The first image the phrase “The Happiness Machine,” brings to mind is somewhat similar to the insanity of Willie Wonka’s candy factory: Happiness pumped out in the form of chocolate, bubble-gum, schnozzberries, and golden tickets. Maybe that vision isn’t so far off. Coca Cola has launched an online video that’s gone viral, dubbed “The Happiness Machine.”
The gist: Coke kicks off “The Happiness Machine” with a YouTube video, as they plan to travel to college campuses across the U.S., installing their “happiness machines” and watching the fun begin. The video delivers on its promise of happiness, bringing the unknowing participants to their knees in laughter (one girl even hugs the machine!), and an equal number of laugh-out-louds to its online viewers. I know for me, it totally made my week knowing that something so small could bring a whole cafeteria of college students together (even if that something had to be empty calories – c’mon Coke, you do make water too!).
So remember, the next time you’re buying a soda, you may end up with 20… or a balloon animal… or a pizza… or a six-foot sub sandwich…
Curious how your town measures up in local produce against the rest of the U.S.? Want to know if you’ve got the most fast food restaurants in your state? The USDA just launched a neat tool that’ll show you! The Your Food Environment Atlas tool lets you assemble country-level statistics based on food choices, health, and community characteristics so you can see how your town or state compares to others across the nation.
Obviously the chillier states are the low end of the local-food scale right now, but I wonder if the map will reflect seasonal changes in fresh produce availability? I guess I’ll have to wait until summer to see… it feels so far away! Start getting ready for summer now by finding a farmers’ market near you. Check out the USDA’s Farmers Market Search to find your local market, and start supporting your inner locavore this summer!
New York residents were shocked this week by the new ads released by the New York City health department, equating drinking soda with drinking FAT. That’s right; straight up ooey, gooey, yellowey, lardy, fat. If it sounds disgusting, oh just you wait ’til you see the actual commercial. Check out the nausea-inducing, fat slurping ad below.
Yum yum yum, right? Eh no, absolutely disgusting; but think about this:
I’ll be interested to see how effective this ad campaign really ends up being, how long it will take for the cola companies to lobby hard enough to shut it down, and if the sales of regular sodas are actually affected.
If you saw this commercial on TV, would it make you think twice about reaching for your regular cola?
Whoah! Extreme title right? Well it was an extreme night! Better grab the popcorn because this is a really bigblog snack!
Friday night was date night with my fellow nutrition blogettes – Corinne, Janel, Jessica, and Elizabeth – and boy did we have an ambitious night planned. First, we played our own foodie version of “The View,” as we taste-tested vitaminwater’s entire line of the new vitaminwater10 flavors. After that, we jetted off to Watertown, MA, for a fun-filled evening at Red Lentil – my first dining experience at a 100% vegetarian and vegan restaurant.
A Serving-Size Surplus
Now, I have to be honest up front: historically, I have not been the biggest fan of vitaminwater. It may be jam packed with vitamins, minerals, herbals, wonderfuls, moonbeams, and sunshine (which you will pee out of your system in a matter of hours, by the way) – but it’s also jam packed with sugar! That sugar jacks each bottle’s caloric total up to a whopping 125 calories! Yeah, you heard me!
But, what’s that you say? You say the bottle claims it only has 50 calories? Eh eh, not so fast. This is where your smart label reading skills come into play. Check out the serving size – 2.5 servings!Tricky, huh? Now 125 calories isn’t much on occasion, but on a daily basis it probably means you’re going to have to kick out some other tasty indulgence to balance the scales. I don’t know about you, but I’d much rather trade in a flavored water for a cookie any day.
Buyer beware, there are a lot of products out there that pull this trick, and many of them are those packages that appear to contain only one-portion:
Just another reason why you always want to flip over whatever product your honing in on to check out that little black & white box on the back.
vitaminwater10
vitaminwater is going for caloric redemption now, with their newest bev, vitaminwater10. This new draft in the vitaminwater line-up has significantly fewer calories than its evil alter ego, but wait! We can’t forget our new-found label reading skills just yet: don’t be fooled by the “10″ in the title; it has 10 calories per serving, but how many servings are there in one bottle do you think? You guessed it – 2.5!
So what will it take to burn off a whole bottle?
A 25 minute nap
25 minutes of channel surfing
25 minutes of online shopping
25 minutes of online dating
Brushing your teeth for 10 minutes
So while 25 calories for a sweetened beverage is a lot friendlier to your waistline (and leaves more room for that cookie later – yay!), the lesson is to always check those serving sizes so you don’t get carried away.
The folks at VitaminWater were nice enough to send me some of the new vitaminwater10 to test out on Healthy Blog Snack, so I rounded up my fellow faim femmes Nutrition Bloggers – Corinne, Janel, Jessica, and Elizabeth (from left to right in the video, plus me on the far right) – and we sat down for a good old-fashioned flavor face-off before dinner; check it out below!
*Note: We are in no way affiliated with vitaminwater, nor did they pay us to do this. We are just some foodie girls having a fun night on the town!*
Bottom Line
That said, it’s all about making choices and being aware of what you’re eating and drinking. I’m all for indulging in the occasional treat – cookies, brownies, cupcakes (I’m an Easy-Bake Oven girl at heart, can you tell?) – and I think flavored drinks have their place as well. But that is all vitaminwater10 should be in your food repertoire: a flavored beverage treat; it is not going » Read more: A Serving-Size Surplus, The vitaminwater10 Flavor Face-Off Video, and a Vegan Night Out!
Who hasn’t done it. You’ve crossed the good-coffee gods somehow, somewhere, at some time. It is inevitable. Well, Coffee Amnesty is here to relieve you of your guilt and pay off your sins. They are giving away a promotional package including a half pound of whole-bean or pre-ground coffee, a Coffee Amnesty mug, and a $10 discount card for future purchases – all in exchange for your deepest, darkest coffee sins.
My confession? I confessed to drinking the most dreadful sludge from the lobby of the building next door to the hospital. Why would anyone do this? Because it is free. Yes, shame on me, I know, but I’m a struggling grad student for goodness sake! Want to know the worst part? To add to the mess, I actually top it off with powderedinstant creamer – bleh!!!
Ok whew. Confession pays, huh?
I received my Jamaican Me Crazy blend a few days ago (smells delish!), but there are a bunch of other delicious sounding options as well:
Healthy Blog Snack is for all of you busy people out there who love food, nutrition, and health, but only have time for a bite or two at each sitting. It is the place to nibble on fun, food, fitness, and nutrition, as HBS serves up recipes, nutrition facts, fun food info, and food & nutrition news. - Happy Snacking!
Whoah! Extreme title right? Well it was an extreme night! Better grab the popcorn because this is a 
Who hasn’t done it. You’ve crossed the good-coffee gods somehow, somewhere, at some time. It is inevitable. Well, 
