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So much for first lady Michelle Obama’s healthy eating crusade. Sunday's Super Bowl menu at the White House includes bratwurst, kielbasa, cheeseburgers, deep-dish pizza, and buffalo wings. There will also be twice-baked potatoes, chips and dip, and ice cream. Green salad is available, but why bother when German potato salad is on the buffet?

When we published our first edition of Eat This, Not That: Worst Foods in America back in 2007, we made a lot of restaurant chains very unhappy. But we also made a lot of their attorneys really, really happy, as they soon began earning massive legal fees sending us saber-rattling correspondences on behalf of the food marketers they represented. As 2010 draws to a close, it's time for another walk down the Hall of Restaurant Shame...

Laws requiring U.S. restaurant chains to list calorie counts have not stopped them from offering unhealthy meals that pack in calories, fat and salt, a group that encourages healthy food said on Tuesday. A pancake breakfast providing 1,380 calories, a single-serve pizza that packs two days' worth of sodium and a pasta dish swimming in four day's worth of fat top a list published by the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI). The group, which "outs" the calorie, fat and sodium counts of America's favorite foods every year, said it looked for evidence that restaurants are trimming back...

It takes a while for human beings to read and report on 2500 pages of twisted legislative language so details of the brand new health care reform law are being reported on in bits and pieces. Today, as President Obama and his accomplices were congratulating themselves on the signing of this monstrosity, news reports are informing us that to comply with the law, more than 200,000 fast food and other chain restaurants will have to include calorie counts on menus, menu boards and even drive-throughs.

USA Today reported the results of a study by the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale University, published in the American Journal of Public Health. The Yale University study divided diners into three groups. • One was given menus with the calories listed for the dinner entrees. • Another group was given menus that cited the calories plus a reference number that showed the recommended daily caloric intake for the average adult: about 2,000. • A third group had menus with no calories listed.

Some iced coffees being sold on the high street contain as many calories as a hot dinner, a cancer charity warns. The chief offender had 561 calories, others contained more than 450, and the majority had in excess of 200. It is the combination of sugar, full-fat milk and cream which appear to push some of the cool coffees into the upper echelons of the calorie scale. The World Cancer Research Fund, which identified the drinks' calories, noted healthier versions were available. The "venti" or largest version of Starbucks' Dark Berry Mocha Frappuchino - a limited offer for the summer...

Restaurants underestimating calories? View article...

I am heavily concerned about an expanding social phenomenon that is rolling across our country. We are faced with a national crisis that demands the focus and commitment of every citizen of our country. Trying to cover up the issue, or just ignoring it, will only inflate the problem. Although there have been countless studies, reports, and broadcast hours dedicated to the problem, I have finally been able to digest the issue and have just been able to get my arms around the solution. Lying awake late at night pondering this issue, I realized the answer. It came to me...

Two federal lawmakers have introduced legislation to require fast-food and other chain restaurants to post calories on menu boards and food display tags. The chains also would have to put information about calories, fats, carbohydrates and salt on printed menus. Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) and Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) on Thursday introduced the Menu Education and Labeling Act, called the MEAL Act for short. They said it would help consumers make more informed choices about the nutritional content of the food they are ordering. The bill has the support of many consumer and health groups and emulates legislation signed by...

The West Michigan Whitecaps recently unveiled their new stadium menu and gloating at the top of it is the 4489 Calorie "Fifth Third Burger." This 1.66 pound piece of gastrointestinal wunder, named after team sponsor 5/3 Bank, costs $20 and feeds 1-4 people. If you eat it by yourself and finish it in one sitting, you get a free 5/3 tshirt. Said the team's marketing director, "It's something fun that people can understand."

Sacramento, CA (AP) -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has signed legislation making California the first state to require restaurant chains to reveal how many calories are in their standard menu items.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health)-If the trends of the past three decades continue, it's possible that every American adult could be overweight 40 years from now, a government-funded study projects. The figure might sound alarming, or impossible, but researchers say that even if the actual rate never reaches the 100-percent mark, any upward movement is worrying; two-thirds of the population is already overweight....

New Yorkers have been in the throes of sticker shock since this spring when the Big Apple became the first city in the country to implement a law forcing chain restaurants to post the calorie count of each food in the same size and font as the price. Restaurants have not exhausted their legal challenges, but the city will start fining violators up to $2,000 beginning Friday, say officials with the city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. While some sit-down chains and fast-food eateries are waiting until the last minute, coffee shops like Starbucks — home of the 470...

Obese people are contributing to the world food crisis and climate change, experts say. The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine calculated the obese consume 18% more calories than average. They are also responsible for using more fuel, which has an environmental impact and drives up food prices as transport and agriculture both use oil. The result is that the poor struggle to afford food and greenhouse gas emissions rise, the Lancet reported. It comes as the World Health Organization predicts the obese population will double by 2015 to 700m. In the UK, nearly a quarter of adults are...

New York (AP) -- A federal judge on Wednesday upheld a city regulation requiring calories to be posted on the menu boards of some chain restaurants, calling the rule a reasonable approach to health officials' goal of reducing obesity. The judge turned back a challenge from the New York State Restaurant Association, a voice for the food service industry. "It seems reasonable to expect that some consumers will use the information disclosed ... to select lower calorie meals ... and these choices will lead to a lower incidence of obesity," U.S. District Judge Richard Holwell said. New York City's Department...

The consultancy conducted an online survey amongst 1,000 consumers aged 16 years and over. Eighty-four percent of respondents said they now look at recycling details. For 84 per cent this is just as important as fat content. For 80 per cent it is more important than salt info, for 79 per cent more important than sugar info, and for 70 per cent more important than calorie content. The findings are pertinent at the present time as the nutrient content of food is a hot topic across Europe, since the European Commission published its proposal for new labelling legislation at the...

USING an artificial, no-calorie sweetener rather than sugar may make it tougher, not easier, to lose weight, US researchers said today. Scientists at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, studied rats that were fed food with the artificial sweetener saccharin and rats fed food with glucose, a natural sugar. In comparison to rats given yogurt sweetened with glucose, those that ate yogurt sweetened with saccharin went on to consume more calories and put on more weight and body fat. The researchers said sweet foods may prompt the body to get ready to take in a lot of calories, but when...

NEW YORK - Don't expect to see the calorie count for Burger King's Double Whopper with cheese on the menu anytime soon. Burger King, McDonald's and Wendy's are among the chains planning to defy New York City's new rule that they begin posting calories on menus Sunday. Other big fast food eateries like Taco Bell and KFC aren't saying whether they will comply, but with just days to go until the deadline, the menu boards in their Big Apple restaurants remain unchanged. All are hoping a New York Restaurant Association lawsuit in federal court will get the new regulation thrown...

Every once in a while I run across a bit of information that sounds just too good to be true. When I heard that a group of researchers from Vanderbilt University’s Department of Medicine announced that laughing caused people to burn extra calories, I just had to investigate it. I wondered if there could be at least a kernel of truth in their study, which hinted that laughter might be a way to lose weight. After all, studies have shown that laughter, which has been said for years to be good medicine, can enhance the immune system, reduce stress, and...

WASHINGTON - Oh, the irony. A nation full of overweight people is also full of label readers. Nearly 80 percent of Americans insist they check the labels on food at the grocery store. They scan the little charts like careful dieters, looking for no-nos such as fat and calories and sugars. Yet even when the label practically screams, "Don't do it!" people drop the package into the cart anyway. At least that is what 44 percent of people admitted in a recent AP-Ipsos poll. So attentive, yet so overweight. Two-thirds of people in the United States weigh too much. Why,...