snackdown! - 3.5.10

on tuesday, health affairs released a study that tracked children's snacking habits from 1977 to 2006, a study that found that children snack three times a day and take in an average of 600 snack calories per day, a 168-calorie increase over children in the late seventies. since everybody's got their panties in a bunch about snacking these days, as if the dietary habits of children is the biggest thing we have to worry about, every news outlet on the planet decided to report on the study. children are snacking too much! they're turning into tiny michelin men! won't somebody please think of the children! blah blah blah. get over it people.

• reason #1 that constant snacking & eating isn't a bad thing: olympians do it. on tuesday, the national post took a look at the dietary habits of olympic athletes to see if we could learn anything from them. it turns out that we can. the article notes that "if there is one good behaviour that unites many top athletes, it's their habit of eating frequent meals and snacks throughout the day." "eating a balanced snack every few hours can help regulate blood sugar, maintain energy throughout a busy day and reduce cravings and overeating at mealtimes." as long as you're not sitting on your ass all day snacking on doritos & cookie dough, constant snacking is just fine. suck on that, snack haters! (national post)


• it's girl scout cookie season & last sunday in southern cali, six chefs gathered together for the "smart cookie chefs' challenge fundraiser," an event where each chef created a dish using girl scout cookies. while two of the chefs went the obvious route & made tasty desserts, the other four created "savory recipes that included crab, pork, chicken and lamb." we're talking dishes like "carrot, apple and daisy-go-round stuffed pork tenderloin on creamy polenta with a pinot noir reduction" & "chicken breast stuffed with peanut butter patties, prosciutto and coachella valley dates." those both sound amazing, but ultimately, the people's choice award went to geoff bogorad, who used lemonade cookies to create lemon-crusted crab cakes. (the desert sun)


• today was the final day of snaxpo 2010, the annual snacking convention that this year was held down in dallas/fort-worth, home to such snack kings as frito lay. snaxpo, which is now in its 73rd year, was attended by over 2,000 "snack food professionals." with all the attention being given to unhealthy snacks these days, it's a crucial time for the convention, as more & more, snack manufacturers have had to come up with ways to appeal to concerned consumers while still producing tasty snacks. the most important takeaway from the event: snaxpo is "the world's biggest trade show," once again proving that snacks rule. (nbc dallas/fort-worth)


• in new zealand this week, weight watchers announced that they were teaming up with mcdonald's to offer three "weight watchers approved meals." it makes TOTAL sense, because when i think of dieting, the first thing i think of is fast food. the three meals--the filet-o-fish meal (with a side salad & drink), the six pack chicken mcnuggets (with a side salad & drink) and the sweet chilli seared chicken wrap (with a drink but no salad)--are each worth 6.5 points, about a quarter of the 28 daily points allowed as part of a weight watchers' diet. unfortunately, all three meals have enough sodium to choke an elephant. (seattle post-intelligencer)


• popcorn's pretty much our national snack, an air-popped treat that folks often rely on to make the cinematic crap that comes out of hollywood tolerable. not everyone loves popcorn though & on wednesday, just in time for this sunday's oscars, slate's rosecrans baldwin decided to pen "an admittedly irrational screed against popcorn." why? four reasons: he can't stand popcorn. he hates the smell. he thinks it "looks like sheep shit." as studies have pointed out, a tub of movie-theatre popcorn is entirely unhealthy. if americans stopped eating so much of it, we could divert those kernels to ethanol production & reduce our dependence on foreign oil. while he admits that his hatred of popcorn may be irrational, at least he's passionate about it & in his mind, that's all that matters. (slate)

Comments

[kd]

As I'm upset to give you my attention (I already feel the regret of taking the time out in my day to comment on your blog), your take on "snacking" and childhood obesity is misleading and inappropriate. Olympian "snacking" is with healthy meals that do not contain "girl scout cookies" mcdonalds filets or any other sort of unhealthy food. The theory of snacking aka small frequent meals is to keep the metabolism strong and prevent the body from being in a catabolic state.
If anything, your misconception (and lack of knowledge) of snacking is what promotes unhealthy, ignorant (in the "snacking" realm) people. We all know that you don't care about childhood obesity, but that doesn't mean you have to a complete douche about it

[parowpyro]

kd - sigh. i'm feeling a sense of deja vu here. do you happen to own a "fitness related business?"

i love the conclusions that you're drawing. while i don't think i'm lacking for snacking knowledge, i've never claimed to be one who's dispensing advice on healthy eating. regardless, nowhere in this post do i tie "olympian snacking" to girl scout cookies, mcdonalds filets, or any other unhealthy food. saying that i do so creates misconception.

in fact, i say that it's not a good idea to be "sitting on your ass all day snacking on doritos & cookie dough" & comment that mcdonald's meals "have enough sodium to choke an elephant."

as for childhood obesity, i may sound like a "complete douche," but it's not that i don't care about it, it's that folks are going crazy over it these days at the expense of more important issues.