I appreciate you sharing this post. I'm embarrassed to say that it was a bit of an eye opener for me. I still find even in maintenance that there is a lot left for me to learn.
The part that really resonated with me was the section on "adult" baby food. Nearly all the food I ate prior to losing weight fell into this category. Easy to chew with very little fiber.
I'm going to reserve this book at the library, so my thanks to Jay Ell.
I have doubts about one of the assertations of the article. They show what appears to be KFC grilled chicken, and they say the stuff isn't a good option. Good compared to something you make yourself at home? Probably not. Good compared to the options on the menu? Let's see. According to the KFC website, an orginal recipe leg and thigh will set you back a total of 370 calories. The same in grilled clocks in at 210. Say I decide to make a meal of it and round it out with green beans and corn on the cob (the half cob size) and a diet coke. This would add another 95 calories (beware the biscuits, they're a heavy 180 calories each). So, for two piece dark, green beans, corn and soda, I'm choosing between meals that are either 465 calories or 305.
I don't think that 305 calories for a full restaurant meal is excessive in the calories department. It's probably higher in sodium than I would make at home, but that's pretty much a given for any fast food.
Sorry if I seem to be obsessing about this one issue, but it calls into question for me the whole premise of the article. I assume the agenda of the food industry is to sell more and improve their bottom line. What is the agenda of the writer? To generously help me with my weight issues, or to drum up interest in their book and hopefully improve their bottom line?
Just because a list on the web says "this is bad!" doesn't mean that it is correct on that issue.
I have talked to many people who think that a burger bought at a fast food enterprise is pretty much the same as a burger they make with 80/20 beef at home. Even more people than that assume that ordering the "grilled chicken" at a restaurant is the same as grilling a piece of chicken at home. People who are educated about food, the restaurant industry, nutrition, etc. know about the higher levels of fat/salt/sugar.
For me, articles like this aren't about absolving responsibility. They are about giving people the information they need to TAKE responsibility in a way that will work them toward their goals. Someone can be trying to make healthy choices, and really not know that McD's grilled chicken sandwich isn't as healthy as a piece of grilled chicken on a bun cooked in their own home...without that knowledge, they believe that they are are making a healthy choice. No one is shoving the food down their throat...but no one is giving them the tools and knowledge to make better choices, either. The nutrition education in our schools is really poor, and parents aren't passing health and nutrition information onto their kids, either because they don't have the knowledge or because they have unhealthy habits themselves.
By getting the information out there, the author is giving the reader the information to make healthier choices, and maybe that preliminary exposure to the food industry's less-savory practices will cause them to do more research into the industry, nutrition, etc, which might eventually lead to them opting out of the processed food system for more whole foods. But articles like this are a first step TOWARD this goal, not a step away from responsibility, in my opinion. No one is saying "Sue the food companies! They're forcing you to eat crap!". They're saying "Hey, be aware of this, so you can go into restaurant eatings with your eyes wide open". And to me, that's a positive thing.
Helping people to become informed is a great thing. I'm all in favor of it. I just don't think that peddleing the notion that food industry is trying to trick people into getting fat is in fact education. Sure, they want our dollars. Sure, they prepare their wares in such a way that entices us to buy more. They are doing it to make money, nothing more, and nothing less.
The "information" that restaurant grilled chicken is a bad choice is just plain wrong, in my opinion. The nutrional values I looked up and posted just don't suppport the idea that the chicken is pumped full of a mixture of sugar and oil. The author of the article is at the very least overstating the danger here.
I think that the chain restaurants, fast food outlets, etc. are selling food.
To sell food, they try to make it more appealing so that people will buy it and eat it.
They do so by processing it and preparing it in certain ways to enhance flavor.
There is nothing morally wrong in this.
However, for people who make these places their regular stop for meals--even if only twice a week, say--and who don't know what's in what they are ordering, the result seems often to be increased weight.
When I was younger, eating at a restaurant wasn't that much different from eating at home, except mom didn't have to cook and you could get unusual foods that mom didn't prepare. Things have changed since then. There was no flash-frozen, pre-cooked, etc. There weren't nationwide chains particularly, either. I remember when McDonalds opened in our town. (Never mind what that implies about my age!)
Also, there were no nutritional labels on cans and packages. And obviously, no internet where you could look up nutritional information.
My mom used to can vegetables and fruits from my grandparents' truck farm. It was a mess! I once asked her, "Why do you go to all this trouble when you can just buy canned food at the store?" I was young; she laughed. But that was when canned food was probably all pretty much the same. Not so, now.
I know many people want to eat more healthy foods. But still, I do not think the answer is for mom to have to cook all the time, to have to grow her own food, to spend time processing those fresh-picked vegetables (which if you've ever had to do it, is a pain!), or to have to take up canning (also a pain!).
I think it's a matter of being informed about the food choices. Information is available now. I remember the first time I looked up the nutritional information for McD's. Serious shock! And KFC would never have introduced grilled chicken if consumers hadn't demanded it in the form of voting with their dollars, as another poster pointed out.
I am really in love with the book "The End of Overeating" and do recommend it to everyone. It isn't a book about how the food industry manipulates us but a book about how our own brain is wired and certain combinations of food (fat, sugar, salt) can override any natural brain chemistry that would keep us at a stable and healthy weight. The book does touch on how the food industry manipulates that information but it is used as an example more than anything.
There are certain things I never cared for (fast food, donuts, etc) and I don't quite understand those addictions for myself but I have my own food addictions that others may not understand. I think it is good to know what the food industry does to make food more 'appealing' and just to be aware if anything else.
So often any food, health, or weight related information that could make the job of weight-control easier is met with "it's not supposed to be easy, suck it up you lazy *******."
The information doesn't give people excuses (not that people can't turn it into excuses).
People can choose to read this as "evil corporations are conspiring against us to destroy our health," but that's an error in people's logic, not the information.
There's a verse in the bible (Romans 7:19) that has as much secular truth as religious truth: For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want.
(Aside from the argument regarding what is and isn't evil), I think people have always wondered why they find themselves doing things against their own will. How even as you tell yourself, "I'm not going to eat another bite of this cheesecake," your fork is descending into the creamy evil, goodness, and as you lift it to you're mouth, you think "this is the very last bite.... well, maybe just one more..... well maybe it's ok to finish it, as long as I promise never to eat cheesecake again."
I think understanding why it's hard to fight ourselves is a tool for the battle. Knowing that there are food combinations that are difficult to resist, and knowing what's in the food you're eating is empowering information. You can choose to blame the food manufacturers or you can use the information to make informed choices.
I think the article or slide show was interesting, thank you for posting it and had some points, but I also think that most of the food examples are not "tricking" people but rather offering fatty and unhealthy foods to the masses. I mean if you're going to eat buffalo wings or potato skins, well you pretty much know what you're getting.
There is a product out there that is supposed to be a "healthy snack" and at the moment the name of this product escapes me, but I remember looking at it because my boyfriend said he was shocked when he read the label and it was just as bad as a bag of chips. The packaging was green with a big "healthy" attitude with the look and feel and I literally saw people walk up, study the package, and buy it instead of the healthier snacks beside it just because of how it looked. They didn't read the label is my point. Okay, yeah that isn't responsible, but it also is a form of trickery from the company producing this stuff. Clearly it isn't healthy, why not just go get a bag of Doritos instead. At least with the Doritos, well you know what you're getting lol. The people who buy that product are buying a "healthy snack" because f the packaging. I did see one woman read the label, she quickly put it down and went to buy some baked chips which were healthier lol. But I read labels now...so when you actually take an interest in your food you tend to weed out a lot of the tricky products out there.
I think the other kinds of tricks are the availability of certain treat type foods. When I was a kid, going to an ice cream parlor was a little event. We didn't do it often, but you know it was fun and I mean a real ice cream parlor, not Baskin Robins. But now you can DRIVE THROUGH and get your ice cream and donuts all in one go! That is a bit sickening to me and you know I see people driving through and getting ice cream lol. It isn't special to me anymore. Even though I can't eat ice cream, unless it is vegan, I find it kind of sad and disturbing to see the Baskin Robin and Dunkin' Donuts drive through. But at the end of the day, I choose if I am going to go to a place like that. I mean this isn't Soylent Green...it isn't "people" lol.
Last edited by Jacquie668; 07-11-2009 at 10:45 AM.
Ms Jacque brings up a really good point: when exactly did EVERY day become a "FEAST" day? You know, those days or events that were unusual but special. I remember going to a place called Camelot's for ice cream. A small, kid-sized scoop, on the 1st day of summer, just to celebrate it. Just once a summer. And we looked forward to it.
Today, EVERY day is celebrated or consoled with a meal or treat out. I had a great day at work -- lets go out to dinner. I had a fight with my MIL -- lets go to DQ. Summer BBQ season -- lets use that Pina Colada premix and have it with hot dogs and potato salad and cake cake cake and maybe I'll have seconds because it IS the first day of the season...
And unfortunately, the places that we "feast" at want our return business, so they'll make their food as DELICIOUS as possible by creating frankenfoods to appeal to our tastebuds. They want us to "remember" those great sliders with bacon, cheese and salt, and to have a "taste memory" so we'll come back. We've ALL had that experience -- "Man I feel like sliders tonight. Lets go to X for dinner"... scary...
Ms Jacque brings up a really good point: when exactly did EVERY day become a "FEAST" day? You know, those days or events that were unusual but special. I remember going to a place called Camelot's for ice cream. A small, kid-sized scoop, on the 1st day of summer, just to celebrate it. Just once a summer. And we looked forward to it.
Today, EVERY day is celebrated or consoled with a meal or treat out. I had a great day at work -- lets go out to dinner. I had a fight with my MIL -- lets go to DQ. Summer BBQ season -- lets use that Pina Colada premix and have it with hot dogs and potato salad and cake cake cake and maybe I'll have seconds because it IS the first day of the season...
And unfortunately, the places that we "feast" at want our return business, so they'll make their food as DELICIOUS as possible by creating frankenfoods to appeal to our tastebuds. They want us to "remember" those great sliders with bacon, cheese and salt, and to have a "taste memory" so we'll come back. We've ALL had that experience -- "Man I feel like sliders tonight. Lets go to X for dinner"... scary...
Kira
I agree...it is kind of scary. I mean...lol this may sound silly, but I'm from the Midwest, so you know the places I lived didn't have endless Chinese take out and pizza places. We were lucky if we had a pizza hut lol. When I was a kid we used to go out to eat Chinese food (well "americanized Chinese food") and it was an experience. The tacky decorations, the atmosphere, I loved it. Now I live in NJ and when I first moved here I had my first experience with take-out. Every corner is littered with Chinese places, pizza places, dunkin' donuts, etc. It becomes so saturating that you think "well...I don't want to cook so I'll eat out" or "it is too hot to cook, let's order something." You don't have to leave your house, you don't have to leave your car, it just looses something now that I'm beginning to understand the nature of my feelings about it.
I kind of feel like gone are the days where you sat at a counter, and I used to when I was a kid with my Dad, and eat a special breakfast on Saturday morning. We never ate breakfast out, even when I was a teenager, unless it was the weekend really. Usually we just fended for ourselves. When I started getting out on my own, I started to do the "drive through" breakfast ritual. Get your morning fix while you're on your way to work. I mean there are like 6 dunkin/baskin robin places around me. That is a lot...
and had some points, but I also think that most of the food examples are not "tricking" people but rather offering fatty and unhealthy foods to the masses. I mean if you're going to eat buffalo wings or potato skins, well you pretty much know what you're getting.
