Americans have gotten fatter over the last 20 years, but our genes and will power have not changed over that time period. What has changed is that we are now faced with an overabundance of high-calorie, good-tasting foods that are widely available, cheap, and heavily advertised and promoted. A handful of Original Bugles have about as much artery-clogging fat as a Quarter Pounder. That's because General Mills fries Bugles in coconut oil, which is twice as bad for you as lard.
You'd have to play touch football for 1 1/2 hours to burn off the 530 calories in a Quarter Pounder with Cheese. Add a Super Size Coke and Super Size French Fries to your meal, and you'd have to play for more than 4 1/2 hours.
A large movie theater popcorn has about 1,160 calories. Add butter topping and it climbs to 1,640 calories. Choose a small (without butter topping) instead. Channel One, the TV station shown at many schools, is just another way for companies to bombard you with ads.
Channel One provides the televisions, companies buy ads, schools force you to watch the ads, and Channel One and the companies make money. Ads not only promote junk food, but many encourage people to eat too much or eat when they aren't hungry. Some ads say things like "don't just stand there, eat something," "not for nibblers," "think big," and "once you pop you can't stop."
Coke Classic and Pepsi (pH 2.5) are almost as acidic as car-battery acid (pH 1).
If a food is labeled "healthy," it probably is. To use the word "healthy" on its label, a food has to meet standards for salt, fat, and other nutrients (but not sugars).
Have you ever eaten a whole row of cookies in a bag of Chips Ahoy chocolate chip cookies? If so, you scarfed down more than half a day's quota for calories and almost 2 day's worth of saturated fat.
When you pay $1.50 for fast-food French fries, only about 2 cents goes to the farmer who grew the potatoes. Despite all the French fries Americans are eating, potato farmers are struggling financially and many are being forced out of business.
Food marketers never seem to run out of new ideas. The folks at Kellogg created the Chocolate Food Pyramid. While the real Food Guide Pyramid has grains, fruits and vegetables at the base, Kellogg's pyramid has the chocolate bar, cookie, and beverage groups. Like putting chocolate in a pyramid will convince people that it's good for them
Order your burgers and sandwiches without cheese to cut calories and artery-clogging fat.
Americans eat about 100 acres of pizza each day. With all that cheese topping, no wonder heart disease is the leading cause of death in this country.
Studies show that people eat more when they're served more. At restaurants, order a smaller size fries or drink. At home, dish out smaller portions.
A can of cola has 10 teaspoons of sugar. It uses up three-quarters of your whole day's budget for refined sugars.
Want a snack you can eat on the go? Make your own trail mix using Cheerios, nuts, dried fruit, and pretzels.
Soft-drink companies produce about 600 cans of soda for every person in the US each year.
A large fries at the Great Steak and Potato restaurant has 900 calories - more than 1/3 of a day's worth.
Quaker advises parents to feed kids to keep them quiet. The ads for their Chewy granola bar read, "Kids talking too much? Give 'em a Chewy... Chewy stops the chatter."
You build 95% of bone strength by the time you're 18 years old. Drink plenty of low-fat or fat-free milk now to avoid breaking bones when you're older.
A large Burger King vanilla shake has 630 calories. To make a healthier, sweet, frozen drink, mix 1 cup frozen strawberries (without syrup), 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract, 1 cup low-fat vanilla yogurt, and 1 cup ice cubes in a blender until frothy.
The Food Guide Pyramid recommends eating a total of 6 to 11 servings a day from the "Bread, Cereal, Rice and Pasta Group." One bagel from Dunkin' Donuts equals 4 servings.
Want to know what companies are doing to try to get you to buy their products? One advertising executive said, "Advertising at its best is making people feel that without their product, you're a loser. Kids are very sensitive to that. If you tell them to buy something, they are resistant. But if you tell them that they'll be a dork if they don't, you've got their attention."
Each American eats, on average, 30 pounds of cheese each year (mostly on pizza, sandwiches and hamburgers). That's 3 times as much as we ate 30 years ago, making cheese a leading cause of heart disease. Switch to reduced-fat cheese so your arteries don't get clogged up with the artery putty (saturated fat) in regular cheese.
Need a snack with some chocolate? Try low-fat pudding instead of a chocolate bar.