"Good Value" is killing us

I went to the grocery store this morning to get a few items plus breakfast. I'm a commuter and if I dillydally in the mornings at all, frequently I find myself grabbing breakfast on the go. It's an unfortunate habit: it's probably the single most compelling reason for my obesity. But that's just how it rolls when you are a busy family man too tired to get organized for the next day before crawling into bed after dishes are finally done, you know what I mean?

I am reviewing the usual short-order options at the breakfast counter and my eye strays over to the lunch board, and I see those magic letters: B, followed by an L, ending with a T. I have to be honest here: I love bacon. Who (among meat eaters) doesn't? It's salty, smoky, sweet, fatty, chewy, crispy... I mean it hits ALL of my major cravings. So I order one. The price is reasonable ($3.99) and and my food-addicted brain reasons "If it's cheap, it's probably small.")

Really, I think food addiction must seize control of the rational parts of the brain, because the voice of reason was totally hijacked by my cravings at that moment. I know for a fact that one of the problems in modern America is out-of-control portion sizes. And *bacon...* well, let's just say I could literally eat bacon ALL DAY LONG. So handing me a giant-sized BLT, with whole strips of bacon spilling out of each end, is the equivalent of trying to soothe a junkie's shaking with a shot of pure H.

Portion control, portion control, I chanted to myself as I walked to the car. I'll have only as much as I know I should, I "reasoned." So I had about half and very, very reluctantly tossed the other half in the trash, despite the suggestion in the back of my mind that I could have the other half later. Even if I could wait, that's still a whole giant BLT in one day, probably upwards of 1200 calories total.

Now that my craving has been satisfied, I can look back more objectively and list the pros and cons of this sandwich.

PRO

It's a LOT of BLT for the money. $3.99 for five thick slices of bacon on huge bread with lettuce and tomato- that is a substantial sandwich, and a great deal.

The bacon was VERY GOOD, as MOST BACON IS.

I ate bacon.

Ok, I that's all I have.

CON

I have lived a half-century, and have a preconception of what a normal slice of bread is. Let's be honest, many people have no idea what a size of slice was the norm until the obesity epidemic began. The answer is the little stuff, probably the smallest "normal" slicing bread one can encounter in the store. Yes, it's still there, the vintage stalwart of normal portions, but you rarely find it in the forms modern consumers demand.

Ironically "artisanal" breads hint at this amount of bread with its various shapes, because they are meant to be served in a variety of ways. Meanwhile the old fashioned sandwich loaf has swelled to twice its former size and then some. Looking at the bread this sandwich was make of, it is verging on two and half times the surface area of old-school sandwich bread. Another disturbing thing about all sandwiches made at this particular store is the bread is very- and I would argue, annoyingly- thick. Why? Well, it's all about value, wouldn't you say? Their pre-made sandwiches look HUGE in the display case. Why, look- it's only $4! For this massive sandwich! What a great use of my hard-earned cash!

But it's not a great use of your cash, because in the end you get fat eating huge sandwiches instead of human-scale sandwiches, and that gets VERY expensive in the long run.

Think of a sandwich as a human being. The size of sandwich you eat is the size of human you are making yourself into. When I was a teenager, I was introduced to grinders for the first time. These were the massive loaf-of-bread submarine sandwiches people who worked in shipyards ate. Their work was grueling, and they expended massive calories. Grinders were delicious and cheap. They NEEDED massive lunches to maintain weight. I remember going to the Sub Shop and barely managing to get through half a sandwich- a 6-inch portion. It seemed like a lot of food that just went on practically forever.

I didn't have myself cryogenically frozen- I have been alive and kicking in subsequent years and have ordered my share of subs. But the last time I went to my favorite joint, I was startled by the realization that nearly everyone was ordering a grinder's worth of food- the whole 12 inches- for themselves. Of course, they could be reserving half for someone else, but how likely is that? Wouldn't you order a separate half for your dining partner? To test my suspicion, I took extra time eating my own lunch, and confirmed that a few people who ate their sandwiches were going right ahead and plowing through the second half.

It doesn't take a PhD to understand why businesses offer value. Who wants to spend unnecessary money? the problem is, these are high, fat, salt and sugary foods that our bodies identify as sources of calories of the very rarest and most precious kind. Every neuron devotes itself to yearning for those foods if they are near, and try to talk us into eating as much of the beast as we can to fatten up for the lean times. The problem is, we don't have any lean times anymore. We don't grind rivets on shipyards- at least not many of us. Most of us sit at desks all day. We don't need the whole grinder. We need the sandwich our parents or grandparents would make us- reasonable portions that just fill us up, not stuff us to the gills.

The other problem with a BLT that I haven't mentioned yet is it's stacked with the salty and fatty sensations that bypass our innate portion control- while at the same time not possessing much in the way of vitally needed nutrients. As long as we don't satisfy that need, we will continue to be hungry until we do. Which means if your regular diet is kid food- burgers and fries and soda- you're probably hungry all of the time. The B in BLT should have probably been BEETS instead of bacon. But what short order place puts beets on a sandwich? Very, very few, and none with prices anyone can afford, like McDonald's.

Obesity is a conspiracy of large-scale food providers and preparers that has succeeded beyond their wildest dreams. But what sort of people would imagine rampant obesity in anything other than their nightmares? Something to consider.

"The Changing American Diet" suggests important advice for everyone

I've stated more than once on this blog that weight- especially around the middle- exacerbates reflux and affects gut health, organ health, metabolic health, and longevity in various negative ways. The Flowing Data resource called The Changing American Diet has been causing a stir in the health twittersphere, because within it lie clues to the current obesity, metabolic syndrome and diabetes epidemic that afflicts the western world and beyond.

In the data, you'll see two rather glaring changes in our diet. One is the increase of consumption of vegetable oils. It's been observed that high consumption of fats exacerbates reflux. It also drives up caloric values very efficiently. If you have used a calorie tracker for sufficient length of time to be begin seeing patterns, one thing that is very clear is it only takes a couple of teaspoons of oil to throw a diet off track and into the high-calorie weeds.

Try this strategy:

Only eat oils for their flavor. The next time you make pasta, use a teaspoon of extra virgin olive oil to help flavor it. Or make a potent and delicious pesto out of EVOO, garlic, basil, parmagiano (the real stuff, please) and the nut of your choice. It only takes a teaspoon or two to impart incredible flavor to a dish.

On the flipside, stop using oil to cook food. get some essential nonstick pieces- at minimum, a 10" fry pan and an oven sheet. Make roast vegetables, chicken stir fry and eggs with no added fat. Use a little broth or water and a lid when making eggs- if the pan is nonstick, that's all you need. (Or, poach them!) Most vegetables can be successfully sauteed with only a little broth. Add flavorful oils, if the recipe requires it, at the end, and sparingly.

Wheat is one commodity that has always been high- but it is ever on the increase. Baked goods are the most common way industrial food sneaks vegetable oil into our diets. Even bread is a source. Here's a challenge: go to a supermarket bread section. Find two types of bread with no soybean oil. unless you look at the artisanal breads, you will find this to be a difficult task! The solution is to eat bread made the old fashioned way. Did you know baguettes have almost zero fat? Now that was a pleasant discovery!

Another not so glaring but telling datum is the continual rise of cheese consumption. Again, it's a matter of caloric density. Cheese is delicious, yes! But try using it for its own flavor. By that I mean don't use it unless the flavor is going to be a star of the dish. Parmegiano Reggiano in pesto. Brie on a baguette. Also you should check out lower fat cheeses- not modern low-fat miracles, just the cheeses that tend to be lower in fat, like real Swiss cheese.

One thing I would like to remind our GERD and LPR-suffering readers: fats are hard to digest and make the body produce extra stomach acid. Best to stick to naturally low-fat foods and eat fat sparingly and for its flavor. Here is a gastroenterologist's take on a GERD-friendly diet. Guidelines we should all be sticking to, as the GERD diet is also a great way to shed pounds.

One thing we already know, but is not reflected in this report, is the rise in our consumption of added sugars. This chart listing the source of calories in the western diet claims the two highest sources added sugars and vegetable oils/dairy fat. How to relate this back to the food groups in our diet? Check out the data about the actual foods that contribute to our calories.

The top categories are:

• grain-based desserts
• pizza
• yeast breads
• soda/energy/sports drinks
• chicken dishes. We eat a lot of chicken, people.

So it comes full circle. Now you see what we are eating most of, and that happens to be what's making us fat. I certainly wouldn't condemn healthy versions of these items, such as skinless chicken breast or whole grain artisanal bread, but that isn't how most of us eat these things.

I would reconsider your consumption of these specific foods and in particular the sources of refined oils in your diet. Think of ways to trim them down or eliminate them completely. The healthy way forward for all of us is a rejection of industrial calories and return to eating real, whole food.

Dear bread industry: we don't need dough conditioners or soybean oil either

You're doing better than I expected, bread industry. Everyday I see another loaf of processed bread has shed its preservatives. But allow me to stimulate your collective memory: perhaps you remember a recent controversy involving a chain of restaurants and yoga mats?

I have made bread many times. I've have had the homemade bread of others. Not once did I think, "hey, this bread stuff is hard to eat!" (well, the bad loaves maybe.) It's bread- one of the most easily (to our benefit and detriment) consumed of all foods. Go on, bread industry- go into the stores and check out your products. Some of them don't have conditioners. Guess what, they are eminently consumable. You really have nothing to fear. Avoid future embarassment and get rid of the dough conditioners!

Our friends at Fooducate [fooducate.com] (ok, we aren't friends yet, but hey Fooducate, we would never let you down) have listed a few things you never, ever want in your bread, and dough conditioners figure promimently on that list. Some of them have been known to cause adverse reactions in rats, such as "heart muscle fibrosis and adrenal overgrowth." I don't think that would be an awesome thing to hear from your doc.

 I know it's presumptuous to assume we have your attention, but in case we do- please consider putting something in your product other than soybean oil. We know it's cheap, but it isn't good for your customers. Remember them, the people who buy your stuff? The thing is, it's in so many of those center aisle foods, so some people are eating a lot of it. Why even put it in there? The best bread I have eaten only contains flour, water, salt and yeast.

Eating a lot of soybean oil is making us unhealthy and likely contributing to the rise of obesity and metabolic syndrome in the west. Is it just a coincidence that a graph detailing how the abandonment of natural fats in food in favor of processed vegetable oils looks just like the rise of obesity in society [authoritynutrition.com] ? Add an increase of sugar and calories, you've got yourself an epidemic. So, please take this under consideration, bread industry. Bread is a very old food. We figured out the best way to make it millennia ago.  Respect the tradition.

Even troubling is being ok with a known endocrine disruptor and supected carcinogen [livestrong.com], bromine, used as a dough strengthener. It's completely unneccary unless your goal is complete automation and consistency. Which brings me to this: the burden really is on the consumer to stop expecting complete uniformity from food prducts. Learn to appreciate the crust and structure of real bread. I think we are pretty much there: Google image search "sandwich" and you are more likely to encounter artisanal bread than the wonder slices of yesteryear.

This last bit is for supermarkets. Stop charging premium prices for breads thart are more fundamental in structure than the laboratory loaves you think we expect. This isn't the 1950s. Stacks of bread no longer have to  possess the outer contenance of a seamless, impregnable fortress. So how to charge less? Simple: engage in your community. Ditch the mass produced junk, hire more bakers, research recipes, make it yourselves. You are in the commodities market- you get the best possible price for these very basic ingredients. Pay bakers, not food conglomerates. Really! I am not kidding.

I do see some evidence of this. It might even be a trend: a growing percentage of grocery store bread is made right there in the store. Bread companies supply the materials, and in-store bakeries finish it up. The preservative argument really doesn't fly any more. It only takes a little more effort to stop paying others for your dough and start making it yourself. I'd rather know the person who makes my loaf. Take the bad stuff away, and leave only the truly needed ingredients. Just take it under consideration, ok?

Thanks.

Eat what your Grandmother ate

Studies now prove what we have probably suspected anyway: The rise of obesity correlates exactly with our adoption of processed foods. Starting in 1899, the amount of processed foods in the average American diet was near zero. There was a bump in the fifties with the advent of "time-saving" foods for busy housewives and the apparent adoption of the teen malt shop as the blueprint for the future average American restaurant. Obesity and processed food use really began to take off in 1980. It would really be interesting to take a close look at that decade to see what exactly happened, but one possibility is the switch to HFCS in sodas, which occurred at the beginning of the 1980s. HFCS  has been demonstrated to be more fattening that the equivalent amount of sugar.

So, the percentage of foods in the American diet that comes from junk food and fast food is within shouting range of 50% nowadays. The problem is, our bodies respond in completely different ways to junk food than it does to ordinary whole foods. This study demonstrates foods high in salt, fat and sugar screw up the pleasure center of the brain most closely tied to our instinct to survive. For ordinary foods, the body judges the nutritive  value of a new food, and makes us like it even more if it likes what nutrients it packs. It also has a limited ability to alter these messages to our brains depending on seasonal body needs. In winter, it will makes us crave more dense, fatty foods to help us conserve heat; in summer, it makes us crave light and wet foods to cope with hot weather.

Unfortunately, we live in a time when seasonality can be defeated- we spend most of our time indoors in a sort of eternal early summer. So what small amount of seasonal regulation the pleasure centers can manage is short circuited. Furthermore, our systems are not geared to like  anthocyanins and isoflavones. What it wants is what is most likely to help the organism survive until the next big kill: fast energy sources like sugar, slow-burning energy sources like fat, electrolite feeders like salt, and, in any event, high caloric content. Once our bodies have had a taste of foods that exemplify this in the extreme- by and large, high-calorie, low-nutrient creations such as soda, Death by Chocolate, Doritos and Chicken McNuggets- our bodies trick us into liking these items more and more, and craving them with increasing intensity, to the point that the pleasure center can no longer make useful decisions- it just craps out.

We are driven to crave foods for a lifestyle cycle of feast and famine. Few of us live life like that anymore (though it's become fashionable in some circles to adopt an extreme paleolithic diet consisting of just that). But excepting these extremists, the rest of us are left to fight our desires with reason. One way to out-smart a broken pleasure center is to avoid these trigger foods entirely. The circuitry of the brain returns to normal and after a while we stop relying on trigger foods to get us through the rough patch until the next elk is killed. Yes, studies seem to indicate that we are addicted to junk food- but the way out is simply to stop eating them. Heh, easy, right? Ok, not so much.

 But, actually, there is a blueprint for eating like this all around us: what people ate like before the advent of instant potatoes. Imagine what your parents, grandparents or great-grandparents (depending on how old you are or where you live) might have made for their meals. My own grandparents, like many Americans of their generation and region, were agriculturalists. They always had a huge vegetable garden and eggs from their own hens. They killed chickens and had a butcher process one of their animals every once in a while for more serious meat needs. Their cattle wandered open grassy fields, so their beef provided natural omega 3s. Except in a few special cases, they grew, cooked and ate their own food. Dinner might consist of  two salads, sliced tomatoes, green beans and extremely fresh chicken. For those of you with no agricultural past, just find a cookbook from 1930s or 1940s. There will be plenty of ideas. Alternately, explore the traditional, regional cuisines of other countries. There are traces of a long agricultural past in all such recipes.

Taking this idea to the grocery store is pretty simple. If it has a list of more than a couple of ingredients, there's a good chance it's not natural. It's definitely true if there are things on the list you don't recognize. Try to eat the outer part of the grocery store- the least processed foods you can find.

I know it's not the easiest thing to do. All of us need to succumb to the call of pizza delivery and takeout Chinese now and then. But find a pattern of cooking foods for the week to come. Prep everything on Sundays. Recycle items from one meal into several subsequent meals. The Internet is full of tips about how to do it. And here is a good article about how to avoid non-natural foods that may be lurking in your diet. With these tools in hand, maybe we can spark a revolution in the American diet that brings us back from the brink of a Wall-E-style future and restore our bodies to a normal, healthy state. At least I'd like to think it's possible.