Gluttony at the Dome: All-You-Can-Eat Seats

Don't get me wrong, I consider myself a big Twins fan. I have to admit I don't really watch a lot of games (we have a bare bones cable package for news and PBS Kids) but I enjoy reading about the team's exploits -- and blunders -- and my wife and I take our kids to a half dozen games a year, attend a handful more by ourselves and listen to games on the radio.

Recently, however, I noticed a promotion that gives new meaning to "big" sports fans. The All-You-Can-Eat seats allow patrons to scarf an unlimited number of "hot dogs, nachos, popcorn, peanuts, soft pretzels, [and] fountain soda" then sit on their duffs for 3 hours while their blood sugar goes through the roof. Sounds like a recipe for a heart attack, or at least an invitation to adult onset diabetes.

I find it really quite sad. Not that people enjoy this kind of food, but that they're enticed by how much money they could "save" by stuffing themselves with it. It highlights one of the central problems at the intersection of our brand of capitalism and the "personal food economy." A rational consumer wants to maximize the value of his or her food dollar, so portion size becomes the primary gauge of value. Once again it's quantity over quality.

I don't think I'm that much of a food snob, at least not at the ball park. I enjoy a good beer or two, and typically eat a large bag of peanuts by myself. But I'm not going to stuff myself on food simply because it's cheap and available. There are relatively healthy food choices at the ball game, but you have to search them out, and they do often cost a bit more. The "Carving Stations" for instance serve a nice roasted turkey sandwich, carved up on the spot with a Caesar salad on the side. So I guess I'd rather sit in the "cheap seats" and eat the pricier fare.

Next time I go to a game I think I'll take a stroll over to the A.Y.C.E. section and see if the patrons there look much different from those in other sections. My guess is they probably won't. But if they start sitting in these seats game after game, I'd suggest the engineers take a close look at those gusset plates before the end of the season, as the Twins will have found a new way to achieve spectator growth.

Biking and Your Carbon Footprint

Recently a friend asked me what kind of impact I thought my bike commuting had on reducing my personal carbon footprint. Concern for the environment is certainly one of the many reasons I enjoy biking (and bike commuting particularly) but I'd never tried to even estimate the positive effects these choices might be having.

So, I decided to conduct a very crude "back of the envelope" estimate of the impact my bike commuting has on reducing my carbon footprint and came up with the following estimate:

Using a standard carbon calculator on the web, I estimated my car emissions at 4.39 metric tons of CO2 annually. Assuming that I travel roughly the same number of miles by car each day I drive (weekdays or weekends), and considering I commute by bike an average of 3 times per week from at least May through roughly October, I avoid driving approximately 65-70 times per year. This doesn't count my weekend rides, which are typically much longer, but these rides aren't really substitutes for driving (though at least I don't have to drive to the gym, ball field or other meeting place for this hobby!). This means I bike as opposed to drive somewhere around 17-20% of the year. This would put the reduction in my carbon footprint at at least 3/4 of a metric ton of CO2.

While I was pretty please to learn this, it's made me want to try to commute a little more this year, and at least get my percentage up to 20%. Please let me know if you find any major flaws in my reasoning.

Column 2: Preparing For Your First Bike Commute

The second installation of my monthly Shifting Gears column (on "Preparing For Your First Bike Commute" just appeared in the Minneapolis Downtown and Southwest Journals. My first column, which focused on "Buying a New Bike" appeared in April.

Here are a couple of additional points I had to cut from the column due to space restrictions:

• Bike commuting provides excellent benefits for your metabolism, by providing two "bursts" of activity (one in the morning and one in the late afternoon). In many ways this is better than one long period of exercise. The timing is good, too, since it's right around mealtime (breakfast and dinner) allowing you to offset the spike in calories you're taking in.
  
  
• If you don't feel like you can bike the entire way from your home to your workplace, consider biking part of it to start with. Put you bike in or on your car and drive part way. Find a safe spot to leave your car during the day and bike the rest of the way in. Pretty soon you'll be able to bike further and eventually you'll more than likely be able to ride the whole way.

Happy commuting, and happy Bike-to-Work Day (May 14)!

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8 Glasses a Day Advice Doesn't Hold Water

Recently researchers writing in The Journal of the American Society of Nephrology wrote that drinking extra water is unnecessary, and that there is no clinical evidence that drinking eight glasses of water a day is beneficial to otherwise healthy people. [See Go Ahead, Put the Water Bottle Down, New York Times, April 19, 2008.]

I've never been an advocate of drinking a lot of extra water. Drink a glass when your thirsty. Don't if you're not. When you're on your bike riding hard it's a little different. You need to drink a little ahead of your thirst, because your muscles often need water long before you feel a sense of thirst.

At the same time, I am a big proponent of substituting water for other drinks during meals and with snacks. It took some time but I now much prefer fruit juice diluted at least half and half with water, if not more. To make it a little more interesting, mix juice with sparkling mineral water or club soda. It's actually cheaper to buy good quality juice (always look for 100% juice with no added sugars) and a large bottle of carbonated water than drinking straight juice (even the cheap stuff).

And it's much healthier.

So, drink water when you're thirsty. Can the soda completely. And dilute naturally sweet juices. You don't need the extra sugar . . . or the extra water.