In offense of food

I'm an avid reader of those who push the boundaries of the way we think about food, writers like Michael Pollan and Eric Schlosser (see the recent flick Food, Inc. for an overarching if brief overview of their positions). And as much merit as there is in eating healthy and being conscious of our food choices, every now and then you can use a good cheat meal - both to satisfy those occasional urges and to remind you of what you're choosing to not choose.

Tonight M, JD, and I prepared a veritable low-rent feast of a cheat meal, based entirely on manufactured foodstuffs from our childhoods: Steakums with Cheese Whiz, frozen meat? lasagna, and Reddi Wip (straight from the nozzle for dessert, of course):



To provide at least a little bit of usable food knowledge, here's a link to an interesting piece about carbohydrate composition and dietary health. We all know that many people espouse the idea, in various guises, of restricting or even avoiding carbohydrate intake. This author discusses evidence that some populations with carbohydrate-rich diets, and ample caloric intake, can maintain healthy lifestyles, with low incidences of the diseases of affluence that afflict Western cultures: cardiovascular disease, obseity, diabetes, etc. The proposed idea is that the carbohydrates in these diets are primarily plant-sourced, and rich in starch broken down into glucose, as opposed to Western diets high in sucrose which metabolizes into glucose and fructose. Note that in the cited populations - Kitavans, Okinawans, Zulus - there are often confounding factors, such as the high intake of fish in island cultures or perhaps instances of caloric restriction; either way, something tasty to chew over with a mouth full of Cheese Whiz...
Some of the original sources:
Lindeberg et al., 1997
Wilcox et al., 2007