Dear DOCTOR Owen:

The worst thing about eating healthy is not eating the tasty foods I enjoy. I love good food. While I have a hard time staying focused on my diet, I rationalize: “Life is short. Why not enjoy it as much as I can?” I take substitutes such as imitation butter, but they just aren’t the same. Does this make sense? Do other people feel the same way?

Butterball

Dear “Butterball”:

Your dilemma is everyone’s predicament. There isn’t a person on the planet who would rather eat low-fat or diet foods than delicious foods that are full of flavor . Yet, believe it or not, most obesity does not come from eating high-quality, gourmet, prepared foods. It comes mostly from over-eating high-sugar or high-fat foods and consuming beverages that really don’t taste very good (compared to gourmet food).

On a TV cooking show, I heard Julia Childs say that she does not “diet.” But, she eats one portion of gourmet food, prepared with whatever she desires. She also does not snack, eat junk food, or drink high-calorie beverages. If she’s not hungry, she simply doesn’t eat. Therefore, when she does eat, she really enjoys the experience. That’s getting the most out of food!

Patients enrolled for a considerable period of time in the Advanced Curricula course conducted at my clinic have really learned calorie content. On becoming aware of this, they say that they no longer have the same feeling about the very foods they once thought they could never avoid. When the class learned, for instance, that a doughnut contains approximately 600 calories and requires 6 miles of walking to burn off that many calories, their “desire” for that doughnut just never materializes. The same goes for soft drinks and juices. The payback isn’t worth the quality of those food items.

Most fast food fits into the above scenario. When reviewing a local taco restaurant and finding that not one popular food item had fewer than 1000 calories (payback: 10 miles of walking), the same class also was astonished. And—in less than 10 seconds—everyone was able to identify the number of calories in each food item, even before it was unwrapped! They did this by estimating weight by sight and knew what type of product was contained inside the packages—and what was not in the packages. And how tasty were any of these items? Worth 10 miles of walking?

The class was in agreement: No! Not one item was worth 10 miles of walking payback—even if they’d be walking their Chihuahuas.

The problem with preparing high-quality, tasty food is that it takes time, thought, and some skill (or at least being able to follow recipes in good cookbooks). It takes a conscious method of eating. As I’ve said many times before, a “diet” is a conscious method of eating. A “diet” will usually control calories.

French people are much thinner than Americans because they eat very well. On a trip to France last year, I lost a pound—yet I felt like an engorged tick after stuffing myself the entire trip. What did I notice throughout the trip? There were few fast food joints, soft drinks were not prevalent, and I never saw vending machines. For the most part, people ate one good sit-down meal per day. If the food wasn’t good, they just didn’t eat it. They might have only a piece of bread and coffee, but always dined in a nice setting—on the patio, with friends, and so on. They also walked everywhere. In the supermarket, there were few snack stands—unlike in American food stores. There were rows of bottled wines, but not colas. The French “secret” is that they just don’t accept any food that’s not worth it.

I asked the Advanced Curricula class if they ever frequent a local “sub” sandwich shop. It turned out that most of them did. I asked, “Who goes there for the atmosphere?” No show of hands. “Who goes there for tasty food?” Again, no response. “Who goes there for the service?” No one. They went there, they said, to eat lower-fat fast food. I pointed out, however, that the menu has misquoted the true calories by more than 100%—just like every fast food place we had analyzed in class!

I train people not only to analyze calories, but also to make judgments: Worth it or not worth it? This sandwich place, the class agreed, was not worth eating at after they gave it some thought, analysis, and reflection. The financial experts say, “If you choose only to consume and do not save, you will have nothing—that’s what.” You can also choose to “save” for food that is “worth it.”