How Americans Really Eat

The U.S. Government recently released new Dietary Guidelines. Since USDA also encourages consumer demand for beef, the guidelines don’t recommend avoiding red meat even though it’s a health risk. Why not? Beef producers have political clout, and anyway we all love our burgers.

Based on these lofty principles, we’ve developed “Guidelines on How Americans Really Eat Now” (above). Add an RC Cola or a PBR and you have a complete family meal.

And food processing creates millions of jobs too, amiright? Pass the Doritos, bro.

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Serve the People! KFC Will Spin Off Eateries in China.

Yum! Brands, parent company of KFC, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell,  is spinning off Yum Brands in China as a separate publicly traded firm. Sales in China’s 4,600 KFCs have been tanking for the last 3 years in the wake of Avian Flu and food safety scares. Adding new menu items, a new mobile app, updated employee uniforms, and celebrity promotions by film biggies Chen Kun and Kē Zhèndōng haven’t helped much.

More:

“The company behind KFC, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell just isolated the most dangerous part of its business,” Ashley Lutz, Business Insider

Update:

“China is no longer a complete nightmare for KFC,” Alison Griswold, Quartz

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Image (“Severe the People!”) by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

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You Know You Need One: A Lock for Your Nutella Jar

Most consumers believe that Nutella hazelnut-chocolate spread is sold in single-serving containers — as soon as they open the 35-ounce jar, they finish the whole thing. Thankfully most consumers can’t buy the 6-pound foodservice size. The gooey stuff is addictively tasty but it’s mostly sugar and palm oil, so it’s pretty unhealthy.

Help is on the way. Germany’s Daniel Schobloch has designed the Nutella Lock, an acrylic device that fits over the jar lid so it can only be opened with a key. He says it’s so your kids won’t eat all the Nutella, but we know better, don’t we?

Nearly 1000 of the gadgets have already been sold on German eBay at €9.99 ( $11) each. We expect to see a high-performance alloy version at Williams-Sonoma any day now.

More:

“A Nutella Lock For When You Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop,” Suzy Strutner, Huffington Post

“German Designer Builds a Lock for Your Nutella Jar,” Jennifer M Wood, Mental Floss

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Image (“Still Life with Pewter Jug and Nutella, after Cezanne”) by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

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Fries & Faith, Burgers & Bibles

McDonald’s gives you toys with their fast food; In-N-Out Burger gives you the Bible. They don’t shove it down your throat, they write it on their burger wrappers. Here’s the menu:

Burger and cheeseburger wrappers – Revelation 3:20

Soda cups — John 3:16

Milkshake cups — Proverbs 3:5

Double-Double wrapper — Nahum 1:7

Fry Boat — Proverbs 24:16

So if you need inspiration, drive thru and get a Double-Double and a shake. And if you’re vegetarian or broke, look for the snappy In-N-Out logo in all that roadside litter.

Nutella at 50

Sugar, palm oil, hazelnuts, cocoa, skim milk, reduced minerals whey (milk), lecithin as emulsifier (soy), vanillin: an artificial flavor. Yum. Nutella turns 50 this year.

More: 

“Nutella: How the world went nuts for a hazelnut spread,” Dany Mitzman, BBC Magazine

“Spreading the Nutella wealth: Italy’s sweet success at 50,” Philippe Ridet, The Guardian

“Mom ‘shocked’ that Nutella isn’t healthy, wins lawsuit,” Melissa Breyer, Mother Nature Network

“8 Things You May Not Know About Nutella,” Jessica Bloustein Marshall, Mental Floss

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Short Link: http://wp.me/p6sb6-jjC

Image (“Still Life with Pewter Jug and Nutella, after Cezanne”) by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

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What’s In Hot Dogs?

McDonald’s: New Logo, Same Old Low Wages

McDonald’s has a new logo to go with their creepy, scary clown. The new monster brand ambassador is a red box with arms, legs, eyes and great big teeth. “All the better to eat you with,” it might be telling McDonald’s underpaid food service employees, who’ve been campaigning for fair wages. Some of the better-paid employees — the ones at headquarters — got the day off.

More:

“McDonald’s introduces terrifying Happy Meal mascot to get kids to eat healthier,” Sean O’Neal, AV Club

“McDonald’s Workers Arrested at Protest Near Headquarters,” Leslie Patton, Bloomberg.com

“100 arrested near McDonald’s headquarters in protest over low pay,” Dominic Rushe, The Guardian

“”McDonald’s Has Its Own Employees Arrested In Hamburger University Wage Increase Rally,” Sara Morrison, The Wire

McDonald’s tells workers to get food stamps,” Josh Eidelson, Salon

“Underwriting Bad Jobs: How Our Tax Dollars Are Funding Low-Wage Work and Fueling Inequality,” Amy Traub, Robert Hiltonsmith, Demos

“What Do McDonald’s Workers Really Make Per Hour?” Mona Chalabi, FiveThirtyEight

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Image by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

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Serve the People! KFC in China.

KFC’s China division is adding 15 new items to menus at the country’s 4,600 restaurants. Let a thousand chickens bloom! The new grub will be promoted by Chinese celebrities Chen Kun and Kē Zhèndōng. What’s the “K” in “KFC” stand for again, Kaiping?

KFC China is also rolling out a new mobile app and updated employee uniforms. Skeptics say it’s all meant to distract attention from last year’s Avian Flu and food safety scares.

McDonald’s in Vietnam

Vietnam’s first McDonald’s has opened in Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon). It’s the first fast food joint in town to have a motor scooter drive-through window and to stay open around the clock. This is McD’s 10,000th location in Asia. KFC, Pizza Hut, Burger King, and Starbuck’s already beat Mickey D’s to Indochina.

The General Director of the Vietnam McDonald’s licensee is Vietnamese-American investor Henry Nguyen, MD (Nguyen Bao Hoang), son-in-law of Vietnam Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung.

Influential Burger

“The now-iconic square patty—which debuted in 1921 at the first White Castle in Wichita, Kansas—was the first burger to spawn a fast food-empire: by 1930, White Castle had 10 U.S. locations. But more importantly, the restaurant’s emphasis on cleanliness—facilities were white and customers could watch their burger meat being ground through a window—helped quell fears that all ground beef was as unsanitary as the stuff depicted in Upton Sinclair’s best-selling The Jungle, which was released in 1906. Its success paved the way for the great American burger obsession.”

— Sarah Begley, “The 17 Most Influential Burgers of All Time,” TIME Magazine (links added)

Related:

“Slider (sandwich),” Wikipedia

White Castle website

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Image by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

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