Three cheers for Fresh & Easy!

Back in my hometown of Norwalk, Calif., I dropped in on the new Fresh & Easy market a few blocks from my parents house. I've heard about the place, but had yet to visit.

Wow. What an improvement over regular supermarkets and that evil, elitist Trader Joe's. Fresh & Easy's concept is the return of the neighborhood market, and it works. The stores are smaller, but the selections of fresh, tasty foods is quite good and at excellent prices. Shopping there was actually an enjoyable experience.

Better yet, the F&E folks are opening these clean, easy-to-shop-in stores in lower income, minority neighborhoods like Norwalk and South Los Angeles, where normal grocers fear to go, or if they do, charge higher prices for food. Having access to quality, affordable food has always been a problem in poor, minority neighborhoods and a contributing factor toward the obesity epidemic in America today. So, from me, all hail Fresh & Easy! A special Nobel prize should be coming their way.

(F&E is only in Arizona, Nevada and Cali at this point, but we want to see them go nationwide. America needs this! Oh, did I mention they're British?)

Revenge of the fembots

Think the Los Angeles Times' Health section is trying to appeal to women readers? Read this and this. You tell me.

The South rises again ... in weight

Our friends at the CDC report in their catchily titled publication Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report that the South once again is America's most obese region. I quote:

By region, the prevalence of obesity was higher in the South (27.3%) and Midwest (26.5%) and lower in the Northeast (24.4%) and West (23.1%). State-specific obesity prevalence ranged from 18.7% to 32.0% and was <20%>30% in three states: Alabama (30.3%), Mississippi (32.0%), and Tennessee (30.1%). No state met the Healthy People 2010 target of 15%, and 30 states had obesity prevalence >25%.

It's not like they ran away with the title; we're only talking a few percentage points separating the regions. Among the most obese states, you can see that only three -- all in the South -- break the 30% barrier. Could be the food; could be the poverty; could be the culture. It's probably all three. I blame NASCAR. And the CDC, which is located in Atlanta. And Waffle Houses, which are pure evil.

Deeper into these stats, we can see that college-educated men and women are less obese. What's the tie? Folks with degrees earn more money, and thus can spend more on food. And healthy food costs more than fatty, calorie-rich food. When you're poor, you're not shopping at Whole Foods.

Here is how you do it

Forget about the Atkins diets and all those other gimmicks. This is how you lose weight and keep it off. Good job.

This is crap

So here's this story on CNN.com saying, "Low-carb diet beats other diets in study." You could say that the Atkins approach -- low carbs -- beat the low-fat approach, but I'm here to tell you this is a load of duck turd. Both of these diets will doom you to failure. You will lose weight with either, but unless you address the basic math of weight managment -- where combining calorie intake minus calorie expenditure (i.e. exercise) is compared to the base level of calories your body requires each day -- you will not reach a long-term healthy solution. And you'll get fat again. Listen people: It's not carbs, and it's not fats. It's calories. Do not take in more calories than your body needs. It's that simple. And when you exercise, you can take in even more calories. And that's good. Again, there are no quick fixes, no gimmicks. I bet you know that.

Lyme disease and other things New York

Meanwhile, today let's check in with the other great American newspaper health section in the New York Times. It's part of the Science Tuesday section, and usually buried behind long, elaborately illustrated stories about evolution or ferrets. (Note: you need an online NY Times subscription to access these stories -- sorry). The Times' health coverage is noteworthy because it is one of the few newspapers that pays enough to employ the writing skills of actual MDs -- which for health coverage is actually a good thing. And then, of course, there's the grande dame of health writing, the witty and erudite Jane E. Brody, who writes an eminently readable first-person column (called "Personal Health," natch). She writes about Lyme disease this week, which admittedly is a much bigger deal in the Northeast than in my SoCal homeland. But that's OK. So, why am I spotlightinging back-to-back the health reportage of the Timeses of LA and NY? Cuz this kinda stuff is getting gutted from our print media. It'll probably get stripped from the LA Times pretty soon. Maybe it'll survive in NY. We hope so.

(Illustration by Jez Burrows for the New York Times)

Why we are fat

Amid the sad news of the impending layoff of 150 journalists and the resignation of its publisher, the Los Angeles Times published this story today in its rapidly evolving and improving Health section. Over the past few months, this Monday staple has made indepth inquiries into the matrix of body weight, diet, exercise and overall health without hyperbole or moral indignation. Plus, they write good, too. Today's exploration, called "What's making us fat?", delves into theories both ridulous (maybe we should smoke) and sublime (it's that damn corn syrup). Anyway, good reading across the board. Here's their list, and let's hope those greedy bastards who control my favorite newspaper don't can the entire Health staff.

• Maybe we're too stressed


• Maybe a virus is to be blamed


• Maybe the temperature is just right


• Maybe it's all that high-fructose corn syrup


• Maybe low-fat foods made us eat more


• Maybe we take too many drugs


• Maybe we're doomed before birth


• Maybe there's too much pollution


• Maybe we're not sleeping enough


• Maybe we shouldn't have quit smoking

(Artwork by Karen Greenberg for the Los Angeles Times.)