Diet and Fitness

We’ve followed the career of Takeru Kobayashi for some time now – he’s the guy who wins all the hot dog eating contests, and for a while, these kinds of competitions were the only entries we’d put in the fitness category, because the concept of competitive eating as sport made us giggle. It’s always been our hope that some day someone would come up with a veggie-dog version, but Dagda Samildanc sent in an inkling of the next best thing: Hong Kong just held a vegetarian dumpling eating contest, which Kobayashi won. It’s always nice to find a veg-friendly career transition for people. Unfortunately, this might be a blip, as the final event of the competition involves pork buns. While gluttony shouldn’t really be encouraged, one supposes that there’s another reason most of these events aren’t veg-positive: with modern slaughter rates what they are, there’s an incredible amount of less-desirable byproducts produced, and they’ve got to go somewhere (for reference, see “what do they do with the udders?”)

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I was away for the long weekend, and look what happens: Atkins filed for chapter 11 (that’s the internal link from da imp‘s journal, comments there please). While most of the commentary has already been commentaried, I’d like to point out this gem: President and CEO Mark Rodriguez says the company has “adjusted out organization to accommodate a smaller business.” If the company gave as much long term thought to their financial diet as they did to their heart strangling, kidney busting food plan, I suppose it’s no wonder they’re in bankruptcy hearings now.

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I can’t find it anywhere else online other than this pay site, but I’ve got a submission here that says Eric Schlosser’s Fast Food Nation is going to be a textbook at a Manhattan public school. We’re talking more than 1000 copies. Smaller scale uses of the book have been sighted as well, and according to publisher Harper Collins, it’s one of their fastest-growing adoption titles. I read it in 2002 when it came out, and while it’s not a vegan publication, it’s an incredibly informative book. I just wish we could get something like this on the shelves every 6 months instead of every 10 years…

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As originally posted by catgurrl978 (comments there, please, I just want to front page the story), a new study has found that children who drink more than 3 servings of milk per day are prone to being overweight, even if it’s low fat milk that they’re chugging. The study took “other dietary factors” into account, so these kids probably aren’t just getting heavier from having more than three servings of everything in the fridge. This story is notable because it appears to fly in the face of recent publicity campaigns promoting milk as a tool for weight loss (although the dairy council claims they meant “more milk while on a calorie reduced diet). As reported here, this isn’t the first study to examine the dairy industry’s claims of milk-induced weight loss, but this one was inspired by them. Personally, I’d imagine a dairy-based diet would be pretty effective, as I wouldn’t have much appetite for anything after thinking about what’s swimming inside me and what the cows went through to make the milk.

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Dave Noisy reports that British Columbia prisoners can finally get vegan meals. This has been available in federal prisons for quite some time, but apparently each province has a different concept of human rights, or at least the case seems to need arguing at every institution. I don’t quite understand what the problem is, since a vegan meal will generally be cheaper, store easier, and (I’m guessing) will probably reduce the levels of aggression in prison in general. This news doesn’t change my summer vacation plans any, but it’s good to see vegan food options show up in more and more places, even if this particular place doesn’t rate too high in the Zagat/Michelin guides.

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inobgirl was the first to report that the US has turned the mighty food pyramid into 12 different pyramids. This is apparently in recognition of the fact that the “one size fits all” solution hasn’t stopped obesity from reaching record levels since the original pyramid’s introduction in 1992. Ever attentive to the spirit of change, if not the letter, I plan on celebrating the arrival of our new geometric overlords by piling all my future meals into similar shapes. Anyway. More information on the new system is available at MyPyramid.gov. On the plus side, the new layout has food groups stretched vertically, and if you read from left to right, the 1st 3 1/2 groups are vegan-friendly.

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bfischer sent word of a different kind of animal testing in schools: a Florida school district is experimenting with healthier school menus. While they’re not vegan, and the study is being conducted by a center founded by the creator of the South Beach Diet, the new school menus have a much higher emphasis on whole grains, fruits, and vegetables, and since the goals of the study are to see if schools can actually serve more nutritious foods and if kids will even eat them, I’m thinking this could be a great stepping stone to some good things in school cafeterias. I don’t know much about school lunch programs in the USA, other than what I saw in Super Size Me and read in Meat Market, but I’ve spent the past four years reading article after article about childhood obesity, and this is the first good news I’ve seen in awhile.

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Dave Noisy found the funny title of the day: U.S. bad for immigrants’ waistlines. While obesity is relatively rare among those new to the USA, after they’ve lived there for 15 years, they’re pretty much at the same weight as those who’ve been there all their lives. I’m just posting this to get a thought out of my head – it’s like having a song stuck in there, but ideas are somehow harder to shake – I was having a drink with someone visiting from the UK, and he asked if all the restaurants in Canada served “American portions” or if that was just a Toronto thing.

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It’s not exactly vegan related, but it’s interesting just the same: Dave Noisy reports that getting more sleep may help you lose weight. Apparently people in a study who slept more each night were thinner than those who stayed up late, and while the article points the blame at production of two hormones, I’ve also seen stories about sleep deprivation affecting the body’s ability to process carbohydrates properly. Now, I’m not a *real* scientist, but I have a third theory that could explain things: it could also be that people who sleep more are more likely to sleepwalk, which would of course burn more calories than just lying there. I know, I’m brilliant, Nobel prize in medicine, here I come, yeah yeah yeah.

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