The Two Oddest Movie Star Interviews I've Ever Seen

They're today's Funny Friday and they come via the BBC, a young, charmingly awkward man named Chris Stark, and both Mila Kunis and Jennifer Aniston.

Have a great weekend!

GoodLife Fitness Says Partnership with Dare Cookies Won't Help Dare Sell Cookies

Seriously, you can't make this stuff up.

So after I blogged about the contradictory message of Canada's largest national fitness club promoting the purchase of Dare cookies by bundling a 14d free membership with them, Dr. Tim Moran, a medical resident here in Ottawa, decided to write to them,

"Dear Goodlife,

I recently read Goodlife is partnering with Dare Cookies. As a physician I am quite troubled by this strange relationship with Dare cookies given Goodlife espouses to promotes a healthy lifestyle. I am in fact so troubled by this campaign that I am seriously contemplating cancelling my membership, Moreover, I could not in good conscience recommend Goodlife given this corporate partnership with Dare. I look forward to your reply in this matter.

Regards, Timothy Moran MD PhD"

They were kind enough to write him back. In their reply they pointed out that the partnership's intention isn't in fact meant to sell cookies, but rather to help those people who eat cookies as apparently GoodLife Fitness thinks that people who eat Dare cookies could probably stand to join a gym,

"Dear Dr. Moran,

Thank you for your email message and your concern in the partnership with Dare Cookies. I can understand your concern upon reading such information. There is a partnership in place but not in the aspect you might assume. The partnership is not to promote the cookies but the importance of physical fitness directed towards those who might consume the cookies. On certain types of cookies there will be an offer for a 14 day trial membership to encourage those to attend a facility.

I hope this explanation will help ease your mind in Goodlife's intentions.

Should you have any additional questions or concerns please feel free to contact us.

Yours In Fitness,

Shelly
Member Experience Department"

So I set out yesterday to find a co-branded package of cookies and when I came up short (couldn't find any in our local supermarket), I tried a Google search.

While I haven't yet found the package, I did find the graphic up above. It was posted on GoodLife Fitness' official blog and, I kid you not, it was part of a blog post from August 6th which's headline read,

"Looking to beat the summer heat? Why not try this cool, wholesome summer treat!"

And what's the, "wholesome", summer treat being promoted by Goodlife Fitness?

A Dare cookie frozen yogurt sandwich, and, according to GoodLife Fitness, while it formally requires 2 Dare cookies to make it may also require,

"a few extras for tasting"

Oh, and GoodLife Fitness also provides this helpful advice,

"Looking to try other Simple Pleasures cookie flavours? There are 8 in total, all baked with 10 (or less!) simple and familiar ingredients. Choices include Oatmeal, Oatmeal Dark Chocolate, Social Tea, Chocolate Thins, Spice Snaps, Cinnamon Snaps, and Almond flavour.

At GoodLife Fitness, we encourage Canadians to live fit and healthy lives which includes a balanced approach to nutrition. This might include having a cookie after playing with your kids. Through our cross promotion with Dare, we are partnered with their Digestive Cookies."

And lastly - I must point out that the blog tags included on this post were, "Healthy Living", and "Nutrition".

Does this all ease all of your minds about GoodLife's intentions not to sell cookies?

[Thanks for sharing Tim! Good luck with the rest of your residency.]

Can Jamie Oliver, England's Prince of School Lunches, Fix Canadian Supermarket Sobeys?

A press release last week reported that celebrity chef and food activist Jamie Oliver, champion of school lunch reforms, signed a partnership with Canadian supermarket Sobeys to,

"educate, inspire and empower Canadians to eat better"

I suppose the good news for Jamie is that the only way left to go it would seem is up.

Have a gander up above at last week's Sobey's flyer that highlighted what they referred to as, "lunchbox favourites". Sure there are a few cans of fish, but then there's piles of salty white pasta, bags of actual candy, and a fruit drink.

Page 2 wasn't any better and features processed cheese, frozen waffles, cookies, chips, sugar spiked yogurt, pudding and more candy.

Fingers crossed for you Jamie!

Coca-Cola's New Anti-Obesity Ad Provides Truly Valuable Advice (No Kidding!)

Thanks to blog reader and exercise specialist Mike Wigger for sending along the latest in Coca-Cola's anti-obesity ad campaign. It's a commercial called, "Grandpa", and in it they juxtapose Grandpa's then life (which according to Coca-Cola included more walking, smaller meals, biking to work, snacking on fruit, taking the stairs, enjoying the outdoors, homemade meals, eating at the dinner table) with his grandson's now life.



And of course the commonality between Grandpa and his grandson's lives in the advertisement is that Grandpa apparently also enjoyed Coca-Cola with the clear implication being that it's all those other things, not the consumption of Coca-Cola, that a person ought to change if they want to enjoy the same weight and health as Gramps.

But is Grandpa's Coca-Cola the same as your Coca-Cola? Not on your life and so I produced a video to explain what I mean and why it is that I in fact totally agree with Coca-Cola's latest message that we should try to live like Grandpa (and yes, I know my collar looks funny).

Beloved Pre-School Literary Character Teaches My 4 Year Old Fat Hatred

So I was putting my four year old to bed two nights ago. We were reading Kevin Henkes' Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse. It's the one where Lilly adores her teacher Mr. Slinger, but when Mr. Slinger doesn't let her show off what she brought for show and tell, she gets mad.

And when she gets mad she draws an angry portrait of the teacher and leaves it for him.

That's the portrait up above. As you can see, in it she draws Mr. Slinger as fat, wielding both the image and the word as purposeful insults given that Mr. Slinger in the rest of the book is thin. Fat Mr. Slinger is also described as "mean", and "bad", and is portrayed as monstrous.

You know studies have shown that children as young as 3 discriminate against those with obesity. Given the pervasiveness of anti-fat bias in children's books and movies (this weekend we also saw/heard fat wielded as an insult in Despicable Me 2 and The Croods), and society as a whole, I'm betting it's a learned trait, not an intrinsic one.

(Needless to say, that page got modified during the read and the book has somehow disappeared from my daughter's library)

Saturday Stories: Mexican Junk Food, Child Self Esteem, Teenage Sexuality, and Summer Camp

Photo by Flickr's AppleSister

A sad story highlighting Mexico's Junk Food Plague

Luke Epplin in the Atlantic wonders whether or not it's a good idea to perpetually tell kids they can do or be anything so long as they set their minds to it?

Soraya Chemaly with a provocative Huffington Post piece on teenage sexuality.

The Lunch Tray's Bettina Elias Siegel and a great interview with a kids' camp director who's doing kids food right.

[And if you're not following me on Twitter or Facebook, this week's US News and World Report column furthers my thoughts on kids and healthy eating and how this is an adult fight, not one for our children]

A Star Studded Total Eclipse of the Heart

This week's Funny Friday - 18 of your favourite female performers belting out Total Eclipse of the Heart....and all coming from one talented impressionist.

Have a great weekend!

Biggest Loser Pediatrician Joanna Dolgoff Still Misinforming Nation Regarding Childhood Obesity

On The Biggest Loser, pediatrician Dr. Joanna Dolgoff promoted weight losses so rapid that prior to her involvement with the Biggest Loser she herself had cautioned they were unhealthy, and while thankfully there are no kids on The Biggest Loser's upcoming Fall season, that isn't stopping her from using her influential platform to further misinform a nation about childhood obesity.

Her current project is called, "Rally for Recess", and it's a Dannon initiative designed to increase the sale of three of their products - Danimals Smoothies, Danimals Crunchers and Dan-o-nino drinks. It's charitable healthwashing in that with every product purchased schools, parents and kids are encouraged to mail their labels into Dannon and the school sending in the most is awarded a $30,000 playground makeover.

So what are these products?

Here are some photos:

Before I get into their nutritional breakdowns, for perspective, I want you to know that the percentage of calories coming from sugar in Ben & Jerry's Chocolate Fudge Brownie ice cream clocks in at 41%. These products? Of the Danimals Cruncher's 120 calories, 60% of them come from its 4.5 teaspoons of sugar, of the Danimals Smoothie's 60 calories, 66% of them come from its 2.5 teaspoons of sugar (crammed into a serving that's barely larger than a third of a cup with nary a raspberry to be found in its ingredient list), while Dan-o-nino drinks' see an astonishing 80% of their 70 calories coming from their 3.5 teaspoons of sugar.

Of course Dannon's Rally for Recess is a brilliant move for Dannon. It directly encourages the consumption of their products in the name of charity, and by tying it to physical activity and school recess the program perpetuates the myth that childhood obesity is a consequence of inactivity and that childhood obesity can be treated or prevented by means of kids just running around a little bit more. In turn that may lead parents to not notice (or not care) that the yogurt based sugar-spiked desserts they're feeding their kids have a substantially greater percentage of calories coming from sugar than does Ben and Jerry's Chocolate Fudge Brownie ice cream.

And what of recess? A wonderfully objective 4 year study that utilized accelerometers to measure kids' actual activity levels found that even a ten fold difference in physical activity did not protect against obesity.

So what did Dr. Dolgoff have to say about Dannon's products and physical activity in regard to childhood obesity? The "sponsored by Dannon" TV news segment (embedded below) opens with scary childhood obesity statistics, and then a direct tie to decreased physical activity, and then to Dr. Dolgoff who explains that she's teamed up with Dannon because kids weren't getting much P/E at school so she's championing their rally for recess campaign. She doesn't mention that energy intake matters far more than energy output when it comes to childhood obesity. In fact her only real mention of intake involved her pointing out how committed Dannon is to kids that they've quietly cut the sugar in their product lines (apparently they were 25% worse before), and that,

"Dannon is very committed to the health and wellness of kids"

Because what could be healthier than yogurt desserts with chocolate candies or drinks where 80% of their calories come from sugar, or an expert physician spokesperson supporting a marketing initiative that by its very nature encourages those products' excess consumption, or that same expert physician helping to perpetuate the myth that childhood obesity and inactivity are tightly linked and that the problem, or the solution, lies with more recess or simple play?

I'm all for kids running around more, and I'm all for more recess, but to infer simple running around will help with childhood obesity (or that not running around led to childhood obesity) and to help to sell kids and parents dessert as a healthy snack isn't something I would expect from a pediatrician whose specialty is childhood obesity.

The American College of Cardiology's Torrid New Love Affair with Coca-Cola

The mind boggles.

Last month in Forbes Larry Husten detailed how according to the American College of Cardiology's (ACC) Board of Trustees, Coca-Cola and, "its brand fit with the ACC's goals and values", and later how the ACC has tapped Coca-Cola to pay for ACC branded educational programs for its members. Well guess what? Now the ACC is foisting its love affair with Coca-Cola on young families.

Above is a screen capture from the ACC's Cardio Smart page highlighting their promotion of, "Coca-Cola Family Field Day". The event description notes a non-surprising focus on physical activity, and also notes that a Coca-Cola Open Happiness Truck will be in attendance.

Don't know what an Open Happiness Truck is? Here's a video of one such truck in Asia.



But even if the ACC hosted and promoted event didn't have a truck handing out Coca-Cola to children and tying Coca-Cola's brand and beverages to happiness, sport, and by extension of the ACC's involvement, health, have a peek at what else the ACC is promoting by taking a look at the banner just below the Family Field Day description.

That banner, stating, "Balancing Calories with Physical Activity. What is Weighing Us Down? Calorie Imbalance Impacts Us All" when clicked, takes you directly to an ACC hosted, but Coca-Cola designed, infographic. An infographic that anyone who took a moment's time to consider it was able to see right through - including Alanna Nunez from Shape Magazine who had this to say,

"As part of its "Coming Together" campaign, a program that aims to help consumers and their families make smarter choices, Coca-Cola just released a new infographic that blames the obesity epidemic on chicken dishes, bread, and grain-based desserts (while conveniently omitting the fact that the No. 4 source of calories in the standard American diet comes from soda, energy drinks, and sports drinks).

The graphic also highlights the old, outdated idea that "calories in" versus "calories out" equals weight loss...while ignoring that not all calories are created equal. After all, 400 calories of pizza or soda is different than a 400-calorie sandwich made from lean turkey, avocado slices, tomatoes, and whole-grain bread."

The venerable and lovely Marion Nestle also took this infographic to task on her blog,

"The infographic gives no guidance about food choices or amounts best for health, but it is quite specific about physical activity. Do lots!

Overall, I read the infographic as saying “Hey, it’s not our sugar-water that’s making you put on weight. It’s up to you to choose what you drink and work it off with physical activity.”

Getting active is always good advice, but doesn’t Coke’s phenomenally comprehensive and astronomically expensive marketing offensive have anything to do with food choices? Coke must think all that is irrelevant.

I think it’s quite relevant. And so does the research."

And so here we have a family day where the ACC actively polishes Coca-Cola's image, is directly involved in the distribution of Coca-Cola's products, and where Coca-Cola's own blatantly self-serving and self-exonerating infographic is being presented to readers as a formal ACC educational aid.

So what's going to happen on "Family Field Day"? Probably something akin to what happened on the ACC and Coca-Cola's springtime "Family Track Walk" - a video of which the ACC has posted. Keep your eyes open for the Coca-Cola products (including those being consumed by children) and consider the emotional branding opportunities this collaboration provided Coca-Cola in terms of joy, health, and happiness.



Anyone want to take a guess as to why the ACC would partner with Coca-Cola?

Yup, dollars, plain and simple.

Here's the immediate past ACC Board of Governors Chair Dr. Dipti Itchhaporia and current chair Dr. David May with their ACC posted video that expresses their and the ACC's extreme gratitude to Coca-Cola's coffers:



You know I've got nothing against Coca-Cola aggressively promoting its brand, that's the nature of a free market, I just can't fathom how Drs. May and Itchhaporia sleep at night knowing they're leading the ACC, and by extension all of its members, in helping Coca-Cola to do so.

Any ACC members there care to weigh in our this? Do the ends justify the means? Would love to hear what you (and everyone else) has to say.

Your Eyes Aren't Trustworthy!

Today a quick video I made this past weekend.

See that glass up there beside the wine bottle?

Here's another view of it beside one of our usual wine glasses.

And here it is full.

The lesson to be learned here - as predators our eyes are designed to catch moving objects, but not to weigh or measure them.

Don't believe me? Then watch the video.



Bottom line - if you're trying to watch consumption, don't expect your eyeballs to help.

[And a special thank you to the patient who so kindly brought me the glass]

Will Cookie Monster's Latest Video Reinforce Weight Bias?

“Me get this feeling when me see a cookie on a plate.
Me want to grab it but to eat it, oh me no can wait.
But now me know that self control is something me must learn.
Me want to grab it but to it, but me wait.
Me want it.
But me wait.”

Those are the first lines of the new Sesame Street Cookie Monster musical video that according to Sesame Street is about teaching pre-schoolers about delayed gratification and "self-regulation".

Are pre-schoolers really a population who should be thinking about "self-regulation"?

Having been through 3 of my own pre-schoolers I'm dubious that there's a pre-schooler on the planet who will learn to "self-regulate" treat consumption consequent to this video (and let's be fair here too, despite being on film Cookie Monster himself only holds out for 2 minutes and 46 seconds), however I do think plenty will learn that those who can't resist cookies lack self control.

I worry a little bit about that last message as no doubt society will teach them that that's exactly why people are fat - too many cookies and other treats and by extension, lots of wanting it but little waiting, aka gluttony (a message I've seen taught in many G rated cartoons and movies).

So I can't help but wonder whether this video will serve as further cement for future schoolyard weight bullies' unconscious drivers.

Or maybe I'm just way too keyed into this stuff.

You can be the judge:



[Hat tip to author Ann Douglas for pointing my way]

Saturday Stories: Kindness, Science and Henrietta Lacks

Today's must read is the convocation speech George Saunders gave to Syracuse University's Class of 2013 where he makes the case for kindness.

The great Steven Pinker in the New Republic explains how Science is Not the Enemy.

Some closure for those of us who've read Rebecca Skloot's wonderful book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

[And if you don't follow me on Facebook or Twitter this week's US News and World Report column covered the risks of eating on the run and below you'll find an embedded version of my appearance on The Today Show talking about men and dieting]

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Ever Struggle To Open Something?

Sitting in the green room with me a few days ago was a ridiculously ripped young man named Christopher. I asked him what his segment was about (thinking it was probably something fitness related) and his response was, "you won't believe it".

Of course I did believe it because the second he started telling me his story, I jumped in to tell him I'd already seen his video - and that I'd already tee'd it up for my week's Funny Friday video!

I should note too, him saying I wouldn't believe it wasn't in reference to what you'll see on the video, but rather to the amazing virality of the clip (the ad laden version that I did not embed below is now up near a million views) leading him to The Today Show. I'd also like to speculate, it must have been a gag bottle as there is not a chance that the bottle in the video below wasn't rigged, and while the joke might have been on Christopher, he sure has had a rapid ride into the spotlight as a consequence.

Have a great weekend!

(email subscribers you'll need to head to the blog to watch)

Airplane Pretzels - Just Say No!

So yesterday I had the exciting pleasure of appearing as a guest on The Today Show.

On my flights to New York City and back, almost immediately after takeoff the stewards walked down the centre aisle and placed a package of pretzels in front of every passenger prior to asking them for their drink order.

Unlike with the drinks, they didn't ask anyone if they wanted the pretzels, and if you didn't want them, you literally had to hand them back.

No one did, and looking around me I noticed everyone ate theirs.

I opened mine up and tasted one.

Let's just say it was not a party in my mouth.

Honestly the only possible reasons that I could imagine why anyone was eating those things were the simple facts that: A) They were there, and B) Others were doing so (I felt kind of like I was in a Brian Wansink mindless eating study).

Nutritionally they're not much more exciting than they tasted.

Not particularly high in calories at just 60 for the entire teeny-tiny bag, but somehow those scant half ounce of pretzels pack 200mg of sodium coating on their pulverized white flour, spackled with artificial butter flavour, cores.

Next time you're offered these salty, wastes of calories, just say no!

Tomorrow 170 Children's Hospitals Will Sell Millions of Dairy Queen Blizzards

So ridiculous.

Tomorrow is, "DQ Miracle Treat Day", the day where $1 from every Blizzard sold is divvied up via the Children's Miracle Network to the 170 Children's Hospitals it represents (here in Canada it's 100% of the proceeds).

Again, while I'm not knocking Dairy Queen for the event (it makes great business sense), nor am I knocking Blizzards (I'm told they're delicious), what I am knocking are the hospital foundations and administrators who feel that money makes the further normalization and permission of sugar bomb consumption worthwhile. No doubt too events like these help to improve brand loyalty and may well create new customers out of those who, enticed by the charity health-washing, decide to give a Blizzard a whirl.

For those of you keeping score the least damaging Blizzard you can buy (in terms of calories and sugar) is the Mini sized Choco Cherry Love Blizzard. It has 320 calories and 11 teaspoons of sugar. The worst is the large Rolo Blizzard which packs 1,350 calories along with closing in on a cup of sugar (41 teaspoons). The average medium sized Blizzard hits with 800 calories and over a half a cup of sugar.

Seems to me that the "Miracle" here is that junk food has become so normalized (in part due to partnerships like this one) that virtually no one bats even a single eyelash at how obscenely hypocritical these partnerships are.

Why Is GoodLife Fitness, Canada's Largest Fitness Chain, Selling Cookies?

So GoodLife Fitness has decided to partner with Dare Foods whereby if you buy a package of Dare Foods' Simple Pleasure cookies, you get a free 14 day membership to GoodLife Fitness.

As Bryan Brown rightly pointed out on Twitter, there are so many healthier products than cookies for GoodLife to partner with. Which of course is all fine and good, but does beg the question whether or not helping to sell cookies is included in GoodLife's mandate of helping Canadians to live a "fit and healthy good life"

Seems to me we as a nation we could probably use fewer reasons to buy cookies, not more, and that an outfit purported to care about health would know that.

More Evidence It's Not Just Restaurants Where Portions Have Grown

Reminiscent of the work of Brian Wansink and Collin Payne who showed that those few recipes that found in every edition of the Joy of Cooking from 1936 through 2006 grew with time, here's a group from Denmark who've gone and done the same with seminal Danish cookbook "Food" with editions from 1909 through 2009.

What'd they find?

"The mean portion size in calories from a composed homemade meal increased by 77%. The mean portion size in calories from meat increased by 27%, starchy products increased by 148%, vegetables increased by 37% and sauce increased by 47% throughout the years."

Well at least they're eating more vegetables....

Saturday Stories: White Men Talking, Hubris, Ants and Afghanistan

A great piece from Salon and Erika Nicole Kendall on how arguing about whole foods vs. processed forgets about poverty.

Cardiologist John Mandrola on how we doctors need to get over ourselves.

Do you love chocolate? Well get prepared to hate ants.
(by Ed Yong)

An astounding glimpse into what was Afghanistan in the 1960s, before the wars and before theocracies.

And just a housekeeping note - I've just switched RSS and email feed servers to Feedblitz. Seems like everything's working fine, but if you run into any difficulties, please let me know - yonifreedhoff over at gmail.com.

[And if you don't follow me on Twitter or Facebook, this week in US News and World Report I tackle night eating.]

True Facts About the Tarsier

God bless Ze Frank.

Today's Funny Friday video is Frank's ode to the tarsier.

Have a great weekend!

(email subscribers, head to the blog to watch)

What's Your Most Valuable Relationship?

I love my wife.

We've been married now for 11 years, have 3 wonderful children, and I'm regularly and truly awed by what a tremendous human being, mother and wife she is.

But that doesn't mean we never fight.

We probably fought more often at the beginning of our marriage than now. Usually our fights are better described as disagreements and more often than not they last just the course of a heated discussion. Sometimes however, they last an evening. And on extremely rare occasions, they've been lengthier, weeks even, with the impact of our frustrations interfering with the very nature of our relationship and causing us to take real steps backwards.

Eventually though, we find our way back together.

Now if we'd decided to throw in the towel after our first major blowout (which if my memory serves believe it or not somehow began with us arguing over how to install an in-window air conditioner), we'd have been done our first year in. But the reason we haven't thrown in the towel when times have been tough is because we consider our marriage and one another to be tremendously valuable and worth working on in times of need.

I'm guessing you're seeing where I'm going with this.

Living healthfully is tremendously valuable too, and like a marriage, it's a long term commitment. It may be more difficult that first year or two as you truly get to know one another. There are going to be regular ups and downs and out of the blue fights and disappointments. And some of those fights might well last week or months leading you to slide back to towards less healthful living, but if health is something you value, you're going to need to work on it, to nurture it, and sometimes, especially after a major blowout, it may require very slow, gentle, purposeful baby steps, before you find your way back.