We’ve mentioned from time to time the Canadian government’s curious efforts to keep us all eating plenty of salt. A weekend story from the Toronto Star details how it’s the kind of game that the provinces can get in on too. Specifically Ontario, which is trying to figure out how to deal with the oldest and most obese population it has ever seen. The province has pretty clearly ruled out even the blandest of regulations to help Ontarians control their weight.

From the Star:

U.S. president Barack Obama’s government created a new law forcing all large restaurants to add calories on their menu boards, one part of its strategy against obesity. The changes are expected in 2012.

In Ontario? There are no plans for calorie labeling.

NDP Health critic France Gelinas twice introduced a private member’s bill to get calorie labeling. The OMA has pushed for labeling in fast food chains and high school cafeterias, to no avail.

“It is so important to educate children and parents of children regarding caloric literacy — I think it will have an impact,” said the OMA’s Kennedy.

This is, of course, a far cry from what some other governments have been up to—some U.S. states have taken far more direct action to fight obesity, especially among children. (Yes, this might be called “socialism at its best” here.) Presumably, the Ontario government isn’t considering a sugar tax or mandatory maximums on salt: Dalton McGuinty will already spend the election fighting the perception that he’s “Premier Dad.” Still, Ontario pays for health care, and obesity is going to make that more expensive in the future—calorie labelling is pretty much the least the government could do toward preventing obesity, short of nothing. But in an election year, it looks like nothing is what’s on the menu, policy-wise.

• We are fat. So, what’s Ontario doing about it? [Toronto Star]

(Images: scale, puuikibeach; McGuinty, Alfred Ng from the Torontolife.com Flickr pool)

Girl Scout cookies: delicious but potentially habitat-destroying (Image: Marit & Toomas Hinnosaar)

This story has all the right ingredients for a made-for-TV movie: multinational food producers, the war on trans fats, a dash of environmentalism and two young heroines caught in the middle of it all. Rhiannon Tomtishen and Madison Vorva, two Grade 10 Girl Scouts from Ann Arbor, Michigan, have launched a petition to the Girl Scouts of the USA to stop using palm oil in their signature cookies—and not because it’s high in saturated fat.

The campaign got underway after the girls learned that palm oil produced in Malaysia and Indonesia, two of the world’s largest purveyors of the stuff, is linked to child labour and deforestation of orangutan habitats. The catch? The Girl Scouts made the switch to palm oil only after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration began requiring that unhealthy trans fats to be listed on nutritional fact labels (we checked with the Girl Guides of Canada, and their cookies also contain palm oil).

“Kids should not have to choose between selling cookies and getting to camp or…rainforest deforestation and orangutan extinction,” Vorva told AnnArbour.com. “There should be no human rights abuses occurring in Girl Scout cookies either.” The two Girl Scouts, who stopped selling cookies back in 2007, have partnered with the Rainforest Action Network, an organization that has long campaigned against palm oil.

Girl Scouts spokesperson Michelle Tomkins says that the organization’s hands are tied, as the two bakers the organization uses—one of them owned by Kellogg—have no plans to change the recipe. “We have little say if not no say in the recipes used by the bakers,” Tompkins told AnnArbour.com. For their part, Vorva and Tomtishen say they have no plans to stop their campaign any time soon. Who knows, perhaps Michelle Obama, the honorary president of Girl Scouts of the USA, will have to step in and mediate—although we’re not how that would work, considering the First Lady’s campaign against anti-childhood obesity.

• Child labor, orangutans and Thin Mints: Two renegade Girl Scouts raise questions about palm oil used in popular cookies [AnnArbour.com]

The average cancer death rate of the province’s Local Health Integration Networks shows that 176.31 people per 100,000 died of cancer in 2007, according to previously unpublished numbers from Cancer Care Ontario’s 2010 Ontario Cancer Registry.

But in the GTA, that number drops to 138.38 people per 100,000 [who] died of cancer.

“The rates are lower because of the risk factors…there are lower risk factors compared to the rest of the province. There are lower smoking rates and lower obesity,” said Loraine Marrett, a senior scientist with CCO, adding that in the GTA there is a higher percentage of people from other countries that are not as prone to cancer.

So, the province’s health care budget can be thankful we’re a city of thin, multicultural non-smokers. That also sounds like a pretty succinct endorsement of the city’s dating scene. Not that we want to cheapen the serious good news of fewer cancer deaths in the world, but there’s no reason clouds can’t have multiple silver linings.

• GTA has lower cancer death rate than the rest of province [Toronto Sun]

Marchese v. Ford

Only days after the City of Toronto voted not to further restrict the sale of sugary pop through vending machines on city properties (with Doug Ford’s memorable endorsement of free-market obesity-mongering), an MPP has introduced a bill that must reek of what Ford called “socialism at its best”: Trinity-Spadina incumbent Rosario Marchese wants to ban junk food advertising that targets children. According to the Toronto Star:

As many as one in four kids are overweight or obese in Ontario, [Marchese] added.

In his bill, Marchese explained unhealthy foods — dense in calories with few nutrients — would be defined by Health Canada and Ministry of Health guidelines, he told the Star on Wednesday.

“We are saying, ‘How do we protect young people and their health in the short and long term?’” he said.

Quebec banned children’s advertising in 1980.

Of course, this is an opposition bill, so the odds of it ever actually becoming law are somewhat lower than the odds of Marchese losing to his challenger, Sarah Thomson, this fall. But given the early signs that the provincial election campaign will be all about catering to the anxieties of middle-class families, it’s possible that some form of Marchese’s ideas will make it through Queen’s Park. We eagerly await the announcement of the McGuinty government’s bold new plan for a five-year study on the effects of advertising to children, with voluntary recommendations to be put in place by 2020.

• MPP wants to ban junk food ads for kids [Toronto Star]

(Images: Marchese, Tania Liu; Ford, toronto.ca)

(Image: Kate Ter Harr)

Toronto’s Government Management Committee is going to debate whether or not to allow the sales of obesity-abetting pop on city property. The policy was first proposed last year, under the David Miller administration, but we already know how the new mayor feels about the whole thing. Last year, according to The Globe, Rob Ford called the ban “the most ludicrous idea I’ve ever heard. If kids want a pop, they’ll cross the street, go to a plaza and buy a pop.”

In the same paper, Marcus Gee writes:

Expect snorts of outrage and cries of “nanny state” this coming Tuesday when a city council committee considers a proposal to phase out pop and other sugary drinks in vending machines on city property.

Why should city hall be telling little Joshua and Jane what they can drink after hockey practice at a city arena? What makes city councillors think they know better than ordinary people what is good for their health? And so on.

The policy is as timid as possible, considering what we know about obesity rates in 2011. Nobody’s ignorant of obesity in Canada (right?) and nobody’s ignorant of the role that cheap, plentiful sugared drinks play in this issue. Yet according to the proposal, pop would only be completely banned in Toronto government facilities in 2014 after a slow phase-out. Looking at the membership of the Government Management Committee, we’re going to guess that this policy fails four against two, with votes falling along Ford/anti-Ford lines.

Huh. Guess it is possible to be more timid.

• Why arguments against a pop ban fall flat [Globe and Mail]

Feeling more stupider? (Image: Craige Moore)

It’s no shocker that eating junk food can cause obesity, especially in children. But a new British study shows that it can also make you dumber. The Daily Mail reports that researchers at Bristol University have shown that when toddlers consume a diet of “chips, crisps, biscuits, and pizza” (that’s fries, chips, cookies and pizza), they’re more likely to end up with a lower I.Q. later in life. It’s unconfirmed as yet whether spray-tanning your children à la Toddlers and Tiaras has the same effect.

Meanwhile, the researchers also note that a traditional diet of fresh fruit, vegetables, meat, fish and home-cooked meals led to better IQ scores—up to a five IQ point difference by the time children are eight years old. As if healthy eaters really needed another excuse to act all superior. After Sunday’s Super Bowl festivities, though, we may not even be able to detect their condescension.

• Danger of a junk food diet for children: Study reveals toddlers who eat more chips, crisps, biscuits and pizza have lower IQ [Daily Mail]
• Junk food diet linked to lower IQ: Study [Calgary Herald]
• Junk Food Makes People Like Totally Dumb [Eater]

(Image: Lenore Edman)

For years, it’s been evident that Canadians are consuming too much salt. In response to public pressure, and growing unease over the fact that one can get the required daily dose of salt from a couple cans of pop, the federal government put together a task force in 2007 to recommend ways to reduce Canadians’ sodium intake. After four years of work, Stephen Harper is disbanding the sodium task force and handing the work off to an industry-friendly body. Because self-regulation in food has always worked like a charm. According to the Globe and Mail:

The group released a report last summer that called for a voluntary program to reduce sodium consumption to 2,300 milligrams a person by 2016. The goal hinges on the ability of the food industry to lower the amount of sodium in its products. The working group had planned to monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of the voluntary program by 2016, and, if necessary, call on the government to create binding regulations.

But Dr. Kevin Willis said he and others in the working group were told during a conference call in December their responsibilities would be handed to a group called the Food Regulatory Advisory Committee.

This news comes only weeks after several provinces (the ones that represent two thirds of Canada’s population) requested that Ottawa get serious about defining “healthy food” in an objective way. Ottawa, apparently, is uninterested doing the job itself and prefers to hand the work off to people closely tied to the food industry, according to the Globe’s reporting.

Anyone hoping that Stephen Harper—who’s taken a healthier turn himself in the last few years—was going to pull a Michelle Obama and get the state in the business of giving people healthier food choices is out of luck. We’re not calling for Canada to pull a New York or anything, but it might be a good idea to have salt content in food decided by someone other than the people who make money selling us salty foods. Just a thought.

• Ottawa disbands sodium reduction task force [Globe and Mail]

Obesity: a growing problem (Image: Graham Richardson)

Despite the recent proliferation of poutine in this country, Canada has been left off the list of the fattest nations of 2010. According to GlobalPost, which used World Health Organization statistics to compile its list, most of the bad news is concentrated in the South Pacific. Not including the obligatory nod to the U.S.—number eight, with 70 per cent of its population with a BMI north of 25—the top 10 were all far-flung island states.

Nauru is apparently the fattest country on earth, with 95 per cent of its population having a BMI of over 25 (according to Health Canada, a BMI of between 18.5 and 24.9 is considered normal weight). GlobalPost attributes Nauru’s ranking to ritual fattening ceremonies, among other causes. Other fantastical realms included in the top 10 are Tonga (#4), Niue (#5) and Palau (#7). Honourable mentions go to Argentina, Mexico, Greece, Egypt and, despite Jamie Oliver’s best efforts, the United Kingdom.

GlobalPost points out that obesity is increasingly prevalent. The list includes at least one country from every continent except Antarctica. Maybe because there’s no McDonald’s there yet.

• Fat and fatter: the world’s 10 fattest countries 2010 [GlobalPost]

The Toronto Star has some of the details:

Canadians are far fatter than most compatriots in 32 other rich, industrialized countries, a comprehensive study reports Thursday.

On the plus side, we haven’t been getting that much worse.

And comprehensive prevention programs to fight obesity could save up to 40,000 lives in Canada a year, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development says.  “A common assumption is that individuals are in the best position to judge their own welfare,” the OECD says. But that doesn’t always work when people don’t realize the effect of what they eat.

Nor are only individuals at fault, the OECD says. Government subsidies for agriculture, transportation policies, and taxation on lifestyle goods play a role.

OK, the study does say Canadians aren’t actually getting any fatter—so the poutine and burger wars are probably not to blame here (pass the gravy)—but it does maintain that there are plenty of cost-effective forms of prevention the government could start right away. Some are better than others. A mass media campaign telling Canadians they’re fat doesn’t sound like a winner to us, but having governments alter those aforementioned subsidies might just do the trick.

Of course, if government is responsible, this might be the latest thing we can blame on the gravy train at city hall. Forget the Jarvis bike lane—we need wider sidewalks.

• Canada far fatter than most rich countries: study [Toronto Star]
• Obesity and the Economics of Prevention: Fit not Fat – Canada Key Facts [OECD]
• Canadians among fattest in western world: OECD [CTV News]
• One in four Canadians obese: Study [Toronto Sun]
• Chubby Canadians tip scales into the world’s fattest zone [Montreal Gazette]

Outlaws (Image: doviende)

Spacing publisher Matthew Blackett was at Yonge and Dundas when Sidney Crosby scored the gold-medal goal for Canada back in February. He watched as an impromptu hockey game broke out on the street, thinking: too bad that’s illegal. According to Blackett, the by-law outlawing the most Canadian of pickup games came from the pre-amalgamation version of Toronto, and became the law of the megacity afterwards. Breaking the rule comes with a $55 fine—something most hockey-playing kids don’t typically have on hand—and certainly not the kind of punishment a doctor would order when 1/3 of young male Torontonians are overweight.

And that’s why if Blackett and his supporters get their way, street hockey and other ball-playing would be legalized once again.

Getting chubbier kids out in the fresh air is only one part of the dream. The other is reclaiming quiet, residential streets for more than just traffic and parking. “If we just look at streets as utilitarian things,” says Blackett, “then we don’t use our front porches and we don’t see our front lawns.” It also makes drivers slow down when they think little Timmy might be around the corner, chasing a loose ball. “I’m loath to call kids traffic-calming devices, but I saw it work when I played on my grandparents’ street,” says Blackett.

Street hockey legalization gets its first test tomorrow at the Public Works Committee. It’s expected to jump the first hurdle easily—as Blackett says, “this is a nice, non-ideological thing the city can pass.”  Read: it doesn’t involve bike lanes or Transit City, so it might actually survive in Toronto’s politics in 2010. Blackett says he’s only gotten one anti-legalization email about street hockey so far.

Even a “non-ideological” act like this still won’t see any action until after the election in October, but it’s hard to imagine anyone seriously opposing something like this. It’s a bit like opposing motherhood—no city councillor will commit that kind of political suicide.

• Publisher cites childhood obesity in efforts to legalize hockey on Toronto roads [Globe and Mail]

The opera consists of a bunch of talking vegetables vying for a child to eat them, which sounds cute enough for kids but might seem twisted to adults. Even more fun: kids find out that they could get type two diabetes if they eat nothing but crap.

Since this is Canada, the play will feature foods that are “representative of Canada’s ethnic diversity,” which we hope will translate to dancing blocks of tofu and rapping containers of hummus.

Get Stuffed will be performed at the Distillery District on May 15 at 11 a.m., 1 p.m. and 3 p.m.

Jonesin' (Image: Alexey Krasavin)

Science is perfecting the art of proving the patently obvious. A new study published in Nature Neuroscience recounts how lab rats that were fed bacon, sausage and cheesecake became dependent on the high-calorie goodies in order to feel good. The co-author writes that, much like other pleasurable activities (sex, drug use), eating can trigger the release of feel-good chemicals in the brain, which can lead to addictive behaviour. The rats that were given the high-fat diet also had access to healthy rat chow, but they ignored it. This all demonstrates two things that have been evident for decades to any pet owner who’s gone through a breakup: 1) fat feels good, and 2) the deliciousness of sausage transcends the animal kingdom.

Still, as Katherine Harmon warns in Scientific American, this isn’t the key to unlocking the obesity epidemic. Overeating should be on a longer list of factors, including genetics, eating habits, exercise frequency, proximity to Tim Hortons and access to Paula Deen’s body of work.

• Junk food addiction may be clue to obesity: study [Reuters]
• Addicted to fat [Scientific American]
• Genetics in the gut [Scientific American]

Dr. David McKeown (Photo by Toronto Emergency Management Symposium)

The board of health is proposing a new food strategy that hopes to provide families across the city with better access to food. The public health department released its consultation paper this week and hopes to have some solid ideas presented to city council by the end of the spring. David McKeown, Toronto’s medical officer of health, told the Globe:

The food system that we have now, broadly, was developed in the postwar period and was really designed to keep prices low and maximize the amount of food that goes out there. But that food, despite the fact that food prices are relatively low historically, is still not affordable for people who are of low income.

Among the other food-related problems that Toronto is going through: child obesity, families unable to feed themselves, neighbourhoods that don’t have access to quality food, and farmers leaving the Greenbelt to work in fields with a bigger yield. McKeown suggests such initiatives as “food programs, community gardens and communal food education.”

Though admirable, this sounds a little like a beauty pageant contestant saying she wants world peace. Still, we commend the city for taking positive steps (today’s municipal budget shows some enthusiasm for children’s programs). The Globe lists three other cities whose food initiatives did make a difference: London, Vancouver and Belo Horizonte, Brazil. Here’s hoping Toronto will make it onto a similar list in the future.

• Urban food strategy unveiled [Globe and Mail]
• City takes aim at ‘food deserts’ [Toronto Star]

Campaigns like this haven’t hit Toronto yet (our advertising news stories tend to leer more than shock), but do they have to? Fat doesn’t know what city it’s in, after all, and there are no geographical boundaries on repugnance.

• New Ad Aims to Deter New Yorkers From Sugary Drinks [NY1]

• Mike James, the Canadian-born operator of 8-Bit Vintners, knows that Generation Y is more about Half Life than the good life. He’s launched a wine that is best enjoyed with video games. Player 1, as it is called, is a blend of syrah and tempranillo, and should be paired with “Mega Man 2 on the Nintendo Entertainment System or Shadow of the Colossus on PlayStation 2,” says James. [Toronto Star]

• We’ve all been there, excitedly cracking open that robust-looking bag of chips only to find that a good portion of the bag is filled with air. So why do food manufacturers leave so much air in the bag? Is it all a marketing ploy? The New York Times, apparently lacking in actual news, looks into the situation and gets some semi-acceptable answers (Lay’s potato chip bags are only half-filled to prevent breakage) as well as some shady written statements. Uncle Ben’s, for example, says their box is larger than required to get a “quality seal.” [New York Times]

• Customers love the warm and fuzzy feeling that accompanies an eco-friendly purchase, but researchers from U of T are calling into question the benefits of that glow. According to a new study, eco-shoppers are less likely to demonstrate altruism and are more likely to cheat and steal, implying that the self-aggrandizing green high can cause one to become morally relaxed. The good news is that simply being conscious of that potential reaction can help guard against it. [Slate]

• Alcohol consumption in Canada has increased nine per cent over the past decade, says a new study from the Centre for Addictions Research, with B.C. residents being the booziest of all (their consumption has increased by 16 per cent). Researchers are recommending an increase in the price of alcoholic drinks to curb the trend. [Vancouver Sun]

• Consuming diet soda may not be the best way to avoid putting on weight during the holidays. The L.A. Times is reporting that those who consume diet beverages are more likely to be overweight. It’s difficult to tell whether the drinks are to blame or whether overweight people simply turn to diet drinks more often, but recent studies show that artificial sweeteners can promote weight gain in rats and that the brain can differentiate between real and fake sugar. Presumably trim experts suggest using diet beverages as a crutch to aid the transition to less sugar-laden drinks. [L.A. Times]