Eat My Florida

You may want to set that drumstick down before reading this, because the plump bird that gave its all for your dinner didn’t lead the happiest of lives. Surprised? Didn’t think so. But it’s very important to understand where your food comes from, whether it’s a tomato from Ruskin or a piece of fish farmed in China.

I present this information to you not as a PETA proponent, nor one of those macho carnivores who assumes that animal cruelty is an oxymoron. It’s just information; use it how you will.

From egg to grill, for better or worse, here’s the lifecycle of the average American chicken: (more…)

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After a week of bad news for Florida and the Bay Area, we’ve finally gotten to a happier story:

Only a little over 1 in 5 Floridians are obese! That puts us at a very respectable 34th most obese state in the nation! Yeah! (Maybe it’s all the food poisoning.)

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I got a call from Dave Hackett today about his website gototell.com. Don’t worry if you’ve never heard of it, it’s new. Along with a lot of empty content he’s working on filling, gototell has a fantastic search page that lists restaurants that have been fined by the inspectors of the Florida Department of Hotels and Restaurants. Start here and you’ll be able to plot the worst offenders on Google Maps, see a list off all the places fined over the past 2 years, or navigate the State page to look up inspection reports.

Think it’s cruel? Don’t. The State is pretty lenient and usually gives restaurants time to correct problems before it escalates to slapping a fine. According to Hackett, “the fact that you’ve been fined says to me that you were at the very best, forgetful, or at the very worst it was something seriously bad.” Check it out before you eat out.

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According to this report, Florida restaurants are Number One! Yeah! More food poisoning than any other state!

Screw you California (#2), with your paltry 62 cases of food-borne illness. What up Ohio (#3)? 38 is the best you can do?

These numbers are for 2005, so let’s hope that we can continue to keep the crown through the end of the decade.

(Thanks to Dave Hackett.)

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In honor of the first day of school, here’s a quick glimpse into the stomachs of the Bay area’s future:
Hillsborough menus, Pinellas menus, Jesuit offerings, Tampa Prep.

I think it is damn sweet of the county to cut the crusts off the PB&Js for the elementary kids, but do the high school kids need that, too? Jesuit seems to offer just catered fast food, while Tampa Prep doesn’t offer much choice at all, which might explain why everyone goes here. Honestly, the public school kids seem to have a huge leg up on the preppies, dining wise. At least until you start pulling foie gras burgers and lobster tacos out of their brown paper bags.

And, of course, the ultimate ode to hash slingers everywhere:

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This weekend’s NYT had an article discussing how if you drink bottled water you basically hate the earth and puppies and such. In the fashion section. Oddly enough, it may take the arbiters of style to fill us with enough guilt to stop the mountains of plastic from growing.

You may have already heard the recent spate of scary stats — 30 billion bottles of non-sparkling water sold to Americans in 2005, only a quarter of the bottles are recycled, in 2006 Americans spent more than $10 billion dollars on the stuff, drank more than 28 gallons each. Maybe the stupidest part of the whole evil business? 40% of bottled water comes from the public water supplies. Yep, filtered tap water (I’m looking at you Aquafina).

Not only should you stop buying the stuff, you should start telling your favorite restaurants to stop carrying it. Unless, of course, you aren’t fashionable and you hate the earth.

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Are you kidding? Anyone who’s ever had a hot Krispy Kreme, or the aji sauce at Maria’s Chicken, or Alessi’s pizza knows that food addiction is real!

Seriously, though, I can easily see where training the body to expect certain chemical triggers — sugar and salt and fat and the like — could turn into addiction. I just need a little something to keep me going, maybe a small fries, or even just a half a Snicker’s. C’mon, help a brother out. Ooops, I forgot I said “seriously”.

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Can someone tell me why people get so worked up over a little cheval burger, but have no compunctions about downing a pork roast or rib-eye? If it doesn’t bother you, here’s a recipe.

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St. Pete Times has an article today detailing a case where the vegan upbringing of children is being used as one (of many) reason to challenge custody.

The dad — who is seeking to gain custody of 10 year-old quintuplets — is not claiming that the children are unhealthy. Still, the Times decides to make the case for him by irrevocably linking this custody battle with two very different cases involving child deaths by neglectful raw or vegan parents, then tries to mediate that by providing evidence that vegan child-rearing can be safe when done properly.

Way to randomly create a news story from one line of a custody brief, Times.

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Horse meat is good for you and, according to this Guardian podcast, most of it comes from the US. Equilicious!

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Thanks to the USDA and the Almond Board of California, now your almonds may be treated with carcinogenic motorcycle fuel that’s been “banned by both the National Hot Rod and American Motorcycle Racing Associations, where it had been used as a fuel before being deemed too dangerous.”

Well, I’ve guess all that unused hot-rod fuel has to go somewhere. (Thanks to Chow.)

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The nation’s first, FDA-approved over-the-counter diet drug — Alli – went on sale this week. Simply put, the pill blocks some of the fat we consume from being digested and can — according to your helpful friends at GlaxoSmithKline — increase weight loss by up to 50%.

I’ll be honest, the pill is tempting, but not for the straightforward reasons you’d think. One consequence of the pill is that a meal with a lot of fat can produce explosive, uncontrollable bowel movements of questionable consistency.

Yikes. That’s an incentive to eat right.

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Article in Wired about a pill that expands in your stomach, making you think you’re full. Could this be used for training?

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Just in case you didn’t realize, soda is bad for you. Nothing like a tasty beverage to shut off parts of your DNA. If I drink enough, will it turn me into a superhero? Uh oh, maybe it’s shutting off parts of my brain, as well.