Egg Labels: What Does Cage Free or Free Range Mean?

I spent time reviewing my old posts and seeing which were popular. First of all, thank you for your support in visiting my blog and referring it to people you know. Nothing is quite as inspiring for a writer as having regular readers from around the world. Second, I saw my post on food labels garnered a lot of views. So, this week I'm writing more about deceptive food labels commonly found with eggs and poultry.

Be You, But Be Informed

Normally during topics like these, you'll end up seeing pictures of chickens crammed in cages, or videos exposing unethical farming practices. But I'm not about that. If I wanted you to cry, I'd post pictures like this, instead.

If I had a heart, it would break for this puppy.

It's not my business what you buy or eat, so I have no reason to persuade you. Personally, I avoid eggs, but that's because I think they taste icky.

What I can't stand is misleading advertising. So often people get caught up spending extra money on what they think is "green" or "environmentally responsible," only to get scammed. It's important to know what these labels mean, because if you don't, you might pay more for something that's not actually better.

Make any decisions you want, but be informed. It is my semi-professional responsibility that my readers can't say, "Gee, I sure wish JunkfoodRehab had said something about "All Natural, Cage-Free, Corn-Fed" chicken breasts before I paid an extra dollar for plain, old chicken."

Not that anyone would really say that, but, you know, I've got to have standards.

The Power of Advertising

There's a reason why our memories only go back to when we were old enough to talk - words allow us to perceive, interpret and categorize the external universe and our internal psyche. Without them, we would be unable to differentiate any experience, and our lives would be reduced to random sensations of pain and pleasure, spread across a long period of time, with no rhyme nor reason.

Put simply, if our minds were Lego castles, words would be the bricks.

So. Many. Words.

Now, if everything we know and believe is built of words, what power does that give to marketers who specialize in wordcraft? Someone skilled with language could have you believe that Old Spice makes men attractive.

Yes, I know the point of this commercial makes fun of the idea that Old Spice makes you manly. But think of it this way: if someone told you not to think of a purple giraffe in a top hat, what's the first thing you think of? A purple giraffe in a top hat!

(Believe it or not, I couldn't find a picture for this one...)

So by telling us clearly that Old Spice won't make us look like the attractive spokesman, but then showing 20 seconds of hyper-masculine activity, we'll still associate "manliness" with "Old Spice" even though we were told not to. It's like a Jedi mind trick!

The power doesn't come from the words themselves, but the ideas we have attached to these words. If I say the word "natural," you might think of several things: you might think of a nature reserve, a waterfall, or a green meadow. You might also think of the opposite word, "artificial," which you might view as negative. And  since "natural" is now the opposite of negative, that means natural is a good thing, right?

In truth, as I wrote in my earlier post, "natural" means next to nothing on food labels. All it means is that the food has no preservatives, food dyes, or artificial flavors. But instead of saying, "No preservatives, food dyes, or artificial flavors," advertisers stick the word "Natural" on their products to make us think of serene and happy scenes that make us feel better about the product.

Hey, maybe I should try this...

This blog is "All Natural," "Environmentally Responsible" and hilarious.

...Not working? Darn. 

The Labels

Time to get the purple, top-hatted giraffe out of the room. Here's what the labels mean on your eggs and poultry products!

Cage-Free 

Though unregulated by the USDA, "cage-free" means that the chicken was not kept in a cage (duh.) This does not mean the chicken has ever stepped outdoors, however. Cage-free chickens can be kept their entire lives in barns or other buildings.

Free-Range

Regulated only for meat-producing chickens and not egg-laying ones, "free-range" means that chickens have access to the outdoors. This outdoor access could vary from an open farm-door leading to a large pen to a doggy-door leading out to a blanket-sized plot of grass. This does not guarantee that the chicken ever used that outdoor opportunity.

Hormone Free

Because of some geo-political snafus about the United States "magically" flooding the global market with a wave of cheap chicken, the US Federal Government was pressured to outlaw hormone use on poultry in the 1960s. If you see this label, the company is trying pass off their product as "special," even though it's only adhering to the law. It's like an 8-pack Crayola crayon box claiming, "Now with the color 'Blue!'"

Corn-fed

I saw this label on a premium-priced chicken breast a year ago and was flabbergasted. The standard diet for chickens and hens is usually silage, otherwise known as corn-feed. All chickens are raised on corn because it's the cheapest source of nutrition available for animals. In fact, if you don't check the labels on your dog or cat food, chances are your house pets have been living off high-corn diets too!

Omega-3 Enriched

Eggs used to get a bad rap for their cholesterol content. If someone with heart-problems wanted to stay healthy, they were often told to avoid eggs. To combat this stigma, egg companies have started feeding hens flax seed and fatty fish to supplement their Omega-3 - a popular nutrient that is important for total body health. But if you really wanted Omega-3, why not just eat the fish and flax yourself? To expect it from eggs is like buying a soda at a restaurant because you want the water from the ice cubes.

United Egg Producers Certified

Although this labels looks official, eggs containing this label could have been laid by hens that are caged. The practices allowed under this label don't comply with many purported "humane" treatments for chickens.

Certified Humane

The chickens are raised without cages, without antibiotics, and are given spaces to perform natural actions like nesting. Do NOT confuse this label with "American Humane Certified" which allows for hens to be caged.

Animal Welfare Approved

One of the highest standards of chicken-living, "animal welfare approved" provides chickens with as natural an environment as possible, leaving them cage-free, untreated with antibiotics, with regular access to the outdoors.

What is West Nile Virus? How Can You Avoid It?

Filling my gas tank at the local Speedway, I got caught up watching the news over my pump. The anchor was talking about West Nile Virus. I was so caught up watching  that I accidentally spilled some gasoline on my shoe.

Like this squinting seal, I was skeptical.

"West Nile? That's sooo 90s!" said my inner diva. But like most stories on the news, the problem persists even after the coverage stops. West Nile disease didn't go away just because the cameras stopped rolling. And this year it's hitting particularly hard.

But what the heck is it? How do we get it? How do we avoid it? And what are we doing to stop it?

West Nile Virus

Chances are, if you've heard about West Nile, you've heard talk about dead birds and mosquitoes. But what does that have to do with humans?

West Nile is an avian disease, meaning it starts in birds. It's called West Nile because in 1937 it was isolated in Uganda. Birds and mosquitoes are what we call "vectors" because they act as bridges for the virus to infect humans. This is why there's often panic about "dead birds" on the news.

"Eh? Bird disease? Speak up, sonny, you're not making much sense."

Actually, avian diseases aren't rare at all. Swine Flu was another example of an avian disease; it jumped from pigs to birds to humans. Influenza is also an example of Avian disease. Because birds migrate, they travel all across the globe, giving the viruses they carry ample time to mutate and change. We can never cure influenza because it's different every year!

Symptoms of West Nile

Once infected, the disease takes anywhere between two and fourteen days to incubate. When the disease takes hold:

• 80% of cases will show no symptoms. The disease remains contagious, but not through simple touching or kissing. As with all diseases, contact with infected blood or fluid can spread the disease from human to human. Sexual contact has not been shown to spread the disease.
• Nearly 20% will develop West Nile Fever, suffering from headaches, fever, nausea, vomiting, body aches and a possible rash. 
• Less than 1% will develop deadly symptoms of the "neuroinvasive" type - the virus will attack the nervous system, resulting in high fever, neck stiffness, disorientation, vision loss, tremors, seizures, coma, muscle weakness and paralysis.

 

Symptoms should only last for a few days to a week. But symptoms of the neuroinvasive type could cause long-lasting or permanent damage.

What's Being Done

To avoid West Nile Virus, we are encouraged by the CDC to wear bug repellant, avoid dead birds, and remove sources of standing water by our homes. Standing water, or still pools of water, are where mosquitoes lay eggs.

So you won't find any mosquitos at the wave pool of your local water park.

In Texas, where 10 people have died from West Nile and 230 others have been infected, the local government have ordered an aerial pesticide raid on the mosquitoes. The plan is to douse 49,000 acres of Dallas with pesticide at about an eighth an ounce of pesticide per acre. That makes for a total of over 2,000 gallons of anti-bug juice.

When I heard about this, I panicked. After reading the book Silent Spring and learning about how reckless spraying of DDT (another pesticide) in the 60s caused the death of almost all wildlife where sprayed, increased cancer rates in humans, and leeched into the groundwater, I have not been a big fan of pesticides. What they plan to spray in Texas is called a "pyrethroid," a synthetic chemical similar to the make-up of the chrysanthemum plant. The chemical attacks the bug's nervous system, causing paralysis and death.

The EPA says that pyrethroids are preferred over organophosphate pesticides (like DDT) because organophosphates are toxic to mammals and birds as well as insects. But even though they're preferred, they aren't perfectly safe. They're okay around humans and pets, but pyrethroids can accumulate in the soil and in the water, killing subterranean and aquatic creatures.



For more information about West Nile, check out the CDC website.

Easy Weight Loss - Simple Tricks for Burning Calories P.2

Hello everyone! I'm back. And to start this week, I'm going to finish where I left off last week - simple tricks for burning extra calories. In my last post, I mentioned that drinking ice-cold water and eating celery were ways of making the body burn calories without doing any exercise. Today, I'm going to focus on simple changes to your everyday routine that can add up to substantial weight loss.

Parking Your Car

We're all guilty. We'll spend a couple extra minutes cruising the aisles of a parking lot in order to find the closest spot. Even though there are always spots open in the back of the lot, finding a closer spot feels like a game - a game we're compelled to "win" by doing as little walking as possible. Sometimes that close parking space is important. If there's a storm or you're worried about walking back to your car in the dark, parking close is best.

But for most errands, parking farther away gives you an excuse to walk more, burning extra calories and building muscle.

Hats are encouraged, but not required.

 The CDC released a study last Tuesday, detailing that most Americans still aren't walking as much as they should. The CDC recommends 150 minutes of aerobic activity a week in order to maintain a healthy lifestyle. That's two and a half hours! I read that number and my jaw dropped. "Just how are we expected to find an extra two and a half hours during the week to do this kind of exercising?" But the answer is simple - do everything you normally do, but add a little difficulty.

If you park your car at the back of the lot, it'll likely take you two extra minutes of walking. That's two from your car and two back

Now get up from your desk every 30 minutes or hour for a stretch. Take a brisk walk around the room for a minute and sit back down. Not only do you get to avoid all those annoying aches and pains from sitting in one spot for too long, but you add  8 to 16 minutes of activity to your day. Over the five day work week, that could mean an extra hour of activity!

This guy is going places!

I should note that for these exercises to actually "count" for the CDC's total, you need to do at least 10 minutes of activity at a time. My ideas for stretching at work or walking extra in the parking lot wouldn't cut it, but they would still burn extra calories and get your body going. 

Walking is easy and relaxing. If you have a dog, bring him/her with you. Kids also like to go for long walks. ("Wow! We really just walked a whole mile!?") Take 20 minutes after dinner to walk around your neighborhood with your pets or your family. Not only does this give you a chance to relax and reflect on your day, but it brings you closer to other people, brings you closer to nature, and gives you some exercise as well!

But don't buy into those "Shape-Ups" or other shoes that promise you'll lose weight if you wear them. They recently paid a $40 million fine for false advertisement. Stick to a nice, comfortable pair of sneakers, instead.

The Stairs

...I know what you're thinking, but hear me out. If you've ever been in a real rush and you had a choice between the stairs and the elevator, which did you take? You might have rushed up the stairs because it was quicker.

"But that's because I was in a rush. If there's no emergency, why make things hard on myself?"

I'll admit, getting started using the stairs after a long time of using elevators or escalators is hard. When I started at college, I swore to myself I wasn't going to use their agonizingly slow elevators. All it took was two flights of stairs and I was panting and pouring sweat. I went into classes and sat in the back to avoid people smelling me (Calculus stinks anyway - I doubt many people would notice

Not me, but pretty close. I usually wasn't smiling.

But I stuck with it. In a matter of weeks, the stairs stopped making me sweat. I made it to all of my classes faster than my peers and I was feeling much better about myself.

A study released by the US National Library of Medicine showed that after 12 weeks of using the stairs instead of the elevator, people had lower blood pressure, lower body fat, better lung capacity, and more muscle! Again, it's a small change that can add up to a big difference!

Happiest. Walking Cat. Ever.

For other quick ideas, check this link to the American Heart Association's list of easy exercises to add to your daily errands.

My Apologies

For any regular readers of this blog, I am very sorry for not updating lately. There has been a death in my family and I haven't much time to diligently track down reputable health articles for you all. Rather than give half-hearted articles until my affairs are sorted, I would rather leave you with this apology. JunkfoodRehab will be back to its usual three post per week quota starting next week. I hope to see you then.

Easy Weight Loss - Simple Tricks for Burning Calories P.1

So, if you read my post earlier this week about extreme weight loss stories, hopefully this post doesn't find you in the hospital because you ignored my "Do NOT try this at home" warning. Most people probably don't want to bury themselves alive or get lost at sea for three weeks to lose weight.

"Hello? I feel skinnier now. Please let me out..."

Nor should they have to! Here are some quick tricks you can use to help lose weight. They don't require much thought or work, and if you make them a routine, you'll burn extra calories, meaning those pounds could potentially drop!

Ice Water

Your body expends calories to keep warm. Most of your body heat generates automatically - heat is a byproduct of breaking down food for energy and other natural chemical reactions. Still, these processes are not enough to keep ourselves at 98.6 F, so our body uses other ways to keep us warm, each using a bit of extra energy as well.

Sipping the daily recommended amount of water (64 ounces) is enough to keep you healthy and hydrated, but making it ice-water can help you lose an extra 70 calories every day!

70 calories don't seem like much, but every day, every week, every month, for an entire year? That's 25,550 calories, or the equivalent of twelve and a half days worth of energy!

This does NOT mean that you should manipulate your body's heat to make you lose more weight. Ice water is a safe trick because it doesn't drastically lower your temperature. Consistently lowering your temperature can make you sick or even cause hypothermia.

Celery

You've probably heard the myth that celery has "negative calories," meaning that eating and digesting celery takes more energy than the celery ultimately gives you.

And this is 100% true.

Is this why celery is always smiling?

 Celery is mostly cellulose, otherwise known as fiber. Although the body can digest a small amount of fiber, most of it passes right through us, aiding digestion (and pooping!) If you eat plain celery, the chemical actions the body uses to break the celery down use more energy than is gained from the small amount of cellulose we actually digest.

Peanut butter, cream cheese, or any other additions to celery immediately tip the scales, turning it into positive calories.

Again, snacking on celery should only be a small part of a greater plan for living healthy! Don't think that eating three pounds of celery a day for a week will be enough to fit into that new bathing suit. You'll wind up starving yourself and your body will break down from the lack of other vital nutrients.

Not to mention, losing weight quickly and gaining it quickly are both bad. At most, the CDC says you should only lose one to two pounds per week.

Extreme Weight Loss Stories - Seafarer and Chilean Miners

Turning on the television, you can't escape from advertisements promoting "easy" weight loss. Pour some powder on your food, take a pill, or drink nothing but juice and in no time you'll lose weight! But anyone who has tried these crazes know that they don't usually work.

This week, I'm talking about losing weight. Today, I'll include some stories about radical weight-loss through unimaginable circumstances. Later this week, I'll detail some far-easier and safer methods for cutting the pounds.

Let me be clear about this (for legal purposes,) I DO NOT suggest any of the following. Attempting any of these feats could get you injured or killed. Also, the CDC recommends losing only one to two pounds per week as a "healthy" rate of weight-loss.

Without further precautionary ado, please enjoy!


Lost at Sea

Want to lose 40 pounds in 20 days? You could try what a Puerto Rican man did in February and get stuck in the Caribbean Sea. For almost three weeks, Jose Luis Mendez was stuck adrift on his 16-footer, surviving off captured rainwater and raw fish.

Eat your heart out, Tom Hanks. He didn't even have a volleyball for a friend!

 Medically, his weight loss makes sense. As I mentioned in my low-carb diet post, body fat is technically a "glycolipid" (glyco = sugar, lipid = fat.) Without both carbohydrates and fat, the body cannot add weight. Jose put himself on an emergency Atkin's diet, cutting off all forms of sugar, forcing his body to survive off stored carbs in his gut.

Also, he was severely dehydrated, exposed to the elements, and only a couple feet away from sharks at all times.

Try selling THAT on an infomercial!




Buried Underground

Remember the 33 Chilean miners who were trapped beneath the Earth in 2010? Rescuers dug an emergency tunnel to lift the miners out of captivity. The problem was that the tunnel was only 26 inches wide. That's the width of a typical bicycle tire.

Yeah, there's no way I could fit through that...

 In order to escape through this shaft, the miners had to have a waist circumference of no more than 35.4''. For reference, the average waist size of American men is 39.4'' and the average waist size for American women is 37''.

To drop the weight, NASA put the miners on a strict regimen based on the needs of astronauts in space - cramped and confined, the miners couldn't do much in the way of exercising, so strict dietary controls were needed. The miners were given five meals a day to prevent over-eating at one sitting (a practice that shuts the body down and promotes weight gain.) NASA also gave them a sun-lamp to control their circadian rhythms, because sleep deprivation can stress the body into gaining weight. The same went for entertainment - the miners were given games and other things to distract themselves from their situation, because depression releases chemicals that stimulate weight-gain.

The science is out there. You don't need Jenny Craig, Weight Watchers, or even NASA to tell you how to lose weight. And you certainly don't need a boat or a collapse mineshaft. A simple Google search is enough to find all kinds of tips and tricks for making yourself healthier. Join me tomorrow as I go over some simple strategies to burn more calories with minimal effort!