Worker Bees’ Daily Bites
1) Taco Bell’s Fourth Meal Campaign – where they’re advising you to revisit mealtime late at night – is suddenly wrought with a lot of potential for humor in bad taste…and terrible puns. We’re not going to stoop to such low standards, but you can bet someone in the blogosphere will. And all because of scallions – scandalous. Clickativo. Good job, Big Agra. Way to win one for the team.
2) The intersection of morality judgments, motherhood and drugs: the debate over breast-feeding continues. The UK reports epidural drugs induce a desire in the mother to breast-feed; depending on when the drugs are given, there may be some unhealthy side effects; and doctors have concerns about another side effect: guilt in mothers who cannot breast-feed. Clickativity.
3) And the kids up at Evergreen U in Washington weigh in (sorry) on the whole Chicago-foie-gras-New-York-trans-fat fracas, which is apparently beginning to turn into a multi-city competition. Will Los Angeles (if it even notices) be the next to ban an unhealthy food? (What, no more white rice in the sushi?). Will Dallas come down on BBQ sauce? Will we start talking about “bootleg” buffalo wings? “Hooch” hamburgers? You know what the unintended consequences are of banning stuff people love: you get organized crime and mob syndicates. You’d think Chicago, of all cities, would remember that one.
Myspace, blogs, cell phones: the infrastructure exists, people. Soon we’ll see 14-year-old boys pelting city headquarters with ketchup packets on their way to deliver forbidden French fries to suburban housewives whose stressed-out husbands just have to have the hooch. Or not. Hey, we know this is absurd, but isn’t it absurd to live in a country where obesity is so out of control, cities actually ban certain foods?
The Evergreen U article suggests posting menu information instead of trying to tell people what to eat. That’s really logical and reasonable (one of the Worker Bees grew up a stone’s throw from Evergreen, and gosh, are they thoughtful people up there). But while it’s a nice idea, this food problem is way past logical. As Mark questioned last week in his musings on relative gluttony, would people really pay attention to the menu information? No one wants to be told what to do, but let’s face it, gluttony is the backbone of the American diet. So here’s the clickativity. Discuss, Apples!
Read MoreHave you ever dreamed of having a personal trainer at your side to offer guidance, advice and words of encouragement when the going gets tough? (Wouldn’t that be nice!) Wouldn’t it be nice to have someone at your beck and call to give you direction, and assist you through your rigorous workouts? Now you can have all this without it breaking the bank. PumpOne is an innovative approach to providing exercise and workout routines to people on the go. All you need is a compatible iPod, Blackberry, Zune, or any other similar such hand-held device that allows you to store and view color images (jpegs). Their site provides dozens of downloadable workout routines in the categories of strength, weight-loss, endurance, flexibility and heart-health so that you can target your fitness goals. Each routine costs between $19 and $29 and has numerous exercises. With the varying types of workouts and levels 1, 2 and 3 difficulties there is bound to be a routine that fits your needs. Still, don’t be discouraged if you don’t see exactly what you are looking for right away as an expanded inventory is coming this fall when ‘sports specific training for golf, skiing, triathlon training, tennis, wakeboarding, and outdoor pre/post natal and senior workouts’ will be released.
[tags] PumpOne, ipod, blackberry, zune, mp3, personal trainer, gym equipment, fun workout gizmos, exercise gadgets [/tags]
Read MoreIn light of the holiday season this week’s Aaron’s Additions brings you a cool health gadget that could be the perfect gift for the health-conscious loved one in your life. Sony’s new MP3 player, created with workout-wonders in mind, packs tons of features into a distinct shape.
Sony geared their new S2 Sports Walkman MP3 Player (NW-S200) toward exercise buffs by including a stopwatch, pedometer, and a calorie counter so that you can track your workout progress. It is also designed with a water-resistant build so that you never have to worry about handling it with your inevitably sweaty hands.
Apart from these functions Sony has added some innovative elements as well. The Shuffle Shake feature allows you to listen to your music in shuffle mode simply by shaking the player three times. When you are tired of listening in shuffle mode just shake it three more times to return to your normal playlist.
The next inventive design component is the Music Pacer feature. This adjusts the rhythm of your music to match your pace. When you speed up so will the music, and when it is cool-down time the music will revert to your slow playlist.
An additional feature that sets this music device apart is its Quick Battery Charge feature. With only a 3-minute charge you can be listening to your favorite tunes for up to 3 hours! And if you can wait for the full 45-minute charge, you can expect a generous 18 hours’ worth of playback time.
The player comes in a 1 GB model that holds about 675 songs, and a 2 GB model that holds about 1350 songs. The player also comes equipped with an FM tuner with programmable preset stations.
How Sony managed to pack all these features into a package that weighs less than an ounce is hard to fathom. And this mp3 player is light, not only in weight, but on your wallet, as well – coming in at $119.99 and $149.99, respectively. Check out Sony’s S2 Sports Walkman MP3 Player. It could be the ideal workout companion.
[tags] gadget, MP3 player, gym equipment, GB, music pacer, shuffle, Sony S2 Sports Walkman MP3 Player, best portable music player [/tags]
Read MoreRemember the bread-is-to-crumb logic section on the SAT’s? Or how about the interminable hours spent in Mr. Johnson’s English Lit class deconstructing the deeper meaning of that tree in that poem by that guy? The latest and greatest fish debate is worse.
Environmentalists, food lobbyists, and fishermen and women everywhere are in a big huff over whether we should label certain fish as organic or not.
Take a wild salmon and a farm-raised, sea-lice-infested, sick salmon. Which one is organic?
It’s not a trick question. The fish furor (as reported in the New York Times today) is because the government is likely to permit only farm-raised fish to be called organic. That means pristine, wild, icy-water Alaskan salmon cannot be labeled organic.
This is not a joke.
The reason wild, and ostensibly healthier, fish cannot be labeled organic is because we don’t know where their food comes from. And the official requirements of organic food include strict feeding rules. That’s great for a chicken, clucking around in a cage in Omaha. By all means, feed that darn chicken some organic seeds! But the day a wild, clean, natural Alaskan salmon cannot be labeled organic is the day I officially conclude our government employees did not sit through Mr. Johnson’s English Lit class.
The debate gets more complicated (as if we care). Evidently, because salmon are not vegetarian fish, said fish fishers cannot prove that the fish these salmon eat in their natural habitats are also organic. (It’s okay if you have to read that a few times.)
However, a farmed fish, infected with sea-lice, raised so quickly it doesn’t have adequate Omega-3 levels, and crowded in with other fish like, oh, I don’t know…sardines… can be labeled organic. Because we know where its food comes from.
On the other side of the net, one organic-fish-scandal expert says that to allow wild salmon organic status is just really disrespectful to the meaning of organic. Organic, by definition, means organic feed. In other words, we’re following the rules because those are the rules, rather than remembering that rules exist to serve our needs. If a rule doesn’t serve a need or reflect a situation accurately, it needs to be modified. End of story. No deeper meaning, no semantic salmon. Let’s remember the entire reason for starting this organic craze: the realization that we need to go back to natural, healthy foods.
[tags] organic, wild salmon, farmed fish, sea lice, omega-3, Alaska, New York Times, fishermen, regulation, red tape [/tags]
Read MoreJunior Apple Sarah writes: “I just saw something on the news for an e. coli antidote and how it will revolutionize not only the food industry but also healthcare. What ever happened to just making sure that the food and facilities are clean? It’s my understanding that e. coli comes from fecal matter. Is it too much to ask to keep poop off my food? Why do we have to put another chemical in something / everything we eat?” A recent article in the New York Times entitled “The Vegetable-Industrial Complex” deals with this issue at length. Writer Michael Pollan explores how modern food production yields more than bumper crops – it also yields very high potential for significant public health hazards. It’s the law of unintended consequences put to play on the dinner table. I really recommend that you check out the article. In a nutshell: – Modern food production has created two problems out of what was once a single solution. Animals fertilized crops, and crops fed animals. Pull them apart, mass produce them in factories and feedlots, and you have two problems: 1) As it collects in feedlots, manure becomes pollution, full of antibiotics, chemicals and e. coli, leading to the second problem: 2) Crops are now at risk for contamination, which invariably means crops get fertilized artificially. Great for the chemical industry, not so great for small farms, public health, economic efficiency, animals, or the earth. – Calling for local, organic, small-time food production isn’t about being a dread-locked tree-hugger. It’s actually far more logical and economically viable to return to the way we used to do things. Small-scale food production is healthier. It’s easier to trace if something goes wrong, and fewer people are likely to be affected. Small-scale food production benefits small businesses instead of huge single food conglomerates. That means a freer market, more competition, better choice. Everyone wins: small-scale farming is better for the environment and creates a solution whereas now we have two big problems. – Small-scale farming also avoids the current obvious threat of terrorism. The article points out that our meat comes from but a few slaughterhouses. All the bagged spinach in the country passes through just four locations. How easy would it be for a terrorist to contaminate our food? That’s what Homeland Security is wondering. Unfortunately, industrial food production looks to short-term, engineered fixes. When e. coli was found in the beef supply during the whole Jack in the Stomach fiasco of the 90s, producers just blasted the meat. (Pollan writes: Rather than clean up the kill floor and the feedlot diet, some meat processors simply started nuking the meat — sterilizing the manure, in other words, rather than removing it from our food.) Why bother cleaning up the waste? It’s only our health on the line. I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if our government starts requiring that our entire food supply be irradiated. – Finally, well-meaning though it may be, calling for even more regulation … Continue reading “A Reader Rants”
Read MoreLast week we brought you a great new way to track your dieting progress with The Daily Plate. But The Daily Plate isn’t the only ‘Web 2.0’ application in the online universe that is designed to help you cut the fat. Introducing Traineo. The philosophy behind Traineo is that having a coach, friend, or spouse to motivate you through your journey of weight loss is the best way to see results. Having a personal motivator talk you down from that box of doughnuts you were about to consume can pay huge diet dividends. With this in mind Traineo was designed to connect you with people that have similar health goals that may be able to offer words of encouragement and support. If you don’t like the idea of having friends and family follow your weight loss journey you also have the option of allowing other Traineo members track your progress. Having someone there when the going gets tough – someone to motivate you and help you through the difficult times – can be all it takes to push you over the edge and into a healthy lifestyle.
Traineo has a slick interface which makes it a cinch to use. While you can’t pick and choose your food items from a database of thousands of dishes there are many other features that set this website apart. Beside the ‘motivator’ feature, there are online forums, featured articles on health and nutrition, and a ‘My Stats’ page that allows you to track you weight loss over time. The greatest part of this incredible resource is that it is entirely free. If you are looking for yet another tool to help realize your health goals and would like to unite with similarly minded people this may be just the ticket.
[tags] Traineo, web 2.0, Daily Plate, free resources for health, weight loss, online diet help [/tags]
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Ⓒ 2023 Mark's Daily Apple
