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[personal profile] wildflowersoul
One of my pet peeves is the obsessive focus on "low-carb" products that's the current rage. -I'm not getting all down on Atkins, just the people who are jumping on the bandwagon for all their worth- A particularly egregious example of this is KFC; they had been airing ads that claim that a bucket of fried chicken is good for "low-carb diets," and choosing KFC is choosing "healthy." Heh. I just read that the FTC totally nailed their asses for false advertising. Every once in a while, perusing these legal publications at work yields entertaining results. I will say, however, that their ads featuring "Chicks for Chicken" shirts make me giggle.

Date: 2004-06-17 09:49 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] archer823.livejournal.com
I totally saw that and started laughing my ass off. They got nailed for that one, but a lot of "low carb" products are so not.

Date: 2004-06-17 09:57 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] wildflowersoul.livejournal.com
I believe that. I what really irks me is the idea that people aren't even thinking about what they're eating when they just see "lo-carb" and go for it. Maybe I'm old-fashioned, but I still read food labels to find out what kind of crap I'll be putting into my body, even if the label promises super-nutrition.

Date: 2004-06-17 09:59 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] archer823.livejournal.com
But the same was true with things like "Smartwells" and other low fat products. What good was eating a low fat cookie when you finish the whole box anyway?

Date: 2004-06-17 10:59 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] wildflowersoul.livejournal.com
tee-hee! So true.

Date: 2004-06-17 09:53 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] synaesthesia.livejournal.com
What amuses me is when vendors produce the same product, but stick "no sugar added" on one and "low carb" on another. IT'S THE SAME FREAKING THING! Breyer's and Ben & Jerry's are both doing it with their ice creams.

...Clearly, I have a thing for ice cream. =)


Date: 2004-06-17 09:59 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] wildflowersoul.livejournal.com
I did notice that with B&J, and have also found that it's next to impossible to get my old stand-by of half-baked frozen yougurt. I like all that sugar, it makes it tasty!

Date: 2004-06-17 10:09 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] synaesthesia.livejournal.com
Sugar's great but it gives me headaches and is a sneaky devil, gets into everything. Now that I only ingest a few grams each day I feel much better, get to actually HAVE a "sugar rush" when I do give in (seriously, I can feel the chemical effect coming over me, sort of like when you're having alcohol and start to feel it at the edges of your temples...)... oh, and I've dropped most of the "I quit smoking, and all I got was this lousy flab!" weight. I feel like an ass buying something with "LOW CARB!" plastered across the label, though.

Half-baked carb karma is amazing because the cookie bits crunch when you bite them just as if they had sugar -- but they don't so I don't get headachy! It's funny you should mention it, because it's what I was looking for last night at the market but all they had was the frozen yogurt version. Shaw's on rt 127 in Gloucester, in case you really need some. =)

Date: 2004-06-17 11:02 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] wildflowersoul.livejournal.com
Congrats on losing the ciggarette weight!

Heh. I could be tempted to make a road trip for ice cream, but would feel pretty silly... then again, it is -really- good. =)

Date: 2004-06-17 09:54 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ex-cayetana730.livejournal.com
"I'm being barbequed!"

Date: 2004-06-17 09:59 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] wildflowersoul.livejournal.com
*guffaw* I've been thinking about Chicken Monster way too much this afternoon.

Date: 2004-06-17 10:44 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] agoodshinkickin.livejournal.com
I saw my favorite Low Carb item yesterday:

Low Carb Maple Syrup.

*shakes head*
I can understand limiting one's dietary intake of certain things. That makes sense, but making foods that are purposely missing the things you don't like is kinda dumb.

Like veggie bacon. That makes no sense to me. It'd be like making a meat salad. *laughs* mmmm. meat salad.

Date: 2004-06-17 11:04 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] wildflowersoul.livejournal.com
Ha! My image of a meat salad involves steak tips, hot dogs and chicken wings topped with bacon. *giggle* That's pretty amusing.

Though I would say that I prefer veggie hot dogs to the real deal, an odd holdout from the vegematrian days.

Date: 2004-06-17 11:09 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] agoodshinkickin.livejournal.com
I don't know why, but I'm afraid of faux dogs more than actual hotdogs. Better the devil you know than the devil you don't....

Date: 2004-06-17 11:33 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] http://users.livejournal.com/_meej_/
Regarding Veggie Bacon -

Frighteningly, Bac-O's (or however you spell the crunchy little bits for tossing onto salad, the brand-name ones) are actually vegetarian.

But the point of veggie bacon, more or less, is that it's soy-protein to substitute into a similar spot in either breakfast or a BLT; fills the same nutritional niche, if that can be said of bacon at all, without being a meat, in a familiar form. Which doesn't change the fact that, compared to the real thing, it's crap.

Date: 2004-06-17 11:44 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] agoodshinkickin.livejournal.com
I was always very amused by the faux meat people. They actually try to make the fake meat look like it's dead animal counterparts. Even down to little fake globs of fat in the veggie salami.

That's dedication right there.

Date: 2004-06-17 01:11 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] cosmicserpent.livejournal.com
Veggie bacon is my nemisis.

Date: 2004-06-17 01:19 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] agoodshinkickin.livejournal.com
It wears a goatee.

Gloria Weighs in AGAIN

Date: 2004-06-17 07:42 pm (UTC)
From: (Anonymous)
I loathe the Lo-Carb trend. As a fitness instructor, I need to be aware of these stinkin' fad diets and actual (factual) nutritional information. For the record, it is true that Lo-Carb diets will help you to lose weight, assuming you follow them to the T. Many people, however, fail to follow the diet regulations exactly and become disappointed in the results (leading to the diet, lose, quit, gain, diet cycle). Sadly, most of the people on these diets pursue the new trend because they're lazy and don't want to have to do the actual physical work needed to lose weight through better overall health and fitness. It's a shame, really, that the public doesn't have better fitness and health education available -- or, more to the point, that the general public is uninterested in utilizing the information available because our society has become one insistent upon instant gratification.

The really sad part of the Lo-Carb diet trend is that people don't know how much harm they're really doing to themselves. Carbohydrates are one of the body's most reliable energy sources. What people don't seem to realize is that it isn't the carbs, in general, that are bad. The bad bit has to do with WHICH carbs they're eating and when and how they're eating them. Basically, they don't understand that there are really healthy carbs that they should be consuming (especially if they're active) in a greater proportion to other parts of well-balanced meals (for example, for dinner, a serving of long grain wild rice in greater proportion to a small serving of chicken, tofu or fish and a medium sized portion of a vegetable, a fruit or salad - NOT drowning in dressing). And although I think many people are aware that they should eat more frequently, it's hard for them to find the time to eat small meals throughout the day, limiting their chances of increasing high-fiber mid-grade carbohydrates found in fresh/raw produce.

In regards to Veggie and Vegan foodstuffs: I give it my endorsement. I maintain a primarily vegan diet, which incorporates tofu and soy or grain meat-substitutes (however, I don't do it because I love the animals, so I still eat the occasional big dead cow or little dead chicken or medium sized dead pig, or whatever). I have found that there are (as with any market) good products and products that should never have been made. Nevertheless, they are mostly soy/tofu based products of high quality. For my money, the Bigger Boca Burger is awesome if you can find it (Vegan original!), LightLife products of many varieties (including, I think, imitation luncheon meats, if I recall correctly) are often quite tasty, Boca Dinner Sausages are quite good (REALLY REALLY good, actually + an excellent addition to Beans & Rice), Smart Dogs are a fair treatment of hot dogs (but you should really boil and also pan fry to get a good dog going -- unless you're grilling) ... Whole Soy cultured soy products (yogurt substitute and frozen yogurt substitute) are amazing, Tofutti products are outstanding (eg: Sour Supreme, Tofutti ice cream products of all kinds - especially chocolate cookie crunch, even vegan cheese -- which is only good for grilled cheese sammiches, I've found) and SILK is the best soy milk EVAR (try the chocolate, you'll never drink dairy again). Of course, lack of overall popularity and demand resulting in smaller supply coming from tiny companies = high prices. But you gotta ask yourself, does your body feel lucky, punk? Well, does it?

Re: Gloria Weighs in AGAIN

Date: 2004-06-18 05:47 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] wildflowersoul.livejournal.com
I totally agree. I can't be bothered with "diets" because it's easier to just go to the gym 4-5 days a week and eat sanely but healthy. It hurts my brain to do anything more complicated. =)

Date: 2004-06-19 09:15 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] tdaschel.livejournal.com
you know what 3 of the 7 Herbs and Spices are?

M
S
G
!

Date: 2004-06-21 05:02 am (UTC)

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