Culture Jam book review

Culture Jam

I started this book, Culture Jam How to Reverse America’s Suicidal Consumer Binge – And Why We Must, towards the end of grad school, and just picked it up again and finished it this past week. I’ve wanted to read it for a few years now, and finally got around to it. It’s authored by the founder of Adbusters Magazine, Kalle Lasn.

A few points I found particularly interesting and relevant to food, fat and consumerism. In the chapter, The End of the American Dream, Lasn writes about postwar America and says “People gobbled takeout and started getting fat.” He concludes the chapter with a story of Elvis getting fat, and his death “Elvis devoured pills and fried-banana-and-peanut-butter sandwiches, suppressing the pain of being Elvis and seemingly trying to lose himself inside his own expanding girth.”

He likens the Elvis story to the old American Dream. “Our bodies, minds, families, communities, the environment – all are consumed.”

He also writes in the chapter Demarketing Loops about uncooling fast food, and uncooling the fashion industry. The book was published in 1999, and I had forgotten some of the advertising campaigns he mentions, but reading about them brought back memories.  He writes about the 1995 Calvin Klein campaign where young models were filmed in basements and were so offensive they were investigated by the U.S. Justice department.

Interspersed with the text are samples of his spoof ads and un-commercials including the Obsession Fetish 30 second TV spot.

I loved this paragraph,

“The first stage of demarketing our bodies involves realizing the true source of our self-esteem problems. It’s important to understand that we ourselves are not to blame. Body-image distortions, eating disorders, dieting and exercise addictions….They’re are responsibility, but they are not our fault. The issue is primarily a cultural and corporate one, and that’s the level on which it must be tackled. We must learn to direct our anger, not inwardly at ourselves, but outwardly at the beauty industry.”

The book is a little dated, but still very relevant. A lot has changed in 8 years, but we are still facing the environmental crisis that we were back then, including the assaults on our minds, bodies and the environment by corporate America. 

Shut down your computer, turn off your TV; pick up this book and read.

Book review – Stiff

Just finished reading this book, Stiff  The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers, this week, and learned if you are fat, no one will probably want your body even if you donate it to science after you die. I bought it used at a fundraiser, based on a friend’s recommendation. It was written by Mary Roach, published in 2003, and made the NY Times Bestseller list.

I’ve always marked “organ donor” on my driver’s license, and have thought I’d want cremation after I die. I also have thought it cool that some people donate their bodies to science, but after reading this book, it looks like the anatomy labs wouldn’t want me.

An anatomy lab is as choosy as a pedigreed woman seeking love: You can’t be too fat or too tall or have any communicable diseases.

Oh, well. There goes my donation to science.

But then reading along further in the book, it looks like are other options besides burial, cremation and donation, you can be recycled! Wow, how cool is that?

In Chapter 11 she writes about composting bodies and new methods that can help compost a body better than just burying it in soil and turning it occasionally (which would take about a month and a half to return it to the soil). The author visits Sweden where an entrepreneur and environmentalist came up with a way to freeze dry a body, break it up, and then bury it to turn into compost.

If an anatomy lab won’t take my body because I’m too fat, maybe I’ll be recycled, the environmentally friendly way to dispose of my body after I’m gone.

It’s a fascinating book, and I recommend you read it.

Mindless Eating book review

I just finished the book Mindless Eating and really enjoyed it. I’ve been an avid reader for years now, and some of the studies he mentioned in his book, I remember reading about them in the news. My favorite one was about the stale popcorn in the movie theater. If given a larger portion size, you will eat more, even if the popcorn is 5 days old and stale.

Another thing I found interesting is how men and women rate and think of comfort foods differently. Men prefer foods such as pizza, pasta and soup over cakes and cookies because it made them feel spoiled and taken care of. Women on the other hand like the snack like foods of candy, cookies and ice cream which are hassle, preparation and virtually cleanup free. Other hot meal foods remind us of all the work we have to do to produce them.

He also writes about fast food places, nutrition labels, portion sizes and marketing. Fries win over side salads about 30 to 1 a manager at Burger King tells him, and fast food would make healthier options available if there were a market demand and money to be made for them.

I do know that since I started doing Weight Watchers back in 2003, I almost always order a kids meal instead of a regular combo at a fast food joint. Now that I have a child, I don’t look so silly doing this anymore either.

Most of the things he mentioned I kind of already knew, but it was nice to see the science behind the “dieting do’s and don’ts”. At the end of the book he even has a suggested diet plan, and reviews popular diets including WW.

The most important thing I took away from it was that you really need to think about what you are eating before you eat it. That’s why I like writing everything down. It was a hard habit to get back into, but I’m glad I did. Even if I don’t measure everything like I’m supposed to, at least I write it down.

He also wrote about starting a program and sticking to it for a month leads to a habit. I think my exercise routine has been going on for over a month now. I still am not fond of exercise overall, but I do enjoy my classes and it’s become a habit. My Tuesday-Thursday ones are the moderate workouts, but on the weekends I’m doing the hard core one, and last week I did two. I think they made a big difference. I hurt for a few days, but feel better overall during the week. These are mostly cardio classes though with a little strength, but I feel I still need to make an appointment with a personal trainer to learn the weights. I’m just not sure how I’ll fit my cardio and weight workouts into one week.

Check out the book, or the website which has a lot of great information on it too.

Avoid the candy jar

Or dish. One of my problems is the availability of candy at the GWU graduate center. Other Weight Watchers complain about it at work too. The dreaded tempting candy dish.

I avoided the jar tonight, but many times I’ve grabbed a mini-dinner from that dish. So have my fellow classmates. Come on! We are in class from 6-9pm, so it’s bound to tempt us during our regular scheduled dinner time.

Those little mini Snickers, Milky Ways and 3 Musketeers are a lot of points! Well, not a lot, but they do add extra calories through the day if you reach in and snack from the jar.

My ultimate favorites are the Tootsie Rolls, which thankfully are not in abundance anymore. The Midgees are 3.5 points for 6, and the snack bars are 1 point each. Other values for the GWU jar: Two fun size 3 Musketeers bars = 3.5 points, 1 mini Snickers = 1 point, 1 fun size Milky Way = 2 points.

I love candy, yes I do. I even read the wonderful book Candy Freak over the holidays, and had to take B with me to Whole Foods to purchase the fabulous 5 Star Chocolate bars for myself and as gifts. Hazelnut and Caramel.  They were expensive; yet so delicious…..I’m not even going to count the points for those. If you’d like to borrow the book, just ask.