Thursday, May 5, 2011

No Whole Milk?

The other night, we were at a gathering of several families hosted at a friend's house. The focal point of the evening was food. I managed to avoid the carb-laden choices - breads, pastas, sugars - and found lots of fresh fruits and vegetables, egg, tuna, and smoked salmon to feast on. Then, I decided to have a cup of coffee to distract myself from the many and varied high fructose sweets for dessert.

After pouring the coffee, I noticed that the only creamer was one of those trendy flavored creamers - it smelled like "French Vanilla" or something similar. Not a fan of flavored creamers and definitely hoping to avoid all of those carbs and processed chemicals, I innocently asked the hostess, who was flanked by a couple of her lady friends, if she had any heavy cream or half and half. "No", she informed me and then added with a tinge of pride, "we only have fat-free milk". Unable to resist the opportunity, I asked, "You don't drink whole milk"?

"WHOLE MILK!?", she screeched in horror, her friends looking equally mortified and appalled. "We NEVER drink whole milk in this house!", her friends nodding is reassured approval.

"Well whole milk is better for you than fat-free, it has less sugar. Plus, it tastes a lot better." Well, it was as if a blasphemer had spoken in favor of witchcraft in 17th Century Plymouth, MA. An observer not able to hear what I said would likely assume I had used the F-word or some other inappropriate, politically incorrect form of speech. They were visibly shocked. Horrified. And, speechless. Not knowing how to respond, they simply walked out of the kitchen, leaving me there with my mug full of lonely, black coffee and an ornery grin on my face.

You see? This is what we're up against! Parents won't let their children nourish their bodies with healthy, wholesome, satisfying whole milk, and yet they'll lace their coffee with "French Vanilla" flavored poison! During a meal over-run with complex carbs and refined sugars, you can't even find good old fashioned whole milk because the mantra of the past 20 years has been "fat is bad". And yet as the mantra gets louder and longer, waistlines and body fat percentages get bigger and bulgier.

Consider this - just one tbsp of Coffee Mate's "French Vanilla" flavored creamer contains 5 grams of carbohydrates and ZERO grams of protein. That's 80 GRAMS OF SUGAR IN ONE CUP vs. 12 grams of carbohydrates (1 less than fat free) and 8 grams of protein in one delicious cup of whole milk. If you understand that it is NOT the fat that makes us fat, but the carbs, you understand the comedy, and the tragedy, of this scene.

2 comments:

  1. I find questions usually work better than statements in these situations, like, "Why would you want to process a natural food, especially by removing the healthiest part of it and therefore increasing the proportional amount of sugar per serving?"

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  2. funny, but so true. I cringe everytime I see a product or person offering up a "low fat" alternative. If they only knew the truth...
    Nice blog you have here Robert. My google analytics pointed me to Dorba, which then pointed me here! i've added you to my subscription. Cheers,
    Greg

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