By Paul Goldfinger, MD, FACC. Editor @Blogfinger
I was leaving BJ’s with a four month supply of batteries, paper towels and water. I almost made it out the door when I spotted the hot dogs. They looked tempting, so I had one with mustard and sour kraut. It was excellent, and it went down fast. I forgot that it was 4 pm and dinner was just around the corner. When I got to my car, I came to my senses and realized that I should not have eaten that hot dog.
I began to wonder about unnecessary eating in our society. As a cardiologist, I am very aware of the fact that overweight is a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease and that obesity and overweight are getting worse in the US. I recalled a line from the new HBO show “Hung” (a story about a paper hanger). The hero of the show is eating breakfast in a diner with a friend. He is biting into a sausage when he says that he can get wonderful sausages in Home Depot.
Of course you cannot get sausages in Home Depot (at least not yet), but it is a funny line; a commentary on how retail establishments which are not known for selling ready-to-eat food, actually do so, like in book stores. Some Wal-Marts have Subway outlets in the store. You might have gone there for underwear, but now you could be tempted to have a roast beef sandwich, even though you had no plans to eat when you entered the store.
In BJ’s they not only have hot dogs, but you can get a slice of pizza and numerous prepared food samples around the store containing unknown quantities of unknown ingredients. Suppose you stood there and ate five tiny samples. That could be 100 extra calories, which you may not recall having eaten 10 minutes later.
Then how about when you get gas? You run into the mini-mart and buy a coffee and a Danish or chips. No one used to eat in gas stations years ago.
Then there are the convenience stores like 7-11’s where you used to get lottery tickets, newspapers, canned goods, milk and coffee that was seven hours old. Now you can grab a ready made tuna sandwich with mayo and cheese (would you believe 500 calories?), and you can swallow that in 2 minutes in your car while you make a call on your cell. This is truly fast food.
There is a new breed of convenience stores like Quick Check or Wawa where you can go to a deli counter and use a computer to order a custom sandwich. It is irresistible not to hit the buttons that say “extra meat, extra mayo and extra cheese.” Then you toss in a bag of chips and a coffee (with half and half, the most popular additive). At the checkout counter, you can grab an irresistible bag of three chocolate chip cookies for dessert. You can easily go into one of those stores for a coffee and wind up with an extra 1,000 calories.
Then there is Barnes and Noble, where you might go to get a book on losing weight. In the middle of the store is a Starbucks where they sell coffee drinks and now you can get food there, like brownies and pound cake. You order a large caramel macchiato, which is often made with half and half and topped with whipped cream. You spend $5.00 for a drink loaded with sugar, calories, fat and caffeine. What a deal! You can sip it all the way home and convince yourself that you‘re just drinking coffee.
Another problem is at the movies where you are encouraged to buy huge cups of soda containing massive amounts of high-fructose corn syrup and enough calories to meet your daily requirement. If you go to the mall, you can’t miss those dens of iniquity: the food courts where, like the hookers in Amsterdam, the fried foods call to you as you walk by one after the other.
On the local scene, we have the hot dogs at the Great Auditorium, with the warm sour kraut and mustard . The dogs come from a special butcher in Pennsylvania. They are superb and they are just sitting there on the grill, waiting for you when you step outside for intermission at the ABBA show. You didn’t plan to eat there. You just wanted to see ABBA. But how can you resist? You sneak away from the wife, who is sipping a cold bottle of water, and you eat one in 30 seconds flat!
At Wegman’s I was offered samples of hot chicken pot-stickers. They tasted great, but examination of the label revealed about 15 ingredients, many of which were unrecognizable, and none of the ingredients listed was chicken. So beware if someone hands you something to eat if it is not something that your grandmother would recognize as food. (Thank you for that last sentence, Michael Pollan, the food writer)
So we have a deluge of “loose food” around us. These temptations largely didn’t exist 30 years ago. We eat more than ever because we lack will power and we are constantly ambushed by businesses that tempt us with fattening food that you can stuff in your mouth before you even realize what you have done.
Under Obamacare, we are told that prevention will save lives and save the system money, but prevention won’t work unless we break our bad habits. No healthcare system can accomplish prevention goals without better efforts by people who must change their lifestyles, by doctors who need to believe in prevention, and by insurance companies who need to pay for prevention. The problem is pervasive, is getting worse, and begins in childhood.
So guys, if you are tempted to have a Costco dog (or two), and if your wife smells the garlic, mustard, and sauerkraut on your breath, just tell her, “It was just one of those things.”
MAX RAABE AND THE DAS PALAST ORCHESTER IN CARNEGIE HALL:
Great Essay! Humorous and revealing!
Reblogged this on Blogfinger and commented:
Some things never change, and this is still a useful article. Recently the NY Times wrote about the seductive $1.50 hot dogs at Costco (with a soda included.) They are the best, and the company purposefully keeps the price low. It helps them retain customers, and some go there just for the hot dogs. But those hot dogs cannot be ignored.