I'm SO sick of diet food...

...Low calorie options, sugar substitutes, fat-free and this general fear of food! I’m sick of people assuming that the way to lose weight is to cut calories, fat and “carbs”. And most of all I’ve had enough of hearing my friends talk about eating healthy and saying how tasteless it is- of course it’s tasteless! You’ve cut out all the fat, and fat carries flavor. Any self-respecting foodie can tell you that. 

No, this doesn’t mean that it’s OK to go to your local fast food joint and get a double burger with an extra giant side of fries and a milk shake. That’s not where I’m going with this. And yes, if you eat fast food for 90% of food intake and “Super Size” everything you probably will become overweight. I’m talking about healthy fat as part of real whole food: olive oil, avocados, whole milk, full-fat cheese or butter. 

Here’s an example, the difference between regular, plain yogurt and the fat free version:

Plain, whole milk yogurt (average for 245g serving size)     Plain, Skim (non-fat 245g serving)

Calories 150                                                                           Calories 137

Fat          8g                                                                           Fat          0g

Sugar     11g                                                                          Sugar     19g

OK, so I saved 8 grams of fat and 13 calories (um yeah, 13!), but at what cost? First, I’m still friggen hungry! Without that fat to help send signals to my brain that it’s done eating, chances are I’ll be looking for another snack pretty soon. Also, who snuck in the 8 grams of sugar? And this is nothing- check out the fruit flavored varieties if you really want to see the grams of sugar go up (it’s up around 50g for some brands). With all that sugar, no fat or fiber, there’s nothing to blunt your blood sugar from spiking, then plummeting shortly after. From a cellular standpoint, good sources of fat are essential for healthy brain and nerve conduction among other functions.

If we’re really going to pull this apart, how about those hormones we so lovingly inject cattle with that produce our dairy supply? Think maybe that might have an effect on our obesity epidemic? I think the cartoon below summarizes it better than I ever can:

Again, I’m not saying that you should go gorge yourself on thousands of empty calories. What I’m trying to argue is the basic (false) notion that “a calorie is a calorie.”  Who is the person responsible for allowing us to believe that a 100 calories of carrots are the same as a 100 calories from a chocolate chip cookie “100 calorie snack” are the same thing? 

It doesn’t even make any sense- they’re cookies! Sure the caloric value is the same, but what about the nutritional value? The fiber? The digestibility? Surely our highly intricate body knows the difference between a carrot and a cookie! I don’t know who that person was, but I have a feeling he/she knows the guys that make the cookies. Unfortunately, there’s no carrot lobby to protect those poor little guys’ reputation.  

Here’s another confusing diet mantra:

If you’re overweight, you’re eating too many calories... continue reading!