Current articles and info about your health

Sunday, 20th July 2008

   home     about     authors     news     books     xml feed     sitemap     privacy     contact us

There are 3 users online

add to favorites
 make home page


Addiction Issues
 Aging
 Allergies & Sinuses
 Alternative Medicine
 Beauty & Health
 Books & Reading
 Common Illnesses
 Community Service
 Diabetic Health
 Dieting
 Diseases
 Environmental Health
 Exercise and Fitness
 Health Education
 Health Industry
 Health Insurance
 Health Legal Issues
 Health Technology
 Healthcare Services
 Healthy Eating
 Medical Equipment & Products
 Men's Health
 Mental and Emotional Health
 Muscle & Back Pain
 Nutrition and Supplements
 Pediatrics
 Pet Health
 Physical Therapy & Massage
 Prevention Health
 Vision Health
 Weight Management
 Women's Health

Our Newsletter

Sign up for our free
Health-Informant.com Ezine
Get all the latest Health news delivered right to your mailbox.

First Name:

Your Email:



We will never rent, share or sell your name to anyone else... ever! We respect your privacy!
  Other Resources


For other sources of health news, tips, and information, visit our resources page

 

  Submit an Article


Would you like to have your article posted? Click Here
 

 
 

Battle of the Bulge in NYC
Added: 06/29/2007
 Type: Summary
 Viewed: 186 time(s)
 [ Not Rated Yet ]
How would you rate this article:    Bad Good   Go » 
Battle of the Bulge in NYC

Fast food chains are fighting a recent New York ruling that says restaurants must put calorie information on their menus. The city has given restaurants until October of this year before they will start handing out fines – but it looks like the battle lines are being drawn.

What have you got to hide?

A spokesperson for the fast food industry says the rules, which require calorie content displayed in type at least as large as the price, will create the need for huge menu boards and confuse the customers. I wonder if they are maybe concerned about something else – like revealing that a typical burger meal adds up to about 1200 calories in a single sitting.

The industry says that they have made calorie and nutrition information available for a long time, which is true. But putting it 10-clicks deep on your website versus in the face of the customer getting ready to place an indulgent order are two different things.

The American Medical Association is backing up the movement in New York. They are asking all fast food restaurants to add nutrition information to their menus everywhere, not just in the Big Apple (which may find more people eating apples after this law takes hold).

The bottom line is that most people have no idea how many calories they are taking in at their favorite fast food stop. Many single fast food meals contain about enough calories for a whole day – but without most of the required nutrition.

The health toll

New estimates from the US government predict that by 2050, when today's elementary school kids are in their mid 40s, we will have 48 million diabetics. Too many trips to the drive through are likely a big factor. Over the past 15 years, we have seen the number of new diabetic cases double per capita.

Diabetes carries with it increased risk of heart disease, blindness, deafness, loss of limbs and all kinds of other stuff you don't want yourself or your kids to deal with. But current trends suggest that 1 out of 3 of today's kids will face these problems. In the small town where I live, we have about 1500 kids in the school district. That's 500 future diabetics just from here, assuming we are an average American town.

The economic toll

Today we spend about $1 out of every $8 health care dollars on the treatment of diabetes or related conditions. The British Health System already predicts their own bankruptcy and collapse due to the increases in diabetes. What are we doing to ourselves? Why are we deliberately shooting ourselves in the foot?

Maybe in the next presidential debate we should encourage candidates to spend less time talking about how to pay for health care and more time talking about how to make it less necessary.

I applaud the movement in New York. I hope that eventually the mega fast food companies will come around to provide us with healthier food that can sustain us well into our old age instead of driving us into and early grave. Vote with your dollars and eventually you will get what you want.
Article Pages:  1  



  Article Comments   Add Comment | View All (0)
    There are currently no comments for this article.


All content © 2008 Webmaster, Battle of the Bulge in NYC :: Health-Informant.com.