A FRIDGE FULL OF FOOD...

This Will Make You Slightly Queasy

From the Center for Science in the Public Interest, Xtreme Eating 2009 dishes:

• Chili’s Big Mouth Bites with French fries (four mini bacon cheeseburgers with fried onion strings): 2,350 calories, 38 grams saturated fat, 3,940 milligrams sodium.
• Olive Garden Tour of Italy, with lasagna, chicken parmigiana, and fettuccine alfredo: 1,450 calories, 33 grams saturated fat, 3,830 milligrams sodium.
• The Cheesecake Factory Fried Macaroni and Cheese: 1,570 calories, 69 grams saturated fat, 1,860 milligrams sodium.
• Chili’s Original Half Rack of Baby Back Ribs: An add-on for entrees, with 490 calories, 12 grams saturated fat, and 2,050 milligrams sodium.
• Red Lobster Ultimate Fondue shrimp and crabmeat in a lobster cheese sauce served in a sourdough bread bowl: 1,490 calories, 40 grams saturated fat, 3,580 milligrams sodium.
• Uno Chicago Grill’s Mega-Sized Deep Dish Sundae: 2,800 calories, 72 grams saturated fat.
• The Cheesecake Factory’s Chicken and Biscuits: 2,500 calories.
• Applebee’s Quesadilla Burgerwith fries: 1,820 calories, 46 grams saturated fat, 4,410 milligrams sodium.
• The Cheesecake Factory Philly Style Flat Iron Steak with fries: 2,320 calories, 47 grams saturated fat, 5,340 milligrams sodium.

  Gene loves Applebee's Quesadilla Burger with Fries.  I admit I was thinking "tortilla instead of bread" and "pico de gallo"...how bad can it be?  Bad, apparently.  I'm surprised Olive Garden's Tour of Italy almost looks calorie-deprived compared to the rest of them.

Doctors' Kitchen Monday: "Weight Loss with a Low Carbohydrate, Mediterranean, or Low Fat Diet" Study

       

By now, I'm sure most everyone has heard or read the news that a new study has come out in The New England Journal of Medicine (July 17, 2008, volume 359) saying that low carb diets are more effective for weight loss than low fat diets.  That's  what all the headlines are saying.  BUT, that's not exactly what the study concluded.  What the study actually concluded was:

"Conclusions Mediterranean and low-carbohydrate diets may be effective alternatives to low-fat diets. The more favorable effects on lipids (with the low-carbohydrate diet) and on glycemic control (with the Mediterranean diet) suggest that personal preferences and metabolic considerations might inform individualized tailoring of dietary interventions. "

To me, that's saying something slightly different than what the headlines read. It's saying that low carb diets may be more effective as an alternative to low fat, that low carb did have show a better lipid profile, specifically Mediterranean diet showed a better glycemic profile, and that (to me this is the important part ) is that your diet should reflect your health needs and goals.

The reason why I make such a distinction is because I feel very strongly that although a lot of diet basics are the same: Eat less, exercise more, eat fresh wholesome foods, I get the willies when any headline comes out saying "This is the one and only way you can lose weight" or "This diet is the one and only one that works" which is the impression I got from most of the articles I read ABOUT the study before reading the study itself, which to me, confirmed common sense: we eat to live and that means we have to make our diet line up with our particular health needs.

For the complete text of the study, click here:  Weight Loss Study.

I found the study's definition of the three diets extremely interesting especially since the way the study defined them differed from how I automatically defined them from my own experience and knowledge.

Book Buying Spree

Can you tell I went on a little spending spree yesterday?  Hmmm...funny...it was supposed to be Auntie Miranda's birthday day but I ended up "winning" by spending the most cash.  We pretty much circled the Springfield/Branson map. More about the rest of our adventures (The Amish Country Store!) tomorrow but for today look at my treasures from Barnes & Noble:  The Advanced Professional Pastry Chef,  The Bread Baker's Apprentice, and The Bread Bible.  I can't wait to dig in to these tomes. I feel like a wiser cook just by having them to reference.

Is it Christmas already?  Cuz, it sure feels like it!