Archive for the ‘Health’ Category

I finally got a chance to grab this link and share a “Snack Smarter” segment that aired on NBC New York and then nationally on Weekend Today a couple weeks ago.

A summary from Elle in communications:

In the segment, the anchor introduces KIND as “delicious” while explaining that she is typically not a fan of bars.  The guest contributor then goes on to  explain that KIND bars are all natural and are “made from ingredients that you can both see and pronounce.” In total, these two segments reached more than 2 million viewers nationwide.

To view the segment, click here.

Some of what Divya Gugnani said:

I did try this. It’s delicious. And I am not a fan of bars, but these are great…

http://www.nbcnewyork.com/around-town/food-drink/Behind_The_Burner__Snack_Smarter_New_York.html

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It’s no surprise that some food labels are misleading or contain empty health claims. KIND recognizes all this fluff and our way to be transparent and fight the marketing gimmicks is by just truly using simple ingredients you can see and pronounce. A recent report examines food labeling and calls for changes in labeling policies, but with KIND, what you see is what you get.

[Read more →]

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The FDA has issued a warning letter to food companies about the importance of accurate nutrition labeling and reprimanded their false or misleading claims.

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A recent study by the journal Health Affairs highlights the substantial increase in children’s snacking habits and analyzes the unhealthy snack foods that they tend to consume. That’s why the right kind of snacking – healthy snacking – is so important.

[Read more →]

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Michelle Obama is poised to highlight the need for society to tackle and overcome the childhood obesity epidemic.  Many forces are arrayed at her, including socio-cultural, as well as economic.  She will need all the help she can get.

The following article lists a lot of ideas for how to fight childhood obesity. But one of the most effective ways is for responsible food companies to craft and market truly healthful products that taste good and are good for you, and that are attractive to kids.  It is not easy. But it can be done.

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Manipulation of serving sizes is a serious problem. At the end of the day consumers need to use common sense and look for nutritionally rich foods and not hide in ’100 calorie’ claims of products with empty calories – ie chips, soda, etc. But it would help society if reasonable standards were enforced so that unscrupulous food companies wouldn’t post silly claims about calorie count or sodium content in the front of the labels, that only a careful observer would realize assumes consumption of a fraction of the product.

This article describes the FDA’s efforts to zero in on the problem. But it doesn’t mention what most of the world – except the US – does. They require every product to list nutritional impact per 100 grams. I used to think that is confusing because you don’t necessarily consume 100 grams of that product. But it creates a benchmark that is easy to compare. And it doesn’t have to exclude an additional column for nutritional facts per portion.

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If you haven’t seen the documentary Food Inc. – you have to.  Like Michael Pollan’s books, this movie will change the way you see food and the world.

If we as consumers and citizens don’t do something quickly to fight back against the food industrial complex, by voting with our dollars, by informing and educating others, and by advocating to the government for more transparency, freedom, and a level playing field for natural foods producers, then the epidemics of diabetes, obesity, environmental degradation, food contamination and inhumane treatment will threaten us further.

Some highlights:

  • Chicken and meat processing is so inhumane, and scary, it makes you feel you can’t avoid but to become a vegetarian – unless you live near Joe Salatin
  • The Food Industrial Complex is abusive, greedy, and scary;
  • corn engineering has created high fructose corn syrup, and the corn lobby has resulted in subsidies for obesity-inducing products;
  • Price distortion from government subsidies causes poor people to buy cheap unhealthy foods made up of corn-derived empty calories – contributing to diabetes and obesity;
  • Otherwise herbivore cows that naturally should feed from grass are now primarily fed corn, causing e-coli contaminations and diseases;
  • Chicken die from the fast weight they put on; and they are treated as tools in an industrial machine – no lives;
  • Monstanto is evil. They hold a ruthless monopoly over soybeans.  They intimidate and sue farmers to use their genetically-modified seeds. Federal and state government agencies have been bought off and serve the interests of the food industrial complex.

Serious work ahead.

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Rating KIND

Published under Health, KIND Snacks, Marketing Jan 25, 2010

Here is a really nice rating from Calorista.com.  They totally get KIND.

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I have received about twenty forwards from proud Jewish friends about Israel’s humanitarian contributions to Haiti – most frequently this CNN video. It is sad how this humanitarian mission gets twisted by opponents (or extreme supporters) of Israel into a political issue.  Disregarding that noise and not connecting it to Mideast policies, a picture is clearly emerging that Israeli technology and services have been at the cutting edge in Haiti, as reported by TIME:

Eight hours later, they were still there waiting for treatment, but Loremas knew that his 18-year-old niece Richline was one of the lucky ones. Like his little sister, whom he had deposited at the same field hospital the day before, she would be getting the best care possible in earthquake-ravaged Haiti. The Israeli hospital can treat only about 100 people a day, but it is the paramount medical center operating in Haiti in the aftermath of the Jan. 12 earthquake. It receives the cases that other hospitals find difficult and cannot manage. Upon entry, patients are photographed, and then they and their electronic records are digitally tracked around the tent complex with bar-coded bracelets. Ninety percent of those in Israeli hands have complex crushed limbs and bones — crush syndrome. But given the severity of the injuries and the conditions in apocalyptic Port-au-Prince, the hospital has had an amazing success rate: of the more than 400 people treated by Jan. 19, only eight had died.

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The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation is investing in community-based solutions to childhood obesity.

[Read more →]

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