Junk Food

Eighteen billion dollars. That is how much money American taxpayers have paid since 1995 to subsidize the production of four junk food ingredients: high fructose corn syrup, corn syrup, corn starch, and soy oil. Instead of using our tax money to produce healthy fruits and vegetables, the dollars major agribusinesses receive from the federal government too often ends up as empty calories. This is government waste at its finest. It's even more ridiculous given that rates of childhood obesity have tripled in the past three decades.

Food banks across the country are adopting policies to make sure the people they serve get nutritious meals, according to Yale research. The groups that help feed the hungry are concerned about the rise in obesity and other illnesses even in those people who cannot afford steady meals, the researchers at the Yale Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity found.  The study was published in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. Many who have problems buying food can only afford staples that aren't the most nutritious.

At a time when nearly a third of Maryland children between ages 10 and 17 are either overweight or obese, you'd think there'd be a law against selling junk food and sugary drinks on school grounds. Wrong. While many in-school cafeterias in Maryland, including those in Baltimore City, are making a good-faith effort to put more nutritious foods on their menus - more fresh fruits and vegetables, fewer fatty burgers and fries - as long as kids can scarf down the less-healthful alternatives available in vending machines on the premises, the fight against childhood obesity will remain an uphill battle.

By now all of the Twinkies, Ho Hos and other Hostess baked goods have been stripped from grocery store shelves — and countless tributes paid via Tweets, blogs and Facebook posts. After more than 80 years in business, Hostess declared it was going under last week, dropping off the last of its Wonder Bread and Zingers deliveries, possibly ending jobs for more than 18,000 people, and marking yet another sad demise of a venerable American business institution. Now, in a perhaps ill-fated 11th-hour round of negotiations with its workers, Hostess is struggling to escape the Great Recession sandpit, or get bought out. Yet this octogenarian snack king is really just the victim of another movement sweeping the country over the past couple decades: "low-fat" and "health food" trends, and the current government-sponsored anti-obesity campaign.

The federal government doled out taxpayer subsidies last year that went to support $1.28 billion in junk food, an analysis by MaryPIRG found. In a report released Wednesday the consumer advocacy group said that since 1995 $18.2 billion has gone to support junk food. The amount is enough to buy 2.9 billion Twinkies a year, the group said. In comparison, about $637 million subsidies has gone towards apples since 2005, enough to buy 77 million apples per year. About 75 percent of the subsidies go to just 3.8 percent of farmers, the group said.

First Lady Michelle Obama is on a mission to get our kids to eat healthy, but every now and then she is known to indulge on a cheeseburger or other food that is not so good for the body. A few years ago she made a lunch run with staff to a Five Guys inWashington, D.C. Well, a physicians group said this is a no-no and wants Michelle Obama and the rest of the first family not to be photographed eating unhealthy foods. The Physicans Committee for Responsible Medicine said that President Obama has posed in a number of staged photos eating unhealthy foods, including hot dogs at a basketball game with British Prime Minister David Cameron.

In a few days, Congress will return to reauthorize the State Children's Health Insurance Program, or SCHIP. The program will pay for expanded coverage for children through an increase in cigarette taxes. The logic is to raise revenue while discouraging a behavior harmful to child health. Instead of a cigarette tax, however, Congress should address the health problem that research indicates is the greatest crisis facing America's young people by taxing junk food instead. The new epidemic facing American children is obesity.

YOU DIDN'T object when they forced motorcyclists to wear helmets. It's for their own good, you figured. And it was no skin off your nose, since you don't ride motorcycles anyway.You didn't protest when they passed mandatory seat-belt laws. You couldn't see what the big deal was -- after all, you've always buckled up.You didn't say anything when they pushed tobacco ads off the air, or when they drove up the price of cigarettes with sin taxes, or when they tried to classify nicotine as a drug.

INDIANAPOLIS -- Duke center Christian Laettner had more to think about than stopping Nevada-Las Vegas in last night's second semifinal game in the National Collegiate Athletic Association tournament at the Hoosier Dome."

CHICAGO -- The nation's premier science organization urged Congress yesterday to consider restricting the marketing of junk food to children if food companies do not cut back on their own, upping the stakes in the national obesity debate. The new report by the National Academy of Sciences is considered the most authoritative review to date of how junk food ads and marketing threaten the health of young children. To help reverse that influence, the report recommends that food companies stop targeting kids with "spokescharacters," such as SpongeBob SquarePants and Barbie dolls, to promote foods high in calories and low in nutrients.

Your recent editorial on childhood obesity calls on the state legislature to ban school vending machines that sell junk food ("Easy call in obesity fight," Aug. 23). But why every perceived problem demands a legislative solution is beyond me. Don't school principals already have the authority to determine what is sold in their school's vending machines? And if principals don't, what about county superintendents and school boards? If none of these officials have the authority to determine what will be sold in school vending machines, or even whether such machines should be allowed in the schools, what have we come to?

Eighteen billion dollars. That is how much money American taxpayers have paid since 1995 to subsidize the production of four junk food ingredients: high fructose corn syrup, corn syrup, corn starch, and soy oil. Instead of using our tax money to produce healthy fruits and vegetables, the dollars major agribusinesses receive from the federal government too often ends up as empty calories. This is government waste at its finest. It's even more ridiculous given that rates of childhood obesity have tripled in the past three decades.

At a time when nearly a third of Maryland children between ages 10 and 17 are either overweight or obese, you'd think there'd be a law against selling junk food and sugary drinks on school grounds. Wrong. While many in-school cafeterias in Maryland, including those in Baltimore City, are making a good-faith effort to put more nutritious foods on their menus - more fresh fruits and vegetables, fewer fatty burgers and fries - as long as kids can scarf down the less-healthful alternatives available in vending machines on the premises, the fight against childhood obesity will remain an uphill battle.

The federal government doled out taxpayer subsidies last year that went to support $1.28 billion in junk food, an analysis by MaryPIRG found. In a report released Wednesday the consumer advocacy group said that since 1995 $18.2 billion has gone to support junk food. The amount is enough to buy 2.9 billion Twinkies a year, the group said. In comparison, about $637 million subsidies has gone towards apples since 2005, enough to buy 77 million apples per year. About 75 percent of the subsidies go to just 3.8 percent of farmers, the group said.

First Lady Michelle Obama is on a mission to get our kids to eat healthy, but every now and then she is known to indulge on a cheeseburger or other food that is not so good for the body. A few years ago she made a lunch run with staff to a Five Guys inWashington, D.C. Well, a physicians group said this is a no-no and wants Michelle Obama and the rest of the first family not to be photographed eating unhealthy foods. The Physicans Committee for Responsible Medicine said that President Obama has posed in a number of staged photos eating unhealthy foods, including hot dogs at a basketball game with British Prime Minister David Cameron.

Unless I completely misinterpret this story ("Fatter folks, sicker bay," April 20), which is easy to do any time a "lefty" talks, it is a complete load of garbage! When the writer suggests that the health of the Chesapeake Bay is affected by the obesity of those who live near it, I have to respond that this is just another desperate attempt to lay blame on people, which usually is a precursor to another invasive law and a further erosion of freedom and liberty. He writes about a book he is reading by medical researchers and associates their findings with meanderings of his own mental deficiency and says, "It's intriguing to compare graphs these [Bay health]

ALBERTVILLE, France -- Bread. Water. M&M's. French fries.Herschel Walker calls this the diet of champions. In the world's culinary paradise, on the world's greatest sports stage, this millionaire athlete is dining on junk food and dreams.Yesterday, the former Heisman Trophy winner, the running back from the Minnesota Vikings, made his debut as a pusher-brakeman in the two-man bobsled at the 1992 Winter Olympics. And he did it fueled by bread, water, M&M's and french fries.On an icy, serpentine course in La Plagne, Walker took two rides with driver Brian Shimer, of Naples, Fla., in USA I, and was ninth in 2 minutes, 1.61 seconds.

Trix are no longer for kids -- at least not on children's television shows. But Cocoa Puffs are another matter. Trying to convince critics they don't need government regulation, 11 big food companies, including McDonald's, Campbell Soup and PepsiCo, have all agreed to stop advertising products that do not meet certain nutritional standards to children under 12. Some, such as Coca-Cola, have already pulled all such commercials or are in the process of...

Figured out your kids' Halloween costumes yet? The holiday season is almost upon us - the candy, then the pies, roasts, hors d'oeuvres, champagne, and finally the resolutions. Before it begins, let's borrow a play from the political playbook and move our first primary event of the season a week earlier. I'm talking about Food Day. Like Earth Day, an environmental holiday celebrated annually as a consciousness-raising event in schools since 1970, Food Day - being observed for the first time today - hopes to raise awareness of how America eats and why. The overarching goal is to promote healthy, affordable food produced in a sustainable, humane way. Created by the independent, nonprofit Center for Science in the Public Interest, Food Day offers something for everyone.

The worst time to throw a junk food social for your colleagues is during an earthquake. In her farewell column , Laura Vozzella mentioned that I was setting up for a Junk Food Social when the earthquake hit. Stupid planet ruined my party. The new Golden Oreos Fudge Cremes were a big hit. Andy Rosen brought Fruity Pebbles and Golden Grahams. Michael Sragow contributed a new kind of Buffalo Wings Pringles. Erik Maza showed up with Nutella. The party was cancelled but the salty and sweet treats nourished the newsroom, and Vozzella promised me she was relieved not to be the center of attention.