Americans are obsessed with coffee. It is estimated that as a country, we consume 146 billion cups a year, making us the world’s largest consumer of java. And although locally owned coffee shops get a lot of love, the big coffee chains and their drive thrus are clearly here to stay. This on-the-go coffee culture [...]
Many parents and school lunch workers will tell you that getting kids to willingly eat their vegetables is no easy feat. But Whole Foods and Chef Ann Cooper think they have a solution to the problem: salad bars in school cafeterias. Whole Foods and Cooper have already raised over
$1.4 million to put salad bars in [...]
Whether it is burgers loaded with saturated fat or french fries with calorie counts that are through the roof, it is no surprise that fast food isn’t too great for us. But if the nutritional information isn’t enough to keep you away, maybe this will: new research shows that chemicals from wrappers and packaging are [...]
Bullying is becoming a hot button issue in education today. In the wake of recent LGBT teen suicides around the country, many politicians, celebrities, and less famous folks are taking part in the “It Gets Better” Project to share their stories and feelings about how it feels to be taunted or harassed by bullies. And [...]
Methane gas is one of the largest contributors to ozone depletion — according to the Pew Center on Global Climate Change, the growing number of animals in factory farms has led to a increased amount of manure and therefore, methane emissions entering the atmosphere. And although raising animals for meat and dairy may account for [...]
The news reports of violence occurring just south of the border in Mexico have been frequent. It seems that every week we hear about another murder or execution of residents living in the various Mexican border towns at the hands of the drug cartels. And it seems that anyone who stands up to the cartels, [...]
Ah, the USDA Food Pyramid — we all learn in school that it’s the dietary guidelines that we should try to follow if we want to live healthy lives, but how many people actually take the pyramid’s advice? And how many people have seen the pyramid since their school days or even know that it [...]
In July President Obama announced that through the Recovery Act, $1.85 billion would be given in loans to fund solar projects and to help make clean energy more readily available to U.S. residents. It was great to see Obama lend solar energy some financial support, but it did raise some questions as to why the [...]
By now we’ve all heard of First Lady Michelle Obama’s crusade to fight childhood obesity with her “Let’s Move!” campaign. With “Let’s Move!” Mrs. Obama hopes to “provide schools, families, and communities simple tools to help kids be more active, eat better, and get healthy.” Which is why I find the campaign’s newest supporter to [...]
Now that the BP well has finally been plugged up, and some fishermen are returning to work, many people are wondering whether or not it is safe to eat seafood from the Gulf of Mexico. The government’s “sniff test” (smelling seafood to determine if it is contaminated with oil) is the first line of defense [...]
