AARP The Magazine is last place seniors should go for nutrition advice

AARP The Magazine urges seniors to choose an Arby's roast turkey and bacon sandwich, right, over a roast beef and cheddar cheese sandwich, left, arguing the latter has fewer calories and less fat. Who in their right mind would eat either of them -- stuffed as they are with harmful antibiotics, preservatives and cholesterol?

Editor's note: AARP The Magazine and Consumer Reports cover food and nutrition in completely different ways. AARP's articles appear to be filled with marketing tie-ins and plugs for advertisers, while CR exposes restaurants supplied by factory farms that give massive amounts of harmful antibiotics to healthy animals.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Do the senior citizens you know stick to a steady diet of fast-food and chain restaurants?

AARP, formerly the American Association of Retired Persons, thinks they do, judging from a major article in its magazine, "Eat This, Not That!"

"Forget fad diets and deprivation," the editors declare. "Instead, lose weight and get healthy with these simple food swaps."

Like ordering the Rib Eye and Baked Potato with Butter and Sour Cream at Ruby Tuesday over the Asiago Peppercorn Sirloin, Biscuit and Broccoli to avoid the latter's higher dose of sodium.

Or picking the Sugar Raised Doughnut and Iced Latte at Dunkin' Donuts over the Sesame Seed Bagel with Plain Cream Cheese to avoid 200 extra calories.

But all of those so-called healthier meals deliver big doses of unwanted sugar, cholesterol or saturated fat.

The editors at AARP The Magazine think the majority of Americans over 50 can't stick to a diet.

Instead, they urge readers to pick "slightly healthier versions" of pizza, ice cream, chocolate" and "other foods that you enjoy."

That's a formula for disaster.

CR gives 'F' to chains

Consumer Reports asks:

"Did you know that large factory farms that serve restaurants like KFC, Burger King and Dunkin' Donuts regularly give massive amounts of antibiotics to healthy farm animals?

"Instead of being reserved for treating sick people, antibiotics are used to fatten up cows and chickens and help them survive in factory farm conditions."

Restaurants that received an "F" rating on CR's report card include Domino's Pizza, Sonic, Starbuck's, Jack In The Box, Little Caesars, Chili's, Denny's, Arby's, Olive Garden, Applebee's, Buffalo Wild Wings and IHOP.

Doing slightly better ("D") are Pizza Hut and Papa John's. McDonald's, Wendy's and Taco Bell were graded "C"; Subway and Chick-fil-A got a "B."

The only "A" ratings went to Panera Bread and Chipotle Mexican Grill.

"The problem with factory farms overusing antibiotics is that they are creating resistant bacteria that spreads through our food, water and the environment," the magazine reports.

"Scientists have been telling us for years that antibiotic-resistant superbugs are multiplying at an alarming rate, and we know that medicines to treat deadly infections aren't working like they used to."

Common-sense advice

A second part of the AARP article is far more useful.

For example the editors recommend salmon, tuna, sardines, anchovies and other fish for their beneficial omega-3s -- which can lower the risk of type 2 diabetes -- compared to the very few omega 3s in tilapia and catfish.

Other recommendations include olive oil over soybean oil, and reduced-sodium soy sauce over regular soy sauce.

In the April/May 2016 issue of AARP The Magazine, only fast food and chain restaurants -- which are supplied by factory farms -- are listed, including Chick-fil-A, Outback Steakhouse and P.F. Chang's.

The editors' picks are called "slightly healthier versions."

Consumer Reports: How dangerous bacteria travel from farm to table

This easy to understand graphic appears in the January 2016 issue of Consumer Reports, a magazine that has taken the lead on trying "to stop the antibiotic overuse in meat and poultry production that gives rise to dangerous bacteria."

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

You could say the story of how dangerous bacteria gets from the factory farm to your table is full of shit -- or manure, if you prefer a more polite word.

The story begins on farms where healthy animals "are routinely given antibiotics in their food and/or water," and "bacteria that's present in the animals' intestine react with the antibiotics," Consumer Reports says.

"Some of the bacteria are killed, but a few survive. Those resistant bacteria flourish."

In the final part of a three-part series, the magazine traces bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics as animals excrete it in manure, and how the bacteria can be spread to the community.

Many carriers

In the January 2016 issue, the magazine's editors note resistant bacteria or superbugs spread:

"Via soil, when animal waste is used to fertilize crops; via water, when waste seeps into groundwater; and via air, when bacteria are carried by the wind."

Also, "via farmworkers, who pick up the bacteria on their skin and transfer it when they come into contact with other people; and via flies, which carry bacteria they have picked up on the farm."

During slaughter

Even scarier, "resistant bacteria can also contaminate raw meat during slaughter or processing" in a number of ways.

"Plant workers can pick up bacteria on their skin and transfer it to the meat or to other people," and "raw meat sold in supermarkets may contain bacteria that may infect people who handle or eat it."

The bottom line is that people become ill with antibiotic-resistant infections, and some die.

See: The Rise of Superbugs

Factory farms

Nowhere are antibiotics "more inappropriately employed than in the meat and poultry industries," according to Consumer Reports.

"Abut 80 percent  of the antibiotics sold in the U.S. are give to animals raised for food -- including hogs, cattle, chickens and turkeys.

"The most recent data from the Food and Drug Administration show that more 32 million pounds of antibiotics were sold for use food animals in the U.S. in 2013 -- up 17 percent from just four years earlier."

About 20 percent of people sickened by an antibiotic-resistant bug don't pick it up in the hospital or from another person -- they get it from food."

Best practices

The article contains two lists showing which chain restaurants, and meat and poultry producers use human and animal antibiotics, and which don't.

I was surprised to learn that Coleman Natural and Niman Ranch, two brands known for organic or naturally raised meat and poultry, are owned by Perdue, which uses antibiotics widely.

The only chains that ban antibiotics for growth promotion and disease prevention, as well as other drugs, are Chipotle Mexican Grill and Panera Bread (beef, chicken, pork and roasted turkey).

What you can do

I've stopped eating meat and poultry altogether, but other family members look for organic or antibiotic-free beef, chicken and turkey.

When I buy seafood, I look for wild-caught fish and shrimp or farmed fillets that are raised without antibiotics.