(Stolen from Serious Eats.)

This weekend, the NYT posted a story about the vast amount of food that American’s waste every year, as much as 27% off all food available for consumption. That happens at every step of the distribution pipeline, from factories to your refrigerator, resulting in almost 100 billion pounds of edible food hitting the trash can.

What’s worse is much of that — as much as 98%, according to the article — ends up in landfills, slowly moldering away and manufacturing methane gas. People go hungry, we waste money and the environment suffers. Triple whammy.

Here are some ideas to help cut your wasteful ways:

1. Eat what you buy. When planning tonight’s dinner, try to cook with the oldest food in the house, especially veggies that are past their prime.
2. Compost. For both wasted food and inedible scraps, composting stops overloading landfills and starts putting the valuable energy and nutrients back into the soil. Even better if you’re using the compost to fertilize a backyard vegetable garden.
3. Shop frequently. It might use up a tad more gas, but at least you’ll only be buying what you need for a few days, leaving you a better chance to consume as much as you buy. Goodbye, weekly trip to the grocery.
4. Support reclaimed food charities. Groups like Tampa Bay Harvest work with grocery stores, restaurants and others to pick up unwanted but edible food and get it into the hands of people who need it most. Encourage places you shop to participate, or you can sign up to volunteer. The organization has a great system that pairs volunteers with pick up and delivery routes close to their work and home.
5. Buy less food. The less you have, the less you’ll waste. Maybe it’s time to see the bottom of that vegetable drawer again.

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?

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!

This week, Men’s Health released their annual list of the worst foods in America. For them, “worst” is more a calculation of fat and calories than overall taste, but several items could qualify in both respects. Their targets are big national chains, with McDonalds, Chilis, Chipotle and Macaroni Grill making the list for egregious concoctions designed more for small villages or Dom Deluise look-a-like conventions than the single servings they purport to be.

Topping the list is the Bay area’s own Outback Steakhouse, with their “Aussie cheese fries with ranch dressing.” 2900 calories. 182 grams of fat. It’s nice to know that, yet again, Tampa is leading the way when it comes to dining.

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.

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

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.)

In spite of his penchant for low-end chain dining, Huckabee managed to drop over 100 pounds over the last few years thanks to diet, exercise and God. His big loss spawned a book, a conspiracy theory and a push to reduce the obesity rate in his home state of Arkansas, which is one of the top ten fattest places in the country. Perhaps the most well-received plan proposed by this “small government” Republican are 15 minute exercise breaks for government employees. Sadly, since Arkansas’ smoking rate – 26 percent of adults — exceeds the obesity rate, I suspect that a lot of people will be using that extra time to spark another cancer stick.

I hesitated before posting this. After all, this meal is the last piece of personal control a prisoner has before their death. Airing it out all over the blogosphere seemed a little, well, crass. Then I started looking over the site.

It turns out that a mass of fried chicken, double-meat hamburgers, RC Cola and over easy eggs can be depressing, poignant and revealing. Although there are a few oddball requests, most of the selections are wholeheartedly comfort food, the kinds of things that might remind someone of family and youth and, maybe, of good times. Milk and sweet tea are common, salads and fruit appear more often than you’d think and steak runs a close third to burgers and chicken.

The whole final meal tradition has always struck me as a bit odd. It’s more a ritual to assuage the executioners than the prisoner, one final bit of good cheer and kindness before the needle goes in. Not really a holiday pick-me-up, but check it out if you want a different view of the death penalty, or maybe just some perspective on your own food choices.