F&W Hmm...

>>After seeing this commercial, I began to think to myself: if the main ingredient is chicken, and this boosts the dog's health (?), then how does this work out?

>>Does IAMS purchase chicken from chicken farms and put that into their dog food? Or do meat distribution companies sell the extra unwanted parts of chicken to be put to use in IAMS's dog food? Which would actually be healthier for the dog? What do dogs eat in the wild? How far away have dogs been bred from their natural state to possibly need different nutrients? Can we trust IAMS when they say a dog ought to eat chicken? I mean, meat factory cows were taught to eat corn, but they're supposed to be eating grass.

>>Or could IAMS have their own chicken farms which they raise to make into dog food? (That's an odd thought...raising an animal just to be eaten by another animal. It shows you how far away our culture has come from the land if even our pets don't eat from the land.)

F&W Curiosity

>>So, as you guys know, I work at Arby's. A few months ago we had a price inflation of tacking on ten extra cents onto everything. As if we weren't already the most expensive fast food, the company's big wigs just had to jack it up a little more.

>>The logical thing to increase profits would have been to NOT change the menu. Keep the fish sandwich, the gyro, the classic italian sub, the grilled chicken pecan salad sandwich, loaded baked potato bites, onion petals, root beer, citrus Sobe, and last summer's strawberry-banana shake. I can't tell you how many times a day at work I have to say, "I'm sorry, but we no longer offer [insert item]." and if I'm feeling generous, say, "Would you like to try the [some other item] that's kinda like it?"

>>People are stubborn. They don't like change. They like knowing what's going to happen before it does. It's more frequent than you think where customers bring exact change just to hear that the price is now different. Why does it cost more? Why is the product only a semblance of the thing I used to love?

Example: The Classic Italian vs. The Angus Cool Deli

>>The Classic Italian was on a sub roll, it had lettuce, tomato, onion, red wine vinaigrette sauce, pepperoni, pastrami, ham, banana peppers, mayonnaise, and swiss cheese. When we offered it it was probably our most complex sandwich on the menu and we did have the staple customers who would only order that particular sandwich from us. When it was dropped, we lost those customers. IF MY MEMORY SERVES, that sandwich costed $4 and some cents by itself and $6 with some cents as a combo (meaning fries and a drink with it).

>>The Angus Cool Deli is on the new sub roll which is softer but covered in dusty crumbs that cake your fingers (it does taste better but it's irritating to have dusty fingers), the same lettuce, tomato, and onion, a different dressing, diced pickles and banana peppers which are premixed and thus it's a pain when someone doesn't want one of the two, the Angus meat which Arby's as a company has for whatever reason come to love, swiss cheese, and mayonnaise. The sandwich by itself costs $5.34 with tax and the combo is $7.48 with tax.

>>Our vegan customers who are tired of salads who instead are getting meatless sandwiches are happier. There's more on the Cool Deli than the Italian regarding veggies. That's a pro. But that's $7.48 on one meal... not just a meal, but one meal that isn't very healthy for you. Yes, you feel better that there are some veggies, more than any of our other options on the menu, but then you're just drowning that out with all the grease from your small curly fry and washing it down with your small Diet Pepsi. Especially when you used to pay less for a very similar sandwich that already had customer love behind it.

>>I don't get it. I really don't get it. By the way? A Classic Roast Beef Combo costs $5.34...that's the sandwich, fries, and drink. Wait, isn't the Cool Deli by itself that cost? They can cover the same size fries and drink in that sandwich's combo but not this one?

>>Don't even get me started on the Super Reuben.

F&W The Chew

>>So recently I was having a bowl of ice cream, Neapolitan to be specific, and sitting in my mess of a living room watching The Chew. It's only a mess because the kitchen's being repainted, so it's got two rooms' worth of furniture in it. Anyway, I'm watching this show and there are five or six people onstage, all hosts who can cook and describe food in ways that make your mouth water and one of them is a guest from The View. I recognized her by face but not by name. Apparently she just got married.

>>Anyway, they were prepping the immense audience for Thanksgiving. What caught my eye was this:

>>Stuffed Acorn Squash. The leafy stuff? Collard greens, basil leaves, and some other stuff but I forget. It's mouth-watering, isn't it? Now if only I could go to Ingles and find this without being afraid. *Pulls out list of farmer's markets...*

F&W Damn It Pollan

>>I have now become afraid to eat.

>>Let me expand on the topic. The phrase, "we [the American people] tend to look at food as a collection of nutrients, not as food," rings in my mind every time I go to reach for something that was about to go in my mouth. I had cereal bars that boasted, "Only 100 calories!" which used to comfort me. I proceeded in reading the box further and the marshmallow coating was actual marshmallow-flavored coating...I know that the typical tastes America is used to is Greasy, Sugary, and/or Fatty, but why replace marshmallow coating's Sugary with marshmallow-flavored's Fakey? I ate it anyway due to needing something to eat while driving, but nevertheless I wasn't happy about it as I would have been had I not known.

>>I went to Ingles to buy just some basic groceries; things that I tend to eat often. I went to get milk and did a double-take. On the right hand, there was the milk I usually got. 2% off-brand, like $3 maybe. Healthier for you, delicious. Food, Inc. and PETA crept into my mind then...Sarah, those cows have infections in their milking parts. The pus gets in your milk, and even though they pasteurize it out and your body will never know the difference, that cow's not getting any better. Don't put your money on unhappy cows! That's financing no change! Then I look to the left. Organic milk and happy cows costed $6. Double! For a gallon of milk! I ended up not purchasing either and walking away, remembering that my mother had some she was going to give me. Still, it should be easier to go shopping.

>>Somewhere in all these influences I heard someone say tomatoes were ripened with gases to be sold out of season. I highly doubt that is restricted to only tomatoes. So when I finally veered on a limb and went to the produce section, shopping there on my own for the first time, I felt that I didn't know anything. What was in season? Rather, what wasn't going to be ripened with gases? What would I actually eat? How long would it keep in my kitchen? How much should I buy if it only lasts however imaginary time I determined in my head?

>>Shopping for food shouldn't be this hard. Eating shouldn't be this hard. It really figures that I finally get my stomach back and now I'm too mortified to put anything in it.

F&W Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead

>>Around the time that Food, Inc. was introduced to my life, I decided to try and peruse the internet for different things which would basically horrify me in the same way. You know how the scientific method is--if the experiment is done once, it's not believed until everybody else has done it and came to the same conclusion.

>>The result? This nifty documentary which may have the weight-loss diet answer that America needs. What's the secret? Listen to what your mother's been telling you for ages: eat more vegetables. In fact, eat more fruits and veggies than any other food you eat. The show takes it to an extreme; Joe the protagonist goes on a 60-day juice fast and gradually adds exercise into his daily routine. You can see the difference on the cover.

>>Also, if you think that you don't need to lose weight so this sort of thing is too extreme and not for you, a 10-day juice fast showed that it helped a lot of people with day-to-day pains like headaches, backaches, and generally they just felt more energetic.

>>Compared to Food, Inc., I wasn't mortified by how cows standing in their own feces or shocked at Monsanto, but I was surprised to see what eating real food can do for you. The only downside to this fast is that the first couple days you're detoxing and you feel sad (JUST in those first couple days!). A lot of us feel like we don't want to get out of bed as it is, so why not try it? The end result is oodles of energy, more intense focus, and for Joe Cross, no longer having to take any medication.

F&W I'm Thinking Arby's

>>Before entering the work force, I never thought that I could ever work in a restaurant. I thought being around the same food all the time would turn me away from that food and make me a picky eater all over again, like I was when I was a child. Not to mention I figured anywhere I worked would be nasty and turn me away from wanting to eat out altogether. In retrospect, I realize I was just silly and had no idea what was really going on.

>>As of sometime in September, I have officially been working at Arby’s for about a year and a half. Certain things on the menu—such as the Reuben, the French Dip and Swiss, the Philly Beef Sub, the Classic Italian, and probably more—always stick out to me when I go to other restaurants. At that other restaurant I think to myself, “Oh, I can eat that at work.” For a split second I feel rebellious and look for something else to eat, but that familiarity pulls me back to the common option between the two restaurants and I get it. It’s delightful because while I’m eating it, I’m not just enjoying it; I’m comparing it in my head to our version. Who is cheaper? Not just in how much I am spending, but how much the restaurant spends on making the sandwich, for instance the Classic Italian at Arby’s only has a few banana peppers on it but if you got it at Subway, you could get probably three times as more. Which tastes better? Which sauce is better? Which bread is softer? Is their sauerkraut edible? How is the meat’s texture? (At Arby’s we pride ourselves on getting the meat sliced as thin as possible, which affects the flavor immensely.)

>>Sometimes the people are so unbelievable I want to scream, sometimes the hours are so slow all I want to do is go home, sometimes the rushes are too much and my brain may as well be mush, and sometimes the works seems so monotonous that after this long I can’t believe I still work there, but in the end it’s worth it. There’s that small satisfaction in the paycheck (of course), in winning the glove-ball war among colleagues for a brief moment, in telling sly jokes through the headsets’ walky-talky feature, in seeing returning customers smile as you greet them by name, in seeing the small child sweetly ask for a spoon so they can eat their Value Vanilla Shake like it’s ice cream…it’s good mood food, after all.

F&W Hand Me That Nintendo Controller

>>If only life were like a videogame.

>>In Zelda Ocarina of Time, some Lon Lon Milk hits the spot like nothing else. In Harvest Moon, you can find random berries in the wilderness in the outskirts of town and for some reason not be afraid of poison. In Earthbound, fresh eggs heal a little bit of HP when you’re in a tight spot, unless of course you wait too long, and then it turns into a little yellow chick and takes up a spot in your inventory. Unless you’re willing to just drop it off in the middle of the dungeon, anyway. Mario has mushrooms, Donkey Kong has bananas, Pokemon have bait (at least in the Safari Zone) and rare candies, Dark Cloud 2’s Toady eats weapons…

>>I say this because there are immediate positive affects to what they eat. Aside from maybe Kirby, most games’ protagonists benefit from eating. A player eats a hamburger and their life points are increased. Wouldn’t it be nice if we could eat a hamburger and not be counting calories in our head or worrying if our stomach liner can take it? In the game, your hunger is not merely tamed for the time being, but your living ability is strengthened by eating! What I mean by living ability is that you literally have more life, thus you can take more hits before losing a life.

>>We all wished as a kid that we were Mario and that we could simply eat a mushroom so we’d be tall enough to ride the roller coaster. Likewise, we wished when we were older for the mushroom effects to wear off so we could fit in the teacups at Magic Kingdom.

>>Yes: if only life were like an RPG game.