GMA and Oprah’s Magical New Diet

Ah, yet again we find the magic of diet marketing. Today on GMA, they had Oprah’s new diet guru, Bob Greene on to talk about the Six Foods you Should Banish from your Kitchen. He even brought a healthy eating contract for everyone to sign. Oh boy!

I found the whole concept hilarious since most of these horrible foods have never been a part of my diet and yet, here I am fat as can be! So let’s examine…

Greene’s six foods to avoid:

Soda is empty calories and sugar, so you have to cut it out. Instead, drink water, low-fat or fat-free milk, or tea. Fruit juices are good too, but remember, fruit juice, not fruit drink.

Transfats. They clog your arteries, they’re high in calories, and they may even make your body store fat in the abdominal area. Aside from being unsightly, it’s also bad for your health. You’ll find these in cookies and baked goods which might be made with margarine.

Fried foods. I mean, even if you use a good fat oil like olive oil to fry foods, anything fried has a lot of calories. Try things that are oven baked instead of fries. There are calories either way, but oven baked has fewer.

White bread. You don’t have to get rid of carbs entirely, but white bread is made from refined grains, which are stripped of their most nutritional parts, so you’re eating empty calories. Instead, we want you eating bread made form 100 percent whole wheat or whole grains.

High-fat milk and yogurt. Use 1 percent or non-fat dairy in their place, which are often just as good, only with lower cholesterol, fat, and calories.

Okay, so let’s see, I’ve never drank much soda, I don’t use margarine in any cooking, I do eat fried foods sometimes when I eat out. I eat out a lot but I don’t get something fried every time, so lets say I eat something fried once or twice a week. Don’t eat white breads or pastas at all and I particularly do not eat any bread with high fructose corn syrup in it. And I either drink skim, reduced fat or soy milk.

So, adding to all that, I eat lots of veggies, drink plenty of water and rarely snack in between meals. By Greene’s and the rest of these deluded diet mongers’ assessment, I should be SHEDDING the pounds, right? Yeah, right.

I’m by no means a paragon of health, but neither do I sit on the couch sucking cheese whiz through a straw. I’m healthy, and I’m fat.

And because I’d much rather have a high eating competence than buy into your concept of health, Mr. Greene (note, not a doctor–or even a fake one), you can take that contract and well…eat it.