Media and the Food Industry

I was running in the gym today and watching the Food Network Channel.  I treasure these times in my day, because we cancelled our cable to save money and gym time is the only time I get to see Giada de Laurentiis, one of my favorite chefs to watch.  However, today Cooking For Real was on and she decided to stay in the healthy realm of cooking.  I got excited because I could always use more ideas, but I quickly became rather offended that she would make such a claim on health with what she was cooking.  Didn't she know that she was on national television reaching thousands of people and claiming that this food was healthy?  Essentially she was attempting to teach the public to make healthy choices.  Instead, this woman misguided the public into making some decent swaps in the general direction of healthy, but I wouldn't call what she cooked particularly healthy.  This was the menu:

Kale Pesto covering whole wheat linguini with some chicken meatballs.
She supplemented with a drink called blackberry fizz or something along those lines.

Now to most people, this would sound relatively healthy.  However, this proves my point that society has taught us that making simple swaps like whole wheat pasta instead of white pasta will solve our obesity problem in America.  To be blunt-It will take a bigger change than that, folks.  She also subtly stated that chicken is healthier than beef, which is highly debatable and that fat consumption is the problem in America, rather than dealing with sugar intake.  She ended the show with sorbet instead of ice cream in her soda, liquor, and blackberry sugary syrup filled drink.  Come again?  Healthy?

Anyhow, while I love promoting health, I have no problems with pasta and blackberry fizz drinks.  It is just when you call it healthy when it really isn't-that I have a problem.  Lets not blame it all on this woman, though.  We, in America, do this all the time.  The Food Network Channel in general, the USDA, "health" magazines-we do things like grouping fruits and vegetables together, even though fruit is the source of a much greater amount of sugar than veggies.  Natural, yes, but sugar is sugar.  While whole wheat pasta has more nutritional value than white pasta, it is still flour and should be treated as that-a treat.  Sorbet is still sugary, and so is soda so why ruin a sort of, maybe healthy meal with a sugary drink?  While I sometimes swap chicken for beef, why not promote grass fed beef instead?  Why do people always equate beef as something unhealthy that makes you fat?  In excess, yes-but there is a place for a small amount of grass fed beef in a healthy diet.  And why are we blaming fat so much?  If you read nutritional studies, you will find that most authentic sources will put more emphasis on the bad effects of sugar in our diets and confirm that fat isn't as bad as we thought it was in the 90's. 

The bottom line:  Don't believe everything you see on TV, in magazines, or in media in general. If you are at all invested in your health, doing a small amount of research in nutrition journals (much more reliable source) will give you straight facts on how to maintain health.