I was talking to a friend of mine, the other day, who told
me a pretty funny story, about two bulging butterballs that
work in his office. He works at a large corporate
headquarters that has a cafeteria that makes quite an array
of food for its 3,500 employees.
After getting his lunch, he spotted the two BB’s that work
near him and sat down. They had brought their own lunch,
which is perfectly acceptable. He noticed that both of them
were eating salad and pretty large salads, at that. The
discussion turned to diets, which both of them were on. He
hesitated to ask either of them if they had lost any
weight, because they looked the same way they always had to
him.
He did, however, ask the first of the two BB’s what was in
his salad and what kind of dressing he was using, since
there was a large container of salad dressing on the table.
The salad had roast beef, eggs, ham, two types of cheese,
lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes and croutons. The dressing was
Catalina, a sort of bastardized French dressing.
So the conversation went this way:
“How much roast beef is in there?”
“Half a pound.”
“How much ham?”
“Quarter pound.”
“How many eggs?”
“Four.”
“How much cheese?”
“Not sure, but at least four ounces.”
“How many croutons?”
“Two cups.”
“How much dressing?”
“I don’t know, how big is that container?” (At least twelve
ounces.)
So the BB then asks, “How many calories do you think are in
the salad?”
My friend had to think about that for a minute and then
said, “I’m thinking maybe three thousand.”
The two BB’s look astounded. “Jack,” they say with some
irritation, “it’s a salad for C… sakes.”
Yes…it’s a salad. But just because you call something a
salad doesn’t mean it’s healthy. I looked up the calories
on Catalina dressing, just for shizz and giggles, and if
the guy used eight ounces, which I’m sure he did, the
dressing alone was damn near 1,000 calories! So my friend
Jack wasn’t far off in his estimate. This means the guy was
taking in 3,000 calories at lunch. And you know he ate
breakfast and probably a snack, and another snack, after
lunch, and then dinner. It isn’t any wonder that he’s a tad
puffy.
Salad dressings are just not healthy…unless you make them
yourself. Almost all of them contain large amounts of high
fructose corn syrup, which you should eliminate from your
diet. Then…many of the oils used have questionable
qualities, foremost of which is that they have a high
volume of omega 6 fatty acids, which throws off the lipid
balance in your body.
That balance should be 2 to 1, omega-6 to omega-3 fatty
acids, and for most people, it’s at least 10 or 12 to 1, or
even higher.
This is one of the top reasons to take fish oil, to push
that ratio back toward 2 to 1, or better yet, 1 to 1.
3,000 calorie salads…you couldn’t lose weight splitting
that into three meals, unless you weighed 500 pounds to
begin with. You may as well have spit roasted a whole hog
and just eaten to your heart’s content. By the time your
stomach was ready to blow, the calories would be about the
same.
Jack is sending the mondo monsters my way, in the hope that
maybe they’ll listen to a doctor who has been fat, lost the
weight and kept it off. You can do that too, by going here:
I’ll be back tomorrow with more.
With my best wishes for your optimum health,
Dr. Bill