The Daily Valet. - 8/6/21, Friday

✔️ A Juicy Debate

Friday, August 6th Edition

Cory Ohlendorf, Editor in Chief of Valet.

I hope you’re downing a glass of OJ while you’re reading this.

Cory Ohlendorf, Editor ⋯ @coryohlendorf

Today’s Big Story

A Juicy Debate

Where do you stand on fruit juice? Sugar bomb or part of a complete breakfast?

Big beverage companies are shifting their lineups lately—shedding well-known but less profitable brands amid changing consumer tastes. And juice seems to be unwanted these days.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Pepsi is selling Tropicana along with their other juice brands, and Coca-Cola has since discontinued Zico coconut water and Odwalla fruit juices and smoothies.

Sales of fruit juices in the U.S. have declined 16% over the past decade. Over the same period, coffee increased 9%, and energy drinks—still a relatively small category—more than doubled. Personally, I never buy juice. Perhaps it’s a generational thing. Because my mother is never without it (and always pushes it on me whenever I visit home). Of course, the generation younger than me thinks that making cereal is too involved, so I’m sure they’re not going to bother cracking open a carton.

That’s not to say I don’t enjoy juice. It’s tasty and satisfying (especially in a mimosa). But just like the fun-loving cereal we were told was “part of a complete breakfast” as kids, we now recognize juice as a lot of empty calories thanks to a heavy dose of sugar.

When Aubrey Gordon, writer and host of the Maintenance Phase podcast, recently asked her Twitter followers to identify a food that was once seen as “healthy” but is now widely viewed as “unhealthy,” a ton of people mentioned fruit juice.

The Takeout asked its readers this week if they still drink juice, regardless of its shift in status: “Do you still seek it out for its ostensible vitamin C benefits, or would you liken it more to a pick-me-up like soda?”

↦ Dig Deeper: That 100% juice is technically “not from concentrate,” but as Gizmodo explains, it’s not really 100% orange juice either.

Natural Fixes for the Rising Seas

Landscape architects enlist nature to defend coastal cities against climate change

Coastal cities are on the frontlines of climate change, as our oceans heat up the water rises. The two to three feet of sea level rise predicted by 2050 may not sound like much, but it promises to transform human societies the world over.

What's more, traditional approaches to combating the rising tide—such as building taller and taller concrete seawalls—can create a domino effect of environmental and economic impacts for nearby communities.

But what if there was a simpler solution? A more natural one that's less costly on all fronts? The New Yorker spoke with the first landscape architect to win a MacArthur genius grant about her plan to utilize oysters reefs to mitigate storm surges. “Green infrastructure involves strategically deploying wetlands and reefs to reduce threats of catastrophic flooding and coastal erosion, while also revitalizing the land.”

Across the country, similar thinking is being used to revitalize California's beaches. Conservationists and a growing movement of researchers say restoring the ecosystems of dunes could provide a much-needed buffer from the water.

↦ Meanwhile: All this little robot wants to do is eat sea trash. Could this help solve our massive problem with marine pollution?

Too Many Men?

Scientists warn that preference for sons could lead to 4.7 million ‘missing’ female births

A new study predicts that there could be at least 4.7 million fewer females born globally by 2030 (and possibly as many as 22 million by 2100) as a result of a preference for male children. Allow me to mansplain why that's not great news.

In some countries, upcoming generations may be overwhelmingly male—as cultural pressures cause expecting parents to bring only their male embryos to term. Already, sex-selective abortions have resulted in skewed sex ratios at birth in favor of males around the world.

According to Neoscope, scientists fear that the overabundance of men will, just based on basic math, struggle to find a partner and marry. That, they warn, will likely lead to violence and even worse treatment of women.

The United Nations identifies the sex selection of babies before birth as a harmful practice on a par with child marriage and genital mutilation. To break that cycle, the researchers call for closer monitoring of newborn demographics in the relevant countries (within Southeast Europe, sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia).

The Tokyo Games’ Fast Track

The track was built for shattering records

Have you been watching the Olympic track and field events? Sprinters, hurdlers and other runners at the Tokyo Games have been crushing their previous times and in many cases setting new records for their events—one a runner from Jamaica broke a record in the women's 100-meter race that had lasted for 33 years.

While Olympic Stadium, designed by Kengo Kuma, has won praise for the way the giant bowl laced with wooden eaves has allowed it to blend into its surroundings, none of that really matters to the athletes performing inside it. What is far more important to many of them is the surface they're competing on.

That the Tokyo track “feels fast” is no accident, reports NPR. The Italian company that created it, Mondo, has been working to improve running surfaces since it built its first Olympic track for the Montreal Games in 1976.

Mondo says the Olympic track is designed to “maximize the speed of athletes and improve their performance.” It's produced much the same way a Formula One tire is engineered. The top part of the track is made from extra-hard rubber. Below that are spaces containing air holes. This design aims to take the shock and help runners bounce off the track after each step. Of course, the years and years of training can't hurt either.

↦ No You're Crying: Learn the meaning behind shot put champion Ryan Crouser’s gold-medal note to his grandfather.

In Other News

↦ ‘South Park’ Creators Sign Massive New $900 Million Deal

↦ Soccer Superstar Lionel Messi Will Leave Barcelona After Contract Talks Fail

↦ Stop Eating Raw Cake Batter—Immediately

Other Things We’re Talking About Today

‘DONDA’

Screenshots

Indoor vs. outdoor dining

A Weekend Pairing

The Suicide Squad + a Ranch Water

I'll be honest, I thought this movie was already released a few years ago. Amateur mistake. The Suicide Squad is, in fact, different from Suicide Squad. But fans of the latter will recognize a few faces from the last time—such as that of the chipper criminal Harley Quinn (played by Margot Robbie). However, The Atlantic says this isn't your typical superhero movie.

According to the AV Club, filmmaker James Gunn's take on DC's bankable squad of incarcerated villains-turned-reluctant-antiheroes is “vulgar, immature, and gratuitous—and that's what's great about it.” There's a difference between smart-dumb and just plain dumb, and the shrewdness with which Gunn chooses his targets places him in the very-smart-dumb category. Enjoy the film in theaters or stream it on HBO Max.

↦ Your Pairing:This isn't the kind of film that you'll appreciate while sipping on a civilized cocktail. No, you want something potent and unassuming. Like a tall glass of Ranch Water, which has become increasingly popular this summer. To make it, you throw together some tequila, lime juice and mineral water. It's as simple as it is refreshing.

Packing List

Summer really shot by in the blink of an eye, didn't it? Despite the sweltering heat, the season is slowly drawing to a close, with students back to school and temperatures dropping before you know it. Thankfully, there's still time for a few more summer bucket list check-offs before fall fully takes effect. Hopefully, one of those BLIs (bucket list items) is a trip into nature—ideally a lake. Lake Tahoe, for example. Here's what we'd suggest tossing into your weekender.

↦ Get It: Your lake house packing list