Americans have a "disconnect" between diet and weight, creating misconceptions that make it difficult for overweight individuals to make significant improvements in their eating and exercise behaviors, according to Pollock Communications.
 

Although national research has shown that 67% of Americans are overweight or obese, just 52% believe that they are too heavy, Pollock said, citing a new survey the company commissioned. Furthermore, most of these people say losing weight costs too much and/or is too hard to do, the company said.
 

Pollock, based in New York, N.Y., is a full-service public relations agency specializing in food and nutrition trends to develop business strategies for its clients with food and nutrition interests.
 

The survey was conducted by Russell Research.
 

Americans' lack of knowledge or understanding about how and what they eat and their weight is considered one of the many contributing factors to the country's growing obesity epidemic, Pollock said.

The agency reported that its survey found that 57% of people who are carrying excess weight said cost is the major obstacle to making better food decisions to lose weight, 35% said it is too hard and another 35% said it takes too much time.

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Milk better than water to rehydrate kids

Active children need to be watered with milk. It's a more effective way of countering dehydration than a sports drink or water itself, say researchers at McMaster University, Hamilton, ON.

That's particularly important during hot summer weather, says Brian Timmons, research director of the Child Health and Exercise Medicine Program at McMaster and principal investigator of the study.

"Children become dehydrated during exercise, and it's important they get enough fluids, particularly before going into a second round of a game. Milk is better than either a sports drink or water because it is a source of high quality protein, carbohydrates, calcium and electrolytes."

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In our opinion...  

Meat is for losers

By Nevil Speer, PhD, MBA  

This fall marks NBC's eighth season of The Biggest Loser. The show's success is well deserved. The personal stories and weekly individual struggles within a competitive context are captivating. And it's inspiring to witness contestants successfully overcome their respective issues and experience lasting, transformational change in their lives.

But the show's success also signifies implications that stretch beyond entertainment value alone. It underscores how significant and far-reaching the obesity epidemic has become. In fact, the Center for Disease Control & Prevention data reveals two-thirds of the U.S. population is overweight; over half of that segment, or fully one-third of the total population, falls into the obese categorization. And to that extent weight management is not simply an individual matter. Rather, it's about public health. Lost productivity and health care costs associated with obesity are escalating rapidly. That impacts all of us in an important and enduring manner.

That's a troubling reality; no one wins in that scenario. Unfortunately, though, it's a very complex epidemic that results from a number of interacting factors - the prevalence of obesity will neither be solved easily nor quickly. But that doesn't stop the stream of simple, catch-all fixes from those claiming to have all the answers.

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 Science can't be our only crutch

By Andy Vance

My favorite class in high school, aside from any of my agriculture courses, was chemistry, and Harold Wallen, a Marine drill instructor turned school teacher, was one of my favorite teachers at Hillsboro High School.

Mr. Wallen made chemistry both interesting and fun while maintaining a rigorous standard of academic performance.

I thought of Mr. Wallen last week when I started reading about nitrates in processed foods and meat products via a new blog, appropriately named "Junkfood Science."

The first post I read at this blog dealt with the ongoing pseudo-scientific attacks on processed foods. For decades, we've been led to believe that red meats in general and processed or cured products in particular will cause any number of cancers and generally will take us down the express lane to illness and death.

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 An attack on one is really an attack on all

By Mark Klaus  

With the presidential race beginning to take form, we all may feel a bit of excitement, thinking that maybe, if we choose the right candidate, we will finally find one who follows through on all of the promises made in campaign speeches.

Those of us in agriculture are always looking for an ally, someone higher up who will "be our friend" and recognize the challenges we are facing, or at least be sympathetic.

I believe animal agriculture already has many allies - allies we actually might be ignoring while on the other hand failing to see through the strategies of the animal rights and environmental extremists.

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A recent study conducted by South Dakota State University associate professor of economics Gary Taylor revealed that the overall economic impact from South Dakota's swine industry - including direct income, jobs created, taxes paid and indirect economic activity - is estimated to be $2.1 billion annually.
 

Using numbers from 2008, Taylor's study found that 339,000 sows were farrowed in South Dakota that year, producing a pig crop of 3.297 million head. With an additional 951,000 hogs imported into the state in 2008, the gross income from the industry totaled more than $3.9 million.
 

Using a multiplier for the pork industry of 1.32, Taylor explained that the 339,000 sows in the state contribute about $1,534 in economic activity per sow. Given that pork prices have risen significantly since 2008, Taylor suggested that the economic impact to South Dakota is much greater today.

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PSF ahead of schedule on technology install

Missouri's largest hog producer, Premium Standard Farms (PSF), recently announced that installation of next-generation barn scraper technology at its farms in northern Missouri is running well ahead of the schedule agreed upon with the state of Missouri.
 

The requirement to install the new technology stems from a dispute dating back to 1999, when then-Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon filed a lawsuit against PSF alleging federal and state environmental law violations involving wastewater spills and discharges. That lawsuit, settled under a consent judgment in August 1999, required a variety of actions by PSF.
 

In 2002, Nixon filed a second lawsuit alleging additional violations of Missouri's clean water law. A second consent judgment requiring additional actions by PSF was entered in February 2004, with an Aug. 1, 2010, completion deadline.
 

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