New Diet Guidelines to Benefit People and the Planet: More Greens for All, Less Meat for Some

from The New York Times

What should we eat?

Depends on who is eating.

That’s one of the principal conclusions of a comprehensive report that sets out targets on how to feed the world in a way that’s good for human health and the health of the planet. Its lightning-rod recommendation is around beef and lamb, the two forms of livestock that require enormous amounts of land and water and produce heaps of methane.

The report suggests a dramatic reduction in red meat consumption for people who eat a lot of it, like Americans and Canadians, but not the world’s poor, who need more animal protein for better health — like children in South Asia.

Written by 37 scientists from 16 countries and published Wednesday in the medical journal The Lancet, in conjunction with an advocacy group called the EAT Forum, the report was funded by the Wellcome Trust and Stordalen Foundation. In addition to the recommendations on meat, it calls for curbing food waste, a major source of greenhouse gas emissions, and overhauling agriculture so it doesn’t worsen deforestation and the depletion of scarce water.

“It’s not a blanket approach, but when you look at the data there are certain individuals or populations that don’t need that much red meat for their own health,” said Jessica Fanzo, a professor of food policy at Johns Hopkins University and a co-author of the report. “There’s a real inequity. Some people get too much. Some people get too little.”

People in North America eat more than 6 times the recommended amount of red meat, the report said, while countries in South Asia eat half of what’s recommended.

Agriculture accounts for roughly a quarter of all greenhouse gas emissions, much of them produced by the raising of cattle and lamb. With the world’s population projected to rise to 10 billion by 2050 and prosperity allowing many more people to afford meat and dairy, scientists and policymakers are paying more attention to the question of feeding the planet without destroying it.


One recent study by the World Resources Institute recommended that people in Europe and the United States reduce their meat consumption. But like the Lancet report, it, too, suggested that reducing the carbon footprint of food would also require rapid changes in farming methods to allow farmers and ranchers to grow far more food on existing agricultural lands while cutting emissions.

The Lancet report pointed to a broader problem of disparity: More than 800 million people don’t get enough to eat worldwide, the report noted, and many more “consume low-quality diets that cause micronutrient deficiencies and contribute to a substantial rise in the incidence of diet-related obesity and diet-related noncommunicable diseases.”

The report took pains to say that it wasn’t trying to prescribe to people what to eat or how to eat. It laid out global targets for what constitutes a healthy diet, based on an average intake of 2,500 calories a day. That includes 14 grams, or about half an ounce, of beef or lamb a day. That’s roughly the equivalent of a McDonald’s Quarter Pounder every eight days.

The report said the largest share of daily calories, 35 percent, should come from whole grains, including rice, wheat and corn, and starchy tubers like potatoes and cassava. The recommendations included unsaturated fats, milk, cheese and nuts, and lots of green vegetables. Overall, the guidelines called for a doubling of global consumption of fruits, nuts, vegetables and legumes, and cutting the consumption of red meat in half.

The meat reduction recommendation received immediate pushback. Even before the release of the Lancet report, the Animal Agriculture Alliance, an industry group, issued a statement extolling the benefits of meat and dairy. It said cutting animal protein could “risk worsening malnutrition, increasing food waste, and distracting from the highest priorities for addressing greenhouse gas emissions.” The group echoed the Lancet report’s recommendation to reduce food waste.

Likewise, the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, in a statement, called beef “nourishing and sustainable.”

The Lancet report also made clear that individual consumer choices would not be enough to avert what the authors called “catastrophic damage to the planet.” It urged governments to encourage healthy food choices and ensure access to nutritious food. It also suggested that global agriculture policy emphasize not just producing more food, but more “nutritious plant-based foods,” though it acknowledged that, in some places, animal farming can be good for the ecosystem.

It recommended policies to curb deforestation and to protect at least 10 percent of marine areas from fishing. To tackle food waste, it suggested help for farmers in poor- and middle-income countries to better store their crops and get them to market while still fresh. In rich countries, it encouraged better shopping habits and improved “use by” labels.

“The evidence says we can do it,” said Tim Lang, a professor of food policy at the City University of London and a co-author of the report. “There’s an immense diversity of what people can eat. It’s not prescriptive.”

read the original article HERE for more links to sources of information mentioned.

SUNDAY SERMON: What You Eat Matters - 2018 Documentary H.O.P.E.

How an overweight 40-year-old became a top ultra-athlete

After shortness of breath from climbing the stairs at home, Rich Roll, the author of "Finding Ultra," decided to change his lifestyle. Dropping 60 pounds in six months, this out-of-shape dad became an ultra-endurance athlete at 39.

James Cameron explains how you too can save the world

from Fortune magazine:

Oscar-winning director James Cameron is promoting a new way to fight climate change—eliminating meat and dairy from one’s diet.

When Oscar-winning Hollywood writer, director, and producer James Cameron isn’t making movies, he devotes his time to major environmental causes.

Cameron is speaking at the U.S.-China Climate Leaders Summit in Los Angeles on Sept. 15. During the summit, leading cities from both countries will share city-level experiences with planning, policies, and use of technologies for sustainable, resilient, low-carbon growth.

Cameron’s talk with Sam Kass, former White House senior nutrition policy adviser, is titled “Food for Sustainable Nations”. Cameron, who went completely vegan four years ago along with his family, will focus on food systems (consumption and production) and the relationship between food and climate change. Cameron explains how cutting out meat and dairy products can help lower carbon emissions in this exclusive interview with Fortune.

How did you get involved in the food systems aspect of fighting climate change?

I’m a child of the ‘60s and ‘70s and I’ve always had an environmental awareness, but over the last decade and a half I’ve been very focused on climate change and renewable energy. I was really starting to lose hope that we were going to be able to meet our emission goals just because of the lack of international cooperation and government inactivity. And one of the things that gave me the most hope was when I realized what an enormous contributor the animal agriculture was to greenhouse gases. It’s 14.5%. It’s greater than the entire transportation sector combined, not by much, but all the tailpipe and smokestack emissions from ships and jet engines and everything on the planet combined is about 13.5%. So this is an area where we could make a big immediate change just by empowering people to make a change in their lifestyle and their behavior. It doesn’t require an enormous technical rollout. It doesn’t require new innovation and new engine designs, electrification of the transportation system, or a massive rollout of renewable energy.

What role do you hope this summit plays in getting that global conversation started?

We spent 18 months and a significant amount of money looking into the numbers and the research. And the thing that became abundantly clear to us when we met with the experts who are working in nutrition and energy sustainability and climate change is that we can’t actually meet our emission goals if we don’t address animal agriculture, and that’s the thing that’s been left out of the conversation. Everybody’s focusing on the energy sector, which of course is huge, and to a lesser extent the transportation section, but they’re missing the second biggest single contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. This is a thermostat that we can turn down just by our personal choices. We can do it instantly.

What are some of the business imperatives when it comes to sustainable food?

I’m not going to tell business and innovators what to do. The answer is we need to do this for the survival of our civilization, and it’s going to cost us a lot more to try to fix the effects of climate change than to fix climate change. People don’t really understand that because they haven’t really made the connection between the impact of animal agriculture and climate. We’re in this big feedback loop where climate will effect food security among many things because of drought, desertification, saltification, loss of acreage and deltas, which are some of our most fertile areas because of sea water rise and things like that. It’s going to negatively impact our food supply and our food security at exactly the same time that we need to increase our food production by 70%. By 2050 we’re supposed to have 9 billion people on this planet. These two things are moving in the wrong direction. And yet the second biggest way we can control climate change is by reducing our reliance on meat and dairy.

What role does technology and innovation play in this situation?

When you look at the situation and realize that this is a survival level crisis, ultimately things are going to need to change. So you can either be on the leading edge of that, you can lean forward into it and look for the opportunities and the innovations, or you can sit back and try to clutch onto business as usual until you become extinct as a business. A classic example of that is Kodak, which held onto their position that film was best when everything went digital in movies. They flew that plane right down into the ground. Businesses need to look at a landscape that must change, food choices that must change, agricultural systems that need to be more sustainable, land use choices that need to be more weighted toward plant production than meat and dairy production; and either be part of the solution or get left behind.

What role do you see city-level government playing in this issue?

I agree with the principle that cities and regional governments could ultimately be more effective than even national governments. These are the principles that my friend Arnold Schwarzenegger espoused and went all over the world and got governors working together. The idea of mayors working together is critical. If you can reduce emissions through specific urban initiatives, also reducing particulate pollution from coal plants and from tailpipe emissions and all that, then that’s all a step in the right direction.

What’s your message to people out there when it comes to meat and dairy?

I don’t think we have to ask people to go cold turkey. We just have to ask them to be aware of how the choices that they make of what they put on their plate is having a direct impact on climate. Seventy-five percent of deforestation in the Amazon is for either pasture land or crop land for soy, which is primarily used as a feed stock for concentrated animal feeding operations. It’s all a big related thing, but it’s all very complex. It’s hard for people to understand, but the simple resounding message is you can be healthier and your planet can be healthier based on a very simple thing that you can do today. And you’ll also save money because eating a plant-based diet is just frankly cheaper. It’s cheaper to produce plants. It’s less carbon footprint, less water footprint, less money footprint and better for you. I keep waiting for the bad news to this story.

Meet David Carter, Pro Football Player, Competitive Powerlifter, and Vegan

from One Green Planet

David Carter sure doesn’t look like the weak stereotype that many perceive those on a vegan diet to be. This 300-pound athlete is the defensive lineman for the Oakland Raiders in the NFL, and he does not eat any animal products. He is 26-years-old, has a height of 6-6 and can bench 470 and squat 660 pounds.



Carter grew up eating meat and believed it was necessary to eat it in order to be big and strong. “Every coach, trainer, nutritionist, and doctor all pointed me in the direction of animal products,” he wrote on his blog. “From protein shakes to weight gainers there was no other alternative, so I did as I was told and followed the standard athlete’s diet regimen. Whey protein, raw eggs, gallons of milk, and casein were in just about every supplement I took.”

So why did he make a healthier change? ”One night my wife and I were watching Forks Over Knives and I realized that all the effort I was putting in to get big and strong for football was actually killing me,” he wrote. So, he started eating vegan!

Carter is awesome for showing the world that you can thrive and be strong enough to play football with the biggest of meat eaters. He played college football at U.C.L.A. and was drafted in 2011, making this season his fourth year in the NFL. Now, he is in the process of launching his personal website, The 300 Pound Vegan, where you can read posts about his vegan diet and catch up on news relating to the athlete. The site plans to allows readers to make a difference by submitting donations.



“I have always seen the benefits of being vegan, but I never thought I could have a plant-based diet and keep weight on for football,” Carter wrote on his blog. ”After being vegan for only two months I can honestly say that being vegan is not the only most efficient way to be full body strong, it’s also the most humane; everyone wins.”

Images’ source: The 300 Pound Vegan

(Stupid) THINGS PEOPLE SAY WHEN YOU TELL THEM YOU'RE A VEGETARIAN/VEGAN

from Thrillist.com

Editor's note: since the team here at Thrillist mostly subsists on In-N-Out, fried chicken, and other foods that will make the future heart surgeons of America very wealthy, we asked comedian and vegan Myq Kaplan (he even has comedy albums named Vegan Mind Meld and Meat Robot!) to talk about the stupid things people say when you tell them you're vegan (or even vegetarian), and what he says in response:

Do you mind if people eat meat in front of you?
"I don't! I mind factory farming, but if you're eating a meat sandwich (it's been a while, that's what carnivores eat, right? Meat sandwiches?), whether you're doing it across from me, in my peripheral vision, or sneakily behind my back, it's having the same effect on the world, so where you're eating it doesn't affect me. Unless you're trying to make me feel bad specifically by eating meat at me, if that's a thing, in which case I would mind that you're a jerk."

So, you'll eat at a non-vegetarian restaurant?
"Sure! These days, more and more restaurants have vegetarian options, and I like to support them and order those things, because I feel as though my adding to the demand for those items might lead to there being even more of them, especially in aggregate with the demand for those items by other like-minded people. This one's not a joke! Just a real thought. Sometimes that's what life's about. Having real thoughts and sharing them. Ahh. Feels good."

I could never give up cheese.
"No one's asking you to! I mean, a lot of times in life, we humans strive to better ourselves by rising up to face challenges, stretching ourselves to the limits of our comfort zones, and becoming the best that we can be. So, it sounds like a pretty pessimistic attitude to just start off assuming that you are too weak to defeat a desire for cheese. I believe in you more than that! Or maybe I'm just more strong-willed than you AND more strong-willed than cheese. Maybe it's the cheese that's MAKING you weak. It's a vicious circle. You're trapped in the Cheese Matrix."

It must be hard limiting your diet.
"I actually eat way more adventurously than I did growing up, when I mostly just had hot dogs, pizza, pasta, and peanut butter and jelly. Then, when I became a vegetarian in college, I learned about Indian food, Vietnamese, Ethiopian, Cambodian, and tons of other things I'd never heard of or considered when I was growing up. Maybe I'm lucky that I grew up so gastronomically limited. But no one can eat everything all of the time anyway (though many are trying, I know, and others are filming it), so in a way, everyone's options are limited. As long as humans are mortal, we can only eat so much in our lifetimes."

You don't know what you're missing!
"I actually do! I ate meat for more than half my life, and then made a choice to stop. So if either of us doesn't know what we're missing, it's you! I'm having the fullest experience possible! Part of life full of meat, and part of life full of non-meat! You're only having one of the two experiences. You're living a half-full life, with respect to this issue, in the way that I framed it to trick and trap you. (The less fun Halloween: 'Trick or Trap?')"

But seriously, you must miss bacon.
"I didn't actually eat a ton of bacon. I was more of a sausage guy. IF YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN. (I mean that I preferred sausage to bacon when I was a meat-eater.) But of course, there were things that I used to eat that I no longer enjoy, but I still eat things that I enjoy. From reading studies about the science of happiness, I understand that most people have something like a maximum that can't be exceeded. Like, parents with one child aren't half as happy as they would be with two children. So, me enjoying food the way I do now makes me just as happy as enjoying food I used to enjoy, if not more. But if you want to think that I'm less happy eating the way I do, you're welcome to do that. I hope it helps you reach the top of your happiness range."

What DO you eat? I mean, how do you stay alive? Like, how do you get your protein?
"I'm actually more interested in how you stay alive. There's a lot of food out there, and I would say most of it isn't meat. Lists of superfoods and other real nutritional powerhouses always include quinoa, hummus, kale, other green things, lots of berries, etc. So I feel like if you don't have access to this information, the real question is 'how do you get your everything-that's-not-protein?'"

Hey, you don't have to be mean about it. Why are vegetarians always such jerks about it?
"They're not! I was only being a jerk here for fun. I thought we were having fun together! What, you got your feelings hurt? What are you, a vegan? With feelings? (Full disclosure: the author is a vegan with feelings.)"

Why do vegans always have to tell people they're vegan?
"Good question! This is the subject of lots of jokes (or at least one joke that people tell a lot) and, more to the point, faulty logic. Why do vegans always tell people they're vegan? Well, you're looking at a skewed sample, because obviously the ones that are telling you are, but you're assuming that everyone who doesn't tell you they're vegan necessarily isn't a vegan. And that's not true. There are plenty of vegans and vegetarians out there who are just going about their business and not getting in people's faces about what they're eating and why -- they're just living their lives. In fact, you could be surrounded by calm, stealth vegans right now. And don't worry! They're not going to kill and eat you like ninja carnivores would."

Myq Kaplan has a new comedy special that's not named after vegetables or meat. It's called Small, Dork, and Handsome and will be available for streaming on Netflix on May 15th.

Sculptured by Weights and a Strict Vegan Diet

from The New York Times

By MARY PILON

Jimi Sitko gets up at 4 most mornings, works out two to four hours a day and can bench-press nearly twice his weight. He has a shaved head and a brightly colored tattoo on his left arm, and he can easily be mistaken for a Marine separated from his platoon.

His apartment is filled with medals and trophies from bodybuilding competitions, snapshots of his tanned, rippled physique in full flex. His uniform is an assortment of sweat pants and hoodies, which he occasionally lifts when his abs look particularly fierce.

But most surprising is what is inside Sitko’s stomach: tofu, fresh greens and plant-based protein powder.

Sitko is among a niche community of vegan bodybuilders.

As the popularity of veganism has spread in recent years — fueled in part by a flurry of food-focused documentaries like “Super Size Me,” “Food, Inc.” and “Forks Over Knives” — its imprint can be seen in industries like publishing (VegNews) and fashion (hemp tote bags).

It has even entered bodybuilding, perceived by many as a population of vein-popping men and women thriving off meat and artificial enhancements. Competitors like Sitko are forging a distinctive subculture of antibeef beefcakes who hope to change more of their competitors’ eating habits.

As a vegan, Sitko, 29, does not eat meat, dairy or, he said, “anything else that comes from an animal.” As a bodybuilder, he spends hours at the gym lifting barbells, running on a treadmill and sculpturing his 5-foot-11, 180-pound body. Then he spray-tans and parades before a panel of judges in a posing suit, known in the sport as a mankini. He is preparing for a competition in March.

There is little official data on competitive bodybuilders who are vegan, though the Web site veganbodybuilding.com has more than 5,000 registered users.

Denny Kakos, the president of the International Natural Bodybuilding Association, said he had no vegan bodybuilders entering his competitions in the late 1980s and early ’90s. Today, vegans make up a sliver of the approximately 6,000 people who compete through the group each year, but they have been a steady, small presence since the 2000s, Kakos said.

“I think it’s great that there are people who are vegan and compete,” he said. “But it’s hard for bodybuilding.”

For some vegan bodybuilders, like Sitko, veganism was an attempt to improve diet and health. Others said that a vegan lifestyle reflected their personal beliefs about animal or environmental preservation. Still others regarded it as a form of rebellion against steroid culture.

“I laugh at the drug tests,” said Billy Simmonds, a vegan bodybuilder in Las Vegas. “I don’t even eat meat.”

Bodybuilders have long been known for maintaining highly restrictive diets, often low in carbohydrates and high in protein and calories, meticulously timed with arduous workout schedules. They aim to have big muscles and little fat, which may require cycles of adding weight, then chiseling away fat to make muscles pop like He-Man’s.

Nutritionists remain divided on the implications of adding vegan requirements to the already arduous bodybuilder diet, and caution that any extreme diet be undertaken with heavy research.

“Is it possible to be a good bodybuilder and be a vegan? Yes,” said Jose Antonio, the chief executive of the International Society of Sports Nutrition. “But is it ideal? No.”

Vegan bodybuilders may face challenges getting sufficient amino acids, found in meats, Antonio said, adding that although protein can be found in vegetables and nuts, they must be consumed in greater quantities to get the same amount as their counterparts in meat. “The amount of rice and beans you need to eat would fill up a Mexican restaurant,” he said.

Other nutritionists and bodybuilders have argued that a disciplined vegan diet, consisting of things like hemp-based protein supplements, peanut butter, nuts, vegetables and legumes, can yield similar, if not better, results than a meat- or dairy-filled diet. Carefully monitored, vegans can get the same amount of protein with less fat or toxins, they argue. (For a midafternoon snack, Sitko sometimes eats 10 bananas.)

The need for specific, vegan-friendly bodybuilding advice helped create the career of 31-year-old Robert Cheeke of Corvallis, Ore. He gives motivational lectures, sells vegan-themed T-shirts and gym bags and wrote a book about vegan bodybuilding that discusses how he went from 120 pounds as a teenage vegan to 195 pounds today.

“In those days, that meant a dozen tofu dogs a day, six Clif Bars, refried beans, whatever I could eat was calories,” he said. “It worked, but it was tough on my stomach. It wasn’t healthy.”

Cheeke said he was now focused on plant-based eating, including kale, avocados, beans and spinach, much of it organically grown in his garden.

In 2003, Cheeke founded veganbodybuilding.com. The site hosts forums for vegan recipes (“Hemp-fu pudding”), strength training (“Barbell vs. Dumbbell? Pain?”) and vegan dating (closed to nonmembers).

Giacomo Marchese met Dani Taylor, a bodybuilder living near him in Massachusetts, through a “Vegan Vacation” organized through the site in July 2008. Marchese proposed last August and the two, both still vegan and still bodybuilding, are planning their wedding.

“The Web site and community of vegan bodybuilders changed my life,” Marchese said.

The site is also a place for getting advice. Before strutting before judges, some bodybuilders recommend quickly chugging an alcoholic drink or eating something sugary to make their veins — and therefore their muscles — pop.

Kenneth G. Williams, a 44-year-old bodybuilder in Oakland, Calif., is a vegan who has taken on traditional bodybuilders and won. But first, there was the stigma.

“I had buddies at the gym, they just thought I was crazy,” Williams said. “I had a great physique and they said, ‘You’re going to get skinny, sick and frail, and die.’ I wasn’t encouraged.”

In 2003, Williams became vegan. In 2004, he won his first competition.

“When they announced me as the winner, people were very happy,” Williams said. “But once the announcer mentioned I was a vegan, the claps stopped and it got so quiet in that auditorium. Right on stage, it hit me: nobody knows about this.”

Williams is now a raw vegan; he said he never heated his food above 112 degrees Fahrenheit.

“I’m no longer an athlete,” he said. “I’m a warrior now. There’s a big difference. The athletes are just out to get paid. Warriors stand for something.”

'Vegansexuals' Do It With Each Other

from ABC News

Vegans, a new study has found, are grossed out by sex with meat eaters, and some so-called "vegansexuals" only want to roll in the alfalfa with other super strict vegetarians.

A recent study conducted in New Zealand found that vegans — notoriously finicky eaters who don't eat meat or animal byproducts, like eggs and dairy — don't like the idea of swapping spit (or anything else) with those who have been dining on flesh.

Annie Potts, a researcher at the University of Canterbury's Centre for Human-Animal Studies, noted that vegans, particularly women, found sex with meat eaters disgusting.

Vegans, she told ABC News.com from New Zealand, don't like sex with carnivores, for personal reasons: "They're attracted to people with similar interests;" ideological reasons: "they see meat eaters' bodies as being composed of the lives of others;" and sexual reasons: "they didn't want to engage in intimate sex ... because of the smells and tastes of their body fluids."

Potts sampled 157 vegans, 120 of whom were female.

All of the women, according to Potts, fell along a continuum. Some expressed discontent with being with meat-eating men, while others would sleep only with other vegans.

"It is totally, totally true," said Janna Cunnigham, a 46-year-old Brooklyn, N.Y., native, about the smells and tastes of carnivores.

"Their body odor is pungent. Their sweat is extremely smelly. Their spit, and all their body fluids, are strong and stinky. Vegetarian people are not so smelly," Cunningham, who has been a vegetarian for 32 years, and a vegan for 10, told ABC News.com.

Cunningham added that she has dated both meat eaters and vegetarians, but would stick to seeing only vegetarians in the future.

While PETA, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, has long advocated people give up meat and go vegetarian, the animal rights group has its misgivings about vegans only sleeping with other vegans.

"Sex is a very effective form of outreach and activism," said Dan Shannon, a PETA spokesman, and 10-year veteran vegan, who thought meat eaters could be converted by their partners.

Shannon said he knew vegans who dated vegans exclusively, but suggested that acting repulsed by the scent of your date probably wasn't the best way to change his or her mind about veganism.

Potts said PETA's attitude differed from what was a very personal sentiment on the part of vegans who participated in the survey.

"PETA is taking a political position by using the bedroom to recruit vegans — this is about intimate relationships."

Potts added that more women responded to her survey than men, but those men who did respond were less likely to be disgusted about having sex with meat eaters.

"As far as I'm concerned, it doesn't matter too much to me," said Mike Hartikka, a 20-year-old vegan from San Diego, who has been in relationships with meat eaters and vegetarians.

But, he says, when it comes to long-term relationships, he would rather be with vegetarians or vegans.

That sentiment is borne out by Potts' research.

"It is really not that unusual that people want to be in relationships with those who they have things in common," she said.

I mean, why wouldn't we, or at least anyone with integrity? Being Vegan says a lot about who you are and how you perceive and think about the world around you, and the planet, so hell yeah it makes sense that we'd rather be with people of like minds.

‘Hot Dogs Cause Butt Cancer’ Chicago Billboard Provides Helpful Reminder

from Gawker

You know what season this is? It's hot dog season. Winter's over, baseball's spring training has begun, and people are wearing shorts again. Here in New York, it is time for hot dogs.

Or at least that's what we were thinking, before this billboard went up on the Eisenhower expressway in Chicago, and we immediately regretted every hot dog we've ever eaten or even thought about eating and swore to never eat another hot dog ever again. The signage is part of an ad campaign paid for by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, and it is meant to make you clench your butt cheeks. (And, I guess, to point out how processed meats influence colorectal cancer rates.)

The National Hot Dog & Sausage Council has fired back against the ads, which exist in varying states throughout a number of cities by now (Miami's version warns, simply, that "Hot dogs can take you out of the game"). The Council says that PCRM is a "pseudo-medical animal rights group" and says that the ad campaign is nothing more than "an effort to advance their goal to create a vegan society."

"Hot dogs are part of a healthy, balanced diet," the president of the American Meat Institute tells the Chicago Tribune, but I won't believe it until I see it on a billboard.

Get Over Yourselves You Fucking Gluttons

from the Washington Post

Half of U.S. adults will be obese by 2030, report says

By Jennifer Huget

Based on trends, half of the adults in the United States will be obese by 2030 unless the government makes changing the food environment a policy priority, according to a report released Thursday on the international obesity crisis in the British medical journal the Lancet.

Those changes include making healthful foods cheaper and less-healthful foods more expensive largely through tax strategies, the report said. Changes in the way foods are marketed would also be called for, among many other measures.

A team of international public health experts argued that the global obesity crisis will continue to grow worse and add substantial burdens to health-care systems and economies unless governments, international agencies and other major institutions take action to monitor, prevent and control the problem.

Changes over the past century in the way food is made and marketed have contributed to the creation of an “obesogenic” environment in which personal willpower and efforts to maintain a healthful weight are largely impossible, the report noted.

It also laid out a new way of calculating how many calories to cut to lose weight, giving what it said is a more accurate means of estimating projected weight loss over time.

The common weight-loss wisdom is that reducing calorie intake by about 500 calories a day “will result in slow and steady weight loss of about 0.5 kg (about a pound) per week.” That rule doesn’t take into account the way the body adapts to the change. In particular, as anyone who has actually lost weight can attest, the less you weigh, the fewer calories you can consume if you wish to lose more weight or maintain the loss.

The report said that weight loss should be viewed over a longer period of time and proposed a new “approximate rule of thumb” for an average overweight adult. It said that “every change of energy intake of [about 24 calories] per day will lead to an eventual bodyweight change of about 1 kg (just over two pounds) . . . with half of the weight change being achieved in about 1 year and 95 percent of the weight change in about 3 years.”

Though the report acknowledged that it’s ultimately up to individuals to decide what to eat and how to live their lives, it maintained that governments have largely abdicated the responsibility for addressing obesity to individuals, the private sector, and nongovernmental organizations. Yet the obesity epidemic will not be reversed without government leadership, regulation, and investment in programs, monitoring, and research, it said.

The report, issued in a four-part series published in the Lancet, was released in advance of the first high-level meeting of the United Nations General Assembly focused on noncommunicable disease prevention and control, which will take place in New York next month.

TOTALLY FUCKING RELATED: Becoming the Fattest Woman in History

Fast food, fat profits: Obesity in America

This is a well made 23 minute program from Al Jazeera English on the culture of obesity in the U.S.

From their program "Fault Lines"