Eat My Florida

They’re sex on the half-shell. The classic aphrodisiac. Just the thought of those glistening gobs of mollusk muscle sliding down your throat is enough to send a shudder through Pfizer. But can oysters be too sexy?

Well, sure. Just like with humans, an oyster’s unhealthy fixation on its own naughty bits are sure to bring chafing, hairy palms and STDs. “Oh, that’s just a cold sore!” Sure, you pretty little huitre plate, you keep telling yourself that.

According to Reuters, oyster herpes actually kills the little guys — to the tune of 40-100% in most French cultivating beds this year — instead of merely making them social outcasts whose only goal is to spread the disease through lies and casual sex. Apparently, the cause is simple - when the weather is warm and there’s plenty of food, oysters spend all their available energy pumping up their sexual organs at the expense of their immune systems. Hard to blame ‘em.

Brilliant reporting Reuters, by the way. No mention at all whether infected oysters can transfer their seaborne herpes to people who down them with a nice Sancerre and capable mignonette. Nobody’d be interested in that, I imagine.

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Sort of. Greenpeace recently released a study that ranks supermarket chains by their commitment to sustainable seafood. Since GP essentially advocates taking a break from any type of fishing — not a bad idea, considering the apocalyptic scenarios outlined here — they are understandably a bit harsh in their ranking system. In our area, Whole Foods ranks highest, with a whopping 4 out of 10 points. Wal-Mart, Sam’s Club and Target manage to eke out a 3, while all the typical supermarkets — Publix, Sweetbay and Winn-Dixie — fill the bottom of the list.

In other news, food personality Alton Brown announced he’ll be shifting the focus of Good Eats. “”I’ve been busy being clever, but now I want to use what credibility I may have to help people think about sustainability,” he told grist.com in an interview. He even offered to ride along with Greenpeace, saying “somebody needs to sink the Japanese tuna fleet. Everyone’s willing to point the finger, but nobody’s willing to pull the trigger.”

Damn, concerns for sustainability on the Food Network? Maybe they should have a talk with Paula.

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Grass Root is by far the best vegan/raw restaurant in the Bay area. Ok, it’s the only vegan/raw restaurant around these parts, but you’ll still find a bevy of dishes that even an omnivore would love (especially that delectable miso soup). Owners Spencer and Sabrina Sterling “cooked” up this part vegan/part raw menu for a breakfast (or anytime) meal that they say will heal your body and help the environment just as much as it relieves your budget. Better yet, there is very little effort involved, since a lot of the ingredients are bought pre-prepared.

Check the recipes — and the Sterlings’ comments about the healthful nature of the dishes — after the break. (more…)

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Wal-Mart and McDonald’s have pulled tomatoes from some of their stores in response to an FDA warning about 145 cases of salmonella. The feds have yet to pinpoint the source of the outbreak, but a lot of companies are getting proactive in the wake of problems like the Taco Bell lettuce incident of a few years ago.

Luckily, local tomatoes, especially heirlooms from places like King Farms in Myakka (available at the Brown Groves booth at Sarasota’s Downtown Market on Saturdays), are still in season. Buy local, save yourself from 24 hours of hugging the porcelain receptacle.

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“The average mother of a child under 15 spends more on fast food every year than on books, music, movies and video games combined.” (NYT)

(Stolen from Serious Eats.)

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• Ethical Seafood - “The portrait he paints is grim: oceanic dead zones that, because of pollution and overfishing, can no longer support organic life; salmon farms polluted by pesticides and disease; ruthless bottom trawlers with nets that can destroy entire ecosystems.” [Salon]

• Deadliest Catch - “Of all the dishes served in all the restaurants in all the world, you could argue, the particular seafood delicacy I’ve come fourteen time zones and 6,800 miles to ingest is the one that’s most likely to kill me dead.” [NY Mag]

• Not So Deadly Catch - “And a group of scientists served it in March at a Tokyo tasting event for some 40 chefs and restaurant-related businessmen. All ate. All survived.” [NYT]

• Paula Deen, Sweatshop Promoter - “Protesters like Al Sharpton, Reverend Jesse Jackson, Susan Sarandon and Danny Glover are expected to show-up and chastise her affiliation with Smithfield, a North Carolina-based food plant notorious for brutal, inhumane working conditions.” [Serious Eats]

• Chain Restaurants? “Surprisingly decent” says the NY Times - “Their saintly patience might have been tied to the balmy weather, or perhaps to the knowledge, deep in their cholesterol-imperiled hearts, that the meal ahead would involve giant portions and joyous noise.” [NYT]

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• “Shortages are reaching crisis proportions in even the most highly developed regions, and they’re quickly becoming commonplace in our own backyard, from the bleached-white bathtub ring around the Southwest’s half-empty Lake Mead to the parched state of Georgia, where the governor prays for rain.” [Wired]

• “I go alone during the day to collect my water from the lake but I get scared because there are bandits along the road and dangerous gases that come out from the lake.”[Guardian]

• “Long-term refugees like Fathiya, in well-established camps, do not live in immediate fear of hunger. But they must devote about every hour of the day to the job of getting their families fed.” [Guardian]

• “Under a little-known international treaty called the Convention on International Civil Aviation, signed in Chicago in 1944 to help the fledgling airline industry, fuel for international travel and transport of goods, including food, is exempt from taxes, unlike trucks, cars and buses.” [NY Times]

• “I could theoretically do all that, but what would be the point when I know full well that halfway around the world there lives my evil twin, some carbon-footprint doppelgänger in Shanghai or Chongqing who has just bought his first car (Chinese car ownership is where ours was back in 1918), is eager to swallow every bite of meat I forswear and who’s positively itching to replace every last pound of CO2 I’m struggling no longer to emit.” [NY Times]

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Although it’s tied up in the courts thanks to a last minute injunction, this week was supposed to be the start of the New York City Department of Health initiative mandating posted calorie counts on the menus of any restaurant chain with more than 15 outlets nationwide. Here are some of the early reactions, thanks to a few chains that kicked it off despite the delay — NY Times, NY Post, Village Voice, Midtown Lunch.

If only Florida could be so enlightened. Sadly, here in the Sunshine State you have to dig deep in the murk to find out the impact of your morning Frap and scone, or the taco salad at the Bell. Here at Eat My Florida, we want to make it easier for you to wallow in the angst of your dining decisions, so here’s a list of links to the nutrition section of every chain in the area. Here’s a teaser — bloomin’ onion = 2275 calories.

Eat it and weep:

• Burgers: McDonald’s, Burger King, Wendy’s, Evos, Krystal, Five Guys, Whataburger, Hardee’s, Fatburger, Sonic, Steak N Shake,
• Chicken: Chick-Fil-A, Popeye’s, KFC, Pollo Tropical, Church’s,
• Other Fast Food Sandwich Joints: Arby’s, Subway, Miami Subs, Quiznos, Blimpie, Jersey Mike’s, Jimmy John’s,
• Other Fast Food: Taco Bell, Long John Silver’s, Chipotle, Moe’s, Panera, Boston Market, Pei Wei Asian Diner, Panda Express,
• Pizza: Hungry Howie’s, Sbarro, Pizza Hut, Papa John’s, Godfather’s, Dominos, CiCi’s,
• Breakfast, Smoothies, Coffee and Sweets: Dairy Queen, Baskin Robbins, Dunkin Donuts, Krispy Kreme, Smoothie King, TCBY, Einstein Brothers Bagels, Starbucks, Denny’s, IHOP, Bob Evans,
• Casual Dining Chains: Buffalo Wild Wings, Hooters, PF Chang’s, Chilis, TGIFiday’s, Outback, Applebee’s, Olive Garden, Ruby Tuesday’s, Carrabas, Sonny’s, Red Lobster

Who’d we miss?

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• “April 12th’s Saturday Night Live featured three clips of Ashton Kutcher dressed up as a giant chocolate bar with a killer instinct, cute mime clown face and all.” (Thanks Serious Eats)

• “What was supposed to be a temporary financial safety net for imperiled family farmers has become a huge boondoggle for a fraction of wealthy farmers, including landowners who’ve never gotten close enough to a barn to slip on the manure.” (Thanks PBS.org)

• “A simulated outbreak of the disease — part of an earlier U.S. government exercise called “Crimson Sky” — ended with fictional riots in the streets after the simulation’s National Guardsmen were ordered to kill tens of millions of farm animals, so many that troops ran out of bullets.” (Thanks AP)

• “Planners couldn’t come up with enough organic or sustainably grown food from Georgia to nourish just 600 people over two days.” Hmm, maybe I’ll have to start giving back to my alma mater. (Thanks AJC)

• “Smart owners, of course, have always carefully watched their costs, but when every bill comes with a “gasoline-price surcharge” and fewer people are walking through the door, it’s hocus-pocus time.” (Thanks WP)

• WORLD FOOD CRISIS UPDATE: “Cropland is suddenly in heavy demand, a situation that is fraying old alliances, inspiring new ones and putting pressure on the Agriculture Department, which is being lobbied directly by all sides without managing to satisfy any of them.” (Thanks NYT)

• WORLD FOOD CRISIS UPDATE: “When millions of people are going hungry, it’s a crime against humanity that food should be diverted to biofuels,” said India’s finance minister, Palaniappan Chidambaram, in an interview.” (Thanks WSJ)

• WORLD FOOD CRISIS UPDATE: “As we know in the past, sometimes those questions lead to war,” he said. “We now need to devote 100 percent of our time to these questions.” (Thanks NYT)

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Anyone who’s been following my frequent recent posts about the world-wide spike in food prices and the manifold problems associated with that will be familiar with some of this info. But in researching items for CL’s Green Issue next week, I found that biofuels are a big part of the problem.

Science Magazine recently calculated that “biofuels made from waste biomass or from biomass grown on degraded and abandoned agricultural lands planted with perennials incur little or no carbon debt and can offer immediate and sustained GHG advantages.” Not bad, until you realize that developing nations are clear cutting at record rates to either plant biofuel crops or compensate for the switch from grain for consumption to fuel grain in other areas. That’s when the shock comes - “Converting rainforests, peatlands, savannas, or grasslands to produce food crop–based biofuels in Brazil, Southeast Asia, and the United States creates a “biofuel carbon debt” by releasing 17 to 420 times more CO₂ than the annualgreenhouse gas (GHG) reductions that these biofuels would provide by displacing fossil fuels.” Not very eco-friendly.

Here’s the formula for biofuel crisis: US farmers switch from soy to corn to take advantage of the demand for biofuels. Brazil sees the demand for soy, and chops their rainforests and savannahs into neat little soy fields. Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia don’t want to be left out of the bio-boom, so they clear-cut vast swathes to plant oil palms, displacing farmers and increasing food prices.

In 2006, more than 40,000 hectares of forest were destroyed every day. Deforestation puts more greenhouse gasses into the air than all the planes, trains, ships and automobiles across the world. Think about that before converting your car to “green biofuel.”

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Anyone who wants to find both a good – and another bad — side to the ongoing economic woes of our fair country just has to look at their bottom line. Or, more accurately, the line of their bottoms.

Lately, local food and health advocates have stapled a silver lining onto the recession by claiming that higher prices of industrially-produced corn, meat and soy – caused by elevated oil prices, among a bevy of other factors – means that people will be eating more fruits and vegetables from local farms, since those prices have stayed largely stable. That’s good for the environment, public health and the local economy. The NYT had a piece about this today, featuring quotes and wishful thinking from luminaries like Michael Pollan and Alica Waters.

The problem is, prices for local and organic fruits and vegetables are only “bargains” in relation to those industrial products’ increased prices. That’s great for the environmental- and health-conscious middle and upper classes who already seek out better foods. But, mass-produced food is still less expensive and easier to obtain, especially for lower-income families, which means the unhealthiest, most inexpensive commercial foods might see as big a jump in consumption as local and organic products.

Burger King CEO John Chidsey nailed that problem in a Wall Street Journal Q & A last week: “It’s very hard for me to imagine that the economy could ever get so bad that somebody could not afford to go buy a Double Cheeseburger from McDonald’s or a Whopper Jr. from us for $1. If you go to the grocery store, I really challenge you to find something for under $1.”

When I tried the Food Stamp Challenge last year, I experienced those same issues. Making the best out of a small budget and and healthy desires takes precious time that the working poor don’t usually have in abundance. When money is tight, really tight, healthy eating falls quickly to the convenience of a cheap and filling fast food meal.

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Need to cut the budget? Tampa’s own Victor Crist (no relation to the guv) wants to cut Department of Corrections expenditures by reducing the food available to inmates. Does anyone get the idea that Charlie Crist is a tad upset over this douche bag’s similar name?

Right now, the state mandates 3200 calories per day per inmate. Crist (no relation) wants that cut to 2700. That’s despite the fact that a 5′9″ male who weighs 160 pounds and exercises an hour a day requires over 2900 calories.Ya’ think most inmates are 5′9″ and weigh 160?

Besides the money saved, think of the unexpected results of such a change:

• Inmates will be slimmer, healthier and live longer, costing the state more in the long run.
• Prison economies will move from sexual slavery, toilet gin and cigarettes to pudding and fish sticks.
• Instead of being sent out on work gangs and road crews, inmates can be sourced to fashion shoots and couture runway shows — which equals more revenue for the state.
• Keeping inmates hungry is a tried and true way of controlling prison populations.

Although the Department of Corrections used to have prison farms and bought local foods from Florida growers, now the state contracts prison food service to large corporations like Aramark. And, to no one’s surprise, Aramark would like to cut caloric outlay to 2100 calories per inmate, claiming they could save $15 million per year. Why are you aiming so low, Aramark?

While researching prison food for a story I’m working on, a friendly, anonymous source in the department of corrections encouraged me to “ask about the loaf.” The “Management Loaf” is a diabolical tool that prison officials dole out to those lucky inmates who — often in solitary confinement — refuse to cooperate fully with the guards. The prison kitchen takes leftovers and untouched food of all varieties and mashes them together, slaps the resulting concoction (which one prison worker described as “chunky vomit”) in a loaf pan and bakes it into a solid, over-cooked mess of calories. The loaf is usually served cold and prisoners have reported that it causes “gastric distress, cramps, diarrhea, and bloating.”

Slice and serve. Yum.

Perhaps we could call it the Crist Surprise (no relation) and serve it to everyone in the system, regardless of behavior. Maybe next he’ll turn his attention to school lunches!

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A Purdue University study funded by the National Institutes of Health recently found that consuming artificial sweeteners instead of sugar may result in weight gain. Rats were fed snacks of yogurt (some sweetened with saccharine, some with sugar) before their regular meals. At the end of five weeks, the rats fed yogurt with artificial sweetener gained 20% more weight on average than rats fed the sugary snack.

This comes on the heels of another recent study that tracked 9500 adults for nine years to find underlying conditions that contribute to heart disease, diabetes, obesity and other conditions commonly referred to as “metabolic syndrome.” No surprise that Michael Pollan’s dreaded “Western diet” accounts for much of the increased problems, but diet soda is the biggest villain in the story. People who drink one diet soda a day have a 34% higher risk of developing the syndrome than people who drink no diet soda.

Looks like I’ll be getting a packet from the Calorie Control Council soon, just like the info from the fine people at Big Corn.

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Looks like all the local school districts have complied with a USDA halt on the use of beef from the Westland Meat Products packing company. If you missed the scandal that broke last week, here’s the sum up:

The Humane Society videotaped workers at the Westland packing plant resorting to extraordinary means to get some obviously damaged and sick cows to get to their feet and walk into the plant. You see, cows that can’t move of their own volition are not allowed for human consumption. How do you convince a sick cow to walk to it’s own slaughter? Shoot water up it’s nose, roll it around on the ground with a forklift, jam it with cattle prods; you know, a typical Saturday night.

You should watch the video. It’s enlightening.

Westland is the second largest supplier of meat to the USDA’s National School Lunch Program. Sorry, was the second largest. Tough luck, Westland.

If that video wasn’t enough to put you off your lunch for the next couple of weeks, here are a few of the best cruelty videos of the past few years:

Foie Gras

Meat Your Meat

Tyson Slaughterhouse

Butterball

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The NYT had one of their seemingly annual food analysis projects hit the paper today. This time they tested sushi-grade tuna from NY-area restaurants and markets for mercury levels. Turns out even raw fish’ll kill you.

Tuna at five of the twenty places they tested had mercury levels so high the FDA could actually pull the fish from the shelves, or, well, your plate. This time the wealthy gets hit the hardest — the most expensive tuna comes from prized giant bluefin and, since they’re bigger, they have time to absorb more mercury.

The study concluded that, on average, people who eat more than six pieces of tuna sushi a week will be exceeding the FDA’s recommended blood mercury limit. That’s assuming, of course, that the rest of the week you refrain from eating anything else that might contain the pesky mineral.

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After writing about Michael Pollan’s new book last week, I received an email from your friends at the Corn Refiners Association. Nice to know that they’re examining local media for stories that might cast aspersions on nutritious and wholesome high fructose corn syrup.

Here’s the letter:

Dear Editor:
The January 16 article “Chew on this,” may mislead consumers about high fructose corn syrup.
New research continues to confirm that high fructose corn syrup is safe and no different from other common sweeteners like sugar and honey.
High fructose corn syrup is a natural sweetener and has the same number of calories as sugar. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration granted high fructose corn syrup “Generally Recognized as Safe” status for use in food, and reaffirmed that ruling in 1996 after thorough review.
High fructose corn syrup offers numerous benefits, too. It keeps foods fresh. It enhances fruit and spice flavors. It retains moisture in bran cereals and helps keep breakfast bars moist.
Consumers can see the latest research and learn more at www.HFCSfacts.com.

Audrae Erickson
President
Corn Refiners Association
1701 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, D.C. 20006
(202)-331-1634

(Thanks to nataliedee.com for the image.)

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Appearing later this week in lieu of the weekly restaurant review:

This space is usually devoted to appraising the kinds of food that we eat pretty much every day, served by people who devote their lives and livelihoods to its preparation. Rarely do I delve into the nitty-gritty of America’s relationship with food. It’s a complex subject, easy to ignore in the face of so many damn fine things to eat.

In some ways, 2006’s Omnivore’s Dilemma — arguably the best food book of the decade — changed all of that, at least for me. In Omnivore, author Michael Pollan broadly set the scene for dietary self-examination, detailing the history of our unhealthy relationship with corn and soy and lamenting the distance (both physical and psychological) between our plates and the sources of our food. In the process, he fleetingly raises a couple of troublesome questions: Why do we eat what we eat? And, perhaps more important: What should we eat?

In Defense of Food, Pollan’s latest book, is his answer.

(more…)

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Michael Pollan — author of the Omnivore’s Dilemna, the best food book of the past decade — had a brilliant op-ed piece in the New York Times yesterday about this year’s Farm Bill. I could talk about the piece here on the blog, but you should just read it for yourself. Bottom line — the Farm Bill will affect more people in this country more profoundly than almost any other piece of legislation passed by Congress. Pay attention.

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I haven’t seen a map this scary since hurricane season two years ago.

Make sure to watch the animation, that tells the real story of the growth of obesity in the US. Thanks to CNN.
(via our friends in Atlanta)

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Click on healthydiningfinder.com and plug in your zip code.

Nice to know that a healthy meal is so close to home.

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