Bad Boys of Food

While it has been some time since I have posted on the Mature Fitness blog I thought it was about time to get something going. It is not like fitness has taken a stand still in my life or in my priorities. I have just been traveling too much and not really having the time to do two blogs and do them right. It has always been my goal to offer some new thoughts and insights to the idea of “mature fitness” but other things have prevented me from doing that. On the other hand during my travels I have become even more aware of the obesity that exists in our country, especially when I see people who cannot sit in one seat on the airplane and the over abundance of food consumed at the numerous all you can eat places that are available. Funny thing is the all you can eat places have some good healthy food but not in the volume they are available in. There simply is no reason for a person to eat the huge amounts of food that are available, so that is the main problem. No discipline in food choices or amount, no exercise, and eating too much of the wrong things will lead to obesity. Simple as that, so the principle of too much fat in and not enough activity to burn it leaves the fat in the body and then it is really hard to burn off and keep off. The smart approach is to watch everything that goes into the body and use some restraint. In the case of the mature food consumer it is even more important to watch volume and type of food eaten since metabolisms do slow down with aging. Choosing the right foods and especially the volume of food is critical to good health and will help prevent obesity. Recently I saw a list of the 6 worst for you fast food items and was amazed at the calories and fat grams that were in the following bad guys of the fat food category, here they are:

1. Arby’s Roast Turkey & Swiss--looks innocent but it has 725 calories, and 8 grams of saturated fat. Not the worst on the menu but did make the list.

2.Subway Foot Long Sweet Onion, Chicken Teriyaki--yea I know, Subway is well known for the huge weight loss of that young man that is used in the commercials. But remember, this is a commercial and he is being paid to eat right and lose weight. So, take all of this with a grain of salt. He did lose all that weight but he was also paid to do this and was furnished with the most weight conscious food. This foot long of food has 800 calories and 9 grams of fat.

3.Cinnabol Caramel Pecan Bon--1100 calories, 56 grams of fat, and is the real bad boy of this list. Even cutting it in half would not be a good thing. I suggest that you get 3 of your friends, order one of these and cut it in 4 slices.

4. McDonald’s Filet O Fish--this dude kind of drags you in with the thought of fish being a good thing; however, it is fried, put on while bread bun, then smeared with tartar sauce for a grand total of 380 calories, and 18 grams of fat. Along with this you are tempted with a bag of french fries and then the calories really begin to climb. If you took this same Filet O Fish without the bun, no tartar sauce, and broiled it you would cut at least 200 calories from it.

5.Burger King Tendercrisp(means fried) Chicken Sandwich--800 calories, 46 grams of fat.

6.Taco Bell Volcano Nachos--the name says it all and it really is a volcano for your stomach and bad to the bone. It has 1,000 calories, 62 grams of fat, but does also offer you 16 grams of fiber which helps you get rid of this mess from your system.

An Honorable Mention to the this All-Star list of bad foods is the Bread Bowl Pasta from Dominos--1460 calories, and 56 grams of fat. Wonder why it didn’t replace the little innocent Filet O Fish with only 380 calories.

Other funny note is that I have noticed that when people who are obese or need to lose weight they always drink diet coke. This is not good for the Coke folks since it would appear that they don’t work, which they don’t. My solution to this obesity problem is very simple, cut back to half of what you are eating, add 20% more exercise and then make it a life style thing.

Happy and healthy eating.

mike greer