The Associated Press Reports:

More than 200,000 fast food and other chain restaurants will have to include calorie counts on menus, menu boards and even drive-throughs.

The new law, which applies to any restaurant with 20 or more locations, directs the Food and Drug Administration to create a new national standard for menu labeling, superseding a growing number of state and city laws. President Barack Obama signed the health care legislation Tuesday.

The idea is to make sure that customers process the calorie information as they are ordering. Many restaurants currently post nutritional information in a hallway, on a hamburger wrapper or on their Web site. The new law will make calories immediately available for most items.

This rule will also apply to vending machines carrying convenience foods.

So how will this change be manifested to the American food system?

Americans’ appetite for cheap and processed foods and factory-farmed meat impacts everything from carbon emissions to water quality to pesticide and farms’ use of antibiotics.

The Oscar-nominated documentary “Food, Inc.” had a huge effect on informing people about the problems in the industrial food system. Oprah brought author and food expert Michael Pollan on her show to discuss the documentary, which she called “thought-provoking” and “eye-opening”. Michael Pollan also made appearances on The Daily Show and told Jon Stewart in January that he thought the passage of health care reform would have a large impact on changing the way people eat, because health insurers would have a financial motive to keep people away from eating unhealthy foods that will cause long-term health problems.

Michelle Obama has also become a public spokeswoman of increasing access to real food, gardening and fighting childhood obesity with her Let’s Move campaign. Last week she spoke to the Grocery Manufacturers Association about completely reassessing the ‘junk’ food which they sell:

“We need you not to just tweak around the edges but entirely rethink the products you are offering, the information that you provide about these products, and how you market those products to our children.”

As you read, try to imagine: a tomato which is picked before it is ripe somewhere in California and then thrown into a huge truck with about 40,000 pounds of other under ripe tomatoes; is then taken to a processing plant, put through a chlorine bath, waxed, gassed with ethylene (which speeds up the ripening process) and then sent in another truck across the country to some restaurant, is probably not going to taste so good. So you can see why buying organic and in-season fruits and vegetables makes the most sense.

What You Can Do
The best place to shop for produce is either at a local farmers market or you can join a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program, where you can buy your food directly from local organic farmers.

What Else Can You Tell Me, Food Man?
The FDA does not require food labels to disclose the genetically engineered ingredients which are used. According to Greenpeace of the acreage in North America, which is devoted to GE crops, 99% are planted with, cotton, canola, soy or corn. This means that over 60% of processed foods available in the US contain genetically modified ingredients.

“Before you die,” maybe because these places aren’t so safe. Well, maybe I exaggerate. But the food’s great!

The first is fried spider. You can find these in a wonderful place called Cambodia, usually in the news for bad things, but spider season is out and you better go try some. The spiders are eaten in a town called Skuon, and they are as big as your hand. They’re bred in spider farms that consist of holes in the ground. Once they’re no longer alive, they are breaded with monosodium glutamate (MSG – you can find bags of this stuff in Chinatown, flavor enhancer that gives you headaches), sugar and salt. They’re then fried with garlic until the legs get crispy. Eat the head and the legs. Stay away from the abdomen. At least that’s what the locals say.

The next one is Fugu, which you can find in Japan. Granted, ever since World War II ended, Japan has been a pretty upstanding country. No dictators there. Just poisonous fish. The Fugu fish, what we know as a blow fish, is so poisonous it can kill 30 men with its liver and ovaries, where the poison, tetrodotoxin, is produced. I can’t kill anyone with my liver and ovaries, which makes me feel kind of left out. But anyway.

Eating fugu is only advisable in the absolute best restaurants of Tokyo, because it can only legally be prepared by a licensed chef, who we may remind you basically has your life in his hands as he cuts away blow fish livers and ovaries and DOES NOT EAT THEM. The best part of the experience of this daredevil delicacy is the sensation on the tongue given by small amounts of tetrodotoxin and won’t kill you.

Third, we have a Chinese Century Egg. China, not so good on the human rights or environment or democratic freedoms, but good on the Century Egg, which is basically an egg wrapped in clay, salt, and lime juice. It’s then wrapped in straw and aged for a few months. The yolk turns green and the white turns brown, which is similar to when you stick an egg in a crockpot for a day. Sam I Am would be proud of you for trying it.

Finally, El Salvadorian Iguana meat. Don’t know much about El Salvador, other than that its class gap is enormous and it gets hit by hurricanes every 20 minutes. They say iguana tastes like chicken but tougher. I wouldn’t know, but if I ever wanted to find out I can just pick one up from my backyard. That is if I can catch it.

No one is sure exactly how this works scientifically, but the theory is that the protein in the fruit binds to taste receptors and changes the shape of molecules that bind to taste buds, so sour receptors register sweetness instead.

As the video notes, aside from the fun in sucking on a lemon and tasting sugar, miracle fruit can also help chemo patients eat by making their food taste better to them, not to mention dieters who want to eat healthier but can’t stand macrobiotic foods.

If you’re thinking Love Potion #9, then you’ve probably got too much oldies music on your mind. The real answer is soy milk, without preservatives, additives, or anything, really, except soy and water. Or rice, or whatever you put in there before you pushed the magical button. Add some chocolate powder, vanilla extract, banana puree, or why not all three? Confuse your palette, have a party. Make up a totally new soy milk flavor!

According to their site, the Miracle Soy Wonder Automatic Soy Milk Maker makes 2 quarts of soymilk in just 22 minutes from common organic soybeans and water.

So if you’re a lactard that buys even 1 $4 soy milk or rice milk carton a week, you’ll be saving about a $3 a week, which, if handily equipped with the amount of weeks in a year, is a savings of over $150 a year, which is close to the price of the machine itself.

For the heavy drinkers among us, the savings are even bigger. And how much more American can you get than a machine where you just have to push one button?

There is, however, one precaution. According to recent scientific research, soy contains something called isoflavones which chemically mimic the female sex hormone estrogen. So if you’re a man, keep a lookout in case you start growing soy-induced breasts. If that happens, let us know and we’ll blog about it.

This need for medications became so intense that his nurse, Cheryl Lee (who was with him when he died) said he had literally begged her to acquire for him a powerful anesthesia-like sedative called Diprivan that is normally only available in hospitals. This combination of physical self-abuse is what most likely caused the 50 year old pop star to suffer the embolism that killed him. Regarding the loss of bone mass, the reports also indicate that he suffered several broken ribs due to attempts made to apply cardio pulmonary resuscitation (CPR) at both his residence and later at the hospital, where he was later pronounced dead at 2:34 pm PDT.

Jackson’s history of health self-abuse goes back a long way though, and his love for a variety of sweets were also a factor, although the sugar in them is probably what helped to give him the energy he needed to perform like he did; which not only involved all kinds of singing routines, but dance acts as well.

Had Jackson heeded advice from nutritionists and natural food experts (instead of all the medical “experts” he constantly consulted) he might still be alive to day – and much healthier than he was at time of death. By simply absorbing more vitamin D (available from sunlight) his bone mineral situation would have been significantly improved. He also would have benefited from a diet of whole grains and plants, as well as by ingesting Omega 3 rich foods, especially fish. Whole grain granola, especially containing buckwheat, royal jelly and bee pollen, and nuts such as raw almonds and walnuts would have helped to give him the energy he constantly needed and had to “supplement” with large intakes of sweets. Of course, turning his Neverland ranch into a virtual ice cream parlor and candy shop for the large number of children who visited him there didn’t help, as Jackson indulged in these items along with his guests. And by drinking natural juices instead of carbonated soft drinks, he would have subjected his body (and his liver) to much less caffeine, aspartame, and other harmful ingredients found in them.

All this is now purely speculation, but it could be words for the wise to other entertainers who might be headed in the same direction. Medication abuse has also recently taken the lives of other celebrities, including actor Heath Ledger, and model Anna Nicole Smith, whose lives might also have been saved with some sound nutritional advice; and by shopping at whole foods stores, instead of eating junk foods. The bottom line is: being rich and famous is worthless if you don’t maintain good health –it’s better than wealth!

The reason is very simple: these foods not only put on plenty of excess weight, but also load up the body with excess sodium and sugars, plus a number of chemicals (including aspartame) that can cause cancer and other diseases. And drinking large amounts of cola, either regular of diet, can eventually result in kidney stones and other problems as well.

Scientific tests have proven that most soft drinks (except natural fruit drinks) not only clause obesity and kidney problems, but can cause a dangerous mineral imbalance in the body that can result in loss of bone mass and be miss-diagnosed as osteoporosis.

Diet drinks often contain aspartame, also used extensively in non-sugar sweetener in many homes and restaurants, the chemical causes a number of disorders, including a severe reaction to people suffering from a condition known as phenylketonuria or PKU. About one in every 20,000 people are inflicted with PKU in which their bodies are unable to metabolize an amino acid known as phenylalanine, one of two amino acids present in aspartame. If sufficient amounts of phenylalanine are ingested by PKU affected people, it can result in severe reactions, including mental retardation. Even in normal people, too much aspartame can result in physical symptoms similar to multiple sclerosis, dizziness, severe headaches, and menstrual problems. And excessive ingestion of aspartame is also said to be linked to early onset of Parkinson’s disease. And of course, many soft drinks contain large amounts of caffeine.

There are many natural flavored drinks, some of them carbonated; that do not contain ingredients such as caffeine and aspartame, and do not cause the body to lose calcium or are damaging to the kidneys. Best places to find these drinks are in quality organic and whole foods stores, which also offer healthier snack foods, including those made from bananas, beets, apples and other fruits and vegetables, and that are not fried in harmful oils.

All and all, you can still satisfy your desire for a cold beverage or snack without abusing you body. As the saying goes, you truly are what you eat.

There must be something magical about this place to induce people such as Edwin Veelo, founder of Fitura.com, makers of one of the most potent anti-viral extracts on the market today, and Steve Sinclair, co-founder of the super food supplements company Enerfood to go all the way to this remote place, located in a mountainous region of southern Equador, bordering with Peru. Historically, Vilcabamba was a favorite resort location for Incan royal families, who must have known about the benefits of this region as early as 600 years ago.

Not everyone agrees that Vilcabamba is a modern version of Shangri-la however, and many scientists who have gone there to study the place, and it’s people, have come back saying that older people who claim to be well over age 100 may be exaggerating their age (and due to a lack of official birth certificates). Other scientists have confirmed that a combination of a year-round non-variable climate and a diet of healthy naturally grown organic fruits and vegetables; and eye tissue of 100 year old residents have been compared to those of persons living cities who are less than half their age.

Not everyone may go for the simple life styles and vegetarian diets (including juices from raw foods), but many people from modern Western societies have given up a life of electronic gadgetry and prepared food products to live the simple life. And if it means living to the ripe old age of 120, there might something to eating mani butter pudding (from a plant related to the peanut) and exotic cocktails of organic herbs fresh from the garden – all year round.

America’s talk show queen, Oprah Winfrey, has really taken it on the chin ever since she announced that her website that she is giving away coupons for free chicken dinners, KFC restaurants around America have been literally inundated with people coming with coupons in hand for a free chicken meal, including two side dishes and a fluffy, calorie packed farm-style biscuit. The situation has gotten so bad that many KFC places either ran out of chicken or had to turn people away without honoring the coupon.

Why would America’s most popular female talk show host want to offer such a deal is beyond the comprehension of most sane people, including those who are against the killing of millions of innocent fowl to satisfy the hunger of these people, especially when it was revealed that the poor victims, all relatives of Chicken Little, are often thrown into scalding water while still alive, clucking and all.

KFC executives have promised to look into the matter, although it appears that Oprah’s endorsed promo has come with their knowledge, as it certainly brings attention to the product they sell. But it also has brought out that these chickens are raised in giant, overcrowded “factory farms”, injected with all kinds of hormones and antibiotics to grow to larger sizes, and then “processed” in such horrible manners, which might make vegetarians of us all, which would make Chicken Little very pleased.

Oprah’s PR people might be wise to remove the promo ad before things really get out of hand and millions of Mr. Little’s relatives do a march on her studio in Chicago. Seriously, her PR department might reconsider her involvement with KFC, especially in light of so much attention being drawn to the matter of animal rights and animal cruelty.

Oprah is said to be against animal cruelty; but her personal opinions seem to have become lost along the way in her organizational hierarchy.

Factory farming has also been recently in the news in light of the swine flu epidemic, in which large swine raising farms in Mexico have been blamed as being the possible cause of the flu scourge which has spread over much of the world. I t wouldn’t be advisable for Oprah to offer a promo for BBQ ribs or other pork products after the “KFC chicken giveaway”.

Of course there is free-range chicken, like Chicken Little is said to be one of, but KFC suppliers wouldn’t be able to catch enough to satisfy the craving of all of Oprah’s fans.

For those of you who are not aware, gout is condition usually caused by abnormally high levels of uric acid in the blood. Often referred to as the “Rich man’s disease” because it strikes people who eat “rich” foods high in purines or heterocyclic aromatic organic compounds, gout results in uric acid crystallizing in places like hand and toe joints, resulting in extreme discomfort, swelling, and pain.

Although not confined exclusively to men, the studies found that men over age 40 are more prone to have this condition, especially if their diets are high in organ meats (liver, kidneys, etc.) alcohol, certain shell fish like scallops or oysters, and over consumption of alcohol. High levels of purine are also found in “non-rich” foods such as fava beans and other lentils.

“Given the normal safety profile usually associated with the consumption of vitamin C in this study, it provides a good alternative in the prevention of Gout” the study research leader, Hyun Choi, said. The study did mention, however, that maintaining a healthy, low purine diet is probably the best way to prevent gout from occurring.

Gout was very prevalent during the 19th and early 20th Century, especially in the UK, when diets were high in foods like steak and kidney pie, washed down with large quantities of beer and other alcoholic beverages. After a long decease, it has started to return in the last 30 years, however, due to dietary abuses involving high consumptions of meats and alcohols.

“It would be unwise for people to think that by simply taking high amounts of vitamin C, they can compensate for too many pints in the pub”, said Michael Snaith of the UK Gout Society.