Eat This, Not That

"Eat This, Not That" is a brilliant premise for a weight loss book. It promises to save you thousands of calories by choosing one fast food meal over another. Not sure what's worse for your waistline? A Bacon Cheddar burger from Arby's or Chicken Sandwich from Burger King? Which contains more fat? A muffin prepared by the bakers (be they human or machine) at Dunkin Donuts or Starbucks? It's the kind of commonsense yet not always obvious advice that Dr. Oz uses to keep up his Nielson ratings. Oprah, Ellen DeGeneres and Rachel Ray have also interviewed author David Zinczenko about his "No-Diet Weight Loss Solution" which is outlined in 8 best-selling books and his column in Men's Health magazine (where he is editor-in-chief).

While all the publicity around America's unhealthiest meals has definitely helped to raise awareness of the nutritional disasters that surrounds us, the strategy of simply substituting one fast, convenient food for another will not solve the obesity epidemic and will not control health care costs. Just because a dish contains fewer calories than another doesn't mean it contains more nutrients or fewer damaging food additives. Choosing the BBQ Bacon Double Jr Cheeseburger Deluxe over the BLT Cobb Salad at Wendy's will save you 240 calories (yes, the junior-sized burger is less caloric than the salad) but it will not spare you the sodium nitrate used to cure the bacon, trans fats (derived from the hydrogenated oil in which the salad's chicken fillet is fried) and autolyzed yeast extract (aka. MSG) among other artificial additives. A recent published review of nutritional research conducted worldwide and analyzing over a million subjects indicated that processed meat consumption raised diabetes and heart disease risk as opposed to eating unprocessed red meat products such as steaks, burgers and roasts.

Cookies at Starbucks

I'm sitting at Starbucks reading a book this afternoon when four kids, who I estimate to be about 7 years old, sit down next to me at the window counter. Each child has a Starbucks chocolate chip cookie (which measures roughly 3 inches in diameter) in front of them. As soon as I finish my chapter, I'm outta there - don't want to be in the same room when the sugar enters their bloodstream.

My first reaction is: "What responsible suburban mother allows her children to eat an oversized cookie at 4:30pm in the afternoon when she should be preparing a well-balanced Sunday supper for her family?" However, my outrage is quelled by another observation. In addition to the cookie, each child has a single-serve Horizon organic milk. So even if the kids don't end up eating their dinner, at least they will have gotten a serving of calcium and some protein. I am also impressed that the children are encouraged to sit and settle down while they eat their treat. Even if it is Starbucks, mom is at least teaching the kids some etiquette. She's earned my respect back.

'Cause I'm a nutrition geek, I decided to look up the cookie's nutrition info on the Starbucks website when I got home. It revealed that each "large, buttery chewy cookie loaded with premium chocolate chunks" contains 360 calories and 17 grams of fat, not to mention 31 grams of sugar. As horrific as the numbers sound, I would not report this particular mom to the nutrition police. Since Starbucks removed trans fats from all its baked goods a couple years ago, the cookie's ingredient list is not as scary as the numbers imply. There's nothing wrong with flour, sugar, butter, eggs and chocolate chips. That's what I would put into a batch of cookie dough.

Why this blog

I’m not a very good masticator. I have to remind myself to chew my food more thoroughly even when I’m not in a hurry. This could explain my chronic digestive problems (which we’ll come to later as I am fond of discussing BMs). Funny how certain things are hard to habituate no matter how much you chastise yourself and regret the consequences of your careless actions. This fact of life will become one of many thought-provoking themes in my upcoming posts.

Rather than dwell entirely on my own issues - I can be self-centered but don't want this blog to be just about me; I’m going to muse on friends & strangers around me and articulate my biased and blunt opinions of American society. Specifically what people put in their mouths, as well as when, why and how they eat & drink. I find the obesity epidemic both disturbing and fascinating. What's even more upsetting is human behavior coupled with capitalistic greed and reactionary political policies. I prefer not to discuss the dire situation with euphemisms, hence the appeal of anonymous blogging. People are fat (I'm obviously not). They eat mindlessly and sit around on their asses. It's pretty simple. Or is it? Theories about fat and skinny genes, rationalizations for overeating, and both research-based & pseudo-scientific solutions to the problem are all over the place. I intend to take a critical look at popular notions about diet and public health.

I hope my words will motivate readers to think twice before swallowing the lies, misleading simplifications and misinformation disseminated by the media, so-called "health" officials and politicians. In my book, knowledge is power and empowerment is vital for survival & happiness.