"fattening" news and stories

The British Heart Foundation (BHF) is mounting a campaign to educate Britons about "hidden salt, fat and sugar in common foods" to give people some perspective on the foods that they are putting into their bodies and to try to encourage healthy eating habits. Their focus, for the moment, is on crisps. A survey done by the BHF revealed that 49% of children from 8-15 ate at least one package of chips (crisps) each day, and 20% ate two or more. They are consuming roughly 5-liters of cooking oil every year at that rate, or about 1 1/3 gallons.

Crisp-addiction isn't limited to kids, though. As a whole, the nation consumes "a tonne of crisps every three minutes, enough to fill an Olympic size swimming pool every 14 hours." Using the number provided by the BHF, which says that the average 1.2-oz packet of chips has 2.5-tsp of oil, there are about 950-gallons of cooking oil consumed for every tonne (2,204 lbs) of crisps, a massive amount over any length of time.

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A few weeks ago, we took a peek at some of the world's largest pizzas, and while this pizza might not qualify for that list, it definitely deserves a title of its own. It is one of the most bizarre pizzas that I have ever seen: the Aussie Hangover Cure. It should have been called the McCheeseburger Pizza. The pizza not only has four McDonald's cheeseburgers topping it, but an entire order of large french fries, both under and on top of the burgers, as well as bacon, cheese and tomato sauce. I won't hazard a guess as to the calorie content, but it's safe to say that it is a lot. And as for it acting as a hangover cure? It strikes me as something you might eat the night before you wake up with a hangover, not something you'd crave in the morning.

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Most of the individually packaged cookies sold in supermarkets and cafes are the size of CDs and at least 1/4 inch thick. These cookies often have 2-4 servings per package, making the nutritional information on the label seem deceptively low. Nana's all-natural cookies, sold primarily at natural foods markets such as Whole Foods, are one of the few cookies that are that large and still have only one serving. With a calorie count below 300 for each cookie, Good Housekeeping magazine got a little suspicious that these cookies might be too good to be true. They had the cookies tested at an independent lab and discovered that the Oatmeal Raisin had 460 calories, not the 264 listed on the label, and almost twice as much fat as claimed. The results were just as bad for their sunflower cookies.

To be sure, there are probably worse cookies - nutritionally speaking - on the market, but since all we have to go on is what the companies put on the packaging, it might be safe to keep in mind that if something really seems too good to be true, it could just be.

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Fabe's All Natural Bakery supports healthy living and says that their products are "good for you" because they are free from refined sugar, artificial ingredients and preservatives. While that is certainly an aspect of foods that are "good for you," it seems like they are exaggerating the healthy qualities of their food. After all, a block of organic butter is still not health food, despite being organic.

The most glaring example of this might be their Healthy Dieter Blueberry Muffins. The low-carb muffins are low in sugar, but have 250 calories each (2.5-oz) and 18g fat, including a whopping 41% of the daily maximum intake of saturated fat and 41% of the daily maximum intake of cholesterol. The first ingredient in the muffins is cream cheese - and that doesn't make them sound very muffin-like. The only redeeming feature is that they don't appear to contain any gluten, though the site gives no indication as to whether they are prepared in a gluten-free environment.

Healthy to some? Perhaps, but to say that it is a muffin for more than a handful of "healthy dieters" is an overstatement.

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Most people are already aware that you should not give your dog chocolates - but what about your elephant? Elephants are largely vegetarian and apparently like chocolate quite a lot. That doesn't mean you should let them indulge, though. Raja, who at 45 is the most famous elephant in Sri Lanka, has become very ill after eating too much chocolate and other fattening foods. The chocolates, deep-fried cookies, sweet rice and fermented pineapple slices were fed to him by fans while celebrating the Buddhist New Year.

The monks who care for the elephant found him in great distress, writhing on the ground, the day after the celebration. A vet said that his digestive system could not cope with the fattened and processed foods or "the cookies... literally are soaked in oil." There is now a sign outside his enclosure which reads "Do not feed the elephant."

[Image Yahoo!]

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