Aug
2007
Posted in Food A view of fast food
I would like you to try a little thought experiment with me. Let`s put our heads together and design the Worst Diet in the World. I mean such a diet that can easily undermine your health and shorten your life. So, let`s start.
The way to obesity. First of all let`s stuff our diet with calories, more than most people will be able to burn out, so that it will promote obesity. We should overload it with carbohydrate calories. That means lots of refined flour in fluffy breads and pastries, a lot of potatoes, sweets and sweet drinks. For fat we will need a glut of saturated fat in the form of cheese, butter, cream and other whole-milk products, along with a lot of beef and unskinned chicken. Such a diet will ensure that most people will develop unhealthy levels of cholesterol and increased risks of cardiovascular disease. We should also include into our diet plenty of fat in the form of margarine, vegetable shortening and snack foods. A lot of meat in the diet should be processed to add more sodium and unhealthful chemical addictives.
What the worst diet doesn`t provide. To crown it all we should restrict fruits and vegetables but we certainly will allow unrestricted amounts of floury potatoes, preferably French fried or prepared with quantities of margarine, butter and sour cream. According to our Worst Diet people shouldn`t eat many greens. Perhaps pickles, high in sodium and ketchup, high in sugar and sodium will count as vegetable in our diet. From what I know about the scientific basis of human nutrition, I`m sure, that a diet of this sort will increase the frequency of degenerative diseases, lowering the age at which they appear. Such a diet will promote hypertension, coronary heart disease and cancer. It may even make people less energetic and worsen their moods. At the end of our experiment I would like you to visit three different fast food restaurants of your choice, study the menus in them and observe what the customers are eating. Then I want you to think about how closely those menus approximate the Worst Diet in the World we have just designed.