Here’s something of a paradox, apparently 2/3rds of Americans claim they’re healthy eaters even though the same fraction of Americans are overweight or obese.
When I read that pair of facts, I couldn’t help but recall these two women I once was behind in a cafeteria line. One of the women was telling the other how “good” she was being because she’d gotten the taco salad for lunch. The taco salad was in one of those tortilla bowls with greasy taco-seasoned beef, salsa, shredded cheese, and globs of sour cream, on a bed of nutrient vacant iceberg lettuce.
Have you ever checked out the caloric value of the taco salad at Taco Bell? It’s pretty much the worst thing you can pick at Taco Bell, calorie-wise. It gets a lot better if you choose not to eat the tortilla bowl.
Anyway, this lady was so sure she was making a healthy choice for lunch that she was bragging about it. She apparently isn’t so different from most of us. The truth is that most of us don’t really know what we’re putting into our bodies, especially if we eat food prepared by other people (pre-packaged food, restaurants, delis, cafeterias, etc.) a lot.
Try this, for two or three days, just keep a journal of everything you eat or drink. Don’t try to change your eating habits while your recording it. You want to get an accurate record of what you’ve been fueling your body with. Even if you think you’ve been eating healthy, I bet you’ll be surprised.
Source: Self Magazine, July 2006
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It’s amazing what some people think is healthy eating. The lady in the line that you spoke of could have been my sister. She thinks that if you eat at the Golden Corral buffet that you are eating healthy because vegetables are being served.
Yeah, I tell her, first of all vegetables that have been cooked in lard until every smidgen of nutrient has been evaporated is not healthy. Secondly, never go to a freaking buffet.
My father loves the Golden Corral. I cannot fathom why. I’ve never been to one that had good food. If you’re going to blow your diet on an all-you-can-eat buffet, at least go to one with food marginally tasty and worth the second trip. Even the desert table could be improved with a hospital vending machine. Seriously, I’ve eaten in hospital cafeterias that have better food.
Now, there was this great sushi buffet down in New Orleans…and when I was a kid, we use to go to Jazz brunch down at the Hilton on the Mississippi River and they’d have beautiful buffets with chefs slicing your meat right there and fresh giant strawberries and all sorts of delightful stuff. I don’t know where this Ragu-eating Golden Corral person came from. *sigh*