Fast Food

You've heard about the "Wheat Belly" diet, right? Well, technically, it doesn't exist. Dr. William Davis points out that the word "diet" does not appear on either the cover of his bestselling "Wheat Belly" book published in 2011 or on the follow-up, "Wheat Belly Cookbook," which was published last month and already tops bestseller lists. And that omission is intentional, Davis said. "Wheat Belly" is about stripping your plate of a substance that contributes to heart disease, causes joint pain, inflammation, foggy thinking, bloating and much more, Davis said.

You can have almost anything delivered to your door. If you're craving pizza and wings with breadsticks at midnight, that's easy. Fresh sushi? Done. You can even order an entire week's worth of groceries. And the next time you need a Whopper, you can have Burger King deliver too -- if you live in Glendale. A Burger King franchise location in Glendale is piloting a new delivery program for the fast-food brand. Franchise owner Bob Stevens, who owns eight Burger King locations, began taking delivery orders at his store on North Central Avenue on April 9. Stevens' location is the first in California to deliver.

Since the beginning of the republic, there has been a dynamic tension between constantly expanding diversity driven by immigration and the relentless homogenizing force of common American culture. And there's nothing like a long drive on an interstate highway to remind a person of that reality. On Monday, I traveled 600 miles on I-5 cutting through the center of California, from Redding to Los Angeles. The force of homogenization was apparent at every major exit and interchange. I was hungry, but I was hoping to find something beyond McDonald's, Burger King, Subway, Wendy's, Arby's or Taco Bell.

When John Galardi saw a man hosing down the parking lot of a modest Mexican restaurant in Pasadena, he asked for work. Galardi was young and broke, a college student freshly arrived from Missouri and looking for anything to help him scrape by. It turned out that he asked the right man. Glen Bell Jr. was a young up-and-comer who liked the spark he saw in Galardi and mentored him for a few years while starting his eponymous chain, Taco Bell....

NEW YORK - The next wave of union protesters isn't blue collar. It's lawyers, paralegals, secretaries, helicopter pilots, judges, insurance agents and podiatrists. These white-collar workers are not exactly the picture of the labor movement, but they are becoming a more essential part of it as they turn to unions for help in a tough economy as bosses try to squeeze out more profits. "Employers have been downsizing, asking employees to take on larger roles, making them work more hours," said Nicole Korkolis, spokeswoman for the Office and Professional Employees International Union.

With more than 4 million people visiting Yosemite National Park last year ? and that number expected to increase this year ? it's no wonder lodging inside the park is snatched up quickly. "We typically sell out during the summer season," Delaware North Cos. spokeswoman Lisa Cesaro said of its Yosemite accommodations (Ahwahnee Hotel, Yosemite Lodge at the Falls, Curry Village and the housekeeping camp on the Merced River; the Wawona Hotel, and in the back country, Tuolumne Meadows Lodge, White Wolf Lodge and the High Sierra camps)

Is there a secret menu at McDonald's? What kind of high jinks happen in the drive-thru? How often are the restaurants cleaned? A Reddit user identifying himself as an 18-year-old employee at a golden arches in Columbus, Ohio - one of the top 500 outlets in the company, no less - has the answers. On an “Ask Me Anything” thread on the social site, GameMisconduct63 says he's “seen the worst of the worst customer incidents, altercations, and the overall rudeness of human beings” working at the chain.

Fast-food eateries are in the throes of drive-through Darwinism as more upscale upstarts, such as Chipotle Mexican Grill and Panera Bread Co., grab market share from the likes of Taco Bell, Subway and Wendy's. Chains that are fancier than fast-food options but cheaper than sit-down alternatives are part of a hybrid sector known as fast-casual that is maturing into one of the food industry's strongest. That category is tapping into growing demand for more healthful, specialty foods that are still speedily served and moderately priced.

Restaurant sales may be recovering nicely in the U.S., but eateries are increasingly looking abroad, where diners are more accepting of innovations such as Pizza Hut's new cheeseburger-crusted pies in the Middle East. Think it's a joke? A fantasy food dreamed up by a teenage boy? Even the advertisement acknowledges how silly it all sounds. In the video, diners look on agog as a royal page brings in the monstrosity “masterpiece” - dubbed the “Crown Crust Pizza” - on a cushion.

Heart attacks might not be such a big wake-up call for some. Sure, many people turn their lives around, but consider this study that tracked fast-food habits among patients who had been hospitalized with heart attacks. Six months after having an attack, researchers say some cut back on their frequent fast-food habit -- but more than half didn't. The study published in February in the American Journal of Cardiology identified 884 heart attack patients who said they frequently -- every week or more -- ate fast food.

NEW YORK -- How much should employers pay the people who serve up your french fries and ring up your tacos? It's an issue that's being raised for the second time in six months as hundreds of fast food workers in New York City walked out on the job Thursday to demand higher wages. An estimated 400 workers from 60 restaurants in Brooklyn, Manhattan and Harlem participated, organizers say. The campaign, organized in part by the group Fast Food Forward, is asking for wages to be raised to $15 an hour, which in some cases would double the pay of some workers, raising their pay to around what a substitute teacher makes, or an emergency medical technician, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

There's no strong evidence of an association between living within walking distance of places to buy food and being overweight or not, researchers said after interviewing nearly 100,000 Californians. Given the attention to the idea of food deserts - areas with limited access to healthful food - and their effect on people's health, the researchers wanted to find how much it mattered to have stores and restaurants within walking distance, which they defined as a mile from home. But the number of fast-food outlets within three miles of home was associated with eating more fast food, fried potatoes and caloric soft drinks, and with less frequent consumption of produce, the researchers said.

Think innovation, and the first thing that usually comes to mind is the technology industry. But, of course, you can be innovative in just about anything you do, which is just what the TED conference aims to celebrate.  Last week, Los Angeles artist Ron Finley  took the stage to talk about why he embraced urban farming and how he hopes it will transform South-Central Los Angeles' health and eating patterns. TED posted his talk this week .   QUIZ: How much do you know about Google?

Since the beginning of the republic, there has been a dynamic tension between constantly expanding diversity driven by immigration and the relentless homogenizing force of common American culture. And there's nothing like a long drive on an interstate highway to remind a person of that reality. On Monday, I traveled 600 miles on I-5 cutting through the center of California, from Redding to Los Angeles. The force of homogenization was apparent at every major exit and interchange. I was hungry, but I was hoping to find something beyond McDonald's, Burger King, Subway, Wendy's, Arby's or Taco Bell.

The gig : Andrew Wiederhorn is the chairman and chief executive of Fatburger Inc., a fast-food restaurant chain based in Beverly Hills. The first Fatburger opened on Western Avenue in Los Angeles in 1947 and gained notoriety when rappers Ice Cube, Tupac Shakur and the Notorious B.I.G. all mentioned the restaurant in songs. Since 2003, Fatburger has been owned by Fog Cutter Capital Group Inc., a Santa Monica investment company of which Wiederhorn is also chairman and CEO. Self-starter : Wiederhorn grew up in a single-parent family in Portland; his father died when he was age 9. In high school, he hired a lawyer to help him get permits to rent out jet-skis on the Willamette River.

No more missing inches: Subway says that never again will a Footlong sandwich meet a ruler it can't match. In the company's own words: “We regret any instance where we did not fully deliver on our promise to our customers. We freshly bake our bread throughout the day in our more than 38,000 restaurants in 100 countries worldwide, and we have redoubled our efforts to ensure consistency and correct length in every sandwich we serve. Our commitment remains steadfast to ensure that every Subway Footlong sandwich is 12 inches at each location worldwide.” This after an outcry when an Australian customer posted a photo of a Footlong sub on Subway's Facebook page.

Go ahead, have a side of fries with your trip to Disney World. Everyone else apparently does, making Orlando tops in the nation for the number of fast-food restaurants at least in one ranking.    An article in the Orlando Sentinel explains how the amusement park mecca comes by the distinction. The Daily Beast was curious enough to determine that out of nearly 500 large U.S. cities, Orlando had the most McDonald's, Burger Kings, KFCs and other fast-food restaurants per 100,000 residents.

With the winter season comes a barrage of fast-food holiday menu items, and this year that includes McDonald's McRib. The burger chain is bringing out the cult-status BBQ boneless-pork-patty sandwich on Dec. 17 for the holidays (the once-a-year special usually shows up for an October-to-November run) in an effort to boost year-end sales.  It's not just the McRib that rears its head this holiday season; Starbucks' pumpkin spice latte is flowing, despite rumors of a shortage. And desserts such as McDonald's McFlurry, Sonic's milkshakes and Burger King sundaes get holiday-ized.

Can we eat our way to sustainability? That's a question that Daniel Pauly , a preeminent fisheries scientist at the University of British Columbia in Canada, has asked for years. He's suspicious of the long-term viability of the strategy behind Eco-labels, which promise that if everyone ate sustainably caught seafood, it would solve the problem of declining global fish stocks. A grand experiment to test this notion is underway, as one of the world's largest fish buyers has agreed to source all of its fish from America's largest sustainable-caught fishery: wild-caught Alaskan pollock.

Well, no one ever convincingly argued that a diet of fast food is good for your health. And now it could be unhealthy for some of the people who work there - without them having to eat so much as a bite of their products. In anticipation of the healthcare overhaul that takes full effect next year, a couple of Taco Bell and Wendy's franchises in Oklahoma and Nebraska are evidently cutting back the hours of employees to dodge requirements of the healthcare reform law. It was admittedly not the best thought-out part of the healthcare overhaul, requiring companies with 50 or more employees working 30 or more hours a week to offer healthcare coverage.