Smorgasboard of Links

This has been a great week for interesting little articles about nutrition and food culture in the US. This post is dedicated to pointing a few of the highlights out. If you're sitting at work and you're board, I highly recommend these articles. (I suppose I would recommend them even if you're not bored and you're not at work... but who really reads blogs when they have something better to do?? ha!)

Tear Up the White House Lawn!
This comes from TakePart.org... a neat site that has articles on a ton of different topics. In this article they suggest that the next president should tear up the White House lawn and plant a garden in order to set a better example for Americans. Gardening, after all, not only encourages people to eat their fruits and veggies but it also forces people to get outside and get active. I would love a president with a green thumb, but could it ever happen? Would the large veggie corporations in California and Florida send hit men to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave and replace a strawberry patch with a neatly packaged container of organic spinach? I don't know...

Explosive Truth about Twinkies
This article, also originally posted on TakePart.org but the link is from the repost on EatingLiberally.org, talks about the book by Steve Ettlinger called Twinkie, Deconstructed. It also has a great You Tube clip of a 1960 Twinkie commercial in which a mom talks about how important it is to serve the children Twinkies. "They're only young once!" she says... I thought this was really interesting especially after reading the chapter in Wansink's book about comfort food and where we develop certain predilections towards snacks, desserts, or entrees.

Free Lunch
This article is from the New York Times this week and is can be tied into my last post on conspicuous consumption and how it affects food choices. In the article they talk about how many students who receive free lunch do not eat it because they don't want to be seen eating it. Free Lunch is not cool. This makes perfect sense. Certain food is seen as a status symbol so despite the fact that these students may be hungry, they will pass. Very interesting.