Bagels and chit chat

Dear foodies,

There still isn't cable at home and I have now moved to watching videos online. With a s-video cable in tow, I synced my laptop to the TV. Apart from watching comedy shows on Hulu and Youtube I also watched a few interesting documentaries and short films online. I vaguely remember having read about a guy who ate at McD's for 30-days to show how harmful it could be to a person's health. Morgan Spurlock, an independant filmmaker, put himself through through this 30-day diet, where all his 3 meals for the day would come from McD's. He would not order out of the menu (no customizations). He will super size it if asked to do so, but never on his own. And he won't work out excessively to burn it off, instead he will, based on stats for a typical American, take 5000 steps/day. Spurlock documented his challenge in the form of a movie called, Super Size Me. Three doctors watch his progress over the 30-day period and our astonished by the results. The nutritionist says his fitness levels are above average at the start of the diet, and over the next 30 days he sees his weight, cholesterol, blood pressure shoot up and his liver function deteriorate due to the high-fat diet. The doctors admit to not foreseeing the extent and speed of liver deterioration in him. What a high alcohol intake could do to the liver, a high fat diet can do, in much shorter time span.

Bagels - Recipe

The rules of the challenge do seem ridiculous upfront. No one eats every single meal from a fast food place. It is an exaggeration. But one that may not be entirely far fetched and, probably one that needs to made in order to get people to realize how bad it could be. Fast food chains offer a filling and cheap meal option, albeit, at the cost of your health. The video talks about the salad options having the same amount of calories as a huge cheese burger due the cheese topping and fatty dressings. Its not to target just one fast food giant, all these huge chains have made fast food synonymous with bad health.

spread - low fat sour cream, diced carrot, coriander leaves and salt.

They are a business and making money is the end game, so its wrong to expect them to be the health police here. A few years back the House of Representatives passed a bill called the 'Cheeseburger bill' which protects the food industry from being sued for obesity. The consumer needs to realize and take blame for jeopardizing their health by making wrong food choices. I agree with this legality, but the right options should also be just as easily accessible. The marketing for fast food is very heavily funded and they make cooking at home sound like an avoidable chore, uncool or wasteful. A 2000 cal diet is what is recommended for the average person, but look at the nutritional info of these popular restaurant menu items. 2500+ calories in a single entree! And the amount of sodium - 2400mg is is the recommended intake for a day and a few of those have more than 4000mg in them! That could get you on the cardiologists table in no time. And its not even 'fast food', its slow food... restaurant food.

Its true that we go to the restaurants to indulge. I wouldn't be happy eating a bland whole wheat pasta with steamed veggies or a plain dal when I go out. So its okay to cave in to the cravings, but what we eat and how much of it needs to be controlled. Few studies show how the portions sizes have increased gradually leading to more than 65% of Americans falling under the overweight category. It could be a marketing ploy to make us think they are giving us more value for money. In a seminar at work, the nutritionist mentioned that the amount of protein from meat on our plate needs to be the size of the fist. The restaurants seem to offer 4 times that quantity. Fast food also disguises itself as easy frozen entrees and meals too. Reading the labels on things we buy and being a conscious consumer is really important. There are many more valid points brought up in the film and the articles. I could go on n on with my rant here, but I will stop :D

my entry for Click - Stacks

Have you CLICKED yet ? I was invited to be a of the judge this month by the Jugalbandits and and I cannot tell you how thrilled I am :) I made these bagels for my breakfasts this week. I've tried my hand at making them a couple of times before, but I always ended up using too little salt, so this time I was careful. I topped them with sesame/nigella/black poppy seeds.

Enjoy your weekend :)