I don’t watch the Today Show any more, because frankly, it annoys the shit out of me. However, I was briefly sucked in this morning before changing the channel to “Thomas and the Train,” as K.Lo calls it, and caught this genius snippet about food substitutions. In case you want to lose weight, you really should pay attention to this guy, the author of Eat This, Not That! No really, it’s brilliant. Some of his concepts make sense, like when he mentioned that the frozen pot pie has a 4-inch list of ingredients, and generally that’s not a good thing. And yes, making a few simple substitutions, in theory, will help a person lose weight. So long as the substitutions are smart. What really aggravated me was the comparison near the end of the clip of Quaker 100% Natural Granola to 8 fast-food chicken nuggets. Apparently they contain an equivalent amount of saturated fat, and are therefore nutritionally equal. Really? Really. He then says something flip along the lines of “100% Natural doesn’t really mean anything.”
I’ll be spending the rest of the morning scrubbing brain matter off the walls.
The main point of the segment was that, with so many options and advertisers competing for your money, it’s confusing to navigate the grocery store and make good nutritional choices. Agreed, absolutely. But common sense then goes out the window, as he proceeds to insinuate that calories and fat content are the only factors in a food’s nutritional value. Nothing is said about the actual ingredients to confirm that all-natural breakfast cereal is an infinitely better food choice than fast-food chicken nuggets, that their calories are not, in fact, equal.
Then again, maybe I’m just insulted because I have Quaker Natural Granola on my shelf, and think it’s a damn tasty and nutritious option for breakfast. But I do take some solace in knowing that whenever I run out, an 8-piece pack of nuggets will be a viable substitute. The Today Show told me so!
P.S. I do enjoy a good box of fast-food chicken nuggets now again, I do. But honestly.
Bad for you. Do not eat this stuff.
5 comments:
Yeah...all fats are not created equal...like the fish fats and whatnot.
I figured out this fall that spaghetti squash is actually a pretty close substitute for spaghetti, although I'd already switched to Trader Joe's whole wheat spaghetti.
And I use plain yogurt instead of sour cream...mostly because I don't like sour cream...and sometimes instead of mayo.
I still have to try a recipe I found where you use oatmeal ground up for pancakes instead of the premade mix.
All very wise! I'll admit I can't bring myself to switch to whole wheat pastas and rice... but I've been very wary of the high fructose corn syrup that's in just about everything, and trying to read more on the labels than just fat/calorie content. Damn reductionist food science!
:)
I think they want us to be confused. Better for business.
The oatmeal pancakes sound yum. Let me know on that one.
And those darn manufacturers usually add sugar to their low fat version of whatever.
That was fascinating, thanks for sharing. I just saw someone get the fast food version of the book and it was intriguing and probably very eye-opening!
Those chicken pot pies get you! They seem like they should be so healthy with all of those veggies (smothered in a cream sauce and baked in a pastry shell) but they are insanely high in calories and sodium and fat! Unreal.
It's all so dang tricky!!
Don't be afraid of the wheat pastas and rice, they are still quite tasty. Do you do wheat bread? Or even "fake" wheat bread?
A friend of mine was talking about what a great book it was, but some of the things she mentioned didn't really add up. Like not getting the avocado sandwich at Atlanta Bread (which is basically avocado, onion, lettuce, tomato, cheese, and a dressing--all good stuff except for maybe the dressing?) because of the fat content. I find it fishy. And adding to the general confusion. It really is difficult to sort out what's a good choice!
Well, authentic Italian pasta is made from semolina and durum flours (same stuff as in the U.S.), so I feel like it can't be all bad in moderation? I was buying whole grain white bread as a compromise of sorts, for awhile, until I figured out there's still high fructose corn syrup in it. Why, oh why does one need HFCS in bread? Cheap filler. So I've been going for the whole grain stuff, generally, with as few ingredients as possible. It takes some getting used to. And it's so heavy, you really only need to eat one slice instead of two...
And yeah, all that low-fat stuff, sugar sugar sugar.
It's all a conspiracy! :)
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