Bloomberg: Pop tarts good, cupcakes bad

From the Times Ledger:

It has come to this: Pop-Tarts and Doritos have trumped homemade brownies as acceptable foods allowed to be sold at bake sales inside the city’s public schools.

The 13-member city Panel for Education Policy unanimously agreed on the amended bake sale policy just before midnight Feb. 24 that lists 27 specific packaged items that may be sold in bakes sales, including the Whole Grain Brown Sugar Cinnamon Pop Tart and Cool Ranch or Spicy Sweet Chili Doritos.

The regulation states that only marked, single-serving packages with a maximum calorie count of 200 may be sold in most school bake sales. Students may also sell fresh fruit and vegetables, but brownies, zucchini bread and other homemade goodies lost out.

“I’m sorry, I’d rather have my child eat a home-baked cupcake than a piece of garbage Kellogg’s Pop-Tart,” said Rob Caloras, president of Community Education Council 26, which is based in Bayside.

City Department of Education officials said the regulation was meant to address PTA members’ concerns that they were unable to raise needed money with bake sales.

“This regulation has been updated to provide additional flexibility for fund-raising while conforming to the Department of Education’s Wellness Policy and initiatives to improve the quality and nutritional value of foods and beverages that are available for children,” the DOE said in a statement.

DOE spokeswoman Marge Feinberg stressed that PTAs will still be allowed to sell homemade goods at their monthly bake sales, which Caloras said still will not allow the groups to make enough money.

So prepackaged junk with misleading labels and false calorie counts is ok, but stuff baked at home is bad. Okay.

Someone please stop the insanity!

Bloomie extends war on obesity to park animals

I've been exchanging e-mails with Scott from You're a Disgrace Mayor Bloomberg. I sent him this photo with the following caption:


There are 4 things in this photo that Bloomberg absolutely hates:

1) Trans fats
2) Urban wildlife
3) Expectant mothers
4) Trees

But then Scott kicked it up a notch:


On the heels of banning most bake sales in New York City's public schools, Mayor Bloomberg is taking his fight against urban obesity to a new, and some say, bizarre level. The Mayor's office just announced that the next target in the war against sugars and trans fats is the City's abundant park animal life.

"The animals living in New York City's parks, the squirrels, birds, raccoons, etc., have an open invitation to the biggest buffet in the world," the Mayor said at a press briefing."But, as many of us who live here can attest, they are also among the fattest and laziest."

The program is still in development, but it will include an anti-littering campaign, increased street trash pick-ups, and a calorie-labeling program based on the initiative launched last year for New York's human residents.

Yet another Bloomberg initiative turns out wrong

From 1010WINS:

New York City's pioneering law requiring restaurant chains to post calories on menus doesn't change the eating habits of people in low-income areas, according to a new study.

Half of the study's customers said they noticed calorie counts. Twenty-eight percent of those said the calorie postings had influenced what they ordered. Nine out of 10 of those said they'd made healthier choices as a result.

But receipts collected after purchases showed people had ordered slightly more calories than the typical customer before the law was put in place, researchers said.

Michael F. Jacobson, executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a nonprofit health advocacy group in Washington that supports calorie posting, suggested low-income people were more interested in cost than calories.

For example, McDonald's offers a 300-calorie cheeseburger for $1.

Duh.