Portion sizes and the death of North America

Obesity in North America is a problem, one that has become apparent in the last few years. About three or four years ago, a movie called Super Size Me came out, talking about how North America's health problems are complicated by increasing portion sizes at fast food restaurants.

For a year or two, smaller was in vogue. McDonald's even removed its Super Size options, and you didn't see too many people walking around with Big Gulps from 7-11 in their hands. But that was when we were in good times, with credit easy, and there is nothing like larger portions in a recession, when one wants nothing more than to get the most for their money.

On the last Saturday in March, the sun was out and we had a beautiful 15 degrees. Since I have decided to emancipate myself from Ottawa's bus system as thoroughly as possible this year, taking my car and motorcycle when able, I have also decided that my bicycle and rollerblades are going to be part of my workout plan. So I decided that I would finally get off my rear and get my bike rerady for spring. I spent the first two hours of my afternoon adjusting the brakes, oiling the chain, and washing the bike, which had become saturated in dust from the construction at my building last year. Then I decided to go for a spin. I drove down to Tunney's, then decided I needed to get a little bit of shopping in, so took the Ottawa River Parkway up to Lincoln Fields. When I got there, I decided that it was nearing supper time anyway, and my hour and a half of cycling, plus the hour that would be needed to get home, had earned me some fast food.

When I worked for Meyers, I had fast food every day. Every single weekday I would either have the whopper combo at Burger King, or a Junior Bacon Cheeseburger combo at Wendy's. Since then, it would be alot to say that I have fast food once a month. Well, it seems that smaller is not in vogue anymore. The combo, which used to come with a medium drink and fry, now comes with a small drink and fry. Except the portion size has not changed. There is now a medium and large combo available, and the large comes with damned near a litre of cola. No wonder we have so much obesity and diabetes in North America, our portion sizes of unhealthy fats and sugars are out of control.

Now my eating habits are not a shining example of virtue. Far from it, I tend to eat whatever I want, including more than my fair share of pop and potato chips. Still, this new medium and large that I saw are at the point that I would consider disgusting. One can no longer even order a portion that would have been medium when I was little, let alone a small. The problem with fast food is that generally it is very tasty, so it is very hard to resist just eating all of it anyway. I did scarf down all of my fries, and probably negated at least the calories and fat burnt in one direction of my cycling. I cannot imaging how much of a calorie and fat surplus I would have built up had I had the "Large" combo, with its gigantic cola.

While a larger portion for a few cents more may seem like a bargain in these hard times, overeating will still cause long term health problems. Especially for the Americans, this is something to keep in mind, as health care south of the border isn't free. Instead of getting the larger combo meal, we should be considering eating in more often. In retrospect, I am glad that I am not having fast for lunch everyday anymore.

Yet More Health Fear-Mongering

I read on BBC's website the other day that a recent study has linked drinking hot teas to oesophageal cancer. Apparently drinking tea over 70 degrees C increases the risk of the cancer, and it is most pronounced in non-western nations. In the West, teas are usually consumed cooler as many like to add milk. A seperate article on ABC's website said this was extended to piping hot coffee as well (previously linked to cancer causing in 2006 and 2007, but preventing cancer in 2005).


This is yet another in a growing list of cancer "causing" foods, and of course we have been now told to live in fear. I wouldn't be surprised to hear that water is causing cancer somehow (although in Ottawa it wouldn't surprise me). Right now, hydrogenated oils are evil, white bread and pastas, anything with high-fructose corn syrup or too much sugar, trans fats, and my personal last straw, grilled meats, especially those grilled on charcoal. Of course, the debates on aspertame and teflon (apparently teflon might be a carcinogen as well) rage on.


While I agree that HFCS is evil, mostly drinks made with it taste inferior to real sugar, worrying about the increased risk of cancer from any of these foods in a NORMAL diet is probably overkill. Moderation in your diet is probably key to good living, and stress may cause cancer (why not, apparently fluorescent lighting does), so worrying about what you are eating is probably putting you at risk as well.


I can think of a more practical reason for not drinking tea above 70 degrees. If I was a health official, I would state the obvious instead. Instead of saying "Drinking tea above 70 degrees may increase the risk of cancer." I would say "Drinking tea above 70 degrees WILL increase the risk of burning your throat." It is probably the more pertinent concern.


So once this weekend, I had some chips fried in oils that have transfats. And if I have some food with MSG in it, I'll probably not stress it either. A little won't kill me, and life is too good to go around worrying all the time. That being said, I DO worry about fast food. An upcoming blog post will tackle that.

Another Tax, Big Surprise

Wow, it has been forever. I had the flu something awful at the beginning of February, and was sick for pretty much the whole month. Everything going on in my life has kept me so busy, that even after I was better blogging was low on the list to get back to. Also, not much happening in the news these days, and I didn't feel like blogging about myself. But finally, something has happened that has made me mad enough to crawl out of the woodwork.


In breaking yet another promise (no new taxes), the Ontario government has proposed that we "harmonize" our taxes with the GST. This is a fancy word for "increase" or "money grab". Changing our current 5% GST, 8% PST setup to a 13% HST setup will result in more money coming out of consumers pockets, no matter how it is looked at. Maybe it does make sense for the government, and will help with the deficit, but the middle of the worst recession since the 1930's is probably not the best time to jack up tax rates.


Right now, we have the privilege of having some provincial tax exempt items. Most grocery items, auto repairs, phone bills, heating costs, home purchases, and so on. After this legislation becomes active on July 1st of next year, we will pay our HST on everything, effectively increasing the costs of these goods and services by 8%. That's 80 dollars on a thousand dollar car repair. This is BEFORE inflation. Not to mention, anytime a government institutes a tax or fee change, companies take the opportunity to be predatory and increase costs ("due to the recent changes"). For example, I had my bank increase interest rates and fees recently due to the current economic climate, even though the Bank of Canada has decreased interest rates consistently for a while now.


Our premier, Dalton McGuinty, says they are going to issue a one time credit of $1000 to families making under $150,000. He also says this move makes sense, and will save taxpayers money. If it was going to save money, he wouldn't be offering a bribe to keep us quiet. Also, as usual, single people or unmarried couples are likely to get the shaft with this credit, even though their expenses went up just as much.


So this is just what the doctor ordered in this time of serious economic recession, an increased burden on the consumers. This will take purchasing power away from the lower and always diminishing middle class, leaving us more chained to the the tax monster's leg, which seems to be the only direction these changes go in. So if this doesn't change between now and then, remember to buy an extra bottle of booze in June of 2010 to celebrate more taxes on Canada Day. Maybe get a little bottle of KY from the pharmacy across the street as well. Might make the new taxing a little easier on you.

Chalk River, Canadian Conundrum

Well, I finally have a grab bag of things to talk about. With the bus strike now over the 50 day mark, I am getting close to wanting to rant about that again. However, my pet topic of progress and things nukular has come up in the news again, so I feel I should talk about it first. Especially since was yet again about safety at Chalk River, which I have been on and off again thinking about blogging about since the first shutdown which was now several years ago.

Just yesterday, I read that on December 5th of last year, the NRU reactor at Chalk River had a radioactive leak. Not the potential for. An actual leak, Long Island style. To add insult to injury, the reactor's cooling system has a 2.5" long leak in one of the pipes, and is losing thousands of gallons a day in coolant water. The solution to date has been to pump more water in, as it would take too long to shut the reactor down and repair it.

Apparently, AECL has officially determined that the radioactive leak on the 5th was nothing to worry about it. This is magnanimous of them, since I find it odd that yesterday was the first that it was even in the papers. What if the leak had been more "serious"? Incidents like these merely damage the reputation of nuclear power in the public's eyes. They justify the scare-mongering that goes on about the nuclear industry, and that is something that keeps me distraught about the future of nuclear power, and unless other viable fossil fuel alternatives come along very soon, the long term future of electrification.

This is a huge vicious circle. In a perfect world, reactors would get down for any repairs that were required for safety. Also in a perfect world, shutting down any single reactor wouldn't put most of the world's medical isotopes off the market. But there aren't more reactors, because people are afraid of what could happen if there's an accident, because the reactors are potentially unsafe.

So do we build more reactors to make it possible to shut down unsafe reactors for repair? Or do we make the existing reactors safe so it's politically possible to build more reactors so the isotope supply to be secure in event of a reactor shutdown?

Eventually, repairs will have to be made at Chalk River. The NRU reactor (the one in question) came online in 1957. The reaction chamber was replaced in 1971, and a new replacement chamber is READY, but would require a 1 year shut down to do. NRX was decomissioned in 1992, so there currently isn't a backup to NRU. If another reactor isn't built to share the load, when will this take place? If NRU has a major accident and requires cleanup or replacement, it will be hard to find these medical isotopes THEN. Let alone the health risks of a major nuclear disaster that close to Canada's capital city. If NRU can't be shutdown, maybe they should be looking at a new reactor, then refurbishing NRU after the new reactor's online, even if that's a ten year process. The situation will be no better in 2011 when the current operating license expires.


The problem with this scenario is we WERE looking at a new reactor, in fact, two of them. The two MAPLE reactors built at Chalk River were supposed to be replacing NRU in 2008. Unfortunately, plans to complete the reactors were scrapped because of cost overruns and design problems. It seems the Canadian nuclear industry can design safe, foolproof reactors for foreign countries, but cannot build anything to meet our own needs. Being one of the very few suppliers for the medical isotopes that NRU provides is a very lucrative business for Canada, but if aren't serious about it, we could lose that business. Or worse, a major accident could happen and put millions of people at risk.

It has been a while

Now 42 days into Ottawa's transit strike, I have finally decided that there is a something worth blogging about. I don't want to talk about the buses yet again, especially since there is still no end in sight for the strike, and I am so sick of public transit that even if there were, I'd be reluctant to get back on.

Today was a good day for the World. The World. The reign of George W. Bush as leader of the "Free World" (i.e. the United States of we have the Bomb) has ended, and Barack Obama was sworn in as President. With any luck, this will mean a new era of US foreign policy. Perhaps one that is far less confrontational, and one that aims to correct some of the damage, both physical and economic that our neighbours to the south have inflicted upon the globe in the past eight years.

It will remain to be seen if any change actually occurs, but Obama talks the talk. Starting tomorrow, he claims he will immediately begin working on a nearly 1 trillion dollar stimulus package, and begin the process of preparing to withdraw from Iraq within the next 16 months. Probably more productive than Bush's first day in office back in 2001.

So I wish the Americans well in their celebrations, and hope to see some positive change from their nation in the near future!

And I hope the buses get back on the road, especially before the new President comes to visit our nation's capital (but that's a rant for another day)!