Dear DOCTOR Owen:

I am able to control my diet most of the time. Celebration events, however, are my downfall. It seems that we have an event every weekend. I tell myself that I’ll going to control myself, but after one drink and with everyone else having fun, I can’t just sit there like a log and not participate. I do not want to give up my social engagements. My business engagements also prevent me from avoiding food. Any suggestions?

Weekend Warrior

Dear “Warrior”:

If you think you’ve got it bad, try living in New Orleans! Here, the entire social and cultural fabric is built around food, and we have the best cuisine in the world. The opportunities for good food are widespread, and the social meal is now considered “standard.” Portion sizes are twice as large as they were two decades ago, while restaurant plates are a third larger. Add to that the great chefs like Paul Prudhomme, Emeril Lagasse, and John Folse (all from Louisiana), who spread their pleasure across the planet on TV.

Serious dilemmas for the parents of today’s brides are caterer and menu. Even the grief at the death of a loved one gets drowned in food.

Most of these rituals started long ago. In the “good ole’ days,” before refrigeration and rapid transportation, social eating was rare. Can you imagine saying, “Let’s do lunch” in 1900? At that time, most people lived on farms; someone would have to skin, gut, and quarter a chicken; and it was a few miles via buggy to the next house. The same with weddings. Big events were rare. And funeral gifts of food were a necessity for the loved ones, who were taking care of burial arrangements and too busy to eat. With no refrigeration, family and friends would bring comfort and companionship with food.

Now, food is cheaper than ever. One-fourth of the average budget in 1900, food is less than 8% of the typical family’s budgets. Fifty percent of all meals are eaten out; older people may dine out even more than that. Commercial establishments literally give away food to create a waiting time (allowing customers to buy liquor, which carries a 200% profit compared to 10% profit for food).

So much for history. Your letter brings out diet counselors’ greatest challenge: What is a person to do in your circumstance? No one, including me, is willing to go back to the “good ole’ days.” I love this region’s cuisine and style. Man, have we got style! This culture is not going to change. If anything, the type of situation you describe, as well as other social events in which all of us participate, will become even more challenging. The advanced Diet Therapy curricula at my clinic now reviews a restaurant menu every week. With the chain restaurant menu list alone, the 35 weeks set aside for Advanced Diet teaching barely scratch the surface.

The most important thing to remember is that a “diet”—to gain or to lose weight—is a conscious method of eating. To remain in control, you must go into situations such as the ones you describe with a plan. As author Stephen Covey says, “Be proactive.” That is, learn, and then put into practice, a few simple mathematical formulas whereby you measure the calories in the food you eat and balance your caloric intake.

Most people grossly underestimate how much they over-eat. Even worse, they underestimate the amount of under-eating that will be necessary to make up for having too many calories and “break even.” Studies show that most people eat a “calorie-neutral” or slightly reduced plan in the days that follow over-eating, but never quite get back to their prior weight. Slowly, the pounds accumulate. For many in our Western culture, very low calorie “payback” may be necessary, as is shown below:

• Consider supplemented dieting—taking fortified food shakes as meal substitutes—as a mandatory tactic for coping with the eating habits in today’s culture. It is very proactive to plan for an upcoming weekend or vacation trips by taking meal replacements a few days in advance. Many people even take these supplements when preparing for a trip to the beach or pool where they’ll be seen in bathing suits!
• Visualize the event, and plan your order prior to arriving. If the meal is more social than art (e.g., with food prepared by the chefs mentioned above), use knowledge gained through education and practice to eat low calorie food at the event. If the meal is art, go for it! Enjoy it! Revel in it! Then plan for the next food event.
• Exercise off the extra calories. Weigh yourself daily and be unforgiving of a scale that spirals upward. Pay those calories back now or pay later! You will pay with a diet or with your health. In addition to dieting, exercise also changes your body chemistry and helps neutralize some of the chemical damage caused by over-eating, such as elevated insulin levels. Once you know how many miles you must walk—or how much exercise time is required—to “pay back” a certain overindulgence, then I am certain your choices will be wiser than if you did not have this awareness. For example, “Is an average 6-ounce muffin, at 600 calories, worth 6 miles of walking it off?” Or: “How about having that quintessential New Orleans dessert—Bananas Foster!” Make a choice! When you know the possible consequences and then choose, you are free—in any endeavor you pursue.