This is why (and how) you're fat
photo by Alex Martin
The worst foods to eat, what to do if you eat them, and what to eat instead
THERE’S A GREAT website (and now book) called This Is Why You’re Fat (thisiswhyyourefat.com). It’s a blog of reader-submitted pictures of the most stomach-churning, gut-busting, heart-stopping (literally) foods ever created. While most are homemade, some are actually straight off the menus of real restaurants, which is frightening.
These culinary monstrosities feed Western society’s ever-intensifying obesity epidemic. Take, for example, The Widowmaker. The Widowmaker is a homemade sandwich (if it can be so called) comprised of 1.5 lbs of ground beef, one package of bacon, one package of Italian sausages, one box of Hot Pockets, and half a package of fried onion strips, all mushed together between two Tombstone pepperoni pizzas and topped with Velveeta cheese and marinara sauce.
While it technically sounds like the most delicious thing ever created, there’s enough crap in there to kill a small rhino.
As displaced, stressed, and ambitious university students with too much to do and not enough time to do it all, we tend to let a lot of things slide and seek comfort in all the wrong places—like dirty, tasty, cheap, and ever-present junk food. The freshman 15—the fabled 15 lb students seem to gain during their first year at university—is not a myth. While University of Ottawa Food Services do attempt to offer healthy meal options, the vending machines at every corner, the off-campus pubs and bars, and cheap pizza in the cafeteria are often too tempting to pass up.
But, as with most problems, education is the answer. So sit back and read, for the following lists explain the pain and nutritional destruction of said junk food we students hold near and dear to our hearts (artery plaque, anyone?).
Top eight unhealthiest everyday foods (and why they're so bad for you)
Ever wonder—or try to avoid thinking about—what you’re really eating? Three of the U of O’s nutrition professors reveal what’s really in the worst foods students eat on a regular basis.
Experts: Malek Batal, acting director of the nutrition sciences program at the U of O’s faculty of health sciences; Marie-Josée Cyr, nutrition professor at the U of O’s faculty of health sciences; Tien Nguyen, part-time nutrition professor at U of O’s faculty of health sciences
8. Regular-size hot dog
330 mg of sodium, 25 mg of cholesterol
Batal: Calorie-wise, one hot dog is not bad, but do we ever stop at just one? Also, chronic exposure to high concentrations of nitrates, of which hot dogs have, has been found to be associated with cancer. Therefore, you don’t want to be eating hot dogs a lot, nor any of these processed meats that are pink in colour.
7. Diet coke
125 mg of aspartame per 240 ml serving
Batal: If you were to choose between Diet Coke or regular Coke [which doesn’t contain aspartame], [you should] choose Diet Coke. But if I were to choose between Coke and water, I’d choose water. I personally don’t drink any soft drinks, because soft drinks displace other drinks. For example, dairy products aren’t consumed [enough] by the general population, particularly among women who might suffer from osteoporosis later in life.
6. Red Bull
76 mg of caffeine per can
Batal: They’re new-fangled drinks, with caffeine and amino acids in excess, like taurine for example—but what they do to you, we don’t know yet. Cyr: They’re not regulated; there’s not a lot we know about them … Right now, all there is, is an ingredient list; we don’t know the amount. So, for example, there’s a lot of sugar, but we don’t know the amount. Also, they call them energy drinks, but they’re really not. Caffeine doesn’t give you or provide any energy; it’s a stimulant.
5. Molson Canadian Light Beer
120 calories per can
Batal: Alcohol contributes to your caloric intake, as one gram of alcohol equals seven calories. Alcohol intake can also inhibit certain vitamin absorption, such as the B vitamins.
4. Two slices of cheese pizza (Pizza Pizza)
360 calories, 820 mg of sodium total
Batal: [There is] way too much cheese, which adds a lot in terms of fat. If you’re trying to maintain a low-calorie diet, this won’t help. That, and there are a lot of oils in the dough. Whole grain crust is a more interesting option, as with whole grain, you digest more slowly (because of the high fibre content) so it affects your blood sugar less radically.
3. Venti mint mocha chip Frappuccino blended coffee with chocolate whipped cream (Starbucks)
590 calories, 22 g of fat, 13 g of saturated fats, 350 mg of sodium
Batal and Nguyen: Lots and lots of sugar.
2. Big Mac (McDonald’s)
1070 mg of sodium, 29 grams of fat
Batal: Too much meat for what you need. We don’t need to consume as much meat as we do as a population. A smaller hamburger would get you the benefits of all the minerals found in the meat. You don’t need that “big” quality, which also gives you the fat found in the meat. The hamburger itself isn’t that bad a choice; it’s just the way we make it. [It would be better to use] lean meat, [a] whole wheat bun, and substitute mayo for mustard.
1. Large (285 g) fries (New York Fries)
38 grams of fat, 180 mg of sodium
Batal: [They are] high in calories and oils, which may not be trans-fats (usually reused saturated oils). [But they are] high in fat, low in any other very important nutrients, because of the very high energy density that these foods have. Nguyen summed up the problems with these foods.
“[With] the foods on this list, you’re getting not much value for your calories,” she said. “That’s why these foods are bad for you—that’s from the non-caloric perspective. Getting back to the caloric value of these foods, you’re looking at massive amounts of energy in both saturated fats, processed fats, and a lot of processed sugars. A lot of these foods are empty calories, lots of fats, lots of sugars that aren’t really good for the body.
“All the foods on the list share a lot of similar characteristics: a lot of empty calories; little to no vitamins, minerals, and fibre; [and] with a lot of preservatives, high salt, and high … saturated fats,” she continued.
So, what’s her advice for staying healthy?
“For me, it’s all about moderation. If you’re a physically active person, you’re on the move … then once a week, every once in a while, a slice of pizza won’t do harm to your body.”
So unless you’re a Kenyan marathon runner, don’t gorge on everything on the list. Every once in a while won’t hurt, just make sure to earn it at the gym. Speaking of which…
How to undo the damage
Jason Haug, personal trainer and nutrition wellness specialist from N.E.W. Training in Ottawa, gives us a look at the physical repercussions of enjoying those guilty pleasures.
“Calories are basically a measure of energy,” he explained. “When you read the nutritional label on the packaging of your foods, the calories section tells you how much energy that food is going to provide for your body. When you take in more energy [than] you burn off, your body will store that energy—often in the form of excess body fat.
“Different people need different quantities of calories based on their age, activity level, height, desired weight, as well as gender,” he continued. “Let’s do some calorie math to see how many calories you would need to burn to match the caloric intake of some of these high-calorie ‘delights.’” 4. Plain potato chips
Haug: If you have the munchies, I would not recommend reaching for the greasy, grimy, salted excuse for a potato-based snack. Weighing in at [an average of] 1242 calories for a [full-size bag of plain chips], it would take five hours of raking leaves to burn off all those calories, and I guarantee you that unless you live on a golf course, you are bound to run out of leaves!
The reason I bet you can’t eat just one is because most potato chips are salted with sodium chloride—instead of sea salt—which is an artificial form of salt that is devoid of all the trace minerals that you would naturally receive from sea salt. Your body’s appetite control centre is going to tell you to keep eating until you consume all these trace minerals or until you run out of room in your stomach. It is usually the latter, not the former, that finally turns off the urge to splurge.
3. Large fries
Haug: When you eat a large container of fries, which is the equivalent of 820 calories [at New York Fries], you would need to run at a five-mile-per-hour pace for one hour and 23 minutes, which works out to about 11 kilometres. That’s the same as jogging from the University of Ottawa campus to [a] local McDonald’s—no, not the one on Rideau Street. I am talking about [one of] the McDonald’s on Carling Avenue. After your 11 km jog to McDonald’s, you will have earned your right to chow down on fatty fries.
2. Big Mac
Haug: While you are at McDonald’s, why not pick up a Big Mac with those fries? At 540 calories, it would take you one hour and 12 minutes of stair climbing to leave those burger calories in your dust. It may seem like a novelty doing the whole Rocky Balboa thing for the first four flights of stairs, but at the half-hour mark you might consider ditching those two beef patties, special “Mac sauce,” iceberg lettuce, American cheese, pickles, onions, and the three-part sesame-seed bun for something a bit lighter... Maybe order a smile from the McMenu, I hear they are free.
1. Venti mint mocha chip frappuccino blended coffee with chocolate whipped cream
Haug: I know that the sound of a venti mint mocha chip frappuccino blended coffee with chocolate whipped cream sounds like a little piece of heaven blended into a pretentious-sounding cup ... but considering that it is filled with 590 calories—which would take an hour of snow shovelling to make up for—I’d rather give the $6.27 to the gullible kid next door to do my shovelling for me.
Top five good foods and why you should be eating them
(As recommended by Tien Nguyen)
5. Whole grains: filled with fibre, vitamins, and minerals
4. Almonds: high levels of unsaturated fats, good oils
3. Blueberries: high in anti-oxidants
2. Dark green veggies: tons of phytochemicals (nutritious chemicals, such as beta-carotene, found in fruits and vegetables)
1. Salmon: very potent levels of protein and unsaturated omega fats
