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You are here: Home / Archives for food pyramid

Did Congress Declare Pizza a Vegetable?

November 25, 2011 by Scott "Q" Marcus Leave a Comment

A “meme” is a basically a “thought virus.”

Meme transmitting ideas
In the same fashion that influenza infects one person, replicates itself and then spreads to another, eventually infecting large numbers of a population; memes follow the same process through the consciousness of our culture, affecting (or “infecting” if you wish) the way we react or behave. Unlike an “urban legend,” which is a widespread false story wrongly accepted as fact; or a “fad,” which is a behavior that explodes in popularity and quickly dies; a meme is more akin to a belief or a concept that affect our view of society — and therefore how we react to it.

As illustration, a recent diet meme was “carbs are bad, protein is good.” This spread so quickly and deeply to the point that some honestly believed that scarfing down a one pound bacon cheeseburger — providing you avoided the bun — was a healthy method of dropping weight. This misguided all-protein diet meme spawned several variations of fad diets. Currently, although the meme might remain, those diets are mostly debunked.

Today’s column had its impetus because I was (once again) irritated with an action by our “leaders.” In this instance, the meme currently winding its way through conventional wisdom is that Congress has defined pizza as a vegetable. The underlying logic (if indeed it can be classified as such) was that since a certain amount of tomato paste equates to a “vegetable,” and whereas there is more than said amount on pizzas; they too would therefore be classified as vegetables.

I imagined children being told by their parents, “If you don’t eat your pizza, you won’t get any dessert,” or seeing the old food pyramid returning with “pesto-chicken pizza” or “double pepperoni” on par with carrots and lettuce. (We can only wish.)

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Diet, Newspaper Column, Rant Tagged With: carrots, chicken pizza, congress, conventional wisdom, current events, double pepperoni, fad diets, food pyramid, influenza, lettuce, pizzas, protein diet, tomato paste, urban legend

How to Correctly Use the Food Pyramid’s Replacement When Stressed

June 7, 2011 by Scott "Q" Marcus

As you might know, Michelle Obama, greatly concerned with childhood obesity (and rightly so), has recently revised the food pyramid. Personally, I thought the original food pyramid was pretty easy to understand, but a few years ago, they decided to update it.

The older version looked like this:

I thought that made a lot of sense and was pretty simple to follow. However, I don’t make the rules, I just play with them. So, The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) changed the food pyramid in spring 2005 because they wanted to convey a better example of how to eat healthier. The “new and improved” (?) pyramid was based on the best available scientific facts concerning links between diet and good health and addressed flaws in the original food pyramid. The intent was laudable. The results? You decide:

In my humble opinion, it’s a mess. But, maybe that’s just me.

So fast forward to last week when Mrs. Obama decides to change it to make it easier for children (and those of us who are wrinkled children) to understand. The whole “pyramid” concept is dropped in favor of a plate, which makes sense.

Here’s the latest:

Actually, I think it’s simple and easy to understand. It also looks quite contemporary.

There’s just one problem.

It doesn’t address real life. I mean, after a stress-filled, running-all-over town kind of day, are you really going to come home to an exciting meal where the main components are Kale and Bulgar? I don’t think so.  So, with that in mind, I proudly announce the “choose my plate” model for stressful days. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Current Events, Diet, Exercise, humor, Weight Loss Tagged With: childhood obesity, department of agriculture, department of agriculture usda, diet, food pyramid, food standards, michelle obama, stress, stressful days

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