#1 Book in America?

Today Snack Girl provided a review of 'The Dukan Diet'. It's the #1 book in America. With the Royal Wedding a few days away, this diet has been in the news a lot in recent weeks. When I first heard about this diet I had flashbacks to the 1990s where co-workers would cook raw chicken in the microwave and just eat meat all day long.

Here's part of the review on Snack Girl:


"So, the Dukan Diet is "Atkins without the fat", and I am sure you will lose weight on it. You will also be constipated, feel lethargic, and have bad breath. You could potentially harm your kidneys with all that protein in your diet.

Look, I know we are all desperate to lose weight, but this is not the way to go about it. Not only do you want to shed pounds, but you should want to get HEALTHIER not UNHEALTHIER.

The Dukan Diet relies on you eating a lot of protein and very little of anything else. It is inflexible, unrealistic, and drastic."

I also just watched the 2nd episode in 'Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution' last night (the LA season). Those burger specials for under $5 (with healthy veggies and humanely raised local meat) looked fantastic. I did not think that anything would be more shocking than the Huntington WV season.

Do you know anyone on the Dukan Diet right now? If so, are they doing it because they heard about it in the news? Have you been watching 'Food Revolution' this season? The behind the scenes red tape in that district (that all of the viewers now know about) is pretty upsetting.

Jamie Oliver, veggies, nuggets, and LA

I watched Jamie Oliver's show last year (that took place in the fattest city in America: Huntington, WV). Much of it was shocking (the scene where the children did not know what various veggies were). A lot of it was very touching and there was various 'breakthrough' moments as Jamie worked with the lunch ladies.

As it turns out, Los Angeles does not like Jamie. This was surprising to me considering how much Huntington resisted him (for those of you that remember the scenes with the radio DJ). Lately there has been a lot of press how kids that eat school lunch instead of home lunch are consistently fatter. I think back to the rare occasions where I would not take my own lunch to school. I would go to the line that was not hot lunch. Often I would eat a brownie and yogurt and call that lunch (sorry, Mom). More times than not I would bring a bagel with cream cheese or something like that.

I often dream about the tater tots and 'sticks of death' (those of you that lived in BU's West Campus in the 90s--pre student village--know what I'm talking about) from college. The funny thing is during my brownie and yogurt days and later mounds of tater tot days I was underweight. I did not go to the gym. These days I grow my own veggies, go to farmer's markets, and spend way too much at Whole Foods. Maybe the tater tots (in moderation) are not actually a bad thing if they are organic and made with olive oil? ;)