She is the southern cook on the Food Network who likes to put a stick of butter in basically everything she makes. Her response to someone who asked her about the wisdom of this was "I'm your chef, not your doctor. Don't put that responsibility on me". She cracks me up.
The show started a good conversation last night, when a friend commented on how unhealthy and fattening butter is. I said "nah, butter is good for you. Dietary fat doesn't make you fat, calories make you fat". Their reaction suprised me. Of course fat makes you fat. Isn't that what fat is?
We are all of that generation raised on margerine and pasta. When I was a kid I thought that fat = death but you can have as much of anything else that you want. The spagetti plate piled high with plenty of bread to go with it (have some starch with your starch). As long as the fat content was low. Except I'm fairly sure there were meatballs in the sauce and bacon on the weekends.
I'm no scientist, but it seems to me that if Atkins is so effective for weight loss, dietary fat doesn't = body fat. Or we can always look to the French, healthier by all measures and unafraid of any natural fat.
Fats (and the proteins that normally come along with them) are just more filling and satisfying than carbs and sugar. That old joke about Chinese food, and how no matter how much you eat you are hungry again 1/2 an hour later, may have a ring of truth when you consider the american way of putting it on a huge pile of white rice. White rice and other refined carbs have been shown to cause big spikes in blood sugars, which just leads to more hunger and less satisfaction after a meal.
This post was inspired after reading http://www.gyorgyscrinis.com/GS-Sorry-Marge.pdf
There has been so much credible research on how wrong the governments old dietary guidelines that we grew up with were, especially on the subject of dietary fat. These have been publicized but after three decades of contradictory and confusing advice, I think alot of people like my friend last night just tune it out.
Of course there are a ton of calories in fat. You can look at Paula Dean or the statistics of the south in general to see that throwing a stick of butter in your recipie and then finishing the food in a fryer is probably not the way to go in your every day life. Unless you are superhuman and can put that tasty food down after eating maybe 2 ounces of it.
As a chef I probably wouldn't want to consult her more than a few times a year. But I will throw my veggies in the pan with a pat of butter ... It tastes fantastic and makes for a more filling dinner. The trick while dieting is knowing the calorie content and just eating less of it! This is easy when your meal is nutritious, filling, and not full of refined carbs/sugars that will cause blood sugar spikes.
I made crock pot coq au vin last weekend. I felt a little guilty looking at that big pot of chicken soaking in merlot and bacon fat (hey cmon, 3 slices of bacon for 4 servings of chicken breast and veggies can't be THAT bad right?). At the first taste I thought uh-oh ... this is the best thing I have ever eaten and seconds are going to be impossible to resist. As it was I barely made it through the small plate I had. I felt so satisfied and came in well under 2k calories for that Sunday, my splurge day.
http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/reci..._coqauvin.html
to lower calorie content I used 3 slices of bacon, and just enough butter to do the job instead of 3 TBSP. I used breasts instead of theighs and served alone instead of with the recommended bread or pasta.