Don't miss this!

[ccaverl8]

Countdown with Keith Olberman tonight on MSNBC at 8:00PM ET.
How the Atkin's diet went from fad diet to major player in America's economy.

Ok, now I'm a bit embarrassed to ask this, but if it's at 8pm your time, in New York, what time would it be here in Utah, 6pm? I believe that I'm Mountain Standard time.

[Ntombi]

Originally posted by Alaine
Ok, now I'm a bit embarrassed to ask this, but if it's at 8pm your time, in New York, what time would it be here in Utah, 6pm? I believe that I'm Mountain Standard time.

Yes, you're right. Everyone (except for Indiana, right?) is in Daylight time now, though.

You're two hours behind EDT, and one hour ahead of PDT.

Countdown runs several times during the day: 8pm, midnight, 3am EDT, which means 6pm, 10pm, 1am Utah time, and 5pm, 9pm and midnight PDT.

[Sharon]

Thanks for the "head's up". I will definitely watch the show.

[Tatortotl]

Mised the show darn it. What did they say about it.

[Sequim88]

It might take another day to post it but transcripts of shows can be found at:

http://www.msnbc.com/news/MSNBCTRANS...MAIN_Front.asp
They have only through the 16th listed as of 11:42 Central time on the 18th. But it should show up eventually. I missed it too.

[tulips]

I am totally confused.....has it aired or not?....I tried finding it on the msnbc website but there is no mention of it there...I would really love to be able to view this program...
thanks

[Ntombi]

Yeah, it was only a little comment towards the end of the show, right before the #1 on the countdown. He said that Atkins is affecting the economy, because wheat products are selling less, and LC products and meats are selling more.

The #1 item was about McDonald's new adult healthy Happy Meals (salads and a drink, with a pedometer for a "prize."

[tulips]

thanks, Ntombi!!!!!!!

[Partly Sunny]

For anyone who missed the show, here is the excerpt from the transcript:

(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
OLBERMANN: Finally, the top of our COUNTDOWN.
What’s wrong with our economy? Why does a huge percentage of the public think the president can neither make it better, nor make it worse? Maybe those folks already know what you’re about to find out. Beef jerky sales are up more than 40 percent over the last two years, but the bread market has deflated 2 percent a year every year since 1987. It’s all part of a subset of the economy estimated to be worth $1 billion annually, the Atkins part of the economy.
That’s right, a diet plan pushing proteins and banishing carbs has enough of an impact to lay low the baking cartel and no doubt make somebody out there a beef jerky millionaire. So diets and foods are more than just a health issue. They’re part of the global economy. Thus, when McDonald’s vaults back into what it considers the low-fat field, it has unimaginable implications.
Here’s Julia Moffitt from our NBC affiliate in Indianapolis, WTHR.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JULIA MOFFITT, WTHR REPORTER (voice-over): As the trend towards healthy living heats up, fast-food chains are under fire for contributing to America’s bulging backsides. Now restaurants are being forced to add healthier fare to their menus to keep foods flowing through their doors.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Many of our efforts are trying to say, how can we help? How can we be a socially responsible partner? How can we work on one side to provide more balances and choices on our menu? How can we work in the area of physical activity?
MOFFITT: Faced with lawsuits by consumers who say their food makes them fat...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right here, just like that...
MOFFITT: McDonald’s is teaming up with Bob Greene, one of the country’s leading exercise physiologists. Green, known for helping Oprah slim down, is promoting the restaurant’s new Go Active Happy Meal, geared towards adults.
The Go Active meal features one of the restaurant’s new healthier and lighter salads, but comes with a pedometer. The pedometer will help consumers keep track of how much they’re walking and set goals.
BOB GREENE, HEALTH EXPERT: You have to put exercise in your life. In fact, most people that want to start taking care of their health or lose weight start with what they eat. And that’s backwards.
MOFFITT: Greene says any kind of movement, but especially walking, will help a person become healthier.
GREENE: Think about today. And, by next week, you can go just a little bit faster.
MOFFITT: Whether fat is the fault of corporate America or not, consumers will always have the right to make their own choice. And now there are more healthier ones out there.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
OLBERMANN: But what about Grimace? What about his weight?
So the Go Active meal, is it preventive medicine or preventive legal self-protection? Could McDonald’s really be responding to those lawsuits ascribing obesity to them?
Dr. Judith Stern is a nutritionist, a professor in the departments of nutrition and internal medicine at the University of California at Davis.
Dr. Stern, thanks for joining us tonight.
DR. JUDITH STERN, THE AMERICAN OBESITY ASSOCIATION: Thanks.
OLBERMANN: Is this company offering a choice to help people eat well or is it offering a choice so later on it can say, well, we offered them a choice and they bought Big Macs anyway. Don’t sue us.
STERN: They are only offering people a choice if the people know what they’re getting.
And until McDonald’s posts calories on the menu board right next to price, we won’t know what we’re getting. And I will give you an example. Here’s a salad. It’s a crispy chicken cobb salad. And you can get it with Paul Newman’s dressing. If you take the dressing, it will take you two hours to walk off the calories from the dressing alone. Is that healthy? You answer it. I don’t know.
OLBERMANN: Well, I already know from personal experience that it isn’t.
STERN: Right.
OLBERMANN: But now, not to just point the finger at McDonald’s, but others are doing this. And Burger King, their great rival, has already dabbled in it. They have the kids meal and big kids meal?
STERN: Oh, yes. And I brought it from McDonald’s because I made one stop. I brought the mighty kids meal.
OLBERMANN: Uh-oh.
STERN: Two hamburgers, two cheeseburgers, fries and basically over 1,000 calories.
But, you know, Keith, the best part is, is what I brought for you. I got you the prize. You get to have a helicopter. But it isn’t a prize. And you have got to watch what you’re eating. And it takes an hour to walk off 150 calories.
OLBERMANN: And if you eat all of that stuff, you are going to need a helicopter to get around.
We had a guy on here a couple months ago, a spokesman for a group that was funded in part by Outback Steakhouse, who insisted that the food chains bear no responsibility for obesity in this country, that it’s all consumers’ fault. Is stuff like what McDonald’s doing now kind of a de facto admission that they know they are responsible, or at least that they could be? Is there some silver lining to this?
STERN: Well, the silver lining is, they’re giving consumers choices.
But I challenge you, in a year, to see how much money they have spent advertising the healthy choices. If they have spent as much money advertising that as the supersized meal, then they really mean it. If not, they don’t mean it and they’re just talking in the wind.
OLBERMANN: How long ago was it that they put those salads out in the first place that were supposed to be such good nutritional events? Was that a decade ago or 20 years? I can’t remember.
STERN: It’s been a number of years. It has been a number of years.
But, again, they undermined it by having the salad dressing with 290 calories. And the consumer really doesn’t know what he or she is getting, because, you find out you can ask for pamphlets with nutrition information, but you get the pamphlets after you order the meals.
OLBERMANN: Dr. Judith Stern, nutritionist, professor at U.C. Davis, thanks for your time tonight. And thanks for the helicopter.
STERN: Thanks.
OLBERMANN: So now to the recap of the stories we think you will be talking about tomorrow, today’s COUNTDOWN.