ever."

PBS helps to peddle White House propaganda:
First lady enlists Sesame Street to promote healthy eating.  Sesame Street's Elmo and Rosita joined Michelle Obama at the White House on Wednesday [10/30/2013] to announce that the [M]uppets would start promoting fruit and vegetable consumption for kids.  And companies will be able to use the beloved characters for free.  "Just imagine what will happen when we take our kids to the grocery store, and they see Elmo and Rosita and the other Sesame Street Muppets they love up and down the produce aisle," [Mrs.] Obama said.  "Imagine what it will be like to have our kids begging us to buy them fruits and vegetables instead of cookies, candy and chips."

The Editor says...
Popeye used to squeeze open a can of spinach and practically inhale the contents, just before the violent conclusion of each of his cartoons.  So when I was six years old, I really wanted to eat raw spinach and hope for the same results.  But after tasting it only once, I went back to ice cream and candy.  The so-called first lady apparently wants us to believe that young people choose snacks based on the packaging rather than the taste.  She fails to understand that we are not idiots.

Obama spends shutdown day making sandwiches with processed meat, white bread and peanut butter and jelly.  Somebody might be in a little trouble on the home-front.  President Barack Obama took a break from sorting out the shutdown of the federal government on Monday to make sandwiches for low-income and homeless families.  Nobody would argue that feeding the homeless is a noble cause.  However, the president's wife might not be too thrilled with what was on the menu.

The irony of Michelle Obama's water campaign.  If you're not dehydrated, drinking more water won't give you more energy or cure your headaches, as her office vaguely claims.  But it might take up belly space that otherwise would have gone to grape soda, Red Bull or some other sugary concoction.  Team Michelle won't admit this is the real agenda, insisting this is just a healthy, helpful reminder from the first lady.

Germany, 'Veggie Day,' and Michelle Obama.  Germans don't want the government telling them what to eat.  In what could be a cautionary tale for First Lady Michelle Obama's efforts to tweak Americans' diets, Germans look set to punish the Green Party for urging that public cafeterias go meat-free on a designated "Veggie Day" each week in order to help the environment and reduce cruelty to animals.  Borrowing colorfully from English, German newspaper Bild described public reaction to the idea as a "s***storm."

USDA Claims Highly Criticized Lunch Standards are 'Proving Popular'.  The USDA video claims that the "vast majority of schools across the country report having successfully implemented the new school standards.  However, numerous news reports from across the country in recent months show many schools are having trouble implementing the rules.  Additionally, districts are dropping out of the program due to financial burdens and kids' distaste for new menus finds the healthier food in the trash.  "They say it tastes like vomit," one Harlan County, Ky. school board member said at a meeting last month, according to the Daily Mail.  A group serving 12 districts in New York said implementing the standards was a "disaster."

Food Security Junk Science.  With the release of the USDA's latest report on household food security in the United States, we get another example of junk science, government largesse, and a social engineering Trojan horse. [...] Apparently, "children were food insecure at times during the year in 10.0 percent of households with children.  These 3.9 million households were unable at times during the year to provide adequate, nutritious food for their children."  Where does this data come from?  Unaudited voluntary population surveys.  This means the underlying data cannot be verified and may be subject to significant bias.

Punishment for Gluttons.  Gluttony makes you fat, and the New York Times is ON IT.  The other day columnist Frank Bruni made an anthropological excursion to Costco, "where they sell cashews by the quarter-ton [and] thousand-piece packs of chicken thighs."  These sound to us like overestimates, leading us to suspect Bruni is a very small man. [...] Come to think of it, the Costco complaint is a non sequitur.  After all, those massive packages of nuts or chicken aren't portions but ingredients, sold in bulk for storage and subsequent gradual use.

Michelle Obama to urge companies to stop marketing unhealthy foods to kids.  Michelle Obama on Wednesday will urge companies to stop marketing unhealthy food choices to children.  The first lady will ask food and media executives to promote healthy choices while decreasing the marketing of unhealthy products to kids, according to a White House notice about the event.  The move could prove politically controversial, as Obama has come under fire from conservatives who charge the first lady is trying to dictate what people eat and drink.

The Editor says...
Michelle Obama couldn't care less about nutrition.  Her goal is to decrease "the marketing of unhealthy products to kids."  Marketing and advertising.  Her apparent goal, and certainly her husband's goal, is the destruction of capitalism.

Michelle Obama targets cartoon characters in junk food ads.  Michelle Obama on Wednesday urged businesses not to allow their cartoon characters to be used to market unhealthy food to kids, saying firms can make money encouraging kids to eat well.  "The fact is that marketing nutritious foods to our kids isn't just good for our kids' health, it can be good for a company's bottom line," she said Wednesday [9/18/2013] at a White House conference on marketing.

The Editor says...
See?  It was "a White House conference on marketing."  Not a conference on nutrition.  Marketing.  Capitalism appears to be Michelle Obama's enemy.

Michelle Obama to splash media with new issue: Drink more water.  After 4½ years of reminding Americans to eat their vegetables, Michelle Obama is turning her attention to what's in their glasses.  On Thursday [9/12/2013], she and her staff will begin to ask Americans to drink more water.

Michelle Obama turns her 'Let's Move!' health drive to 'Let's Drink!' (water).  Numerous companies like Brita, Dasani, Arrowhead, Deer Park, Ice Mountain, Zephyrhills, Ozarka and Poland Spring are joining in with logos and promotions to help out the water-drinking campaign for some reason.  Trying to figure out what they have in common.

Michelle Obama's water torture.  Just when you thought the Nanny State couldn't get anymore drunk with patronizing power over people, along comes Michelle Obama with a most urgent plea: Make sure you drink water!  Who knew?!  Apparently we now need the government to tell us to do the most basic of things. [...] It would not surprise me to see the First Lady begin to offer advice on how to dress ourselves.

Is Michelle Obama over-hyping hydration?  While water is inarguably essential to our long-term health (people do tend to die after a few days without it), the first lady may be going too far in touting the energy-giving properties of H20.  "The idea [that] drinking water increases energy, the word I've used to describe it is:  quixotic," kidney specialist Dr Stanley Goldfarb of the University of Pennsylvania told Politico.  Beyond hydration, he said, there's little evidence that water does anything for us at all.

Michelle Obama Launches Courageous New Program Urging People To Drink Water.  If there's one thing a country facing trillions of dollars in debt needs, it's a taxpayer funded campaign reminding people to drink water.

Michelle Obama and Other Hydration-Related Issues.  It used to be when a person felt hungry, they ate, and when their God-given internal water gauge indicated they were running low, they drank.  That's the old way.  Now we have Michelle Obama spending her time "nudging" us away from the soda aisle toward the water fountain.

U.S. Failed to Reduce 'Food Insecurity' Despite Spending Billions More.  Despite a $6 billion increase in food assistance spending, there was no reduction in the number of American households that are "food insecure," according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).  The USDA says its food programs "increase food security."  However, the agency's spending through the Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) increased by $6.4 billion from 2011 to 2012 with no statistically significant change in the level of food insecurity.

Kentucky students to first lady Michelle Obama: Your food 'tastes like vomit'.  Students in a rural Kentucky county — and their parents — are the latest to join a growing national chorus of scorn for the healthy school lunches touted by first lady Michelle Obama.  "They say it tastes like vomit," said Harlan County Public Schools board member Myra Mosley at a contentious board meeting last week, reports The Harlan Daily Enterprise.

ObamaCare and the Food Police.  The restaurant industry is extremely competitive.  If consumers demand menu labeling, restaurants will meet that demand.  In fact, many restaurants already do provide nutritional labeling.  But private solutions aren't enough for menu labeling proponents.  The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which is implementing the menu labeling requirement, tries to justify its rule by claiming that the public (poor fools) are misinformed and simply don't request "sufficient" information.

Why Did a Tennessee Grade School Ban Pork?  A Tennessee elementary school banned students from eating ham sandwiches, BLT's and anything else made with pork, but eventually lifted the ban after parents complained. [...] "No meats containing pork," read the memorandum.  "Starting Monday, August 12, 2013 your child must provide their own snack from the above approved snack list." Kids could nosh on raw vegetables without dips or sauces, fresh fruit, crackers, pretzels, and popcorn — but no ribs or pork rinds.

The Editor says...
The ban was quickly lifted, but don't ever forget that they tried to impose Islamic (halal) restrictions on food that the kids were bringing from their homes!  Even the Food Police have never been so brazen, but the Muslims are, and I suspect that's who is at the root of this ill-conceived order.

Obama lunches on fried shrimp, fried oysters, onion rings, french fries.  It's only been three days, but President Obama has quickly settled into the vacation diet on Martha's Vineyard.  But don't tell the first lady.  During a rainy day on Tuesday, he traveled to Nancy's in scenic Oak Bluffs for a fried lunch. According to the pool report:  "POTUS's food order at Nancy's was fried shrimp, fried oysters, onion rings and french fries."  Obviously not on the lunch trip was first lady Michelle Obama, the first family's fitness buff.

Pizza Chains Suffer Under Obamacare's Third Most Onerous Regulation.  The Obama administration's massive federal power grab has the National Restaurant Association (NRA) — and the American Pizza Community (APC) — feeling something of buyer's remorse for their part in lobbying for Section 4205, which is an onerous regulation that calls for restaurant chains with more than twenty locations to label their menus with nutritional information.  For example, it's going to cost each Domino's location around $5,000 a year.  There are 5,000 locations.  You do the math.  It's also sucked in convenience and grocery stores into this maelstrom of government idiocy.

A "Nudge" To Tyranny.  In a bid to make Americans do "what's good for them," Obama administration social engineers have come up with a "Nudge" program to manipulate public choices.  This won't end well. [...] First, the government hasn't a clue as to what's good for the public.  To take one example, take a look at the food pyramid still promoted by the Agriculture Department — a high-carbohydrate recipe that claims to offer a healthy diet.  Studies show that carbs cause obesity, but the government still pushes its old message — which is a guaranteed way to gain weight.  Second, it's doubtful this plan will remain just about heathy diet choices.

Bloomberg's ban on big sodas is unconstitutional: appeals court.  New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's controversial plan to keep large sugary drinks out of restaurants and other eateries was rejected by a state appeals court on Tuesday, which said he had overstepped his authority in trying to impose the ban.

Appeals court strikes down NYC's big-soda ban.  An appeals court ruled Tuesday [7/30/2013] that New York City's Board of Health exceeded its legal authority and acted unconstitutionally when it tried to put a size limit on soft drinks served in city restaurants.

Killer salt and other 'scientific' disasters.  Some of you probably missed it, but the Centers for Disease Control announced earlier this month that consuming reasonable amounts of salt is not dangerous at all, despite decades of "science" claiming that salting up your steak and potatoes was tantamount to a death sentence. [...] In fact, the CDC has concluded that everyone ought to be eating between 1½ and 3 teaspoons of salt per day.  If you have been eating less than a teaspoon of salt a day, you may in fact be harming yourself.

Food Nannies Won't Be Stopped By Shoddy Science.  The Food and Drug Administration has begun to look at regulating the amount of salt in "processed" foods, and they're being cheered on by progressives.  ThinkProgress' health reporter Sy Mukherjee asked "why can't the FDA do more to crack down on these additives?", and lamented that foods generally recognized as safe cannot be so easily controlled by regulatory fiat.  Media Matters noted the "positive effects" from diets with reduced salt and said that those who disagreed with FDA regulations are waging a "war on health."

Calorie labels on menus don't persuade diners to make healthier food choices: study.  Researchers from Carnegie Mellon University found that calorie information and recommendations didn't impact the behavior of McDonald's customers, and many still ordered meals that exceeded the recommended number of calories.

President Obama tells kids his favorite food is broccoli.  President Barack Obama made an unscheduled visit on Tuesday to the second annual Kids' State Dinner, a healthy lunch children's event hosted by first lady Michelle Obama in the East Room of the White House.  The president greeted the 54 kid guests and made a few brief remarks.

Obama draws scorn — over broccoli.  President Obama told a student reporter this week that his favorite food is broccoli — news that has drawn its fair share of skepticism, at least on Twitter.  "Obama tells kid journalist his favorite food is broccoli.  And his favorite activity is lying to children," scoffed Comedy Central's Indecision blog in a tweet.

New federal rules require healthier school snacks.  Candy bars, doughnuts and regular potato chips will become scarce in schools under new federal rules released Thursday, replaced by healthier options such as granola bars, trail mix and baked chips.  The U.S. Department of Agriculture's new "Smart Snacks in School" nutrition standards represent the first nutritional overhaul of school snacks in more than 30 years.

New rules make school a junk food-free zone.  High-calorie sports drinks and candy bars will be removed from school vending machines and cafeteria lines as soon as next year, replaced with diet drinks, granola bars and other healthier items.

After 4 years of Michelle's anti-obesity campaign, America is still getting fatter.  Despite first lady Michelle Obama's four-year campaign to wean the nation off Big Macs and Big Gulps, obesity in America rose last year, continuing an unbroken 15-year streak, according to new figures from the Centers for Disease Control.  In an early release of some data in its 2012 National Health Interview Survey, the CDC said that 28.9 percent of adults are obese, a small but significant jump from 28.7 percent in 2011.  Officials were hoping that 2012 would snap the trend.

'There Isn't Enough Fresh Produce' for Everyone to Follow Dietary Guidelines.  Although the world is still "very far" from meeting the recommended daily intake of healthy foods, if everyone suddenly did follow those guidelines, there wouldn't be enough of the recommended food to go around, says one of the 15 experts appointed to serve on the 2015 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee.

Grocers object to Obama calorie requirements under health care law.  Another group is objecting to another part of President Obama's new health care law:  Grocers.  "The lobbyist for grocers including Kroger Co. and Safeway Inc. is calling on President Barack Obama to curtail a U.S. health law provision that mandates the companies display the calorie content of all their foods," reports Bloomberg News.

The use of textbooks as propaganda tools:
Michelle O Wants Textbooks to 'Swap Cupcakes for Apples' in Math Problems.  First Lady Michelle Obama's "Let's Move!" initiative is praising textbook publishers for "swapping out cupcakes for apples in math problems," in a campaign to incorporate health information into the learning resources for kids.  "Today at the White House, we celebrated a group of educational publishers on their development of voluntary guidance to incorporate health information into textbooks and other learning materials," Let's Move! said in a blog post entitled, "Cookies 2 Carrots," on Wednesday.

[NY] City Education Department cracking down on school kitchens' use of butter.  Butter was exiled from school cafeterias as far back 2008 in an effort to make meals healthier.  But some school kitchen managers say they are being 'bullied' on how to prepare meals and threatened with 'disciplinary action' should they go against the ban.

The Candy Man Can't.  A soda fountain in St. Paul may be fined $500 by city inspectors for selling candy cigarettes.  Lynden's Soda Fountain opened a few months ago but was recently warned it was violating the city's ban on candy cigarettes, passed in 2009.  It said it won't keep selling the candy cigarettes or bubblegum cigars, but it is promoting the incident.  "Stop in and try a Soda at half price between now and the end of the year while sugar is still legal!" the store stated in a Facebook post.

Miami code enforcement to nuns: Stop feeding the poor.
Mother Teresa's Miami soup kitchen harassed by the powerful.  Thirty-three years ago, Mother Teresa of Calcutta came to Miami to put her merciful motto of love into action:  "To serve the poorest of the poor."  Since then, each morning a group of sisters of the congregation of the Missionaries of Charity, donning their distinctive white blue-bordered saris, passes through the gates of their beloved Overtown convent — where they live without air conditioning, washing machines or television — and cross the street to enter the world of the poor:  a soup kitchen founded by Mother Teresa.

The Skinny on Anti-Obesity Soda Laws.  New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg's anti-obesity campaign to ban the sale of certain sugary drinks in large servings, especially sodas, was struck down last month in state court. [...] Yet Mayor Bloomberg has vowed to fight on, and the wider government war on obesity shows no sign of abating.  Municipalities and states continue to target sodas.  In February, a bill to levy a penny-per-ounce tax was introduced in California.  Politicians and the media like to portray anti-obesity efforts as a battle against a food-industry conspiracy to make America fat.

Stupid Food and Drink Bans.  Anyone, any city, and any governing body that passes laws to ban what you eat and drink has not read the U.S. Constitution.  There is nothing in there granting them the power to decide what you eat and how much.

NYPD Food Felonies Unit to Help Make Better Food Choices.  Inspired by the dramatic improvements in New Yorkers' health and well-being after he banned smoking and junk food, as well as large sodas, salt, trans fats, Styrofoam food containers, and loud earbuds, Mayor Michael Bloomberg has announced that the NYPD is organizing a Food Felonies Unit (FFU) to further combat the proliferation of food crimes.

Smoke Gets in Your Rights.  One politician thinks he has the right to tell New Yorkers what they can put in their stomachs.  Another thinks he has the right to outlaw Californians smoking in the sanctity of their own homes.  These two must think they are gods or kings.  Or dictators.  They know what's best for you, so they feel free to force you to behave — for your own good.

Administration Unleashes Food Police on the U.S. Military.  U.S. military bases are traditionally outfitted with some of the comforts of home — including comfort food.  The naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for example, has McDonald's, KFC, Starbucks, Subway, an Irish pub with notorious fried pickles, and multiple bars.  Now, the food police are closing in at the Department of Defense, with similar language that preceded school menu crackdowns.

$1.8M Federal Grant Helped D.C. Make Fruits and Vegetables Available at Work.  The municipal government of Washington, D.C. received a $1.8 million federal Community Transformation Grant in 2012 to promote healthy lifestyles in the city.  Among the things the city would do with the money, as listed on its application, was increasing the "availability of fruit and vegetables to employees in their workplaces."

It Took A Judge, But NYC's Soda Nazi Is Stopped Flat.  In a ruling stunning in its strong language and moral censure, Judge Milton Tingling struck down the Big Apple's infamous ban on large sugary soft drinks on the brink of its implementation.  The judge declared Mayor Mike "Big Gulp" Bloomberg's soda diktat "unconstitutional," "arbitrary and capricious," and said it "would create an administrative Leviathan and violate the separation of powers doctrine."

Bloomberg's Soda Folly.  New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg's ban on large-size sugary drinks at certain establishments, colloquially known as the soda ban, is a lesson in how to make your cause look ridiculous.  Bloomberg hoped the ban would spark a nationwide crackdown on sugary beverages.  Instead, it became the subject of widespread mockery [...]

What if New York's Nanny Is Actually a Thug?  What if a dictator in America used the force of law to tell you what to eat?  What if the same dictator told you what to drink?  What if the dictator told you the sizes of the containers in which you could purchase a lawful beverage?  What if the dictator just made up the rules according to his own personal taste?  What if the product he regulated was lawful, sold nearly everywhere and consumed by nearly everyone?

Soda Ban and the Government Leviathan.  In recent decades, the judiciary has been at the forefront of efforts to expand the power of government and to restrict the rights of the individual citizen.  But today at least one judge has struck a blow against the nanny state and its billionaire advocate.

Fact check: Bloomberg claims more people die of obesity than hunger.  The Red Cross estimates there were 1.5 billion dangerously overweight people worldwide last year, while 925 million were underfed.  The numbers on actual deaths seem to suggest hunger is still more deadly, though.  The United Nations estimated last year 25,000 people still die of hunger daily.  That means more than 9.1 million people die of hunger every year.

The Editor says...
Whether people die of hunger, obesity, cancer, or old age, it is not the government's responsibility to dictate our diet.

Judge halts mayor's soda ban, calls it 'arbitrary and capricious'.  A state judge today [3/11/2013] put a cork in City Hall's plans to ban Big Apple restaurants and other venues from selling large sugary drinks — a bubble-bursting defeat for Mayor Bloomberg, who has made public health a cornerstone of his tenure.

Bloomberg's soda ban prohibits 2-liter bottles with your pizza and some nightclub mixers.  Say goodbye to that 2-liter bottle of Coke with your pizza delivery, pitchers of soft drinks at your kid's birthday party and some bottle-service mixers at your favorite nightclub.  They'd violate Mayor Bloomberg's new rules, which prohibit eateries from serving or selling sugary drinks in containers larger than 16 ounces.

All is forbidden.  Meat's bad.  Fish, mercury.  Coffee, unhealthy.  Cheese, fattening.  Spinach, unclean.  Tuna needs p.r.  Canned soup, too much sodium.  Pastrami, too many calories.  Chicken, too little regulation.  Eggs, eat only the white part.  Salad, wash thoroughly.  Rice should be brown.  Pasta should be wheat.

New York City's Imperial Mayor Bloomberg Bans Again.  Still pulsing with the power from outlawing big servings of sweet drinks, Michael Bloomberg now wants to run Styrofoam out of his city.  Clearly, he believes that everyone has to live exactly as he wants them to live.  During Thursday's State of the City address, New York Mayor Bloomberg called for a ban on Styrofoam food packaging.  It's all a part of his crusade to eliminate smoking, sugary drinks, salt and other items he doesn't like — and, hence, thinks no one else should have.

Bloomberg Cajoles 21 Companies to Remove Salt from Products.  On Monday, February 11, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced that he had succeeded in cajoling 21 companies to remove more salt from some food products.  Companies such as Butterball, Heinz, Starbucks, Oscar Mayer, and Kraft Foods have committed to taking more sodium out of products ranging from popcorn, to cold cuts, to breakfast sandwiches.  Bloomberg announced that 21 companies out of 24 agreed to the changes.

Food control: New regulations target meals sold in schools.  Most candy, high-calorie drinks and greasy meals could soon be on a food blacklist in the nation's schools.

Soda, candy out under USDA's proposed school snack rules.  The Obama administration proposed regulations Friday that would prohibit U.S. schools from selling unhealthy snacks.  The 160-page regulation from the Department of Agriculture (USDA) would enact nutrition standards for "competitive" foods not included in the official school meal.  In practice, the proposed rules would replace traditional potato chips with baked versions and candy with granola.  Regular soda is out, though high-schoolers may have access to diet versions.

Michelle Obama Drops "Let's Move" Campaign.  First Lady Michelle Obama has quietly dropped her "Let's Move" campaign, the healthy eating push she took on for schools all over the country during her husband's first term.

Let's Stop! Michelle Abandons "Let's Move" Campaign.  First Lady Michelle Obama appears to have abandoned, at least for now, her oft-criticized "Let's Move" initiative to promote exercise and healthy eating among the nation's youth, halting public appearances and statements related to the program.

Michelle Obama tweets pictures of freshly picked cabbage.  Michelle Obama promptly tweeted pictures of freshly picked vegetables today [1/29/2013], after it was suggested that she had dropped her anti-obesity campaign Let's Move.  The White House Dossier — an unauthorized blog about the U.S. President and his family — posted an article this morning which highlighted that the First Lady had done little to personally publicize the initiative since last September.

No Pork at TX College? The Nanny State Continues.  Are you sending your son or daughter off to college?  If you are, have you given your adult (or close to adult) child instructions on eating a healthy diet?  Or, are you anticipating that the school will make these choices for your young adult?  At Paul Quinn College in Dallas (a small private college) the president of the school is making these decisions for you.  President Michael Sorrell came to the conclusion that pork is not a nutritious food and therefore banned it from the school cafeterias.  All pork.  Not just bacon, not just pork rinds.

47 million Americans on food stamps, Obamas pig out on a 3,000 calorie inaugural luncheon.  Although Obamacare requires restaurants to post calorie counts for all their menu items, Dear Leader's inaugural luncheon got a pass.  It's good to be king!  Of course, if you tried to serve this lunch in your local high school cafeteria, Moochelle would have you arrested.

Obama gut-busting lunch menu tops 3,000 calories.  The ceremonial lunch President Obama and his former congressional colleagues are eating Monday [1/21/2013] tops out at 3,000 calories, according to a website that has tallied up the luxurious menu of lobster, bison and apple pie.

Inaugural lunch: glaring nutritional hypocrisy.  For all their criticism of fatty foods and the mindless rubes who consume them, Barack Obama's second inaugural luncheon was a display of dietary excess.  The surf and turf meal began with lobster and creamy chowder sauce, included grilled bison with plenty of gut-busting sides, and ended with apple pie a la mode.  Not including alcoholic beverages, the meal tips the scale at more than 3,000 calories — more than the average individual should eat in a day and a half!

Gov't: Food allergies may be disability under law.  The Justice Department said in a recent settlement with a Massachusetts college that severe food allergies can be considered a disability under the law.

Now Is the Time to Ban...  Hot dogs.  Every year, between 66 and 77 children choke to death on food.  The biggest culprit?  The hot dog.  My son almost choked to death on a hot dog at a little league baseball game a few years ago.  That day still sends shivers up my spine.  No child should be allowed near any such food, and frankly, neither should adults.  These are dangerous food items that can kill if not eaten responsibly.  The fact is:  hot dogs kill.

FDA proposes sweeping new food safety rules.  The rules, the most sweeping food safety guidelines in decades, would require farmers to take new precautions against contamination, to include making sure workers' hands are washed, irrigation water is clean, and that animals stay out of fields.

The Editor says...
How did any of us survive up to this point?  Farming is a dirty business, since food is grown in dirt, and even if all food is contaminated to some degree, that's what cooking is for.  It is my opinion that the country would be better off without the FDA and without the Agriculture Department micro-managing everybody's business.  (The same goes for the EPA, the Departments of Labor, Energy, HHS, and a few others.)

Food allergy discrimination fight.  Back in the 1960s, there was real discrimination in American colleges.  At places like the University of Mississippi, students were threatened, assaulted, and arrested for demanding equal rights.  The U.S. Justice Department (with just a handful of lawyers) fought hard, serious battles to stop these civil rights abuses.  Today, with a staff of 800 and a 2012 appropriation of $145 million, the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division is suing universities over the food they do, and do not, serve in student cafeterias.

Top health-policy doc says city's war on salt is misguided.  City health czar Dr. Thomas Farley is warring with a noted scientist over sodium in the same medical journal where Farley trumpeted the city's war on salt.  "We cannot extrapolate that lowering sodium consumption would reduce cardiovascular risk or premature death," declared Dr. Sean C. Lucan of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in this month's American Journal of Public Health.

Committee Approves Rahm's Healthier Vending Machines.  Mayor Rahm Emanuel's plan to crack down on the caloric content of city vending machines popped up in Wednesday's City Council meeting, and aldermen had some heavy concerns.  After committee members OK'd the proposed ordinance this week, council members wondered everything from whether the sodium level of drinks would be considered in the plan to if Chicago actually has enough healthy foods to fill the machines according to the mayor's criteria.

What about bubble-gum cigars?
Old fashioned candy store threatened with fine for selling sugar cigarettes.  Owners of an old-school soda shop in St. Paul, Minnesota, have been warned to kick the habit and stop stocking novelty candy cigarettes.  City inspectors threatened a misdemeanor citation and $500 fine if Lynden's soda fountain is caught selling the fake smokes again.

Obama's 2009 stimulus chief says taxes and rules on junk food are coming.  Larry Summers, chair of the White House National Economic Council when the 2009 stimulus was developed, suggested that President Obama will eventually tax and regulate junk food to drive people to eat more healthily — although he dinged First Lady Michelle Obama's healthy foods initiative.

Let's rein in 'food police' bureaucrats and get real about nutrition information.  Here's food for thought!  Despite the looming "fiscal cliff," a national debt standing at $16 trillion and counting, and high unemployment rates, our federal government continues to create heavy-handed, and often times unnecessary, regulations for our small businesses — the true engines of the nation's economic growth.  A case in point is a pending federal regulation dealing not with America's many pressing financial needs, but the calorie count of food at your local restaurant.

Nanny State: Obamacare Now Regulating Pizza.  Section 4205 of PPACA (ObamaCare) requires any pizzeria, grocery, or convenience store with more than 20 locations to post calorie information in their store on menu boards.  The way the bill is written, Dominos, for example, will have to write out the caloric information for 34 million different pizza combinations (yes, they've done the math on that).

The captain of the Food Police has a 300-pound gingerbread house in her home.
54 Christmas trees a part of the White House's "Joy to All" holiday theme.  First lady Michelle Obama debuted the White House Christmas decorations, which this year honor members of the military.  The "Joy to All" holiday theme also includes 54 Christmas trees and an elaborate, 300-pound gingerbread house resembling the White House.

Menu Labeling: Another Job-Killing Regulation in ObamaCare.  The government is addressing the nation's growing obesity epidemic with a regulation:  Section 4205, the menu labeling provision attached to ObamaCare meant to "aid consumers in selecting more healthful diets."  As currently written, however, the regulation will likely have job-killing effects and result in little, if any, significant reductions in obesity rates and/or improved health.

That's right — Obamacare kills jobs.

Obamacare's pizza price.  A provision requiring restaurant menus to display calorie counts might seem like a minor addition to legislation representing the takeover of one-sixth of the economy, but the seemingly simple addition will cost billions.  President Obama's own Office of Management and Budget listed the menu display imposition as the third most burdensome statutory requirement enacted that year, forcing retail outlets to expend 14,536,183 work hours every year just to keep Uncle Sam happy.

White House Thanksgiving: Six Types of Pie.  As food pantries across the United States are overwhelmed by the newly poor and food stamp use is the highest it's ever been, the Obama first family is enjoying a Thanksgiving meal with six different types of pie.

Rahm Cracks Down on Chicago Vending Machines.  Mayor Rahm Emanuel said Wednesday [11/14/2012] he's cracking down on the caloric content of vending machines in city buildings and plans to replace them all with healthy vending by next year.  A proposed ordinance, to be introduced this week, will lay out plans for the new machines and detail guidelines on fat, sugar and calorie content starting in January 2013.

No Meat on Mondays in Los Angeles.  The Los Angeles City Council is urging all residents to observe "meatless Mondays" from now on.  A resolution adopted on Oct. 24 reads:  "Be it resolved, that the Council of the City of Los Angeles hereby declares all Mondays as 'Meatless Mondays' in support of comprehensive sustainability efforts as well as to further encourage residents to eat a more varied plant-based diet to protect their health and protect animals."

Sidebar discussion:  Foie Gras

New York City poised to ban sale of foie gras.  The sale of foie gras was Wednesday on the verge of becoming illegal in New York City.  City council members are expected to pass a bill that bans the sale of the fattened liver of a duck or goose at restaurants, or in any grocery stores, delicatessens or other outlets.  A majority of council members have signed on to the bill, which also has the support of animal welfare advocates and other critics who say producing it involves cruelty because of force-feeding the birds by sticking a tube down the throat.

PETA Sics Cops on California Foie Gras Dinner.  Earlier this week, a small salumeria in Nevada City, California, was forced to cancel a foie gras-themed dinner after PETA, the animal rights group, sicced the local police on the popular local retailer.  The Ham Stand, which specializes in house-made sausages, cured and smoked meats, sandwiches, and other fare, opened last year in Nevada City, about an hour's drive west of the Nevada border.  It's gathered positive reviews on Yelp and elsewhere.  The Ham Stand marketed the foie gras dinner on its Facebook page and elsewhere.  The dinner menu, which I tracked down here, was to include a trio of foie gras appetizers and a seven-course foie gras tasting menu.

California's enacted and potential bans:  From internal combustion engines to plastic bags.  California's foie gras ban was reinstated this month by a federal appeals court.  It found that a state law preventing sales of the food product made by force-feeding ducks and geese was not preempted by federal authority to regulate poultry products.  The ban was signed into law in 2004 after proponents said the process of fattening the birds' livers was cruel and inhumane.  The law took effect in 2012, but was blocked by a court in 2015, delighting chefs who wanted to serve it.

Chef Drops Foie Gras From Menu After Vegan Death Threats.  A chef in the United Kingdom is backing away from including foie gras on a Valentine's Day menu after receiving death threats from vegan activists.  The chef at Kings Arms at Fleggburgh opted out of serving the decadent dish during Valentine's Day dinner this weekend after being subjected to "harassment" by activists who threatened to protest the menu, the Guardian reports.

"Was the government to prescribe to us our medicine and diet, our bodies would be in such keeping as our souls are now."

— Thomas Jefferson