Good Food Advice

for the wrong reasons:

Breads made with white flour have not only been stripped of all of their nutrients, but they might even contain remnants of the chemical used in the bleaching process. Our obsession with white foods (sugar, I’m looking at you) is totally odd and unfounded. The natural, unbleached version tastes the same (if not better) and is far more nutritious.

Not really. You should cut out the bread, period.

Why must everything that tastes so good be so bad for us? Our beloved creamy, fulfilling ice cream is extremely high in sugar and fat. And since milk is an animal protein, it’s also high in cholesterol. Sure, you can opt for some yogurt or a vegan dessert, but they’re not the same.

The problem with ice cream is the sugar, not the fat or cholesterol.

There is nothing wrong with ordering a regular cup of coffee (and you can even toss in a little half and half if you need it), but the calories add up very quickly when it comes to those fancy $7 coffee beverages. They taste so good because of all the added sugar and fat. You’ll get an immediate boost from a huge sugar rush, and then you’ll crash hard. Then you need another high-calorie coffee drink to feel better.

Again, it’s the sugar, not the fat or the calories that’s the problem here. Counting calories is junk science.

Bacon, sausage, and even cold cuts: they’re oh-so-yummy, but they’re just awful for your health. They contain high levels of unsaturated fat and sodium.

No, bacon has saturated fat. Which is good. And there is more danger from underconsumption of sodium than over.

A guaranteed way to add inches to your waist is to indulge in fried food. High in calories, fat, saturated fat, and carcinogens (yup, in those beloved french fries), there is nothing good about this. Except for their scrumptious flavor, obviously.

The problem with fried foods is not the fat, saturated fat, or calories (unless you’re frying it in seed oils, in which case the fat is bad because of the omega 6s). The problem with fried foods is carbohydrates in the batter. Deep frying dusted veggies in lard or tallow is fine.

8 thoughts on “Good Food Advice”

  1. The “unsaturated fat” was a careless goof, probably. I think simple portion size is a big driver of the obesity epidemic. Comparing an average meal portion now to what it was when I was young is just ridiculous. It’s a mass balance – if you eat more than you excrete, you will gain weight.

    I am always the last to finish my meal. I savor the bites. That way, I do not have to make up for the loss of taste sensation that comes from wolfing it down with quantity.

      1. Of course it’s a mass balance. You can argue that different foods are excreted or stored at different rates, but that doesn’t change the fact that the difference between what you consume and excrete determines whether you were gaining weight or not.

        1. Do you really imagine that mass comes in only by food, and exits only by anal and urinal excretion? That biochemistry plays no role at all? That all calories are the same?

          1. Any mass leaving your body is an excretion. And, as I said, you can argue about differing rates, but weight goes up or down based upon the difference between intake and output.

            A friend once related to me a story of his father, who served in WWII as a medic in a unit that first entered a German concentration camp. When his daughter insisted that her weight problem was a result of her slow metabolism, he drily noted that he didn’t see any overweight people in the camp.

  2. The commenters at Instapundit are widely panning that article, too, for mostly the same reasons.

    Ed Driscoll, by and large, was not an improvement to Instapundit. He links a lot of junky listicles from PJM (which I can understand, but it’s still lame), and his writing style, if you can call it that, is mainly a combination of “hack” and “beating Glenn’s taglines to death”. None of these are really insurmountable problems, but he doesn’t seem to show much interest in trying to surmount them.

    1. PJM used to be a good place to visit but between endless click to read more, especially for their listicles, and constant autorefreshes, it has become painful.

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