I don't know why it didn't occur to me to check back in on our friends at Sweet Surprise. Perhaps I figured they'd give up on their advertising campaign promoting high fructose corn syrup? Thankfully not! If their last two commercials didn't sway you, this one certainly will:
"That means 1) one daily serving of leafy, green or yellow vegetables. 2) At least one serving of citrus fruits, tomatoes, cabbage or salad grens. 3) At least one serving of potatoes or other vegetables and fruits. 4) At least one serving of milk or a milk product .... 7) Optional: one serving of butter, margarine or polyunsaturated oils."
Some of the hottest new food fashions are hardly nutritious: croissants, with 65 percent fat (compared to 2 percent in bread); many not-so-lean and salty gourmet frozen dinners; quiches loaded with fat, salt and cholesterol; fatty and salty toppings stuffed into nearly fat-free baked potatoes; upscale yogurts made with high-fat milk and sugared fruits and flavorings; soft drinks artificially sweetened with medically controversial NutraSweet. And, ironically, the health-food industry, which helped to fire the interest in wholesome foods, has lost its innocence. Now, it pushes a bevy of highly processed candy bars, cookies and chips, often aligned on racks near the health-food store checkout counter.
Consumer demand for healthy fast food has started to change the face of the industry. Wednesday's anticipated "light menu" launch by Taco Bell will try to capitalize on the consumer demand for more healthy choices, but according to El Pollo Loco Director of Marketing Lou Franson, the giant PepsiCo subsidiary's good intentions are off the mark."Healthy food -- such as the flame-broiled chicken, pinto beans and Spanish rice that we have served for more than 20 years -- is a rare find in the fast-food industry," he said.
Students can pick up fast foods, including hamburgers, french fries, fried chicken and doughnuts, on the way to and from school, Austin says. Some high school students can go off campus at lunchtime to eat it, she notes. "Five days a week we send children to an environment where there's an abundance of high-calorie, low-nutritional-quality, inexpensive food."
Google News recently announced they would be providing scanned archives of old newspapers, so I thought I would take this opportunity to see how food headlines and advice has changed over the years. Starting in 1935, I searched for "healthy food" at 10 year intervals and picked one of the top few results. Here is what I found:
"The popularity of prepared meats such as ham, liverwurst or bologna has grown rapidly within the last decade. Meats used for cold cuts must be sound, wholesome, lean and freshly taken from the slaughtered animal.It is essential then that one who secures products of this type be assured of the integrity of the packer and the wholesomeness of the product. Bacterial multiplication takes place in such products very quickly under improper conditions."
"A decent American diet will be maintained. Our food supply is adequate to keep America healthy and vigorous even though we shall have to make some adjustments in particular foods."..."As a result, the average American, who last year consumed 89 pounds of sugar, will receive only 72.1 pounds this year."
"For example, when you go into a restaurant for lunch, perhaps you have to wait for a table, then wait to be served. Unless you're relaxed, you'll sit there seething at the delay. Deliberately change your habitual response to this situation. Get a newspaper, read and relax. Otherwise you'll respond with tension. This tension is relayed to the muscles in your innerbrain - and from that nerve center to your stomach, heart, salivary glands, etc. And this is the way appetite and assimilation of food is impaired."
"You needn't, and shouldn't spend over 20 percent of your budget on food, no matter how little you earn. During 1963, the average family spent less than 19 per cent for our eating at home."
Thanks to both Fast Food News and The Accidental Hedonist for this bit of news.
Apparently, there is enough of a building consumer push towards healthier food that the industrial food complex (I love how evil that phrase sounds, don't you?) is running political food ads. High fructose corn syrup is getting a bad rap these days, and according to them, for no good reason.
Obviously it's perfectly natural and healthy - it's made of corn after all! Well, here are a few other things made from corn:
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