So I'm taking a break from pondering what on earth is going to happen next on the riveting Criminal Justice series currently screening on BBC1 (check here if you haven't seen it - although maybe don't, unless you have 2 hours to sit and be glued to the first 2 episodes as you play catch-up on i-player) to ponder the lies we tell ourselves about food.
For example...
Myth 1: If nobody sees me eat, it doesn't count. For example, a friend of a friend will eat a bar of chocolate at the same time every day. She does this standing up and with her head in the cupboard - even if she's alone in the house.
Myth 2: If it comes off the children's plate, it can't be that bad for me. In fact, if it comes out of the pan that contains the leftover pasta with creme-fraiche, smoked trout and steamed veggies that they didn't eat, it can't be that bad for me. Even if I am going out for dinner later. (Note to self: stop making food for my kids that I like...)
Myth 3: It's better to eat more natural full-fat butter than the chemically messed-about-with alternatives. Well, this one is true actually (or at least it is in my alternative reality) but only if you eat them with caution. As in, not on top of a digestive biscuit, for example. Of course that - putting butter on top of an organic digestive biscuit and then topping it with, say, cheddar cheese - would be madness in itself. Who would do such a thing?
Myth 4: If it's organic, then it can't be bad for you. Possibly true when applied to vegetables. Not true when applied to chocolate. Or digestive biscuits.
Myth 5: Skipping dinner because you had a big lunch is a good idea. True - until you find yourself stuffing down toast (slathered, of course, with the devil of Myth 3 - butter) at 10pm because you are now starving hungry...
Myth 6: There is no sugar in bran flakes. (Apart from the 20% of them that is only sugar, of course).
Do you have any to add?
Eating porridge is good for you, especially if you make it with low fat milk, because it's rich in vitamin B and iron, except when you put sugar on it to make it taste good and you eat a big bowl of it that could feed two people.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteWeight watchers biscuits must contain no calories, therefore you can eat as many as you like.
ReplyDeleteAny to add? Of course!
ReplyDeleteEating broken biscuits is ok because the calories have leaked out.
If you eat a Topic and drink a can of diet Coke the calories cancel each other out.
If I'm miserable and I eat a whole bar of Green & Blacks to myself it doesn't count because the calories are burnt up by being miserable.
Having a glass of wine instead of dinner is better than having wine and dinner.
ReplyDeleteYou get drunk way too fast and end up having three times as much to eat because you just don't care any more.
Sometimes I NEED additional calories if I'm tired/bored/lonely/sad/fed up/frustrated, so then it's ok. In fact it would be wrong not to.
ReplyDeleteIf it's "natural" sugar then it can't possible have any calories or rot your teeth.
ReplyDeleteIrene, I thought it was just me that thought like that!
ReplyDeleteTracey, you're not saying that isn't true?!
Tara, have you got an open line to my subconscious?
Mwa, yes, been there, done that. Last night.
Iota, not just wrong; I think there's a commandment against it, surely?
EPM, which is why drinking neat apple juice is perfectly OK for kids and has nothing to do with the increased amount of tooth decay in pre-schoolers. Absolutely.
Food you eat on holiday has absolutely no calories in it! I don't think food eaten on Christmas Day has any calories in it either. That's not a myth though, that's 100% true.
ReplyDeleteI feel I should be adding that lovely caveat.
ReplyDelete*only when used as part of a calorie controlled diet*
Which surely every diet is, just some not as well as others?
Food taken off someone else's plate has no calories - its their calories not yours ...
ReplyDeletePasta with a ratatouille type sauce and no meat/cheese is soooo lacking in calories that you must have at least two slices of garlic bread to go with it - and yes the buttery version is compulsory, none of that nasty chemical stuff!
ReplyDeleteThe glass of wine drunk whilst cooking doesn't count as standing over a hot stove obviously burns off the calories.
And don't forget that if the biscuits are broken all the calories have fallen out...
ReplyDeleteRS - can we include birthdays (not just our own, obviously) in that one?
ReplyDeleteSPD, how's yours going, by the way? (and lovely photo...)
MaM - I am liking that one VERY much.
Sharon - and the heat from the stove also evaporates the alchohol, so the wine is completely guilt free. More grape juice than anything else, actually.
Thames - that one works with chocolate bars too, didn't you know?