The Place You Go 4(good)food

Our mission is as it has been from the outset to de-junk fast food - in-store and (by adding delivery to the suite of service options available atwww.4food.com) at home and in your office. To further facilitate de-junking, from today Monday December 12th 2011, you can also order through Seamless Web (www.seamless.com) using your existing personal and corporate accounts. In 2012 we will add group ordering to our suite of online applications enabling 4foodies to invite others to “feast” - paying for none, some, or all of the entire bill!

Charlie’s Golden Moment !

In a week during which the composition and order of the chart is transformed, the biggest news is that ANTYSON’S Brioche-Beef-Mac and Cheese-Pancetta Bacon-Cheddar-Tomato-BBQ “tribute to his messiness Charlie Sheen” #winning  burger has earned GoldBurger status, with a total of 512 sales since inception. As 4food and ANTYSON each contribute 25-cents per sale to the American Diabetes Association, our total contribution is now $256 and a check for $192 (representing sales since our last contribution in April) is in the mail.  Appropriately, Charlie had yet another trademark "#winning" moment at the Michelin-starred Guy Savoy restaurant at Caesars in Vegas last week. He thought he was sending Justin Bieber a text to get him to call, and instead tweeted "310-954-7277 Call me bro, C." to his 5-million followers who quickly retweeted the message. Initially, Charlie saw the funny side and answered his phone as “Ray's Pizza” and “Winning” but by the time we called to inform him of the contribution we had made in his name and to invite him to accept a GoldenBurger on behalf of the ADA, the # had been disconnected - such is the high-price of messy fame. We are still trying to contact Charlie and to incent you to help we are offering $1000 in 4food cash for an introduction and that we will multiply our contribution to the ADA 10-fold.

In other chart news, AHARRIS’S platinum selling Brioche-Beef-Avocado & Chili Mango-Avocado-Manchego-Lettuce-Tomato-Dijon MustardCaliBurger rides an inexplicable 281% leap in sales, to retake the #1 spot from RODGERSMG’S MGR Lamb Burger, which skips a place landing a nose in front of NEWMANRA’S  Cali4nication. JFAVUZZA’S Multigrain-Turkey-Spinach & Garlic-Avocado-Goat Cheese-Lettuce-Pickles-Hummus-Tzatziki Better Turkey Burger enters the chart at #4, a beak in front of ERICA’S autobiographical Erica. At #6, ANTYSON’S Charlie Sheen tribute#winning burger lies in wait of a GoldBurger boost, ahead of two new chart entries knotted at #7: AMM40’S Multigrain-Turkey-Spinach & Garlic-Avocado-Mozzarella-Onion-Basil Pesto anna 2 follow-up to the slow selling anna, and Muy Espicy, a Pressed Rice-Turkey-Potato & Chorizo Hash-Avocado-Fontina-Lettuce-Chipotle Pepper spicy Mex combo that is TONYTYPES’ 5th attempt at chart glory having failed with knock-offs likeGiving Gluten-Free Thanks. Tied at #9 are ALLAMERICAN’S The American, looking dapper in a new avatar of Stars and Stripes, and JAMESBUCKNEY’S Multigrain-Veggie-Potato & Chorizo Hash-Pancetta Bacon-Cheddar-Lettuce-Tomato-Chipotle Pepper-Guacamole newcomerVeggieBaconPlus.

Saving the Children from Mickey D !

More than 17% of kids and adolescents in the U.S. are obese. Since 1980 the childhood obesity rate has more than doubled for kids aged 2-5 years as well for adolescents aged 12-19 years and has more than tripled for kids aged 6-11 years, equaling 9 million obese kids 6 years old and up. If this trend continues, 1/3 of kids born since 2000 will develop type-2 diabetes in their lifetime; a disease that is directly linked to heart attack, stroke, blindness, amputation, and kidney disease. Meanwhile there has been a three decade long bull market in advertising to kids who now watch more than 40,000 commercials a year (up from 20,000 in the late 1970s), the vast majority of which advertise junk food - candy (32%), cereal (31%), and fast-food restaurants (9% = more than 3,600 commercials a year).

And unfortunately it works - a recent study by Yale University's Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity found that 40% of kids nagged their parents to go to McDonald's at least once a week and 15% of preschoolers asked to do so every day. According to the study, teens on average order 800 to 1,100 calories in a single meal (30% of which come from saturated fat or sugar) - which is half of their recommended daily caloric intake. And of 3,039 possible kids meal combinations (think McDonald's Happy Meal), only 12 met the nutritional criteria that the researchers set for preschoolers and only 15 did so for older kids!

Happily, McDonald’s recently put Happy Meals on a diet, more than halving the amount of french fries and adding fruit to the box in an effort to reduce calories by 20%. Unhappily, the average Happy Meal is still high in fat and sodium, is responsible for more than a third of a kid’s recommended caloric intake, and contains a toy to induce purchase by creating a ‘junk food is fun food’ connection.

Recently, San Francisco - in an effort to de-junk its kids' diets - passed an ordinance that prohibits fast-food restaurants from including free toys in kids meals that don't comply with the city’s nutritional standards.

The “Happy Meal ban" goes into effect TODAY (12/1/11) but McDonald's has already found a way to undermine it, by charging 10 cents for the toy. To mask the extremity of its corporate cynicism and disguise its civic contempt, proceeds from the toy sales will be used to help build a new Ronald McDonald House.

To show our support for the city of San Francisco and to make a small contribution to de-junking your kids’ lives, for every meal over $12 that you order @ 4food Madison Avenue next week (12/5 - 12/10) an accompanying kid eats for free. 

The Chartbeat will return next week …