KIND OF A HEALTH TIP

Sometimes a little change can make a BIG DIFFERENCE.

I’m not a health guru by any means. My usual motto concerning nutrition is: "Why am I not eating right now?" I love meat and potatoes. I love chocolate cake. The mere thought of Italian food makes me salivate. So, I'm no expert in healthy eating, but I am an observer of people, the human type, and I can’t help but make comments about us every now and then. I mean well, most of the time. So here's an editorial observation about humanity, exemplified by my good friend, Will.

I watched Will order a salad, because he’s been feeling like getting healthy lately. His intentions were good. And he was momentarily zealous about it. But maybe just a little naïve.

He proudly opened his fast-food restaurant salad that came in a black plastic bowl with a clear lid. He made a quick comment about needing to eat healthy. In the bowl was a colorful arrangement of healthy field greens, lettuce, tomatoes, shredded carrots, a couple of radish slices, and a packet of sunflower seeds to sprinkle on top for good measure. It was a pretty good mix of half-a-dozen or so unique flavors ready to be enjoyed.

Will smiled, and carefully opened the salad dressing packet and artfully drizzled it all over the top of the salad. Stirred it all up. Nodded. Then dove in.

“MMMMMmmmmmm! This is good. I need to eat this way more often! Eating healthy doesn’t really have to be so bad after all!”

When Will wasn’t looking, I picked up the extremely flat and empty carcass-like packet of dressing and quickly glanced at the nutritional information. Just as I had thought: 29 grams of fat. Will had just taken a healthy, natural, tasty combination of fresh vegetables, and made them all taste the same by bathing them in 29 grams of fat. The whole time he was congratulating himself, and thinking, “Now this is healthly!”

I couldn’t bring myself to say anything. He was enjoying himself too much, and feeling confident in his choice of salad over a burger. I didn’t want to pop his bubble, or be the party-pooper.

Then I noticed that they (the fast-food preparers) had put two packets of dressing in the bag because it was a large salad. Fortunately, Will didn’t see the second packet! That would have been 58 grams of fat in one “healthy” meal! Can’t count how many times I’ve watched many people rip them both open, pour them on, and stir up their lettuce soup!

OK people, I’m not a health freak, or a nutrition expert. I don’t typically go around condemning people’s food choices. So, this is not condemnation. But I do have a simple health tip in just this one little area:

Skip the dressing. (Or use just a few drops, if any.)

You’ll be surprised how easily you will discover and ENJOY the variety of flavors you never knew were there! You’ve got to give them a chance though! Even the tiny bit of dressing becomes a tasteful surprise to your taste buds when you find a little bit on the corner of a forkful of lettuce!

Remember, just a few drops. If you eat two salads a week, and skip the dressing, you will have avoided some 3,000 grams of fat in a year. That’s almost 7 pounds of pure fat you have eliminated from your diet. Not to mention how that glob of fat you’re swallowing a little at a time increases if you use both packets, or eat 4 or 5 salads per week.

Wow, let’s calculate that one: 5 salads per week with two packets of dressing at 29 grams of fat per packet times 52 weeks equals 15,080 grams of fat per year, or the equivalent of almost 34 pounds of fat consumed in one year. So in three or four short years, you have consumed your own body weight in pure fat just on your “healthy” salads. That’s not including all the other food you ate.

Get the picture. That’s gross. But maybe it gets the point across: Skip the dressing. Your arteries will thank you, even though you probably won’t hear them say it. Your heart will thump a great big “thank you!” too.

Simple tip. Simple change. BIG DIFFERENCE.