You may be surprised I am going into food issues on a health blog, however so much of our health depends on the way we fuel our bodies. It is no secret that we are eating worse than ever, and more of it than any other generation has in the past. Home cooked meals are becoming more rare, but when they do occur even the home cook can make crucial mistakes when trying to prepare a healthy meal. Cooking shows can inspire these mistakes by labeling something “healthy”, when indeed it is not!
Cooking shows have been out there for ages now, and although I personally cannot sit down with a note pad and write down each recipe, I have caught myself being at least “inspired” before when flipping past a tasty treat on the screen. Many people must follow them though, otherwise they would not be so popular.
When it comes to making healthy choices, the problem is not a lack of information, the problem is rather “too much” information being readily available, good and bad mixed in so well you may not distinguish them. The other day I watched part of a cooking show while being slightly bored, and the lady preparing the meal may be a fantastic cook, but she certainly does not know much about nutrition. The meal consisted of two parts: a bean and vegetable soup, and sandwiches.
In many cultures bean soup is a staple of the local kitchen and considered ‘healthy’. Indeed it is, but it is also a very ‘heavy’ food and relatively high in calories. While a simple bean soup is good on its own, combining it with the sandwiches (carbs) and all the toppings on them was not a great idea. The sandwiches were topped with not one but several slices of ham, several slices of cheese, ketchup, mayo and eggs. The eggs were made into omelets with milk: people do not realize that beating eggs with milk is really mixing fat with fat, unnecessarily inflating the grease-effect of your omelet. I am not even going to get started on the ketchup and mayo combo, or rant about the outrageous portion sizes of the meat and cheese.
The bottom line of this article is that not everything on TV is true, and not every cook can cook up a healthy meal. Just because it looks good and tastes good, does not mean it is the healthiest way of eating that particular type of food. In other words: the sandwiches would have been great on their own, with a bit less meat and cheese. Sure, they would look “smaller”, but your heart would thank you in the long run. Last but not least: bean soup, or any heavy soup, is a meal on its own. It does not need complementing, and if you must have a side dish, venture into another food group by having a bowl of salad with it.
Eat well and be healthy!
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