Updates to Recent Posts

CLEANSE UPDATE:

Last week I wrote a post about cleanses.  Just days later First Lady Michelle Obama (who I praised here) was interviewed by Ladies' Home Journal.  In the interview she admits that occasionally she  does her own "cleanse" every now and then.  In the article she says,

The cleanses are good for a short period of time. I can't live my life on a cleanse. But they help me clean out my palate. Because when you start adding things like sugars into your diet, you start craving them. And the more you eat, the more you crave. . . . So maybe I'll do a cleanse for two days. It isn't a way of life, because I like food too much. But it is good to break your mind-set.

I was a little shocked by the First Lady's comments about her cleanse mostly because she's been doing such a great job of promoting healthy eating habits.  I recently found a great blog that recapped some opinions about Mrs. Obama's comments.  You can read the whole post here but to summarize I think the article  does a great job of presenting arguments from Marion Nestle and Jeff Stier, associate director for the American Council on Science and Health discussing the First Lady's cleanse as well as her press release for clarification.

While I agree with eating less sugar, a better way to break that cycle is not by going on a cleanse.  Cleanses are temporary solutions to a long-term problem.  If you continually eat a lot of high sugar foods what is more important is helping change the behavior that is driving you to choose these foods. 

At least the First Lady is not doing a cleanse to lose weight.  With all the talk of cleanses, I was so pleased to read this story about John Goodman.  He's lost 100 lbs. by doing something amazing: eating right and exercising!  Bravo, Mr. Goodman.


EXTREME EATING UPDATE:

I've written about extreme eating already here and here.  Well there's a new extreme food to talk about.  Denny's jumped into the fray with their Fried Cheese Melt.  It's a grilled cheese filled with fried mozzarella sticks.  A lovely mix of appetizer and and entree to clog your arteries and expand your waist.  The estimated nutrition information from this CBS article: 845 calories and 34 grams of fat. Oy vey!

Extreme Eating

Every year the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) publishes a list of most extreme over-indulgent restaurant foods.  This year's list just came out yesterday and you can read it here.  As always, CSPI opens our eyes to even more high calorie, high salt and high fat gut busters from some of the nations most popular restaurants.

Each year they do this I am surprised by how truly "extreme" some of these meals are.  One item that shocked me were the burgers from Five Guys.  According to the article, the hamburger,"...700 calories (with no toppings) makes a Big Mac (540 calories) or a Quarter Pounder (410 calories) look like kids food. And the McDonald’s numbers include the burgers’ fixin’s. A Five Guys Bacon Cheeseburger has 920 calories and 30 grams of saturated fat (1½ days’ worth) without toppings. Think two Quarter Pounders."  It's not just the burger that was shocking but the fact a large fries will add an extra 1460 calories was just draw jopping.  

The other standout is the Double Pan Fried Noodle Combo from P.F. Chang's.  Sure the 1820 calorie dish is extreme but the most disgusting part is that the dish has 7690 gm of sodium.  Seriously?  Come on, that's nearly 3x the amount recommended for a healthy adult. 

Since reading and writing about The End of Overeating, I continue to think differently about eating out.  These foods have an affect on us.  We crave them and even though we are repulsed when we find out whats in them, they are on the menu for one simple reason, they sell!  Take the Double Down from KFC for example, we laugh about how gross it is but KFC just decided this week to continue selling the item because the demand was there.

CSPI's article is another reminder about how challenging eating out can be.  I'm sure they did not have a hard time finding "extreme" meals.  I bet the real problem was cutting down the choices to just nine that were described in the article.  We love the sensationalism of "extreme" eating but it's what we do with the information that is important.  We vote with our pocket books and if we stop buying 1800 calorie entrees the restaurants will stop selling them.  Menu labeling in restaurats is coming soon and let's hope that will help us make healthier choices rather than enjoying the shock of seeing something that is 1800 calories on the menu.