Stay Healthy Stay Happy

While the late, lamented Mr. John Lennon warbled about happiness being a warm gun, for the most of the rest of us happiness may be a full tum. Especially as so many of the people who populate planet earth are underfed and undernourished. Here in the West the norm is to be well fed, yet malnourishment can still take it’s toll when we are mightily troubled with obesity and it’s consequent twin evils of diabetes and heart disease. And those twins have innumerable cousins.

It ain’t Ronald’s fault that we are suffering as a nation. The invention of the “Chicken McNugget” did not presage the downfall of Western Civilization. The “Whopper” did not precipitate the destruction of all that was good and holy in the glorious days of yesteryear.  What Southern sharecropper or wandering Okie would not have given his or her false teeth for a burger, fries and shake to distribute to an ill-nourished child who might have done better if a glass of milk an’ cornbread, an’ poke salet had been on hand.

We have grown fat upon the land because we have become wealthy without wisdom. Humble gratitude for what we are blessed with is better than rapacious greed to gain more. Making relevant choices as adults and parents is essential to our own health and that of future generations. Government mandates will not produce happy or healthy people. Being free to make a choice between fatty, artery clogging food and well balanced nourishment is our right. Choosing the right is a more difficult path. What the world needs now is love, sweet love. Then we will make the best choices for ourselves and the children we raise. Out of love and respect for ourselves and others we will choose the good from the bad. I can still remember when I first started in earnest to grow my own food. After hauling in rich composted material to my allotment one bag at a time, after I collected it where the county workers had for some years been dumping leaves cleared off the roads, I grew the tastiest vegetables. Cabbages, Brussel sprouts, carrots, potatoes, fennel, parsnips all had exquisite nuances of flavor. I had reduced my intake of meat and eschewed salt and pepper, and was rewarded with a thousand-fold increase in enjoyment of nature’s bounty.

Instead of our public schools churning out (or leaking out through dropping out) hordes of minds ill and under nourished and thus unable to make wise choices, teachers need to take the initiative to throw out the books about global warming, having two mummies, and Che Guevara’s sainthood. Then they can concentrate on telling it like it really is; like it really, really is. And then those kids can turn out to be better prepared than their own parents were in nurturing the best in the human spirit. Teach them that chicken soup is good for the soul. Nanny states never nourish or nurture. Never forget the Soviet bakers’ shops with the interminable lines of people with gaunt faces;  harassed and haggard people without hope waiting in vain as the last lousy loaf was sold.

Healthy Fast Food

Well I am back to report on my visit to Carl’s Junior to sample the Turkey Burger. And I must say it was quite enjoyable with it’s 490 calories. The turkey meat tasted like it should and the wheat bun, lettuce and tomatoe was the ideal accompaniment, although that did not stop me taking some of the fresh tomatoe, onion and cilantro salsa to put inside part of the burger. So I recommend this fast food for it’s low calories, nutrition and importantly flavor.

Now along with the Carl’s Junior brand there is a menu branded as Green Burito which I didn’t sampled but which I will check into to see what is acceptable food on that menu. And in addition I see “Eat This, Not That” on their website has “The Nine Healthiest Mexican Foods,” which I’ll be looking at. There is a great deal of information available on the internet about what is good for your health and what tastes good.

I went to Carl’s Junior about 12.30 and the lunch time trade was going strong with a full parking lot and almost no free tables. But I’m pretty sure they weren’t all there chomping on the Turkey Burger. And that is OK because at the moment we still seem to have some free choice in what we eat despite encroaching Government nannyism. You don’t really change behaviour by force and government directives, you just send the behaviour underground with the consequent attempts to circumvent the controls. So while I advocate healthy food choices, I want to emphasis the word choices.

Now I was so impressed by the quality of the food at Carl’s Junior and the friendly service that after I left I thought I’d like to instigate a regular lunch time meeting for the men in the family. I have seven sons and the eight of us could enjoy a relaxing trip to Carl’s Junior for food and friendship maybe once a week. A male bonding experience! The only hitches to that plan could be that one of the boys runs his own pharmacy and has a hard time leaving the business, and another is a vegan. He tells me Burger King has a veggie burger but I don’t think that Carl’s Junior has that option. Getting eight busy males together may be difficult but I think it would be great to communicate (usually about football, and basketball) and have some fun. That too can contribute to good health; believe me, as there would be plenty of laughing and joking. We all need a break from the stresses and strains of life. So have fun.

Healthy Food Choices

May 5th 11 Posted by Joseph Ratliff in 

I want to mention the “Eat This Not That” phenomena as I am determined to try something that I would not usually endorse. I am planning to visit my local Carl’s Junior fast food dispensary to eat a turkey burger. Claimed to be the first turkey burger to be offered by a hamburger chain Carl’s Junior’s new burgers are recommended by Men’s’ Health Magazine and the Eat This Not That campaign. Besides the original turkey burger, Carl’s Jr. customers can order the Teriyaki Turkey Burger and Guacamole Turkey Burger, while Hardee’s customers can try the Mushroom Swiss Turkey Burger or the BBQ Ranch Turkey Burger. They all weigh in at under 500 calories. Just skip the fries and the Coke. Now a bit more about Eat This Not That.

Eat This, Not That

By Kathleen M. Zelman, MPH, RD, LD. 
WebMD Expert Review

Eat This, Not That: What It Is

Most diet books tout a secret formula, or mystifying scientific-sounding plan to melt away pounds but not Eat This, Not That, the latest diet book from Men’s Health Editor-in-Chief David Zinczenko and Men’s Health food and nutrition editor Matt Goulding. The diet is not a diet in the traditional sense, but a calorie counter’s dream. Many people are clueless when it comes to the calories in the foods they eat and even when they guess, they usually underestimate the numbers.

The authors promise you will lose weight if you make smarter food choices, but don’t be fooled into thinking that ordering a Big Mac instead of a Whopper with cheese will lead to weight loss as depicted on the book’s cover.

Part expose, part nutritional guide, and part picture book of mouth-watering food images, Eat This, Not That comes in a handy size to take along to the grocery store, restaurant, or mall. It is loaded with calorie, fat, sugar, carbohydrate, and sodium counts designed to help you make smarter food choices.

“We chose calories as the most important criteria for the foods we chose because it is the top cause of weight gain and the gauntlet of health problems so when it comes to prudent eating, nothing matters more than calories,” Zinczenko says.

The authors do an excellent job exposing the obscene number of calories in certain foods, such as Outback’s Aussie cheese fries that weigh in at 2,900 calories, Chili’s Awesome Blossom at 2,710 calories, and Lonestar’s 20-ounce T-bone — an astonishing 1,540-calorie steak. And as a result, several restaurants have removed calorie-laded items from their menus.

 

Healthy Food Choices

I want to mention the “Eat This Not That” phenomena as I am determined to try something that I would not usually endorse. I am planning to visit my local Carl’s Junior fast food dispensary to eat a turkey burger. Claimed to be the first turkey burger to be offered by a hamburger chain Carl’s Junior’s new burgers are recommended by Mens’ Health Magazine and the Eat This Not That campaign. Besides the original turkey burger, Carl’s Jr. customers can order the Teriyaki Turkey Burger and Guacamole Turkey Burger, while Hardee’s customers can try the Mushroom Swiss Turkey Burger or the BBQ Ranch Turkey Burger. They all weigh in at under 500 calories. Just skip the fries and the Coke. Now a bit more about Eat This Not That.

Eat This, Not That

By Kathleen M. Zelman, MPH, RD, LD. 
WebMD Expert Review

Eat This, Not That: What It Is

Most diet books tout a secret formula, or mystifying scientific-sounding plan to melt away pounds but not Eat This, Not That, the latest diet book from Mens’ Health Editor-in-Chief David Zinczenko and Mens’ Health food and nutrition editor Matt Goulding. The diet is not a diet in the traditional sense, but a calorie counter’s dream. Many people are clueless when it comes to the calories in the foods they eat and even when they guess, they usually underestimate the numbers.

The authors promise you will lose weight if you make smarter food choices, but don’t be fooled into thinking that ordering a Big Mac instead of a Whopper with cheese will lead to weight loss as depicted on the book’s cover.

Part expose, part nutritional guide, and part picture book of mouth-watering food images, Eat This, Not That comes in a handy size to take along to the grocery store, restaurant, or mall. It is loaded with calorie, fat, sugar, carbohydrate, and sodium counts designed to help you make smarter food choices.

“We chose calories as the most important criteria for the foods we chose because it is the top cause of weight gain and the gauntlet of health problems so when it comes to prudent eating, nothing matters more than calories,” Zinczenko says.

The authors do an excellent job exposing the obscene number of calories in certain foods, such as Outback’s Aussie cheese fries that weigh in at 2,900 calories, Chili’s Awesome Blossom at 2,710 calories, and Lonestar’s 20-ounce T-bone — an astonishing 1,540-calorie steak. And as a result, several restaurants have removed calorie-laded items from their menus.