Erika’s Note: If you’re a subscriber, you’re going to want to visit the page to check out this video… trust me.

Were you waiting for the third installment? Well, here ya go!

Check out:

• How Junk Food Affects The Body, Part 1
• How Junk Food Affects The Body, Part 2
• How Junk Food Affects The Body, Part 3
• How Junk Food Affects The Body, Part 4
  

How Junk Food Affects The Body, Part 3 is a post from: A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss. Thanks for reading!

Related posts:

1. How Junk Food Affects The Body, Part 1
2. How Junk Food Affects The Body, Part 4
3. How Junk Food Affects The Body, Part 2

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Post tags: bad eating habits, documentary, Fast Food, how fast food affects the body, how junk food affects the body, junk food, unhealthy food

Some quotes to keep your ears peeled for:

“Don’t think there aren’t flavor scientists sitting in a lab trying to figure out how to make this burger addictive..”

“I don’t know if ‘satisfied’ is the word as much as ‘stuffed’…”

“I’ll eat something that tastes really, really good, and then fifteen minutes later I’ll feel sluggish…”

Definitely food for thought, no pun intended.

Thoughts thus far?

Need to get caught up? Check out:

• How Junk Food Affects The Body, Part 1
• How Junk Food Affects The Body, Part 2
• How Junk Food Affects The Body, Part 3
• How Junk Food Affects The Body, Part 4
  

How Junk Food Affects The Body, Part 2 is a post from: A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss. Thanks for reading!

Related posts:

1. How Junk Food Affects The Body, Part 1
2. How Junk Food Affects The Body, Part 4
3. How Junk Food Affects The Body, Part 3

The FULL list of meal plans is currently available. Check it out and get your copy today!

Get BGG2WL delivered wirelessly to your Kindle! Click here for more info!

© Erika for A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss, 2012. | Permalink | 5 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: bad eating habits, documentary, Fast Food, how fast food affects the body, how junk food affects the body, junk food, unhealthy food

Behold, a visualization of the contiguous United States, colored by distance to the nearest domestic McDonald’s!

As expected, McDonald’s cluster at the population centers and hug the highway grid. East of the Mississippi, there’s wall-to-wall coverage, except for a handful of meager gaps centered on the Adirondacks, inland Maine, the Everglades, and outlying West Virginia.

Grist sums this part up pretty nicely:

To get genuinely out of McRange, you need to travel to the desert near the Nevada-Oregon border, where it is possible to be 110 miles from a McDonald’s. Von Worley traveled out there to show the world the vast loneliness of being two hours from a Big Mac. Kinda makes you want to schedule a pilgrimage, doesn’t it?

So…. who wants to road trip?

Kidding!

(Sorta.)

Thoughts?

Photo: If You Wanted To Escape McDonalds, Where Would You Have To Hide? is a post from: A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss. Thanks for reading!

Related posts:

1. Brazil: Man Sues McDonalds For Making Him Fat… And WINS!
2. Weekend WTF: Weight Watchers Gives McDonalds Its “Seal of Approval”
3. Weekend WTF: What Is It With McDonalds And Prostitutes?

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Post tags:

A big part of this is… you guessed it – fast food. I have a gripe with eating places where I can’t entirely confirm everything in my dish. I have a gripe with eating places where most of what they serve on the menu is shipped there pre-made, only ready to be dropped in a deep fryer or tossed in an oven somewhere (and that’s fast food or regular restaurant.) I’m sure there are some much healthier fast food joints out there, but that’s neither here nor there. I’ll get on my soapbox about fast food another day, but I did want to share this video that was the start of my research into what the hell we’re eating at fast food joints. I really dig this guy and the info he has to share, so I hope you like it too. : )

Re-Thinking Fast Food: Reading What You’re Eating is a post from: A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss. Thanks for reading!

Related posts:

1. Can Fast Food Ever Be A Part Of Clean Eating?
2. Does Your State Allow Fast Food Purchases On Food Stamps?
3. Q&A Wednesday: I Work In Fast Food And Want To Lose Weight! Help!

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Post tags: Fast Food, kfc

Erika’s Note: If you’re a subscriber, you’re going to want to visit the page to check out this video… trust me.

This is the final clip in the “How Junk Food Affects The Body” series. After seeing it all… what are your thoughts? Any epiphanies out there?

Need to get caught up? Check out:

• How Junk Food Affects The Body, Part 1
  
• How Junk Food Affects The Body, Part 2
• How Junk Food Affects The Body, Part 3
• How Junk Food Affects The Body, Part 4
  

How Junk Food Affects The Body, Part 4 is a post from: A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss. Thanks for reading!

Related posts:

1. How Junk Food Affects The Body, Part 1
2. How Junk Food Affects The Body, Part 2
3. How Junk Food Affects The Body, Part 3

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© Erika for A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss, 2012. | Permalink | 6 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: bad eating habits, documentary, Fast Food, fast food swindle, fast foods, how fast food affects the body, how junk food affects the body, junk food, unhealthy food

Erika’s Note: If you’re a subscriber, you’re going to want to visit the page to check out this video… trust me.

I’m not a junk foodie anymore. I mean, mind you – I have my fair share of cookies and cupcakes… but I don’t find value in junk food anymore. I don’t judge those who do.. it just doesn’t have the same hold on me that it used to, and because of that.. I have very little desire to “test it.”

I’ll be following this up all day with the rest of the videos from the series, so be sure to keep checking back.

Can I relate to the experiences in the series? Absolutely. Check it out and let me know if you can relate, as well!

Check out:

• How Junk Food Affects The Body, Part 1
• How Junk Food Affects The Body, Part 2
• How Junk Food Affects The Body, Part 3
• How Junk Food Affects The Body, Part 4
  

How Junk Food Affects The Body, Part 1 is a post from: A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss. Thanks for reading!

Related posts:

1. How Junk Food Affects The Body, Part 4
2. How Junk Food Affects The Body, Part 2
3. How Junk Food Affects The Body, Part 3

The FULL list of meal plans is currently available. Check it out and get your copy today!

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Post tags: bad eating habits, documentary, Fast Food, how fast food affects the body, how junk food affects the body, junk food, unhealthy food

Take my favorite example – at Friday’s, you’ve got the “Three-For-All.” For Applebee’s, it’s the “Sampler.” Olive Garden offers the “Tour of Italy.” All for the eater who “can’t choose what they want, so let ‘em eat ‘em all!”

CSPI also talks about the ridiculous appetizers and add-ons offered at most restaurants that are little more than slightly smaller versions of full-course entrees. Adding half a rack of ribs to your dish for $6.99,

Taken from the press release:

Keep in mind that most people should limit themselves to about 2,000 calories, 20 grams of saturated fat, and 1,500 mg of sodium per day. And the envelopes please…

• Red Lobster Ultimate Fondue: This retro item is also making comebacks at Olive Garden, Uno Chicago Grill, and at a chain that sells nothing but fondues, The Melting Pot. Red Lobster’s Ultimate version, “shrimp and crabmeat in a creamy lobster cheese sauce served in a warm crispy sourdough bowl,” is crammed with 1,490 calories, 40 grams of saturated fat, and 3,580 mg of sodium. That’s two days’ worth of both artery-clogging fat and blood-pressure-spiking sodium.
• Applebee’s Quesadilla Burger: Here Applebee’s inserts a bacon cheeseburger into a quesadilla. Two flour tortillas, two kinds of meat, two kinds of cheese, pico de gallo, lettuce, and a previously unknown condiment called Mexi-ranch sauce, plus fries, gives this monstrous marriage 1,820 calories, 46 grams of saturated fat, and 4,410 mg of sodium. Bonus heart-stopper: Applebee’s actually invites customers to top the fries with chili and still more cheese.
• Chili’s Big Mouth Bites: This is four mini-bacon-cheeseburgers served on a plate with fries, onion strings, and jalapeno ranch dipping sauce. (“Mini” is relative: each one is like a Quarter Pounder.) Like the “sliders” available at other chains, Chili’s Big Mouth Bites can be an appetizer or an entrée (these numbers are for the latter). 2,350 calories, 38 grams of saturated fat, and 3,940 milligrams of sodium.
• The Cheesecake Factory Chicken and Biscuits: Nutrition Action calls it “discomfort food.” If you wouldn’t eat an entire 8-piece bucket of KFC Original Recipe plus 5 biscuits, you shouldn’t order this. But unless you live in a city with menu labeling, you wouldn’t know that this dish has 2,500 calories. The rest of the winning—or rather, losing—appetizers, entrées, and desserts are in the June issue of Nutrition Action.

Because of all this, I was asked if I thought these kinds of offerings should be deemed illegal. And I’ve got to admit, I’m kinda torn about this.

No… actually, I’m not.

There’s no denying the fact that these numbers are bananas, and these dishes are disgusting looking. Having said that, the only question I have left to ask is…

…so what?

I mean, let’s look at CSPI’s findings for what they are. I’m a firm believer in the idea that if these restaurants are going to serve these gut-busting atrocities and pass them off as meals, then they should also be forced to make the nutritional information for those dishes available to the public… just like the processed food manufacturers. Not as an obscure link on a website. As a part of their menu. To me, it just makes sense – if the FDA says that food manufacturers have to put the nutritional info on the side of the box, then restaurants should be forced to have the information equally readily available. Kudos to CSPI for helping bring to the forefront the issue of hidden calorie counts.

However, to say that because CSPI uncovered these heart-stopping (literally) findings means that we should all campaign to have the dishes banned by law? I think that’s quite a reach. I mean, complaining about high-calorie appetizers that are supposed to, by definition, whet the appetite… you’d probably do better to talk to the person who orders the appetizer as their meal and remind them that “this dish is intended to serve 4… not one.”

I look at it like this – the reality of it all is that for the past 50 or so years, we’ve had someone assume the “responsibility” of leading the American diet. Not the various cultures from which we came (regardless of how connected some of us were allowed to be to our cultures), not the traditions of our respective nations… but… the government. The charge has always been led by someone who could develop/has developed ulterior motives or a fundamental incapability to properly rule on these most serious of matters. (Would you trust the entity responsible for protecting the longevity of an industry to tell the public how to safely enjoy said industry? Have you met the USDA?)

Do I have a problem with the dishes? You know I do. I find them disgusting, especially since I could probably duplicate that 2,500 calorie pasta dish in my own kitchen for mayyyybe 600 calories. But to tell people that they shouldn’t be allowed to order them is excessive. I’ve simply had enough of people trying to assume the responsibility of telling us what to eat. They either get it wrong – repeatedly – or they start getting drunk on their own power and abuse their privilege… trading in our health for their own personal favors. Unacceptable.

In reality, I’m a much larger proponent of forcing restaurants to post calorie counts of their food items than I am anything else. That would compel those who care to make better, more knowledgeable choices and force franchises who want that money to create healthier dishes and compete for those dollars fairly. The hypothetical question of banning certain foods is just excessive, I think.

The point of all this, really, is to underscore the fact that the responsibility for my eating habits should solely rely upon me. No one is going to look out for me and my health the way I can… especially when there is money to be made off of me. Don’t rely on others to make these kinds of decisions for you, leaving yourself open to poor health. Take charge! Some things, we can’t rely on a magic button, pill, garment, organization or law to do for us. Some things are important enough for us to take charge of ourselves, and that includes our health.

Your thoughts? Let’s hear ‘em!

Should A 2,500 Calorie Plate of Pasta Be Illegal? is a post from: A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss. Thanks for reading!

Related posts:

1. Understanding Calorie Counting: Creating Your Calorie Goal and Being Honest About It
2. Science Catches Up: A Calorie Is Not A Calorie
3. Weekend WTF: The 98,824 Calorie Taco Night & The 71,000 Calorie Lasagna

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© Erika for A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss, 2011. | Permalink | 17 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: center for science in the public interest, cspi, government, Healthy Eating, restaurants

I don’t feel so bad now, especially since it’s – apparently – raw burger and built with toothpicks and sad pickles.

I mean, of course we’ve all wondered why the crap we get in the drive-thru never looks as appetizing as it did in the commercial that compelled us to make the purchase… but really – did we ever think it was this orchestrated?

And as for a “favorite quote” from this clip?

“We don’t want the bun to get soggy, so we take a piece of cardboard and put it between the bun and the burger to soak up all the grease.”

Not good enough for the bun it sits on, but it’s ok for your insides? Err…. thanks, but no thanks. I almost feel like the cardboard, toothpicks and ketchup might be the better bet.

Why Your Burger Never Looks Like The One On TV is a post from: A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss. Thanks for reading!

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3. Weekend WTF: Man Arrested For Cooking His Own Burger & Fries At Denny’s

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© Erika for A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss, 2011. | Permalink | 18 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: advertising, Fast Food, fast food swindle, marketing

Taken from Women’s Health magazine:

Here’s how this deviousness works: Human beings have what food-industry insiders call a “bliss point,” a nirvana of the taste buds triggered by particular amounts of salt, sugar, and fat. Menu scientists (yes, that’s a job!) at popular restaurant chains and packaged-food corporations use their knowledge of the bliss point to manipulate your appetite, adding salt, sugar, and fat to their products in combinations that are designed to create hedonism on a plate—a taste experience so intense that it kicks the brain’s pleasure system into overdrive. It’s like a drug. And like any drug, it leads you to obsess about that moment of pleasure so much that you’ll do almost anything to prolong or relive it. The result: a bigger bottom line for them—and a bigger waistline for you.

It’s just the way it is.

So, now you have one more piece of information telling you the chips – literally – are stacked against you. What do you do? Do you give in knowing that it will result in a bigger booty (and no, not in a good way) or do you start limiting and minimizing your fast food/restaurant food intake? These are things to think about!

Overeating: Why You Can’t Stop At One Nacho is a post from: A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss. Thanks for reading!

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1. Overeating: Comparable To Drug Use, Cause of Mental Illness?
2. The Three Stages Of “Full”ness: How To Stop Stuffing Yourself
3. Portion Distortion: Stop Eating Out Of The Bag

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Post tags: bliss point, Fast Food, overeating, restaurants

Let’s use that to discuss Taco Bell’s latest swindle, the “Drive Thru Diet.”

Now, after you’ve watched that, before I can even break this down to you, Taco Bell already gets it poppin’ in the fine print:

Drive-Thru-Diet® is not a weight-loss program. For a healthier lifestyle, pay attention to total calorie and fat intake and regular exercise. Taco Bell’s Fresco Menu can help with calorie reductions of 20 to 100 per item compared to corresponding products on our regular menu. Not a low calorie food. For complete nutritional information please visit TacoBell.com

Oh, my heart.

See, to explain this briefly, the Drive-Thru Diet isn’t quite a diet in the same sense that Americans understand the term “diet.” To many of us, diet implies words like “temporary, quick, short-lived.” It leans more toward the understanding of “The Cabbage diet.” “The Lemonade Diet.” “The Cookie Diet.” Not as in “My regular daily diet consists of..” because that’s not what we’re all used to hearing. So when we hear “The Drive-Thru Diet,” it sounds more like “Oh, you mean I can eat cookies for breakfast and lunch and a regular dinner and still lose weight?” except replacing “cookies” with “Taco Bell.”

If you notice, the commercial says “Her experience is based on a 1,250 calorie per day diet.” Let me tell you – you can do a 1,250 calorie diet without Taco Bell. Actually, you can do it without ANY fast food. Is anyone going to tell you that, though? Of course not. Jenny Craig, Weight Watchers, Slim Fast, Nutrisystem, Subway, and now Taco Bell… they’re all going to tell you, “Use this system, but I’m not going to tell you how to make this system work on your own without me.. because that would be money I couldn’t make off of you.” (Those of you who stick fast to those systems, this isn’t a knock at you. No need to defend them in the comments.)

So let’s look closer at the questions I asked in the beginning. Right now, we’re all making New Year’s Resolutions to be healthier. To eat better. To cut out the junk food. To spend less money at fast food restaurants. Wait — spend less money at fast food joints?! This will not do!

Enter Taco Bell’s marketing team… searhing for a way to improve upon Subway’s “Jared” phenom. You know, the fella that lost a ton of weight eating Subway sandwiches instead of actual home-cooked meals… only to gain it back in late ’09? Yeah, that one. They come up with Christine. Actually, Christine in a bikini with a gut, then Christine in a bikini hiding in some grass, then Christine in a slinky dress, and NOW we get Christine in the pants. Why is Taco Bell paying to put this particular image in my face?

Are they trying to calm my fears about Taco Bell getting in the way of me achieving my weight loss goals for my resolution? (Especially since the site asks me to “Make a Frescolution” and all.) Are they trying to convince me that I can still eat healthily even though I’m getting fast food?

What are they trying to get me to do? I’m a person who would love to eat better in the new year and cut out junk/fast food, but am not sure of how to go about it. Would this commercial convince me to stick with what I’ve been doing, so long as I order “something else?”

Why does my reaction benefit them? Here’s why: Studies show that if I can get you at least in the drive thru lane, I’ve already got your money. Guess what else – I can also convince you to ignore the “healthy menu” and get what you’ve always gotten. Why? Because of habit! If you’ve always crept in that drive-thru lane and bought the same big giant nacho order, how easy do you think it’s going to be to get you in the lane, anyway? That “healthy menu” isn’t what’s on your mind when you pull in, anyway. If I can give you a reason to come back? I can keep you from resolving to stay away entirely, and then I can eventually convince you to stick around. Take a look at that menu – the “healthy” options aren’t the largest photos on the drive-thru menu. That’s for a reason.

Is it truly in my best interests to react to this in this particular fashion? Let me rephrase that for you – is it in your best interest to believe that a healthy diet (as in, the foods you eat regularly) consists of regular ingestion of Taco Bell? Especially when it says on the page, “For a healthier lifestyle, pay attention to total calorie and fat intake and regular exercise. Fresco can help with calorie reductions of 20 to 100 per item compared to corresponding products on our regular menu. Not a low calorie food?” They tell you basically everything you need to know to lose the weight without them, but they tack information onto it about how you can execute this with Taco Bell!

To put it mildly, the message that the viewer receives is “I can lose weight with this ‘Drive-Thru’ Diet.” Never mind the fact that she, apparently, lost the 54lbs over 2yrs – approx 27lbs per year – since she “…didn’t want to give up her fast food.” Is that kind of mentality one worth maintaining? I don’t think so. Personally, I believe it’s in one’s best interests to eat as far away from franchises as possible, but that’s me.

In closing (since I can’t say “In short,” ’cause this is anything BUT short), this is beyond stupid. It plays upon the insecurities of the consumer and treats them like marks, ready for the swindle – “You want to lose weight and not give up your fast food? We still gotcha back! Check out these tacos with no cheese or sauce!” – all while avoiding any claims of misrepresentation… because they told you to calorie count. They also told you these are not low-calorie foods, so take them at their word. Do your best to avoid it, and your body will thank you with more than 54lbs lost… and you’ll lose it in less than two years.

What are your thoughts about this? Have you seen the commercials? What did you think?

Taco Bell Thinks You’re Stupid: Try The Drive-Thru Diet! is a post from: A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss. Thanks for reading!

Related posts:

1. Weekend WTF: No Meat In Your Taco Bell Taco
2. Weekend WTF: Taco Bell + Doritos = Doritos-Flavored Tacos?
3. Photo Proof: The Stupid Scale Doesn’t Matter

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© Erika for A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss, 2011. | Permalink | 7 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Fad Diets, Fast Food, mentality

Without going into my full on rant about these companies, I’ll put it like this: Their job is to sell you what they think will help them fatten their wallets. It doesn’t matter whether it fattens your tushy. No one is looking out for your health and well-being because that is our responsibility as the individual and owner of our bodies. As long as you continue to purchase what they put out there, they’re going to keep pumping it out for you to buy.

Having said that, allow me to introduce… the Double Down. Yes. This sandwich, as the newscaster says, includes two fried chicken fillets, bacon, cheese, and Colonel’s Secret Sauce. Those two fried chicken fillets? Serve as the bun. Yes. You won’t find bread on this sandwich. That’s what the chicken is for… duh.

KFC Tests Sandwich That Uses… Chicken.. In Place Of Bread is a post from: A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss. Thanks for reading!

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1. Q&A Wednesday: Is There A Place For Alcohol In Clean Eating?
2. Weekend WTF: He EATS The Chicken In A Can!
3. Weekend WTF: Chicken In A Can?

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© Erika for A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss, 2011. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Fast Food, kfc, restaurants