Faux food

Already I like this book: The French Don’t Diet Plan. Dr. Clower, the author, is a neurophysiologist who studied in France. Two of my favorite things, neuro-science and France, are brought together.   Dr. Clower’s whole family also delighted in French cuisine and became healthier. I have stumbled upon the perfect guidebook to begin my journey.

So we’re starting off this adventure by following Dr. Clower’s lead.
His book is divided into three steps:

1.       What we eat

2.       How we eat

3.       Changing what we eat and how we eat for our entire life.

1.       What we eat

Habit : Eat real food
Idea: Some foods are natural; some are inventions.

Mireille, my daughter and climbing partner, is in her Junior year at K college majoring in biology. I teach high school chemistry. When we looked at foods in our cupboard they fit more into my classes than hers. As I read aloud the ingredients in a loaf of whole wheat bread, I felt like I was preparing for a class lab. Mirielle and I decided to make a game of it and take sides, biology verses chemistry, and see who would have the most ingredients in the foods we could have for breakfast and lunch. Here’s how it played out:

Food                                                              Biology                 Chemistry

Quaker Oatmeal w/apple                                   3                               0
        brown sugar

Apple Cinnamon instant oatmeal                        5                              11          

Crunchy nut cereal                                             9                              15

Vanilla Greek Yogurht                                       5                                2

Whole wheat bread                                           9                               10          

Jennie-o smoked turkey                                     4                               10          

Lettuce                                                             1                                 0

Meijer Mustard                                                 6                                 0

Real Mayonnaise                                               7                                 1                             

Progresso chkn noodle soup                            17                                11

Trader Joe’s swt potato soup                            9                                 0

                                                                           

I learned that sometimes we eat real food and other times we eat food products. Looking over the values for bread and Progresso soup, Mireille and I decided that it wasn’t just enough that biology would win the match; the goal is for Chemistry to be at zero. Early on in my children’s lives I told them to eat foods that were “grown in the sun”, funny how what goes around comes around.