Food and Drink

The nanny state begets the nanny county:

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. (AP) — A southern Indiana county plans to use a $20,000 federal grant to teach local restaurants and residents how to cut sodium levels in food to make for healthier meals.

[. . .]

Wow. Humans are both social animals and socially constrained. Our constraints were important to our primeval ancestors to make them work cooperatively as a unit. But those constraints didn't lend themselves to such things as exploration and inventiveness that make for a vibrant civilization. So something was needed that could free us from the biological herd instinct. For our civiliazation to really floursih, we needed . . .

. . . beer:

Ah, crisis averted:

The new owner of Hostess Brands Inc's snack cakes hopes to have Twinkies back on U.S. store shelves by this summer, according to a member of the purchasing group.

Oh, no, anything but that!

What's this country coming to? First it was Maker's Mark, planning to reduce its bourbon from 90 to 84 proof before customer outrage made it back off. Now Anheuser-Busch is getting into the act:

Who knew there was such a thing as felony snacking?

A Walmart employe in Indiana has been charged with felony theft after she was caught munching Oreos filched from the store’s shelves, police said.

When confronted by cops with video of the alleged theft, Penny S. Winters, 63, admitted she ate the cookies and said she had been doing it for years.

My kind of guy:

A Pennsylvania man who died at age 88 was buried Saturday -- but not before a stop at Burger King on the way to the cemetery for a Whopper Jr.

Told you so, told you so. But to those who did not care to be lectured about the dangers of dipping into the food chain for fuel fiascos, you enjoy that Super Bowl!

In response to a worldwide controversy that began in Australia, including at least two lawsuits, Subway now says it is steadfast in its commitment that "every Subway Footlong sandwich is 12 inches at each location worldwide," so just stop that whining about 11 inches, OK? This apparently reflects a change heart.

For the "well, duh" file:

Recent laws in the United States and Europe that mandate the increasing use of biofuel in cars have had far-flung ripple effects, economists say, as land once devoted to growing food for humans is now sometimes more profitably used for churning out vehicle fuel.