Taco Bell does nutrition at the drive-thru window – pondering Pollan’s Food Rules
1 in 2 Americans visits so-called quick service restaurants (QSR) twice a month, 29% visit 3-5 times a month, and 16% visit 6 or more times a month. Taco Bell sponsored the America’s Drive-Thru Survey and found that 7 in 10 Americans think having better choices in drive-thru’s would encourage them to eat better. Only 50% of Americans believe they can stick to a low-calorie diet while ordering through drive-thru’s. 9 in 10 would try better choices of their favorite menu items if they were offered. Taco Bell generates 70% of its business via drive-thru. This press release explains the
Mother-Power online
4 in 5 moms go online at least once a month, according to My Mommy’s Online. The report is based on 2007 data from Simmons Consumer Research Survey published by eMarketer. “Being a parent makes going online almost a necessity,” according to eMarketer. 40% of all women who go online in the US are mothers with kids under 18. There are 35 million of them (including me). Intriguingly, virtually all women who are pregnant (94%) use the Internet, and half of the mothers surveyed use the Internet more since having a child. What do Moms do online? 94% visit portals
Health Populi’s Tea Leaves for 2008
I “leave” you for the year with some great, good, and less-than-sanguine expectations for health care in 2008. These are views filtered through my lens on the health care world: the new consumer, health information technology, globalization, politics, and health economics. Health politics shares the stage with Iraq. Health care is second only to Iraq as the issue that Americans most want the 2008 presidential candidates to talk about, according to the latest Kaiser Health Tracking Poll. Several candidates have responded to the public’s interest with significant health care reform proposals. But major health reform – such as universal access
The true costs of cigarettes = $222 a pack, and the Rolling Stone ad
A pack of cigarettes ranges in price from a low of $3.35 in South Carolina to a high of $6.45 in New Jersey. But the real personal costs of cigarettes — per pack smoked — are 66 times greater (in the case of that smoking South Carolinian). The analysis can be found in a new working paper for the National Bureau of Economic Research. W. Kip Viscusi and Joni Hersch calculate this cost in terms of personal health risks: for a man, each pack of cigarettes smoked reduces the value of his life by $222; for a woman, each pack
Target marketing: no pink guns left behind?
In 2004, 20% of homicides were directly associated with intimate partner conflict (i.e., one in which an intimate partner killed another partner). Intimate partner violence resulting in death was most common among victims aged 40-44 years. Murder is the leading cause of death for pregnant women, according to the National Organization of Women. The National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, spends about $43 million a year on ways to reduce deaths and injuries from drowning, poisoning, suicide, industrial accidents, house fires and domestic violence. Of that sum, only $2.3 million
Colds, kids and labels
Over-the-counter medicines (OTC meds) don’t cure colds in kids. The FDA has spoken, and said that the kinds of kid-targeted medicines photographed on the right aren’t only useless — they can be dangerous. The offending incredients are dextromethorphan, used in cough suppressants; pseudoephedrine and phenylephrine, used in decongestants; guaifenesin, an expectorant; and, brompheniramine, chlorpheniramine maleate, or diphenhydramine, used in OTC meds labelled as antihistamines. If ever there was a time for a parent to get into label-reading, it’s now. The good news is that more of us are reading labels, according to the Hartman Group, the food and wellness research
I was invited to be a Judge for the upcoming CES 2025 Innovation Awards in the category of digital health and connected fitness. So grateful to be part of this annual effort to identify the best in consumer-facing health solutions for self-care, condition management, and family well-being. Thank you, CTA!
Thank you Team Roche for inviting me to brainstorm patients as health citizens, consumers, payers, and voters in the Healthcare Transformers series.
For the past 15 years, the annual CES conference in Las Vegas has been my go-to meeting for updating my research and network in digital health and consumer-facing electronics that people find meaningful for their well-being, families, and home lives. I'll be back in Vegas in January for a full week of Media Days, one-on-one meetings, and speaking about my perspectives on health consumers.