Sometimes free isn't really free. So ... before you take up Mars Candy on their offer to give a quarter million people per week a free piece of candy, you might want to consider the actual cost of eating a high calorie, sugar and fat ladened bar.
M&Ms
10 pieces
Calories: 103 calories
Fat from calories: 47
Snickers
One 2-oz bar
Calories: 271
Fat from calories: 122
TWIX
One 2-oz bar
Calories: 286
Fat from calories: 127
3 Musketeers
One 2-oz bar
Calories: 257
Fat from calories: 69
Milky Way
One bar; regular size
Calories: 270
Fat from calories: 90
Dove
1/4 of one bar (3.6 ozs.)
Calories: 330
Fat from calories: 194
FYI ... It's about marketing their product and making money. They're not really giving you anything.
This afternoon I stumbled upon an interesting article in the Las Vegas Sun that got me all fired up as it posed the following question: "If gastric bypass saved you money for morbidly obese people to have weight loss surgery, would you suggest they do it?"
The article clearly skewed toward "the knife," listed a variety of interesting statistics that argued that fat people are costing the taxpayers lots of money.
As the number of obese Americans grows - currently 1/3 of our population, about 72 million people are overweight - and the number of Americans at least 100 pounds overweight multiplies, I need to ask:
Is this the answer to our problem? Sign everyone up for surgery?
In 2007, about 205,000 Americans underwent the surgery. What will the number be this year and next year? What is the long-term success rate? How many people gain the weight back?
As a Weight Loss Coach, I have worked with many who have had surgery and gained it all back. Why? Because people insist upon treating only the food and exercise aspects of weight loss.
Obesity is a complicated issue. It is not solely about how many calories you eat and burn in a day. It is about the food industry feeding us foods that are addictive, it is about our larger-than-life lifestyles, and it is about how we think.
Surgery or no surgery, if you want to lose weight, you need to look at your life as a whole. Who are you and how do you function in all areas of life? It's not about your fat, it's about your life.
It's not that I'm totally against gastric bypass surgery. I just think that people need to think it through and - again - whether you opt for surgery or not, you still have to change your life and in order to do that you have to change your thinking.
Take an honest assessment. Ask yourself, how do I handle the rest of my life? Am I happy? Am I motivated? Where have I been successful? How can I utilize those strategies with my weight? How can I educate myself about healthy eating? What will losing weight give me that I wouldn't otherwise have? How will my life change when I lose 100 pounds? How will I handle these changes?
Food, Inc. is a mind-blowing, stomach-twisting, eye-opening and ultimately heart-breaking film. See it - today!
Filmmaker Robert Kenner 'lifts the veil' on our nation's food industry. Our food supply is now controlled by a handful of for-big-profit corporations who seem to be far more concerned about making money than our health, the livelihood of the American farmer, the safety of their workers or our environment.
This film is more than horrifying scenes of overcrowded slaughterhouses, where animals are forced to graze in pools of their own manure. This movie, for me, is about our most basic rights.
We are being just as manipulated by the largest corporations as the food we are being sold. Wake up!
The manipulation of foods and the feeding of livestock have manifested bigger-breasted chickens. 50 years ago it took 70 days to raise a chicken to slaughter. Today it takes 48. It's unnatural.
The country's top four meatpackers control 80 percent of the beef market. One single fast-food burger might have come from 400 different cows.
The gut of a cow fed on corn breeds the deadliest strains of E. coli, a harmful bacteria that makes an estimated 73,000 Americans sick annually; including the tragic death of Barbara Kowalcyk's young son Kevin, who died from e coli earlier this decade from an outwardly harmless fast food burger.
Farmers are subsidized to overproduce corn, which then goes into Coke, Sweet & Low, diapers, Motrin and cattle feed.
Obesity is at epidemic proportions, and diabetes is on the rise among children and adults alike.
You will be shocked to learn about what you eat, how it is produced and who we, as a nation, have become.
Our freedoms are being taken away from us. Open your eyes.
10 things YOU CAN do! (source: foodincmovie.com)
1 . Stop drinking sodas and other sweetened beverages.
You can lose 25 lbs in a year by replacing one 20 oz soda a day with a no calorie beverage (preferably water).
2. Eat at home instead of eating out.
Children consume almost twice (1.8 times) as many calories when eating food prepared outside the home.
3. Support the passage of laws requiring chain restaurants to post calorie information on menus and menu boards.
Half of the leading chain restaurants provide no nutritional information to their customers.
4. Tell schools to stop selling sodas, junk food, and sports drinks.
Over the last two decades, rates of obesity have tripled in children and adolescents aged 6 to 19 years.
5. Meatless Mondays--Go without meat one day a week.
An estimated 70% of all antibiotics used in the United States are given to farm animals.
6. Buy organic or sustainable food with little or no pesticides.
According to the EPA, over 1 billion pounds of pesticides are used each year in the U.S.
7. Protect family farms; visit your local farmer's market.
Farmer's markets allow farmers to keep 80 to 90 cents of each dollar spent by the consumer.
8. Make a point to know where your food comes from--READ LABELS.
The average meal travels 1500 miles from the farm to your dinner plate.
9. Tell Congress that food safety is important to you.
Each year, contaminated food causes millions of illnesses and thousands of deaths in the U.S.
10. Demand job protections for farm workers and food processors, ensuring fair wages and other protections.
Poverty among farm workers is more than twice that of all wage and salary employees.
Oh My ... more bad news for those (34% of Americans) who are obese.
In a study released by researchers at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine scientists found that overweight people emit more carbon emissions than slim people, because they consume more food and fuel.
The study pointed a finger at the increased demand for livestock production for meat. Cows emit toxic methane. The research also sited higher dependency on cars as a contributing factor.
The authors of this report, Phil Edwards and Ian Roberts, said: "When it comes to food consumption, moving about in a heavy body is like driving around in a gas guzzler.
"The heavier our bodies become the harder and more unpleasant it is to move about in them and the more dependent we become on our cars."
As I read this information, it seemed clear to me that the global warming blamed on obese people is overwhelmingly a by-product of more meat (toxic methane) and the increased use of cars (carbon emissions).
So let's be clear to not blame 'fat' people, once again. Let's agree that it's a good idea to eat less meat, drive less and move more and reverse global warming and obesity trends.
United Airlines is the latest airline to jump on the anti-fat bandwagon and penalize their overweight passengers by charging them, should they not fit 'comfortably' into one seat, for two seats! They say that they are doing this because they received 700 complaints last year about overweight passengers.
In my capacity as someone who knows the 'overweight' landscape well, as an 'ex-fatty' (50 pounds permanently removed 8 years ago), author of two best-selling weight loss books, seminar leader and Life & Wellness Coach, I have a few questions for United Airlines and the other carriers who have adopted this two-seats/two-faced policy.
What other complaints have you received in the past year, and how many? Has no one mentioned the delays, cramped seating (no matter your size), or poor food choices? I'd like to see a full report on complaints.
You say that your criteria for double charging is, "if a passenger cannot close the arm rest, or cannot fasten the seat belt with and extension." Given that 34% of Americans are obese, might you consider making the seats larger?
What if you still receive complaints about those who manage to 'fit in' their seats, but nevertheless, a bulge or a ripple of fat ungulates across the divide? Where will you draw the line or the tape measure?
Will you have a "model" at the gate, as you have a display/image of what size luggage constitutes a carry-on?
You penalize overweight people yet you offer no real healthy choices when distributing your peanuts, snack bars, cookies, et al. Why not offer fresh fruit?
Instead of adding to the problem, creating even more of a stigma for those who are over-weight, why not become a part of the solution? Partner with Life & Wellness Coaches, fitness centers, nutritionists alike. Offer frequent flyer miles to those who create healthy lifestyles. Dedicate a section of your flight magazines to health education.
Step up to the healthy plate and make a real difference.
Oh Goody! Just what we needed; another War! There's the War on Terror, War on Poverty, War on Drugs ... and now the War on Obesity! Governor Paterson announced in a recent press release that he is declaring "War...
Leave Your Rage On the Page by Janice Taylor, Life & Wellness Coach, Cert. Hypnotist, NLP Practitioner, Author, Columnist, Seminar Leader and 50-pound big-time-loser! (Write Janice for free consult) In these particularly precarious and nerve-wracking times of Wall Street meltdowns,...
Betty Boop No Longer Virtuous by Janice Taylor, Life & Wellness Coach, Cert. Hypnotist, Author of the Our Lady of Weight Loss books, and 50-pound big-time-loser. Betty Boop, the first and quite possibly the most famous animated sex symbol...
"Janice Taylor is a 'kooky genius'" ~ O, The Oprah Magazine
Janice Taylor is a Weight Loss Coach and Certified Hypnotist, author, artist and motivational speaker. She is the author of Our Lady of Weight Loss: Miraculous and Motivational Musings from the Patron Saint of Permanent Fat Removal and All Is Forgiven, Move On: Our Lady of Weight Loss's 101 Fat-Burning Steps on Your Journey to Sveltesville (publication date May 15, 2008). Janice is also the creator of the popular e-newsletter Kick in the Tush Club and a 50-pound big-time-loser.
about Janice
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