The cashier at the grocery store rings up my donut peaches. You can see them in the photo. They are only called donut for their shape, as you can imagine.
So the cashier, a middle-aged woman of about size 8-10, looks at the peaches and sighs, “Oh, I’d love to buy some. They are incredibly delicious but I can’t let myself have even one.”
“Yes, I know, they are a little pricey,” I complain.
“Oh no, that’s not what I mean,” the woman responds. “I just don’t want to gain weight!”
I had a colleague (yes, an actual academic) who quit eating fruit to lose weight. Then he went on a “McDonald’s Diet.” This means that you eat at McDonald’s 3 times a day and will supposedly end up losing weight because you don’t mix that food with any fresh produce. This is a variation on the Atkins diet.
My colleague ended up at a hospital with a perforated ulcer, by the way.
Seriously, folks, when you hear that giving up on fresh produce will be good for you, does that not make you suspect you are being duped? Why is it so easy to get people to believe stupid things?
Clarissa's Blog 
What. What. What.
Fruit does not make you fat. Processed sugars and carbs make you fat. Stupid, stupid, stupid people.
LikeLike
I think they’re trying to avoid the carbs in fruits. It may help you lose weight initially… but it certainly isn’t a healthy way to do it.
LikeLike
Unbelievable!!
Here, check this, this is a documentary about a guy who ate only at McD for one month as an experiment and seriosuly damaged his health:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Size_Me
LikeLike
I’ve seen the documentary. God, I was so sorry for the poor guy during the experiment.
LikeLike
That documentary was 100% garbage …
The man gave up his ridgid excercise plan, abandoned a strict vegan diet, ate at McDonalds and abandoned any form of portion control by getting the super sized meal whenever asked. His approach is no better than the thousands of people who decide to become a vegan every year without doing any research, and end up in the hospital because of malnutrition. Ignorance made him unhealthy not McDonalds.
There have been several people who have taken a similar challenge of eating all their meals at McDonalds and using the published nutritional information to make informed choices and lost weight:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1172338/Pictured-The-fast-food-junkie-ate-McDonalds-lost-weight-did-pick-healthy-meal-options.html
LikeLike
He wasn’t a vegan before the documentary. His girlfriend made him become one after.
“There have been several people who have taken a similar challenge of eating all their meals at McDonalds and using the published nutritional information to make informed choices and lost weight:”
– This isn’t about weight. This garbage is extremely unhealthy. Have you eaten at McDonald’s at least once? Don’t tell me you haven’t felt immediate effects of it.
“Ignorance made him unhealthy not McDonalds.”
– So you think the results would have been the same if instead of McDonald’s food he started guzzling huge portions of fresh fruit? Seriously?
LikeLike
This post made me want a donut peach.
I was forced onto a low carb/Atkins diet from age 11 to 13. I remember peeing onto a little stick that changed colour if I was “in ketosis”, having nothing to eat in the fridge except for cubes of meat, having difficulty in the bathroom because of a lack of fibre in my diet, and missing out on my school’s charity pie-eating contest. I can’t imagine someone voluntarily going on such an awful diet, since I was forced into it. I’d sooner become a vegan again, because at least then, I could poop. 😛
LikeLike
Oh my God. This sounds horrible. It is especially horrible when inflicted on somebody going through puberty. Was the goal of this weight loss or something else?
LikeLike
Weight loss. My mom seemed to fail to understand that when one enters puberty, you gain weight, especially around your bum, thighs, and hips.
Low Carb diets are very destructive to anybody’s body, young or not. They’re not sustainable in the long-term (no diet is, really) so when you need to eat carbohydrates, you put all of the weight you lost back on.
The funny thing is, getting away from my mother and living with someone who adores my body and doesn’t shame me has been the greatest weight loss aid of all. 🙂 I’ve lost about 40 pounds since moving to Victoria. Part of that is access to better food in Canada, part if it is being in a much more walk-able city, but psychologically speaking, having a healthy self-image and not being tortured by my mother’s judgement was the biggest help of all.
LikeLike
“I’ve lost about 40 pounds since moving to Victoria. Part of that is access to better food in Canada, part if it is being in a much more walk-able city, but psychologically speaking, having a healthy self-image and not being tortured by my mother’s judgement was the biggest help of all.”
– Golden words. I so agree!!!!!
LikeLike
The only thing that makes one fat is taking in excess calories. Of course, a poor diet has other bad consequences, such as diabetes and high cholesterol. But if one wants to reduce weight just reduce calories by diet and/or exercise. Many Americans refuse to exercise and to reduce food and drink intakes. They are entirely responsible for their own fat.
LikeLike
With your last post that was against stay at home moms, why don’t you comment on this study?
“For each additional five-month period his or her mother is employed, a child of average height can be expected to gain one extra pound over and above normal growth, the study estimates. In addition, sixth graders with working mothers were found to be six times more likely than those with stay-at-home moms to be overweight”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/04/childhood-obesity-_n_818385.html
LikeLike
Which post? I just quoted a study.
From your link: “Mothers who have jobs don’t directly cause weight problems in their children, but busy families may accelerate weight gain by relying too much on fast food and frozen dinners rather than preparing fresh, healthy meals, the researchers say.
“It is not the mother’s employment, but the environment,” says the lead author of the study, Taryn Morrissey, Ph.D., an assistant professor of public administration and policy at American University in Washington, D.C.”
The study proves that junk food makes people fat. What a huge discovery.
By the way, the greatest consumers of TV dinners and junk food are housewives. American housewives do not cook fresh foods, didn’t you know? 🙂 They are busy feeling underappreciated and overworked.
LikeLike
I know very few American housewives, but the ones I know cook, at least.
LikeLike
I can’t be surprised by any of the absurd things people latch onto as a way to lose weight. Cutting out fresh fruit and veggies might be one of the least healthy ones I’ve heard of, though, barring those really extreme “cleanse” diets where a person goes for, like, a month or something where the only thing they allow to pass their lips is some revolting concoction of lemon juice, maple syrup and cayenne pepper. I am honestly surprised no one has died on that one …
LikeLike
Also, those peaches look delicious.
LikeLike
They are the best. Very sweet, yet firm.
LikeLike
Ah. I have always wondered about those peaches. Their shape makes them look like they’d be easier for me to eat than would normal peaches. Or, at least, be easier for me to eat without dribbling peach juice all down my chin.
LikeLike
yes, you are absolutely right! They never drip and even I can’t make a mess with them.
LikeLike