Friday, February 27, 2009

6 of 10

Stopped in McDonald's last night before class because I wanted McNuggets (hush) and lo and behold....the 6 piece McNugget is no longer featured on the regular menu, you have to look to the kid's menu and order a 6 piece (a "Mighty Kids" meal option in lieu of the 4 piece) and hope the cashier will just let you get the nuggets and not the whole Happy Meal. The regular menu now features a 10 piece McNugget option. That's right-TEN of them. When I worked at McD's 6 piece was the standard, 9 piece was if one was raging hungry and 20 piece was family size. Now 10 is the norm. Yet, my McNugget box featured the nutritional information, calories, fat, sodium, etc.

So in a nutshell, the portions of unhealthy food are now larger but come with proof of how unhealthy they are. Discuss.

Friday, February 20, 2009

oh for fuck's sake

Seriously?

Here's an idea....eat something plant based.

Friday, February 13, 2009

demos part 2

So I'm doing demos for my green drink today. I forgot my big jar of powder, so I'm using my free sample packages to mix the drink, and feeling stingy with the samples. I get this whiny woman who is going over all the ingredients in the product with me and why this wouldn't be a good product for her. A store employee walks by, and is excited about the product. She's heard about it and wants to try it. I feel grateful and generous after the whiny lady, so I give her one of my coveted free sample packages. The whiny lady begins to walk away but sees me give the free sample to the employee, suddenly comes back wanting a free sample. I ask about everything she said earlier, and she lamely tries to back track. I explain that I'm almost out of product and that I'm reserving the samples to people whom I believe are potential customers. I can tell she was really mad at me, but she couldn't really cover her tracks, and I made up my mind that no way in hell would she get a sample from me. Maybe it was mean, but I can't believe how full of shit people can be.

I'll keep this quick.

You know what I hate?

The Skinny Bitch books.

There's good bitches (assertive women) and there's bad bitches (women who are perpetually in a bad mood because they're on some crazy diet espoused by a former modeling agent and model-turned nutritionist that makes them low blood sugar and cranky.)

I'd be a bitch too, if all I ate for breakfast was a piece of melon.

The diet they espouse is a vegan one- and while that diet may work for some people (it does not work for ME, and I have snarky to back me up with the why), it bothers me that they are espousing it for PREGNANT WOMEN as well, (they have a whole book about how to be a pregnant "skinny bitch") who have unique nutritional needs that are a LOT harder to meet with a vegan diet. I'm also really sick of people who think soy is healthier than organic dairy or goat milk- it's difficult for the human body to digest and it contains phyto-estrogens that can really fuck with your hormone levels. I realize that nutrition is controversial and everybody's body is different, but it annoys that people drink the koolaid without doing the research.

If people cared half as much about actual nutrition as they did about about being skinny, they'd have a lot more success. Want a good book about how to eat? Try Dr. Mark Hyman's Ultrametabolism instead. He's an actual DOCTOR and not a former modeling agent.

Monday, February 9, 2009

I've got to stop feeling sorry for vegetables.


I bought these creepy, albino looking yellow carrot sticks at Stanley's today (they're supposed to be yellow), because I felt sorry for them, knowing that most people probably pick the orange ones instead. But only after checking that they had the same nutritional content.

Who grows yellow carrots anyway? They remind me of that kid's book "bunnicula" about the vampire rabbit!

Sunday, February 8, 2009

Watching old people act like little kids

I have been making extra cash giving demos for a green nutrition powder called Green Vibrance. I mix it with water and apple juice, serve free samples and talk about it to people in health food stores. I'm promoting a product I feel good about, show off my nutrition skills, hand out the occasional business card and I'm giving people little hits of something really nutritious, something I really get a kick out of.

What is most interesting is the variety of reactions when people try it. It's purpose is to be jam packed with nutrients, and fairly bland tasting. It doesn't try to imitate any particular flavor, and it does taste planty. Most people under 40 think it's palatable. A toddler of a friend of mine was bogarting her momma's cup. Most people over 50 stand there and look afraid for a few seconds, take a sip and make dramatic eeewww faces. (Why do these people stop at my booth if they are so phobic?) And then there are those who take a sip, make an indecisive confused face and then make the yucky face once I mention sea vegetables. I figure I'm introducing the concept of eating things primarily because they make us feel good to a larger population. Everything you eat doesn't have to be chocolate flavored or disguised as a candy bar. We have to try it the first time and maybe go eewww before it can become familiar and part of what is "normal."

Thursday, February 5, 2009

from buns to bagels

Nevermind the whole "why are there 8 buns to a pack and 10 hot dogs to a pack?" question; what I want to know is why-despite blueberry bagels being avaiable just about anyplace offering more than plain bagels-strawberry cream cheese is the dominant other flavor instead of oh, I dunno.....BLUEBERRY?

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

I do not like lambics. I want to get that out of the way up front. I do like a flavored beer from time to time. Since we're having an unofficial beer week here at Hangry Central, I'd like to share. Bianca and I went to Lush Wines recently. Well, not that recently, because I'm a bit of a beer horder. She helped me pick out a couple of curious brews: Hitachino Nest Commemorative Ale 2009 and Founders Rubeus. We gravitated towards the beer case in a wine shop, because we're a couple of classy dames.
One of my pals, a well known lambic lover, saw me carrying the bottles away and told me she found the Rubeus disappointing. That only strengthened my resolve to like it. I don't know that I'd buy a suitcase of it, but it makes a nice after dinner beer. It looks like a rose in the glass, but tastes like a good beer with a handful raspberries thrown in. None of that syrupy sweetness found in a lambic.
The Hitachino Nest was a revelation. It's spicy and complex and has an owl on the bottle. How could a girl not love that? The label reveals that Commemorative Ale is brewed with vanilla, coriander, orange peel, nutmeg, and cinnamon. In other words, everything involved in making a kick ass batch of Christmas cookies.
The third flavored beer on my tasting list was a bit of an accident. It followed me home from a tasting at the liquor warehouse around Christmas 2007. Beers, like beaujolais, are best drunk young. I'd forgotten most of a six pack of Sam Adams Cherry Ale at the back of the fridge. Feeling thirsty and broke, I decided to pop one open. Wow. A year in the fridge definitely improved this cherry and wheat ale, bringing the cherry to the front with no skunky aftertaste. It's not bad fresh, but definitely improves with age.