motd Tuesday August 9, 2011

[Guest guest]

WHERE'S

THE FAT?

Tuesday, 09 August 2011

Several

months ago, the U.S. Department of Agriculture

introduced its new plan for teaching people the right

way to eat. http://www.choosemyplate.gov/ And let me

tell you, I don't know how much money they spent putting

these new guidelines together but...boy, what

a waste of our hard-earned tax money!

When

they introduced the new portions formula for us to

follow, the USDA presented it in the form of a

plate. (Okay, cute.) Several television shows

approached me about coming on to discuss the new food

plate but you know what? I didn't. Why? Well, because

I just wouldn't have had anything nice to say about it,

really. And you remember what our mothers taught us to

do when we had nothing nice to say, right? Say

nothing.

Their new plate chart replaces the trusty USDA Food

Pyramid we've all followed for years. The plate is

divided into four sections, each of them representing

one of the food groups. (Bear with me here.) Those four sections

of the plate represent fruits, vegetables,

starches, and proteins. Now to the right of the plate,

there's a teeny little plate to represent the dairy

group.

The first time I saw the new plate...I got hungry!

LOL. No, seriously, I looked at the plate and one

thought immediately popped into my mind...Where's

the FAT? The Food Pyramid had the amount of fat

we should be eating everyday. But on this new plate,

there we no fats. So, what happened? Did all

the fats in the world suddenly just vanish, or what?

If

you read all of the things they said about the new

plate, you'd notice they said nothing about fats at

all. It didn't take me long to figure out that

something wasn't right. I mean, do I even have to tell

you? We Americans love our fats and eat a lot of them,

in fact, too many of them. And sadly, that's

why so many millions of Americans are overweight or

obese. Yes, we should have a little fat in

our daily food programs. But it's how much fat

we consume that gets us into big trouble.

Let's face it, fat is everywhere!

It especially likes to hang out at fast food and some of

the big-name sit-down chain restaurants that dot our

cities. In fact, there's one big well-known national

chain selling a rib eye steak that contains 160

grams of fat! Did you hear me? 160 grams...WOW!

With that number in mind, let me tell you that I have

only 30 grams of fat...for the

entire day!

Over

30 years ago, I introduced my Deal-A-Meal program.

Many of you remember it, with the wallet and color-coded

cards that represented the six food groups. My FoodMover

is a more organized and easier-to-follow version of Deal-A-Meal.

You close windows that represent the food groups rather

than moving the cards, like you did with Deal-A-Meal.

It's all about controlling the calories, portions and

making the right choices when it comes to the foods you

eat.

You know what? I'd charge the Department of Agriculture

only a hundred bucks to fix the problem with their new

food plate chart. Oh, I could do it for them in a mere

ten minutes. And with the hundred bucks I'd make, let's

see, I could buy myself a nice big-old rib eye steak!

(I know you're laughing!)

Love,