News Stories for a Saturday Morning

Food

How 8 Famous Cheeses Got Their Names (Mental Floss)

Vegan diets becoming more popular, more mainstream (Washington Post)

The 7 Most Essential Pots and Pans (Serious Eats)

Five Worst Cookbooks of 2010 (PCRM)

What are your Baby Carrots dipped in? (Julie Daniluk)

Funny

Foodie Terms That Make Me Cringe (Hungry Meets Healthy)

Rant: Extreme Couponing (Sarah for Real)

The Most Superlative Food Trends List Anywhere. (5 Second Rule)

Fitness

World’s Best Yoga Spots (Lonely Planet)

You can’t tell me what to eat!

Last night Matt and I were watching the news with my Nonna. You don’t have a lot of TV choices with Nonna– it’s news ‘round the clock with breaks in between for The Price is Right and Entertainment Tonight. Given that she made us some delicious gnocchi for dinner, I wasn’t complaining.

But, this is all besides the point.

During a commercial break, I overheard this:

“…they want to put taxes on like soft drinks, sports drinks, juice drinks, even flavoured waters, trying to control what we eat and drink with taxes!”

Matt and I simultaneously burst out laughing.

So I checked out their website (http://nofoodtaxes.com). Apparently this is a legitimate advertisement funded by a less than legitimate “coalition of concerned citizens” called Americans Against Food Taxes. And who are those “concerned citizens”? Primarily corporations whose primary motive is obviously their bottom line and not the government infringement on their civil liberties. The group has over 86,000 supporters including Wendy’s, McDonalds, Burger King, 7-Eleven, and countless soft drink and beverage associations. You know, all those corporations who really care about your constitutional, inalienable rights.

“Government is getting too big and too involved in our personal lives. . .If we let government tax beverages, who knows where it will end? The next time government wants to fund more programs, they’ll just slap taxes on more of our groceries. Government needs to trim its budget fat and leave grocery budgets alone.”

The government is out to get you. Of course! It makes complete sense. Next thing you know they’ll start making you fix your old jaloppy because it emits more carbon than a factory, and charging you taxes on other daily necessities like cigarettes.

Come on people, really? The government charging you an extra penny an ounce for your daily Coke is a breach of your freedom of choice, but the huge roster of corporate supporters have no ulterior motive in hawking cheap sugar. Really?

If you have a problem with the taxes and want a government to trim its budget fat, maybe they should start by trimming the subsidies for the corn growers that provide all the cheap HFCS (oops, I mean corn sugar) to make those soft drinks so affordable. No extra taxes but the price of pop still goes up? Sounds like a win-win to me!

Reading further, I learned that Americans Against Food Taxes is on a mission to educate the nation on how to achieve a healthy lifestyle without encroaching on your inalienable rights to drink as much sugar as you want because “education, not taxation, is the key to reducing obesity and improving public health.”

Now, I’m a proponent for education. I think it’s great to educate the nation about how they should limit their intake of sugary drinks which are a major contributor to obesity. According to a USDA Study from this past July a 20% soft drink tax would reduce daily caloric intake by 37cal for adults and 43cal for kids, reducing the obesity prevalence by 3%. Except they’re not teaching that at all. What they are teaching is the ignorant message that all processed food corporations want you to believe: obesity is controlled by balancing diet and exercise. It has nothing to do with the fact that processed “food” is extremely cheap, calorie-dense,  easy to access. No. You’re fat because you’re lazy and you clearly don’t exercise enough.

What’s your take on the soft drink tax?

Spot me

I’m all over the web lately, on some of my favourite blogs!

See this picture of me eating cake here over at Kate’s blog Eat the Damn Cake. Send over a picture of yourself eating cake and she’ll post it in her cake gallery. I really wanted to send in a picture of me eating my 25th birthday cake. Remember this beauty that my sister made for me?

The coconut birthday cake that was the best cake I’ve ever eaten in my life. And I’ve eaten A LOT of cake in my day, so that’s saying something.

Unfortunately (yet pleasurably) I devoured the whole thing before I remembered to take a picture for the cake gallery. When I woke up the morning after the beach party I jumped out of bed and into my gym clothes with the best intentions of an AM workout. When I opened the fridge to grab my water bottle, there was leftover cake staring me in the face. So I sat in the kitchen, in my gym clothes, eating birthday cake for breakfast. What a picture that would have made, eh?

Oh well, instead I sent in this beauty from my cousin’s first birthday:

Once you’ve thoroughly check out Kate’s blog, find me over a No More Dirty Looks sporting a No ‘Poo Do (I’m #59).

This was part of their No More Dirty Looks Summer Hair Challenge which involved sending in a picture of your natural hair with the following rules: shower, use only natural shampoo and conditioner (I used none), comb it, and let it dry.

The reason for the challenge, according to their website:  We all wage war with our hair on a semiregular basis, and we want to see what happens when we switch to nontoxic, nonstripping products, and then leave our manes alone. We already did the challenge—those are our pics up top—and we want you all with us. One day! Please?

Finally, check out my recipe for Rosemary Sea Salt Bikini Bars on Meghan Telpner’s blog, Making Love in the Kitchen. I posted this recipe here on Bikini Birthday and now it’s making it’s way across the blog world

If you’re not an avid reader of Meghan’s blog, you should be. You probably recall Meghan from her guest post here in the Bikini Confidence series. I’m so happy to have had the opportunity to guest post at Making Love in the Kitchen!

day 123: health news

Here are some interesting news articles that piqued my interested as of late.

The worst drinks in America

An “eat this, not that” that hones in on when you should eat 20 Reese Peanut Butter cups or 6 Kirspy Kremes rather than quenching your thirst. (Design Verb)

Added Fibres

Your best best is to go with whole food sources of fibres. Find out which added fibres can upset your tummy.  (RealAge)

Raw Chocolate

I don’t know if I buy into the raw chocolate hype, but I can tell you that ChocoSol’s dark chocolate has a delicious nutty, coffee flavour. (Globe & Mail)

Canada’s teen birth and abortion rate drops by 36.9 per cent

Attributed to Canada’s “balanced, sensible approach to adolescent sexual health“. (Globe & Mail)

Childhood Peanut Allergies Triple over Past Decade

Attributed to reduced exposure to bacteria. Hmmm…. (Food Production Daily)

Vitamin Water: Marketing a Myth

Get your water from the tape and get your anti-oxidants from real fruit, not sugar water. (Huffington Post)

For better tone, try fewer reps and more challenging weights

I’d really love to see more ladies doing heavy lifting at the gym! (NY Times)

How Much LifeForce Energy is in Your Food

Foods that contain and emit the most sunlight energy. Their cells are capable of capturing and maintaining greater amounts of ultraviolet rays from the sun. (CrazySexyLife)

The Fatter we Get, the Less We Seem to Notice

“Overweight individuals today are less likely to classify themselves as “overweight” in contrast to overweight individuals surveyed over a decade ago”. (Obecity Panacea)

Great charts showing GMO Crops in the US:

The increase in the amount of GM corn, soy, and cotton in the US over the past 10 years is astronomical! (Food Politics)

day 73: health news for a saturday morning

Here’s a collection of health news that I’ve found interesting from this week and last week:
Phthalates Linked to Early Onset Puberty in Girls (Planet Green)

We knew that they were affecting the hormones of young boys, but now evidence shows that phthalates (the stuff that makes your perfume smell great) are also cause for concern in young girls. Is this really surprising? Just one more thing to worrying about when you put on your face in the morning, ladies.
If you haven’t yet, be sure to check out www.cosmeticsdatabase.com to see all the ways your beauty products are killing you.

Science is changing the way we eat: (Wired)

From GMO’s to meat grown in a lab (appetizing, no?), this article is enough to put you off from eating. Whatever happened to real food?

Butter or Margarine (The Globe and Mail)

The age-old debate that just won’t die. In my house the battle lines are drawn: rich, delicious churned cream for me and spreadable plastic for Matt. What’s your preference?

Addicted to Fat: Overeating May Alter the Brain as Much as Hard Drugs (Scientific American)

Maybe schools should be teaching “Say NO to Fat” too.

8 Power Ingredients for Super Healthy Smoothies (That’s Fit)

1. whey protein isolate, 2. plain yoghurt, 3. cinnamon, 4. berries, 5. ground flax, 6. chia, 7. l-glutamine, 8. inositol

Spoiler Alert: Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution Results Are In (Food Politics)

What West Virginia really thinks about the cook.

Post weight-loss: Workout Harder not Longer (Sweat Science)

That’s what I like to hear! I love intensity.

Pure Maple Syrup Contains Medicinally Beneficial Compounds (Science Daily)

Maple Syrup has anti-oxidant, anti-cancer, anti-bacterial and anti-diabetic properties. Take THAT PETA (fyi: PETA thinks boycotting Canadian maple syrup will somehow affect the Canadian economy to the point where it Canada will be forced to bring an end to the ancient practice of seal slaughter. . . but I digress. Don’t get me starting on this ignorant campaign)

36DD: The Median bra size in the US (New York)

Only 10 years ago it was 36C. Why is the cup size going up, but not the chest size?

Anti-Acne: Foods to Eat and Avoid (AOL Health)

I, unfortunately, can’t eat dairy anymore. I miss the cheese, but not the pimples.

New York School District Bans Baked Goods from Bake Sales (NY Times)

…”we’re supposed to believe that a packaged chocolate-chip cookie is preferable to a homemade one, not on the basis of taste, texture or the quality of the ingredients, but because it came from a factory and has a nutrition label”

Loving Lambics (National Post)

This has nothing to do with health, I just  read it and started craving some Belgian Kriek.

Dangers of Indoor Tanning (AOL Health)

This article fails to address the real danger of indoor tanning: the embarrassment on your dumbfounded face when asked where you spent your winter vacation.

Lifestyle Changes Can Slash Cancer Rates (Healthzone.ca)

Exercise, eat your produce, and stay away from processed garbage. Easy enough.

day 53: health news

Here are a collection of my favourite health news stories recently:

6 natural remedies that really work (from msnbc)
Lemon balm for the mind, Onion for prevention, Cayenne for pain, Plaintain for skin, Parsley for UTIs, and Hawthorn for the heart.

7 Foods That Help You Lose Weight (from That’s Fit)
How oats, eggs, skim milk, cinnamon, apples, and almonds help aid weight loss.

Why food combining makes sense (from That’s Fit Canada)
Exploring how improper food combining can lead to gas, upset stomach, heartburn or diarrhea.

Pre-run dynamic stretching has no negative impact on performance (from the Globe and Mail)
Why dynamic stretching is better than static stretching before your run.

MSG: the silent killer (from Huff Post Living)
Explains how MSG overexcites your cells to the point of damage or death and can cause brain damage.

Shattering the Meat Myth (from Crazy Sexy Life)
Learn why you are a natural born herbivore.

Brand New Layout + Twitter

Hello to all Samantha’s readers, this is Matthew – her husband/webmaster.

I’m here to introduce to you the newest layout! Sorry about the advertisements… but i’m trying to make up for start up costs so please click them!

I should also note that I added twitter functionality… which should update Samantha’s twitter each time she posts a new blog topic. And this post is going to help me make sure it works! *UPDATE* it does.

Thank you and give me some feedback!

-Matthew