Is There an End to “Unlimited”?

I saw a television commercial yesterday for a chain restaurant, promoting its offer of unlimited shrimp. What it sees as a great temptation, I see as gluttony and a reflection of just how far we’ve gone down the wrong path.

I’m a firm believer that you get what you pay for. The current economy is bad—I feel it as much as you do—but I’m absolutely unwilling to compromise quality for quantity.

Sure, you can pay $8 and stuff your face with non-organic shrimp bathed in a high-sodium, high-fat glaze—and perhaps a few non-organic, over-cooked veggies thrown in for “good” measure—but what you’re getting in return for your investment are unappetizing side effects like exposure to toxins and pesticides, indigestion, and fatigue.

Think about it this way: Is someone really going to offer an unlimited amount of quality?

A national morning news show recently highlighted a family that feeds itself from a most meager budget each week. The family was celebrated for cutting corners and cutting costs. In my eyes, it was also honored for cutting nutrition. I’d rather hear about a family that cleverly manages to find the most affordable sources for fresh, local, and organic fare . . . where the parents have oodles of energy and no health problems . . . and where the kids have no trouble concentrating in school.

Don’t be fooled by promotional gimmicks and advertising propaganda. You and your family deserve real nutrition—it might not be offered in “unlimited” quantities but, I assure you, the quality is priceless.

Question of the blog: Has the bad economy forced you to sacrifice your eating habits?

Would You Dare Keep Butter From Paula Deen?

In my quest to go green and live a healthier life, the way I look at food has changed substantially. I was the girl who cried at McDonald’s because they wouldn’t make me a hamburger for breakfast (they eventually did, by the way) and now I’m the woman who eats a vegan diet of mostly raw, organic food I lovingly prepare myself.

I encourage you to take a step back from the way you think about food . . . and question everything from your new perspective. Questions can be really shallow (How did a seedless cucumber get its name when it clearly has seeds?) or really deep (When did artificial start passing as authentic?) but the point is:

You’ve got to start asking questions, listening to the answers you get, and then making great-for-you changes.

Big companies and big groups (think grain, meat, and dairy industries) with big budgets have used big (aggressive) marketing campaigns for years to get us to eat their products. We see the ads, hear their claims, and blindly believe them. And, without asking questions or even reading the labels, we invite their products into our homes and into our bodies.

It seems unthinkable . . . but think again.

Almost worse than the ads (although by a slim margin) are today’s celebrity television chefs. Just for kicks, I like to watch The Food Network on occasion to see what their “experts” have to say. A good friend of mine—who just happens to be a great chef—believes Paula Deen is nothing short of a criminal. She feels, and I agree, that all television chefs have an obligation to demonstrate healthy cooking.

You can (and should!) splurge from time to time, but celebrity television chefs need to take accountability for their influential status. Their recipes, for the most part, should come with a disclaimer—or, at least, the chefs should have to share the calories, fat grams, and sodium content per serving for each of the items they encourage us to make along with them. Would that piece of chocolate cake look nearly as good if you knew it contained more than your daily recommended allowance for just about everything?

Perhaps “Death By Chocolate” is a literal name?

During our current epidemic of overweight and obese Americans, giggling as you toss in handfuls of salt or add sticks of butter is criminal. All you have to do is take one look at Paula Deen or Mario Batali or Ina Garten or Emeril Lagasse or Tyler Florence or Guy Fieri or Duff Goldman (or, it seems, a good percentage of the Food Network on-air staff) and you’ll see just what all that salt and butter will do to a body.

I’m sure these chefs would say they’re not forcing us to cook this way. They’re right! But even they have to admit that seeing chefs cook high-calorie, sodium-rich, fatty foods day in and day out somehow seduces us into thinking it’s okay to cook every meal with such frivolous use of the items we should be using sparingly, if at all.

And then there’s the “expert” advice . . .

I was watching an episode of 30-Minute Meals yesterday while I did my green exercise routine (which I blogged about earlier). During the show—and, don’t ever forget, it is a show—Rachael Ray mixed together her version of sweet and sour sauce out of conventional ketchup, yellow mustard, soy sauce, and light brown sugar. As she blended everything together, she said something along the lines of, “Making this yourself is so much better than store-bought sweet and sour sauce because this doesn’t have corn syrup.”

I was so stunned, I literally stopped working out for a minute, trying to digest (excuse the pun) what I’d heard.

First of all, mixing together ketchup, mustard, soy sauce, and brown sugar isn’t really making anything yourself. It’s like hanging a curtain and saying you made your window treatments.

Second—and this is the frustrating part—ketchup and some yellow mustards are loaded with corn syrup.

Where’s the “expert” in that advice?

Here’s a suggestion: Get your cooking inspiration and authentically expert advice not from a television commercial, magazine ad, government recommendation, or celebrity chef. Go to your Farmer’s Market or health food store instead and find a veritable cornucopia of local, healthy, naturally delicious (read: totally green) items.

Then later, when you’re whipping up your feast back at home, remember to hold the salt . . . and the butter . . . and possibly even the cooking altogether. You won’t believe how great you can feel when you increase your intake of raw food.

I promise: It's advice you can trust.

Question of the blog: How different do you think you’d eat if you never saw a “food” commercial or celebrity cooking show or if the grain, meat, and dairy industries didn’t have so much influence in Washington?

Is There a New Definition for “Fresh”?

When Mark and I travel, we always bring along healthy snacks—AKA real food—to keep us satisfied. Favorite snacks include raw almonds, Lara Bars, 70% dark chocolate, and dehydrated bananas (which look disgusting and taste divine).

It’s so easy, when you’re traveling, to slip into starvation mode and then devour anything in sight, no matter how unhealthy you know it is.

And the system is designed that way. Just look at the picture here. Do you consider a bag of chips to be a “fresh” snack? Well, someone does . . . actually, I imagine a lot of people do.

It's not just snacks, of course. Each of the three meals can fall victim to bad food choices. On our way to New York, Mark and I made a quick stop at a rest area. While we walked around, we couldn’t keep our eyes off the masses who were lined up for a chance to inhale some fast “food.”

And while we were in Manhattan—an island with dozens of good-for-you restaurants like Atlas Café, Pure Food and Wine, and Candle 79—I overhead a little boy whining for lunch.

“Are we going to McDonald’s?” he asked.

“Yes,” his mother answered.

There was a pause and then he said, “It’s funny. We go to McDonald’s every day for lunch.”

I wanted to tell him there was nothing funny about it, but I didn’t think he'd get it, and I honestly wasn't sure his mother would either. Sometimes it's easier to be fooled.

Question of the blog: Are you as outraged as I am over the chemicals and preservatives that pass as real food?