the two resturants were best described by my dh, a mcdonalds with real
plates, Lee
"Julie Bove" > wrote in message
...
>I am reading a book about why Americans are overweight. I don't have the
>book with me so don't remember the name or the author. But the book claims
>that this trend of more and more Americans becoming overweight started in
>the 1980's.
>
> It also states the reason. It is the food we are now eating. That food
> is laden with salt, fat and sugar. A sure combination for appeal. At
> least to Americans. The book claims that foreigners who eat American food
> often do not like it.
>
> The book talks about popular restaurant chains like Applebee's and
> Chili's. It tells what they do to their food before it arrives at the
> restaurant. Often it is highly processed to make it easy to eat.
> Apparently we like a texture that basically just slides down our throat
> with little chewing involved. It is often fried before arriving at the
> restaurant and then fried again before serving. It might be soaked in a
> salty brine or in the case of some sort of chicken it is put in a marinade
> and then put in a machine that spins it rapidly and forces more of the
> marinade deep inside the meat. These foods are laden with sauces
> containing fat, sugar and salt. And really these days it is mostly high
> fructose corn syrup and not sugar!
>
> The book also talks about salads and how Ranch Dressing is so popular.
> Apparently people really like it. Now I can honestly say I have never
> eaten Ranch dressing. It does not look appealing to me. And I can not
> stand the smell of it. I do not personally think that most dressings are
> healthy or necessary so I had hoped Angela would not want to eat this
> stuff. But she loves it as does my husband. She does not get it often
> though.
>
> I love salad and have never liked any sort of dressing on it. I do like
> lemon juice. I taught Angela to eat her salad this way. But sadly she
> does prefer the dressing. Due to her food allergies, most restaurant
> dressing is out of the question. But she can eat some Italian dressing.
> That is the one dressing I will eat in a pasta salad. But it has to have
> good, quality ingredients. I will not buy stuff with high fructose corn
> syrup or soybean oil.
>
> I must say I have eaten at Chili's only once in my lifetime. Or I should
> say I have been to one. I found I could not bring myself to eat more than
> a bite of the food. I had a boss who used to rave about how good their
> food was. This baffled me. I also talk to someone online who lives in TX
> and eats their food all the time. Just his description of the food puts
> me off. I have only been to Applebees twice. I wasn't able to eat much of
> their food either. That sort of food is just not appealing to me.
>
> Now maybe I am the odd one out. I think I can usually tell when a food
> comes premade and frozen. And I usually do not like such foods. Maybe I
> don't like a lot of sauces because I didn't grow up eating food with sauce
> on it. I did eat a lot of fried food when I was young. At least my
> mother said I did. She used to make me fried chicken hearts and fried
> okra all the time. We move to WA when I was 7 and she quit deep frying
> when we moved here. She did make pan fried potatoes once in a while but
> that was it for the fried foods.
>
> I do like some French fries. But I do not like them with cheese. I did
> try these once. I can't imagine them with cheese and bacon. Or with
> chili. I have had potato skins. I liked to eat one or two provided they
> didn't have any sour cream on them and not too much cheese or bacon. I
> just to not like overly oily foods.
>
> If it were not for my bad stomach, I would probably eat mainly raw
> vegetables as the bulk of my diet. That is really what appeals to me. I
> would not (as most of the volunteers did) be drawn to a Snickers bar
> placed in front of them. I never was super keen on candy bars but there
> was something about a Snickers that did not appeal. I also do not like
> Cinnabon (giant cinnamon roll covered in cream cheese icing). This was
> another thing that apparently most of us like.
>
> I know I am not alone because I was talking to a woman the other day who
> said she loved the Japanese food such as is served at Benihana's because
> it is light and doesn't fill you up. There is meat, vegetables and plain
> rice. Now I do love plain rice (not that I eat a lot of it) but I do not
> care for vegetables prepared like that and I'm not a big meat lover. I
> have only tried Japanese food twice but I didn't care for the seasonings.
>
> So I guess while I know that the general population prefers food that is
> easy to slide down the throat and is loaded with fat, sugar and salt, is
> the kind of fare that we as diabetics prefer? I'm not talking about what
> we eat because we have to. Is it what we prefer? I was looking at
> recipes for porcupine meatballs for Angela after seeing Paula Deen make
> them with no eggs. I couldn't use her recipe. Can't remember why now but
> there was some allergen in it. I did find some suitable recipes. But I
> also found some that called for brown sugar to be put in the tomato sauce.
> I was thinking... Why? What's wrong with good, real, whole food?
>
> I still don't know why I am overweight. The book didn't get to that part
> yet. If it even will. But for the most part I do not eat apparently the
> way most Americans do.
>