In January of 2011 California implemented a law stating that any restaurant with more than 20 locations would have to print their calories on their menus. Poor California Pizza Kitchen must be having a hard time showing all these health conscious Californians that some of their entrees have enough calories to last a person a day and may slip you into a mini coma. Starbucks had to join the troupe with the numbers on all of their goodies and didn't even miss a beat in creating their "under 150 calorie" snacks. Little two bite cakes on a stick for only 210 calories, oh my! People come into my restaurant and spend a little extra time studying the menu boards at the register, mouths agape. I've seen mixed signals from the Calabass-holes that come into my establishment. I work in the upscale area of Calabasas California and have aptly nick named my patrons as such since they well... you know pretty much are for the most part. Some people are so glad that the state has implemented this tedious numbering system they clap when they see it. I guess for some it puts things in perspective. Other people despise this information being crammed down their throats, especially if they have chosen to eat something bad they wanted to cram down their own throats. For me personally, I don't eat out often so when I do I like to indulge a little. I grapple with food guilt enough to not have to have a menu telling me in black and white, " you really shouldn't be having this". Luckily for me justification for how I've earned and or will burn all these off in the near future combined with a little selective eyesight has helped me keep from getting too bogged down in the numbers. I was very surprised indeed last night, however, at The Cheesecake Factory's little loophole they have found. Instead of reprinting however many menus for their 30 plus locations and the 20 some odd pages they include, when seating us at our table the hostess casually dropped a nutrition guide along with their standard menu. I didn't even glance at the thing knowing full well what I was getting myself into and by that I mean a big thick slice of deliciousness covered in cherries. Here is the question I am posing about this new era we have entered. How much can you depend on your numbers game? I am a firm believer in the basic knowledge that in order to lose weight we need to burn more calories than we consume and adversely the reason why we put on the pounds is because we are consuming more than we are burning. Pretty simple right? So what about all the little pesky details that come along with eating? Let's run through the list shall we? There is the fad diet of the 90's and one of my personal favorites, the low fat/no fat craze that swept the nation. This seemed to go hand in hand with the aerobics trend. People were putting on leotards and cutting all fat out of their diets faster than grocery stores could stock the shelves with "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter". The only problem with this phenomenon was that we soon found out that bodies actually need fat in the right form and quantity. When you don't eat fat you are relying on your muscle tone and what little calories you consume to keep you going. This makes you tired and I would imagine a little cranky.
We have all heard of Weight Watchers and probably know someone who might have been mildly successful with it. I personally can't count plain calories so I wouldn't even know where to start with adding points. Also I've done more working out than I have dieting in this journey of mine so I can say I haven't ever tried it. Weight Watchers must have something going for it though, it still seems to be thriving. I like to think of it as those cell phone plans with roll over minutes, you get so many points a week and if you haven't used them up I think you can cash them in on something great on Sunday. This might be completely false info though guys. Either way what a clever way to start marketing all your own food too? Why figure out the points when you can buy a box with the number right on the box. Smart business. I'm sure Jennifer Hudson as a svelte spokeswoman promoting you doesn't hurt either. I'm sure she didn't pay a personal trainer either.
What's next? How about Nutrisystem and all those copy cat companies like it that send you your meals for something like $6 a day! Forget about the fact that you're having frozen dinners and eating out of a box all the time, what is a person suppose to do after they drop the pounds? How does this person go out and live life while making healthy choices? It doesn't seem the most practical to me.
The last one I want to touch on is still my favorite so far... the low carb/no carb diet. Hello Mr. Atkins, where have you been hiding? Florida? This came out like a new rocket ship that everyone couldn't wait to ride. The basic idea behind those evil carbohydrates is that when they get into your body they turn into sugar. Unfortunately for my sweet tooth we all know sugar is pretty bad. Forgivable in small quantities but not really good for you. Still no sugar diet out there although I'm pretty sure I was on it all through high school and I turned out fine. Also not new but re-introduced through Atkins and The South Beach Diet was a little thing called the glycemic index: some foods are high (bad) and others very low (good) with me so far? White bread and potatoes bad, tomatoes and low fat mozzarella good. I know you won't be shocked to know that pretzels are bad since I've already mentioned them. Maybe I'm still not over it. Essentially when you eat something it takes a certain amount of time before it is in your blood stream. Once it's in there and you're feeling all warm and energized it takes a certain amount of time to work its way through said blood stream. Some things hit you like a slap in the face. Pretty exciting for a moment but not really going to last you very long. Other things slowly release themselves over time to give you a more sustained energy. I'll give you an example from the SBD (south beach diet try and keep up). A person would be better off buttering their toast than putting jam on it because the butter actually slows the absorption of the carbohydrates in the bread into your blood stream and gives you energy longer. Bet you didn't think that the combination in which you ate your food had much affect did you? I could go on and on with this fascinating piece of the pie but I'm feeling this is a little long winded and want to wrap back up with my calorie rant. So while all these Californians are pulling out their iphone calculators to add up all this new data I wonder if we are really getting anywhere other than up into the thousands? Will this keep people from making the wrong choices or at least have them going with the better choice when they eat out? Will this turn us into even more obsessive beasts than we already are about eating? I'm referring more to one gender than the other. Just like the restrictions on vehicle emissions wherein California was a front runner I'm sure the rest of the nation isn't far behind on the calorie bandwagon. Maybe we should all "weigh in" right now on our feelings about this. Just a little food for thought. Goodnight!
-Whitney
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