Balance of Food

Checking out Canadian food ads from 2017 winter NHL Center Ice

Editor's note: The following is a slightly condensed version of a feature from our sister blog, CanadianCrossing.com. The full feature can be found here. The column is reprinted here with full and complete permission.

We've seen milk and sports in ads in the United States but they're usually pumping up chocolate milk, regardless of the sweetener. And quite frankly, most milk ads are lame or awful (such as TruMoo's "no junk food please" ad).

The Dairy Farmers of Canada ran a pair of ads designed to promote milk drinking. They are clever, interesting, memorable, and not a single word about chocolate milk.

The first ad mocks the standard beer commercial about which drink to turn to after the game. The outdoor hockey with men above the standard NHL age level adds a nice Canadian touch.

The second ad plays on the classic "no use crying over spilled milk" line. What would happen if the milk was so good that it would be worth a tear or two?

Coca-Cola pool ad explores sexuality already standard in Canadian ads

We already gave a spotlight to the Tim Hortons perfect partners campaign, with the parallel of food pairings and human pairings. (Click here if you missed this ad.) This is the latest Tim Hortons Roll up and Win promo. There are no donuts, food, or coffee in the ad but if you are looking for a taste of Canadiana, this ad will help.

McDonald's in Canada and the United States seem to be run in parallel universes. The Canadian version has had a double Big Mac for some time ready for the U.S. to steal. The U.S. goes in a confusing Big Mac direction with Goldilocks and the Three Bears type serving sizes or A&W Canada that has established this hierarchy (Papa Burger, Mama Burger, Teen Burger). Meanwhile, McDonald's Canada decided the Big Mac just needed bacon. The burger comes with the argument as to whether bacon takes away the Big Mac name for the new sandwich. Sometimes in this world, it's fun having an argument where no one really cares who is right.

Speaking of A&W Canada, this chicken burger ad looks like it is set on a high school campus. The theme of chicken not raised on antibiotics continues. The message is that the chicken is this good but doesn't cost too much, especially for the high-school audience. U.S. outlets will sell a chicken sandwich on a hamburger bun but it would never be a chicken burger. Canadians buy burgers identified as such made from chicken, lamb, and other animals not associated with a burger in the States.

Swiss Chalet is encouraging people to bring a buddy in its 2 can dine for $14.99 deal. The quarter-chicken deal with roll, side, and Swiss Chalet sauce is a pretty good deal for $7.50 Canadian. The food isn't exciting but you will get full. I finally got a chance to do Swiss Chalet last summer — yes with someone else. I did feel more Canadian afterward. Someday, I'll do Boston Pizza.

videos credit: companies featured in ads

Analyzing food ads from Super Bowl 50

Super Bowl ads tend to be almost too creative, and knowing the pressures of Super Bowl 50, would advertisers give us some quality food-related Super Bowl commercials for Super Bowl 50?

We got a new Col. Sanders to promote the new Nashville hot chicken.

Jim Gaffigan replaces Norm Macdonald in the role. While we are partial to Macdonald, despite the unorthodox approach to the character, Gaffigan almost seems perfect for the role.

Gaffigan loves food, especially fast food. He's from Indiana, a state that borders Kentucky. He is a bit pudgy for the role, but then again, Col. Harlan Sanders lived in a time where high-fructose corn syrup didn't exist, and people weren't nearly as fat as they are now.

The voice in the voiceover, which we are assuming is Gaffigan, is as close as anyone has come to the actual Col. Sanders voice. Though this was before even I was born, but my parents used to visit his restaurant in Corbin, Kentucky before there was a Kentucky Fried Chicken. You can find his actual voice in ads on YouTube from decades ago.

The end of the ad implies we might not have seen the last of MacDonald in the role, but am intrigued for what Gaffigan will do as the "Colonel."

Avocados from Mexico takes us into space showing us relics from Earth's past, such as the Rubik's Cube and Scott Baio. However, avocados from Mexico are available year-round. Clever, even if the comparison isn't clear at all. Unlike most food and food-related ads, this ad tells us about the product. Not nearly as good as last year's the first draft ever spot but that one would have been tough to top.

"Without You" by Nilsson is 45 years old, yet is the perfect song as dachshunds in hot dog costumes run toward people in ketchup bottles. Those of us who appreciate that you can't actually put ketchup on a hot dog (hello, Chicago) like the fact that mustard is in the group of ketchups. Especially love the close-up on Simply Heinz, which does not have high-fructose corn syrup. Funny, memorable, and relevant.

The latest Snickers ad features Willem Dafoe as Marilyn Monroe, where the celebrity is out of place. The ad recalls the famous subway grate scene. Eugene Levy gives us a nice cameo at the end of the spot. Not in the range of the Marcia Brady spot, but not too bad.

 

The Taco Bell Quesalupa will be #biggerthaneverything, though in reality, it's a taco with cheese in the shell. A lovely beautiful commercial that even finds time to compare football to real football (soccer). An outstanding ad that if you base it on the product, you'll be disappointed. But that was fun to watch.

 

The Coke Mini ad has many positive and negative points, and often they are the same thing. Using the Incredible Hulk and Ant-Man was a great use of size extremes, but you're also using super heroes to promote sugar water. The Coke Mini is only 7.5 oz., which is more than half of the regular 12 oz. and about 1/3 of the 20 oz. bottles the kids are really drinking.

So the Coke Mini is small, but 6 oz. might be even better. But, of course, that would be a version without high-fructose corn syrup.

An entertaining ad that gives some relevance to the product. And definitely menorable.

Here are the highlights from food and food-related Super Bowl ads from Super Bowl 50:

• Doritos ultrasound paints a picture where a fetus can't resist Doritos so the fetus exits the womb at sonic speed. Doritos ads haven't been good lately and this one was the worst. The 2nd half spot with the dogs is the best in recent memory, though the bar is really low.
• Butterfinger on a cow jumping from a plane. A typical Super Bowl ad: flashy but not memorable beyond the 48-hour incubation period. If this ad runs for the next month, it might improve in your mind.
• Skittles is technically food. Steven Tyler confronts a self-portrait in the Skittles candy. Decent spot, even if Tyler is old enough to be the grandfather of the target Skittles demo.
• Mountain Dew Kickstart found its target demo ultimate in puppy monkey baby. The trio is supposed to reflect Dew juice caffeine, though Dew has caffeine. If you love puppy monkey baby, there is no correlation to the product. If you don't love puppy monkey baby, you are probably at least 30.

Breaking down Canadian food ads from fall 2015 NHL telecasts

Editor's note: The following content is supplied from our sister blog, CanadianCrossing.com, with full and complete permission.

The NHL Center Ice free preview window gives us a peek into Canadian advertising, especially food advertising. So the fine people at CanadianCrossing.com showcase cool Canadian ads and we take the best from the food category.

Wendy's Canada uses sex appeal but in a funny (and creepy) way to sell its Bacon Portobella Mushroom Melt. Somehow a brioche bun becomes sexy.

The theme is a bit silly but cool is that Canadians are not as uptight about sex. And unlike Carl's Jr. in the States that uses models in bikinis to sell burgers, Wendy's Canada is more classy and more fun about selling its burgers.

We should note that the ad above is NOT the actual ad that has been running but is close in theme and words and with the same actors.

Tim Hortons sells donuts and sandwiches. Though like McDonald's in the United States, coffee remains supreme. In this ad, the donut franchise is selling hockey. Still it's cool to see star players act like kind-hearted idiots.

Those "idiots" are Sidney Crosby and Nathan MacKinnon, NHL stars from Nova Scotia, where the ad was shot.

One of the new breakfast wraps from McDonald's Canada has kale … and feta, 2 ingredients not normally associated with fast food. The wrap also comes with scrambled eggs, presumably from fresh-cracked eggs.

For fast food, the combination is rather healthy. You can decide whether you want to trust McDonald's with kale, but it would be nice to pick up something with kale and walk around eating it.

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• Chicken was a theme for Harvey's, Swiss Chalet, KFC, and A&W. Harvey's talked about 8 million ways to do chicken with different sandwiches and combos of condiments. Swiss Chalet had chickens partying since the restaurant is now offering rotisserie beef as well as chicken. That theme is a variation of cows happy that people were eating Chick-Fil-A in the States.
• A&W was promoting its chubby chicken burger, noting the naturalness of the chicken. "Chubby chicken" is an odd name, but the chicken, when not sold as a burger, is called chubby chicken. You would think people wouldn't be reminded of what can happen when you eat the chicken, i.e., becoming chubby.
• KFC promoted its popcorn chicken poutine bowl, one of 5 fill-up bowls for $5. In the States, we've seen these $5 bowls but the idea of a poutine bowl is a lot more tempting and relevant in Canada.

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videos credit: Wendy's Canada; Tim Hortons

photo credit: McDonald's Canada

Super Bowl XLIX food ad review

 

"It's time to take back control"

The most impressive food ad in Super Bowl XLIX might have been one where you were encouraged to manage your food.

Weight Watchers showed off food in a more beautiful fashion than any of the other food ads on the night.Super Bowl ads are designed to make you feel good, not show off food.

Whether you believe in the actual Weight Watchers program, the message is a good one. You have to eat, but you have to be in control. Great to deliver that in front of the Super Bowl audience.

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Guacamole comes from avocados. The Mexico avocados people ran a wonderful spot with a draft of icons for different countries. Australia drafts the kangaroo and Mexico gets avocados.

Former NFL players and current commentators Doug Flutie and Jerry Rice call the draft action in the commercial.

"Rich volcanic soil," said Flutie. "Perfect weather," said Rice. "Makes avocados from Mexico the ideal year-round snack."

Shows off the product well. Clever premise and writing. And avocados are good for you.

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Snickers took its celebrity campaign to new heights with Danny Trejo as Marcia Brady and Steve Buscemi as Jan Brady in a Brady Bunch takeoff.

Clever, especially building off its usual campaign. The candy bar has been able to market itself to being beyond a candy bar, difficult in that product category. You'd be better off eating a handful of peanuts but Snickers makes it more tempting to add chocolate, caramel, and nougat.

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McDonald's "Pay with Lovin'" sounds good, but has a long list of rules and rituals. There is also the potential unpleasantness of being told to call your mom and she's passed on.

You also have very little chance of being picked. And the doorway you enter the restaurant makes a big difference, though you don't know which doorway is the magic doorway of the moment.

The payoff, especially since dinner isn't covered, won't be that high.

Each restaurant gives away 100 prizes over the next 2 weeks. However, 35 of them are given away today (February 2), 20 on February 3, and 10 on February 7. 35 winners will be scattered through February 4-6, 8-14.

You have to go between 6 am and 6 pm. On February 8, there will be 0 prizes after 3 pm. In the final week, there is only 1 winner in each of the dayparts (except for the late afternoon on February 8): 6a-11a, 11a-3p, 3p-6p.

So go today or tomorrow and assume you will pay for your meal with money and without a sign of love. For the full and very complicated rules, click here.

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Coca-Cola had a really nice anti-bullying ad. We saw samples of Internet bullying. We saw a kid who gets a Facebook message that initially reads "No one likes U" then changes to "There's no one like U." #makeithappy

There is nothing about the product, but the message is worth saying.

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Doritos gave us a creepy guy who was saving the airline seat next to him for a pretty woman. The punchline is that she has a baby.

Cute enough by Doritos standards but pretty weak, especially in the big time of Super Bowl XLIX.

This ad was still more interesting than the "pigs who fly" ad that ran in the 2nd half. The kid works really hard to come up with a way for the pig to fly. A rocket strapped to the pig's back was much simpler than what was implied. Not a great ad.

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Skittles is barely food, but the candy had an ad that dealt with arm wrestling to decide who would get a yellow Skittles.

If you are going to arm wrestle, do so for a red or blue Skittles.

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video credit: Weight Watchers; Avocados from Mexico; McDonald's

Condiments heaven and hell, CFL style

A sports stadium isn't designed to be a place for gourmet food. Traditionally, dressing hot dogs is rather simple: a few basic ingredients is typically what you would find.

As we'll learn, there is an ideal way to dress a hot dog and, well, an attempt that needs a lot of improvement.

Let's start with how to dress a hot dog.

Toronto has a tradition of hot dog carts. The city's food truck scene isn't as developed as comparable other cities, but the hot dog is more definitely king, especially in the downtown core. So when Torontoians get a hot dog, they have plentiful options for dressing a hot dog.

So when fans of the MLB Toronto Blue Jays and CFL Toronto Argonauts fans go to Rogers Centre, they get great options for dressing a hot dog.

Hot peppers, jalapeno peppers, onions, relish, sauerkraut, greens, black olives, pickled red onions, salsa, and a few sauces.

Fancy mustards and relishes as well.

The classics are included as well.

The options at Rogers Centre rise above the level of the vendor carts. High praise given the great options on the hot dog carts.

Even at these hot dog vendor carts in the downtown area, you see onions, relish, sauerkraut, hot peppers, as well as ketchup, mustard, and other sauces.

On the other side of the glass is TD Place, brand new home of the CFL Ottawa RedBlacks, the league's newest franchise. The stadium is very nice looking, but as we'll see, they missed a step or two.

Ottawa's new TD Place is a beautiful stadium in a city that needed a great place to play Canadian football. The place is new, so there are some kinks to work out.

You might be excited by a relish container. I would have done too if you could get any relish from them. To be fair, I tried two different condiments areas at TD Place. Same results.

Ketchup, mustard, and relish were available in packets, the same packets you would find at fast food places and some high school football stadiums.

Ketchup and mustard are bad enough in packets, but they are liquid. Relish out of a packet is messier than it sounds.

No onions or any kind to be found. For those who don't put ketchup on hot dogs, your 2 choices are mustard and relish. Just hope your $4 hot dog is still hot by the time you get your hot dog dressed.

photos credit: me

Canadian food ads in the 2014 spring NHL Center Ice free preview

The food ads truly dominated the NHL Center Ice free preview — spring 2014 edition. There were some great ads for food in Canada.

To see the whole story, click here for the column from our sister blog, CanadianCrossing.com.

The following is a condensed version of that column, spotlighting the food ads.

Kraft Dinner is so iconic that selling Kraft Dinner can't be that easy. A talking horse in a field encouraging people to rediscover fun by eating macaroni. Sure why not.

The commercial is more entertaining than any U.S. version for the product.

The KFC Big Boss means business, which is why they use the Twisted Sister song from back in the 1980s. The sandwich is like a Big Mac, except with chicken. What? KFC has a chicken sandwich … with bread?

The commercial is rather lame, perhaps lamer than the sandwich. Cheese goes with beef but not always chicken. Burger King in the U.S. has a similar sandwich — Chicken Big King — but the KFC Big Boss is literally the Big Mac sandwich down to the smallest detail, but with chicken.

The idea of resisting authority to eat a lame chicken sandwich from a large organization is too ironic for words.

Boston Pizza is a casual dining place (which I still have not tried), and their ads are always amusing. The latest showed how good a brother and sister could be, knowing that would get a kids meal at Boston Pizza, complete with a build your own sundae.

That might make me behave better as an adult.

McDonald's Canada is good at advertising items that can't be found in the States. The boss in the ad is obsessed with steak and notices a McD's billboard for new items featuring steak on the menu. The Steak N Egg Bagel for breakfast and the Steak N Caesar Signature McWrap with bacon and Parmesan for lunch and dinner.

The boss points out to his assistant that he needs to track everything about steak yet misses this billboard outside the office.

We can debate about whether the assistant should count McDonald's in steak trends, the ad worked in telling us McDonald's is "obsessed" with steak.

The A&W guy is back, touting how they have the best burgers in Canada. Instead of his location being vague, we do see him near the Ottawa River.

This plays on the previous campaign about the sourcing of the beef that goes into A&W burgers. Though I don't speak highly of restaurant burgers in Canada, I still can't imagine they are the best burgers in Canada.

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I can now find Aero candy bars in the States in international aisles in grocery stores, but they are prominent in Canada. The mother ends up with tossled hair after eating an Aero bar, much to the surprise of her daughter. The play is how Aero candy bars make you feel young. Then again, kids can run off excess sugar easier than adults.

Tim Hortons, which just celebrated its 50th anniversary, now has a crispy chicken sandwich. You walk into a Tim Hortons and you see mostly donuts, just not in the ads.

video credit: Kraft Canada
photo credit: KFC Canada

What's Tempting: 2 smaller drinks

In a recent What's Tempting segment, you could be convinced to always get the larger size since you get more bang for the buck. Well, as hockey fans in Boise, Idaho found out, that isn't always true.

Paying $4 for a 16-oz. glass of beer seems unfair when you can get a whole 20-oz. glass of beer for $7 … until you find out that the same amount of beer fits in both glasses and those who order the larger size are paying $3 more for the same amount of beer.

The larger glasses were taller so it looked like you were getting more beer. But as we learned with the pizza example, your eyes can't tell the whole story.

Volume is the measurement of liquid and you can get the same amount of volume in a taller but thinner cup.

Previous coverage:

What's Tempting: Getting the larger pizza

The Idaho hockey arena story is similar to what happened at football stadiums in Seattle and Oakland in early 2011. In Seattle, the difference in beer prices was $6 for a 16 oz. beer and $7.25 for a 20 oz. beer. In Oakland, $5 bought you a 16 oz. beer while you had to pay $8 for a 20 oz. beer.

After having seen the Idaho video, and videos for the Seattle and Oakland examples, the cups and sizes in the three videos looked virtually alike.

The 20 oz. glasses in all 3 cases are taller and thinner. Volume is a ratio of radius of the base to the height of the glass. In non-math terms, you can have a cup with a taller height and a shorter base that can contain the same volume as a cup with a shorter height and a longer base.

The arenas are being charged more for the 20 oz. cups than the 16 oz. cups, though that total is literally pennies compared to the extra margin made off of the "large" beers sold in those scenarios.

An imperial British pint is just under 20 oz. while an American pint is 16 oz. This would be hilarious if this were the reason for the discrepancy, but highly unlikely.

Even with a lawsuit filed in the Idaho story, something similar will happen in the future where sizes don't reflect the reality of the serving. So how do you deal with this possibility as a consumer?

Ask to see the small and large cups in question. See them side by side. One cup will be taller but is it thinner? Don't look at them just straight on. Look at the mouths of both cups — after all, volume is a 3-dimensional measurement.

If you aren't sure, get the smaller size. In the Seattle case, the larger beer wasn't that much more in price (provided the sizes were accurate), but in the Oakland and Idaho instances, the price difference lent itself to the smaller sizes.

In the Idaho case, you could get 32 oz. of beer for $8 by purchasing 2 small beers vs. paying $7 for a 20 oz. beer. In the Oakland scenario, you would get 32 oz. of beer for $10 vs. 20 oz. for $8, a much better deal.

In those last 2 cases, smaller was better provided you could buy and carry more than 1 beer back to your seat.

The further the difference in price between large and small, the more likely the value lies in two small vs. one large.

So when you're in line or deciding about different sizes for pizza, beer, or whatever is on the menu, you'll have to do a bit of math to figure out the best value scenario. If you take these tips, and ask yourself if two small is a better deal than one large, you'll make smarter food and drink decisions and getting better value for your buck.

Super Bowl XLVIII food ad analysis

Food commercials were aplenty in last night's Super Bowl XLVIII in East Rutherford, New Jersey. But which ones stood out?

Oikos yogurt got the hype for a "Full House" male reunion. However, that wasn't even the most interesting ad for yogurt. Chobani Greek yogurt gave us a great, creative ad about a selective bear raiding a small-town general store. More interesting and told us something about the product.

The biracial Cheerios kid made a return, this time using Cheerios to convey to the girl that she is getting a baby brother. Her counteroffer of a puppy was accepted. Didn't tie into the health claims but reinforced the association with Cheerios and family.

I love Stephen Colbert and the pistachios spot fit Colbert's personality. I especially liked the wraparound where the commercial was "interrupted" by a David Beckham H&M ad. Getting 2 mentions really helped. The only drawback was that pistachios played second-fiddle to Colbert, though Colbert splitting open his head amplified what pistachios are all about.

Previous coverage:

Temptation of the Week: Making your own soft drinks

Super Bowl ad wrapup: 'Ad' for farmers topped the list

Super Bowl Monday morning ad analysis: PepsiMax signifies jealousy, violence more than diet

Butterfinger was the solution to chocolate and peanut butter being in therapy. I thought the ad was for Reeses at first, but that was the point as Butterfinger is trying to be an alternative. I hadn't associated Butterfinger with peanut butter; the company is hoping for $4 million that consumers will give that a try.

Subway is offering a sandwich with Fritos in the sandwich. There was a Fritos chicken enchilada sandwich and a Fritos pulled pork sandwich. You can get Fritos with a sandwich and put them on your own sandwich. Wish Subway would concentrate more on better tasting bread and better looking vegetables on their sandwiches.

To be fair, Subway talks about its sandwiches. I'm still amazed that Jimmy John's makes sandwiches and never talks about what's in them. Equating Jimmy John's with roses for an anniversary would have made for a great parody if someone else produced the ad. This was a wasted $4 million.

Doritos ran two ads: Time Machine and a kid riding a dog. The theme of Doritos being bold was reinforced. The Time Machine ad was definitely better, but both spots were very visual. When you're watching at a party or a bar, you want visual ads where the words don't matter. The visuals were more important in these ads.

Heinz ketchup ran a cute ad about how Heinz makes you happy enough to clap your hands. The classic bottle also ran as a theme; grandma uses a squeeze bottle and makes an unfortunate noise inferred to be flatulence. Funny after pushing the squeeze bottle as convenience, Heinz went a bit retro with the glass bottle. If only Heinz would go truly retro and ditch high-fructose corn syrup.

M&Ms had an Italian stereotype about chopping someone into pieces and then sprinkling that … over ice cream. Turns out the peanut M&M was in the trunk and doesn't understand Italian. The candy company has done a lot better; your Super Bowl ad shouldn't make consumers cringe and wish for your less expensive ads in comparison.

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Drinks aren't really food, but we'll take a brief look at the spots.

The lovely Scarlet Johansson talked up Sodastream. The company teased an alternative ad with a tagline attacking Coke and Pepsi. Sodastream knew the ad wouldn't make it to the Super Bowl, but put it out there to attract more attention.

Johansson attracted more attention to a controversy involving Oxfam and settlements in the Middle East. Funny how Sodastream is running against Coke and Pepsi, but won't make alternative syrups to satisfy that audience.

Coca-Cola ran 2 ads: one with different languages singing America the Beautiful and a kid running a TD all the way to Lambeau Field in Green Bay. The football one tied in well with the game but not the product. And the international voices remind us they every country outside the United States and Canada has a better version of Coca-Cola.

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Full disclosure: my day job did not run an ad in Super Bowl XLVIII, but has run an ad in recent years.

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video credits: Chobani, Cheerios, countournuts.com

What's Tempting: Healthy Super Bowl Sunday

Healthy snacking on Super Bowl Sunday is tempting, but not terribly practical. In a large group, watching some of these snacks advertised during the big game, recovering from 2 polar vortices (vortexes?), and winding down on a Sunday night — this can lead to non-healthy snack decisions.

If you are living in a home state of one of the Super Bowl participants, snacking temptation is even worse since you can smoke marijuana legally in those states (insert Doritos joke here).

Previous coverage:

Temptation of the Week: Create a distinct Super Bowl feast

Temptation of the Week: Resisting temptation to gorge on Super Bowl Sunday

Of course, one evening of nachos and other snacks won't do much harm. And if you've been good lately, sure, why not take a night of "fun."

Fun doesn't have to mean eating processed snacks, but again, peer pressure does make an impact.

If you want to avoid these temptations, here are some options that could offset that Monday Morning Quarterback uneasy feeling.

• Guacamole. That is usually what people think of when trying to come up with a healthy snack for Super Bowl Sunday. And get some of those blue corn chips to go with the guacamole, or boil some eggs and use the egg whites to hold some guacamole.
• Hummus makes for a nice alternative dip to guacamole.
• Spinach artichoke dip is a good option if it's more about the vegetables than the dip. Fat-free yogurt can cut the calories while Greek yogurt adds the fiber.
• You could eat well the rest of the weekend and leave Sunday night for some snacks.
• Fiber and lots of it. Have oatmeal or something high in fiber for lunch, so you won't feel as hungry.
• Celery. Let's not kid ourselves: celery isn't fun. You see celery with Buffalo wings but you don't see people eating the celery. With the great dips, celery sticks are a good way to get the dip into your mouth.
• Drink lots of water. You'll feel more full. Drinking American beer may be like drinking water, but that doesn't count.
• Frozen fruit, especially blueberries or strawberries. Super Bowl Sunday is mostly about salty rather than sweet. But berries on top of Greek yogurt with a little honey or maple syrup can be fun and healthy and filling.
• Go nuts with nuts. Eating nuts adds protein and fiber.
• Popcorn. No microwave crap. Cook your own with a popcorn popper or put some kernels in a paper bag in a microwave oven. Use spice rather than butter to add flavor. Cayenne pepper is a great cheese. Garlic is wonderful.
• Healthy cereal. Set out a bowl of healthy cereal. Watching the game involves mindless munching, so if you something healthy and fun, you might not even remember what you ate an hour ago.

You get over a thousand meals in a year. If you've been good lately, one meal won't make much of a difference. If you haven't been good lately, these tips might make your dips that much better for you in the long run.

Farm Bill split opens doors to frank food stamps discussion

The GOP-led House passed a Farm Bill that took food stamps out of the picture. The Republicans want to take up food stamps in a separate bill. Later.

Liberals and progressives don't like this move because they fear what will happen to food stamps if dealt with separately. Their fears are justified about the potential loss of food stamps.

We've had more consecutive bad Farm Bills than the Pittsburgh Pirates have had losing seasons (20 straight years). The Pirates have an extremely good chance at ending that string in 2013. Farm Bill? Not so much.

Splitting the Farm Bill and separating out the elements can start a desperately needed dialogue about the American farm and food strategy.

We need to stop having pretend conversations about Cadillac welfare queens and iPod wearing people laughing about using food stamps. We need to start having real conversations about the 80% of people on food stamps who are working, and finding out more about the 20% who aren't able to work who are getting help.

Separating food stamps from the Farm Bill is a dangerous risk to food stamps. But the split might get us to start having a real conversation about food help.

Speaking of pretend conversations, we hear that the Farm Bill subsidizes regular farmers in case their crops don't do as well as expected. The vast majority of this part of the Farm Bill goes to "farmers" who have plenty, many of whom are getting paid not to grow. We are also paying farmers who are farming to grow tons of corn and soybeans (most of which is GMO), most of which we don't need and is doing damage to our soil.

We're told that supporting food stamps raises the deficit and produces dependency. Well, the reality of helping those who don't need help is they get more help and get the money for longer, so they are more dependent.

So we like the idea of paying farmers, but not the kind of paying that struggling farmers really could use.

Conservatives hate food stamps with a unnatural zeal. Even when they're told that food stamps have a small margin of abuse (much less than subsidies for the rich farmers) or that food stamps help out the community by encouraging direct spending, they don't care.

They are upset at President Barack Obama because more people are on food assistance than when the last guy was in charge. There are two good reasons: 1) the crash of the economy (caused by their actions) and 2) trying to offer assistance to those who need it. But again, facts can't slow down their anger toward food stamps.

Food stamps get bashed because they are invisible yet when you see the results, they make a better community for such a small investment.

So we have a pool of money, some for farmers and some for those who eat food. We want to spend the money wisely but still help those who want a better food process. We want liberals to be happy, but conservatives too, if they can be happy.

-- We give money to farmers, but actual real farmers who are doing the right thing, but are struggling.

-- Some of that money comes through vouchers for those people who need food assistance to spend in farmers markets, CSAs, or other direct methods to farmers. We have to spend money (short-term) to educate people that they can use this option.

-- For this part of the food stamps program, we haven't given a cent to the poor people, but we have given money to the farmers. The farmers who really need help. And we haven't given any money directly to the farmers, so far.

Local small farmers are happier since they are getting help in the best way: getting money for their crop. No paying farmers not to farm, but them getting money for farming.

Those on food assistance who have access to farmers markets can get great produce to supplement their food supply.

A strong system that matches the two parties together doesn't involve huge amounts of red tape or bureaucracy. The exchange of food and vouchers is all done on a local level and keeps money within the community.

In some areas, people receiving food assistance can get food at farmers markets, but some seed money (pun intended) would jumpstart that to a much broader level.

This suggestion only solves a portion of the food problem in this country. Some don't have easy access to farmers or farmers markets and this won't help out others who need more than just good produce.

Raising wages help people be able to afford the basic necessities of life. And while the truly rich has recovered from the depressive recession of 2008, most people's wages, especially the working poor, haven't kept up.

The Dems could put together a comprehensive bill noting several factors to lift boats so people can better afford access to food. Yes, the Dems aren't in power in the House, but they could take a lesson from the parliamentary system and offer an alternative so voters can see what they would do if the Dems were put back in charge.

But even with all of those bills and proposals, people in this country will still need food assistance. SNAP, food stamps, vouchers — whatever the name, they will still need help. And every private source and food bank out there combined can't make a dent in the problem.

Worried about money? Already saving plenty by not paying rich people to sit on their butts. Worried about dependency? We already have a system where people are ashamed or scared to use what they have a legitimate right to have? Worried about welfare queens? Well, you should be as scared of welfare queens as you are of the Sharknado.