The grocery cart that suggests better food choices

The Lambet Shopping Trolley Handle is equipped with a barcode sensor and can clip onto any cart. It uses a 16-LED multicolor display to give would-be buyers a quick idea of the product they’re buying, including allergen information and calories. ”One color pattern might indicate that a product is organic, and another might tell you if it’s local” by flashing the words low, medium, or high, to indicate the food miles the product traveled to get to your store, says Ariel Schwartz at Fast Co. Exist.

Users can compare two competing products with the scanner, which tells you which item is the better buy with a smiley face, and steers you away from less healthy options with a neutral or frowny face. The system is “appealing because of its simplicity,” says Walter Frick at BostInno.

Keep reading

The latest disturbing diet trend: Feeding-tubes. The tube is inserted into their noses, which funnels a slow drip of liquid protein and fat (with no carbohydrates) through the esophagus into the stomach.

Satisfied customers — mostly brides-to-be — defend the tube, but critics say this is the grossest diet trend yet. Also, it costs $1,500.

Every American trashes about 400 pounds of food a year — equal to the weight of a gorilla. With global food prices spiking around the world and malnourishment rampant, it’s astounding to consider how much food people throw away every day.

After paper products, food is the second biggest source of waste in the U.S, accounting for 33 million tons of trash in 2010, says Sarah Nassauer at The Wall Street Journal. Globally, an estimated 30 percent to 50 percent of all food gets thrown away, say Lisa Baertlein and Ernest Scheyder at Reuters.

Why are we throwing away so much food, and what can be done?

Book of The Week — The American Way of Eating: Undercover at Walmart, Applebee’s, Farm Fields, and the Dinner Table by Tracie McMillan

“It tells of Walmart employees who spend hours peeling off layers of moldy lettuce before restocking it on the shelves, illegal immigrants with no hope of workers’ compensation and Applebee’s chefs who don’t actually cook anything, since most food is pre-made and then shipped to the restaurant. McMillan can tell these stories because show knows them first-hand — she immersed herself as a migrant worker, Walmart employee and Applebee’s staffer to see for herself how America eats.”

Tell us what you’re reading this week for a chance to win a free copy of McMillan’s book. Tweet your #FridayReads to @TheWeek!

As the New England Patriots and New York Giants square off this Sunday for Super Bowl XLVI, America’s estimated 113 million viewers will have something besides football and commercials on their minds: Food.

• 2
  Ranking of Super Bowl Sunday among America’s top eating days, after Thanksgiving

• 1.25 billion
  Chicken wings Super Bowl watchers will polish off Sunday

• 100 million
  Pounds of meat in those chicken wings

• 5
  Percent of the year’s 25 billion wings that will be consumed on Sunday

• 2
  Times those Super Bowl Sunday chicken wings could circle the Earth if they were linked up in a chain

More ridiculous numbers here

Does fast food cause brain damage? Recent studies suggest unhealthy foods can actually scar your brain.