The Deets

The Freakonomics blog points to a study that found a correlation between the food options and obesity rates of residents:

The study found that neighborhoods with dramatically more fast-food restaurants and convenience stores than supermarkets also have significantly elevated rates of obesity and diabetes.

Here’s a nugget from the press release about the report where I’ve placed an emphasis on the last sentence:

THE LINK BETWEEN LOCAL FOOD ENVIRONMENTS AND OBESITY AND DIABETES

The study found a strong and direct relationship between the RFEI of the area in which someone lives and their likelihood of being obese or having diabetes. California adults living in high RFEI (Retail Food Environment Index) areas (RFEI of 5.0 or higher) had a 20 percent higher prevalence of obesity and a 23 percent higher prevalence of diabetes than their counterparts living in RFEI areas of 3.0 or lower. A higher RFEI was associated with a higher prevalence of obesity and diabetes for people living in lower-income and higher-income communities alike.

Beyond income, the report explains that this correlation holds true, “regardless of household income, race/ethnicity, age, gender, or physical activity levels of respondents.”

Why?

The report doesn’t answer this, but I’m interested in hearing your theories. Here’s mine: The distance you drive to buy groceries effects how you shop.

Costco Cookies by jslander

How this breaks down for me: I often walk over to SuperAmerica to buy a cookie. It’s only a couple blocks from my house, so I tend to only buy 1-2 cookies when I go there. When I drive to a local grocery store like Cub I tend to buy a package of cookies rather than 1-2 individual cookies. And guess what? I’ll probably end up eating more than 1-2 cookies after I get home from the grocery store. Now scale this to driving to a Costco where I’d probably buy a box of packages of cookies because they’re such a good deal.

The further I drive for cookies, the more I’ll buy when I’m there. I’ll spend more sedentary time riding in a car and end up consuming more calories by bulk-eating my bulk purchases.

I see some correlations here with what I’d consider European styles of food shopping and eating. If you shop more often, you’ll buy fresher food in more sane quantities and have less urge to snack yourself into obesity on “family packs” of processed corn.

Here are a few more correlations one could test for:

1. People who buy food by the cart vs basket.
2. People who’ve bought a car based on how many groceries it will hold.
3. Grocery coupon junkies (How many coupons are for non-processed food?)
4. People who “work the perimeter” vs “work the center” of grocery stores. Usually, the fresh stuff is on the perimeter and the more calorie-dense processed foods are in the center of stores.

Congratulations to Uruguay for setting a new record for World’s Largest Barbecue. 26,400 pounds of beef!

Uruguay sizzles up one big barbecue

The barbecue was so big that firefighters were called in to light the grills and make sure the flames did not get out of hand. It beat the previous record of 17,600 pounds (8,000 kilograms) of beef, Girton said.

Awesome.

When we were in Uruguay in December, we had a chance to experience this on a smaller scale. This was one of around a dozen asados “grills” in what’s basically a beer garden of meat in Montevideo.

Here’s what we ordered from the grill:

Beef, sausage, chorizo and blood sausage.

That washes down well with some Medio & Medio (a bottled mixture of sparkling wine and white wine):

Scale that out to 26,000 pounds and you can start to appreciate just how impressive that world record really is.

I’m as pro-bacon as they come, but that doesn’t mean that I’m pro-bacon wrapped boobs.

If the bacon was cooked, I’d be willing to reconsider. And it needs to be hot, which makes delicious bacon wrapped boobs something only a masochist could pull off.

For the bacon loving ladies reading this, I give you a penis shaped pig and something wrapped in bacon.

Anyone who’s still reading this for the bacon, learn how to weave a bacon placemat at Instructables.

Last weekend, I was with a group at Psycho Suzi’s in Northeast just minding my own business trying to enjoy a glass of Summit in the corner booth when I was asked to pick an appetizer from the menu. My first choice was pizza rolls, which I’ve had there before and enjoyed. Apparently, that was the wrong choice since everyone who was with me verbally attacked my choice, explaining that we were having pizza for dinner.

Silly me. I didn’t know that you couldn’t have pizza rolls before pizza. Personally, I don’t see what the big deal is. I’d eat little wieners before a hot dog. Or cheese & crackers before fondue.

My backup was the bacon plate that is pictured above. This thing was delicious. And check out that presentation. I was picturing a white plate with 6 or so slices of bacon stretched out on it. But this was a full dozen on toothpicks on top of a bed of lettuce, giving the illusion of healthiness. Wonderful.

I went for a run in Regina, Saskatchewan earlier this week and brought my camera along with me. I passed this 7-11 around 8 blocks into my run and didn’t notice anything specular about it, but when I passed it a second time near the end of my run, I locked in of the Cheesetacular Grilled Smokies sign.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t carrying any cash so I didn’t get to experience just how cheesetacular their grilled smokies really are. And now I’m back in the land of SuperAmerica where there is nothing cheesetacular about their convenience store menu.

Carly and I were driving through Uptown today when we had a hankering for some caffeine. We pulled in to Loon Express Marathon gas station at 28th & Lyndale to get our fix. After navigating past a pretty significant porn magazine rack, we found the coolers where I had my first encounter with Cherry Chocolate Rain - aka. Diet Dr Pepper Chocolate Cherry pop.

As soon as I saw it, I knew I had to try it to see what Tay Zonday was talking about in this video:

After navigating past the incense and pot pipes, I threw down for the $0.99 (on special) beverage, snapped this photo outside, and took in my first cherry chocolate rain.

I must say, it was surprisingly not bad. While I was expecting an aggressive chemical burn from the first sip, that wasn’t the case. It’s actually drinkable.

It’s about time someone gets to the bottom of this “-itos” situation. It’s gone on too long without a clear winner.

Sure, Kyle will tell you that Cheetos are the clear winner. But don’t you miss out on the tortilla crunch? Or, what about Fritos’ aggressive crunch with heavy salt?

It’s a tough call. Use your best judgement:

I grilled a few brats the other day, then came inside to hit them with some condiments. I reached in the refrigerator and what did I find?

French’s. That’s right. I don’t accept cheap American knock-offs of true American yellow mustard.

If you’re still not sure that this is an American product, take a closer look at the cap. See that plastic stay-clean cap? That’s American engineering, my friend.

Here’s another tip. Flip it around:

Now look really close:

Made in U.S.A.

Kyle had his first Matt’s Bar Jucy Lucy last night, and went a little crazy with the mustard.

That’s supposed to say, “Deets.”

We ended up at Matt’s after finding ou that the NE Palace no longer serves Lucy’s. More on that later at Jucy Lucy Restaurants.

You know you’re in the suburbs when - instead of offering French’s Yellow Mustard - they serve Genuine American Yellow Mustard.

Never mind that French’s mustard is made in Rochester, NY by a company that’s owned by a British company (part of Bush’s “Coalition of the Willing” (although dwindling).

Spotted at La Fonda’s in Eagan.