"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.
Ingredients not withstanding, the meat & cheese come from animals pumped with hormones & antibiotics which are then mechanically processed and assembled by a high school kid high on weed. I could get all Anthony Bourdain on you by talking about the nasty stuff that goes on behind the kitchen door when you rely on food handlers making $8/hour, but I'll save that for another post. Instead, I'll address the nastiness of the ingredients themselves.
Sorry to burst your bubble, but relatively low-cal fast food messes with your brain and metabolism just as super-sized meals do. Even if you are able to keep your weight in check by making "smarter" choices, you're still consuming stuff that was engineered in a lab and mass-produced for the lowest common denominator. Much of the food served at national restaurant chains that specialize in affordable, casual & family-friendly fare is pre-made at a central manufacturing plant and simply reheated (frequently in the fry-o-later) at your dining location. While the grilled chicken breast may look like something you would make at home, you can not replicate it yourself because it injected with preservatives and various flavoring agents to taste smoky, succulent and tangy as promised on the menu. Not sure about you, but I don't keep high fructose corn syrup, polysorbate 60 or caramel color in my pantry. Just because the FDA has granted GRAS (generally regarded as safe) status to a chemical it does mean it is inert in the human body - quite the contrary.
I know a lot of people who care about the quality of their diet and yet they continue to buy ready-to-eat meals and convenient individually packaged processed foods prepared with questionable substances. Why the disconnect? I've heard a lot of excuses: not enough time to cook, I had a craving for it, the rest of my diet is pretty good. The truth is that Americans are addicted to food thanks to food additives they can't pronounce. And, in my opinion, books and magazine columns like "Eat This, Not That" perpetuate a false sense of nutritional security. "I opted for the low-fat cheesecake so saved 300 calories." Yeah, but what about the additional sugar the dessert contains to compensate for the lack of butterfat. And folks who order a burger without the bun but still eat the side of French fries that come with the entree are no better off than those who eat their whole sandwich. Those benign-looking fries probably contain a week's worth of trans fat. If the restaurant claims to use "trans fat free" oil, it's probably not much better for you after being used, burned, filtered and reused.
What I'm trying to say is that you can only delude yourself for so long. Fast food is fast food. Reducing calories is definitely a step in the right direction. Quick, easy and cheap food will only sustain you for so long before it results in chronic disease or worse.
Sorry to burst your bubble, but relatively low-cal fast food messes with your brain and metabolism just as super-sized meals do. Even if you are able to keep your weight in check by making "smarter" choices, you're still consuming stuff that was engineered in a lab and mass-produced for the lowest common denominator. Much of the food served at national restaurant chains that specialize in affordable, casual & family-friendly fare is pre-made at a central manufacturing plant and simply reheated (frequently in the fry-o-later) at your dining location. While the grilled chicken breast may look like something you would make at home, you can not replicate it yourself because it injected with preservatives and various flavoring agents to taste smoky, succulent and tangy as promised on the menu. Not sure about you, but I don't keep high fructose corn syrup, polysorbate 60 or caramel color in my pantry. Just because the FDA has granted GRAS (generally regarded as safe) status to a chemical it does mean it is inert in the human body - quite the contrary.
I know a lot of people who care about the quality of their diet and yet they continue to buy ready-to-eat meals and convenient individually packaged processed foods prepared with questionable substances. Why the disconnect? I've heard a lot of excuses: not enough time to cook, I had a craving for it, the rest of my diet is pretty good. The truth is that Americans are addicted to food thanks to food additives they can't pronounce. And, in my opinion, books and magazine columns like "Eat This, Not That" perpetuate a false sense of nutritional security. "I opted for the low-fat cheesecake so saved 300 calories." Yeah, but what about the additional sugar the dessert contains to compensate for the lack of butterfat. And folks who order a burger without the bun but still eat the side of French fries that come with the entree are no better off than those who eat their whole sandwich. Those benign-looking fries probably contain a week's worth of trans fat. If the restaurant claims to use "trans fat free" oil, it's probably not much better for you after being used, burned, filtered and reused.
What I'm trying to say is that you can only delude yourself for so long. Fast food is fast food. Reducing calories is definitely a step in the right direction. Quick, easy and cheap food will only sustain you for so long before it results in chronic disease or worse.
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