Sarah Palin to Destroy "Big Government" With Cookies

Sarah Palin, ex-beauty queen and avid caribou hunter, hates big government. So, the "hockey mom" is mounting a revolution... with cookies.

As First Lady Michelle Obama goes around advocating more fruits and vegetables in public schools, Sarah Palin is visiting schools to pass out cookies.

Michelle is fronting a plan by the United States Surgeon General to improve cafeteria food, push physical education, and to bring more supermarkets to low-income communities.

But Sarah Palin has other ideas. Earlier this month, "Mama Grizzly" stopped by a school in Pennsylvania with dozens of cookies, a gesture obviously in protest to Michelle Obama's campaign for better nutrition.

"Who should be making the decisions what you eat and school choice and everything else?" Palin asked the students. "Should it be government, or should it be the parents?"

This is so silly. If Sarah Palin wants to drop by a school and hand out cookies, that's cool. I hated school, so a free cookie would have brightened up my day. But to make it some sort of political statement is dumb.

Pressuring schools to improve food is not a "political battleground." It's a no-brainer. People should be happy government is finally addressing an issue it has a decent chance of fixing.

But listen, this whole idea of "let the parents decide" isn't working. American kids are fat and getting fatter. So, either our children are a bunch of cement heads, or we have lazy parents who are too busy voting for Dancing With the Stars to teach their kids good eating habits. I say the parents stink.

Now I'm not suggesting the federal government tell you what you can and cannot eat in your own home. That's an idiotic notion. But, if a public school says no to junk food, like cookies, then that's the rule, period.

Reforming school lunch is not an attack on civil liberties. It's about healthier kids. But if you think it's un-American for your child to eat lunch without cookies, then pack them some.

Image credit: Ohio River

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Weight Watchers Points Plus

Weight Watchers have overhauled their points system and come up with a completely new program - called Points Plus (or Pro Points in the UK).

The previous Points formula (started in 1997) took into account Calories, Fiber grams and Fat grams. The PointsPlus formula uses Protein, Carbohydrate, Fiber, and Fat grams.

Weight Watchers have spent a number of years testing the new program (at the Medical University of South Carolina among other places). According to Weight Watchers the trials resulted in "an improvement in behaviors that help people maintain weight loss and a reduction in the desire to eat when there's no physical hunger or need for food." (src).

Critics of the previous Points formula claimed that it did not accurately differentiate between more nutritionally dense foods, and "empty calories". This is due to the heavy weighting of Calories over other nutrient measures.

When we have a 100-calorie apple in one hand and a 100-calorie pack of cookies in the other, and we view them as being "the same" because the calories are the same, it says everything that needs to be said about the limitations of just using calories in guiding food choices.

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What is the new formula?

Points Plus = (Protein grams / 10.9) + (Carbohydrate grams / 9.2) + (Fat grams / 3.9) + (Fiber grams / 35).

So for a Big Mac,

Points Plus = 25/10.9 + 45/9.2 + 29/3.9 + 3/35
Points Plus = 2.29 + 4.89 + 7.44 + 0.09
Points Plus = 14.71 (previous Point value was 13.97).

Note that this formula is via Wikipedia (ProPoints), and we cannot ensure that this is accurate, and you must use official WW tools for accurate Points Plus values. It maybe the the US formula is slightly different. Some have suggested the Carb Gram value should be (Carb - Fiber) / 9.2 to account for labeling differences between the US and UK.

What Else Changed in the Points Plus
Daily Points allowances have gone up.
Treating yourself is encouraged.
Weight Watchers food products will be going up in points values (an indicator that perhaps the branded food products are not particularly nutritious?).

Please note that Points Plus and Points are registered trademarks of Weight Watchers Inc.

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People Who Handle Your Food Work Sick

Have you ever actually found a fly in your soup? I haven't. I've seen it in cartoons, but in real life? No, never.

Unless you're eating at an outdoor café in Calcutta, you're probably safe from rabid winged pests.

But apparently food service workers are a bigger threat to your dinner than Musca domestica Linnaeus; a new study says many food restaurant employees go to work sick, and don't get sick days.

The survey, conducted by Restaurant Opportunities Centers United, a national organization representing restaurant workers, found two-thirds of restaurant workers go to work when they're sick. Oh fantastic!

It gets worse. Nearly 90% of these brave souls serving our food do not get paid sick days and 60% do not receive any health insurance.

Sorry folks, that's just wrong. But, in the United States we have a bizarre dynamic. If you button up your white collar and don't have health benefits it's a travesty, but if you punch a clock. Oh well, get a real job loser!

In the report, a lady working in the food service for 30 years talks about being really sick one day. She had a bad cold with all the trimmings: runny nose, sneezing, cough, and a fever. But she couldn't call out, she needed the money.

However, later on she asked her manager if she could leave. She was too sick to carry on and was coughing up a storm and didn't want to make the customers sick. So her compassionate manager said, "Try not to cough, then."

Now that's classy! Listen, that can't happen. People who handle your food or who take care of sick people need special allowances, for the sake of public health. And if it requires a doctor's note, fine, so be it.

If I go out to eat and someone on death's door serves me my food, I'm going to be ticked off, so any self-respecting restaurant owner should be on high-alert for that sort of thing...same goes for doctors and nurses too.

Image credit: TheEmoSurfer

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Wendy's Introduce "Gourmet" Fries

In an attempt to capture a new segment of the market, Wendy's has introduced a new take on fast-food: "natural-cut fries with sea salt."

You can imagine the same wording on a fancy restaurant menu. The fries even sound healthy. But are they?

Sadly, no. Wendy's new fries contain considerably more sodium and slightly more calories than the standard ones.

As NPR reports:

Wendy's confirmed to us that the new medium sized fry goes from 350 milligrams to 500 milligrams.

The recommended daily limit on sodium is 2,400 milligrams, the equivalent of one teaspoon of salt. These fries would account for over a fifth of that.

The word "natural" in the fries' name isn't regulated by the government. It sounds healthy, but is essentially meaningless. Other words like "pure" and "fresh" are often used in a similar way. And even legitimate claims like "fat-free" are often misapplied to products which are unhealthy in other ways.

What's the upshot for dieters?

Well, if you're going to eat fries, you may find that you prefer the new gourmet ones (which cost the same as standard fries), and perhaps you'll be satisfied with a medium portion rather than a large one. But don't kid yourself that these fries are a healthy option.

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