Fad of the Land
In China, many of the delicious dishes you could order in restaurants were fat-based. And I’m talking just fat … not pork or beef or anything like that, but straight up cooked fat and veggies. It was actually pretty delicious, but it took a little while to get used to.
One time when I went to the doctor for some skin problems (mostly from the polluted and damp air), he actually prescribed it … I had to eat about a fist-worth of lard every day for two weeks. Mmm … scrumptious!
Funny, sure. But it does raise some big questions, I think. We’re told, over and over, that eating fat is bad for you … but almost every dish in Hunan (where I lived) was soaked in oil and fat, and the people were, by and large (pun intended), incredibly skinny!
So where do we get our strong ideas about diet and nutrition, and how accurate are they? Are we just taking the word of the food industry, which some say is the second-largest industry in America (behind pharmaceuticals)? It has thousands of lobbyists and unbelievable marketing budgets … should we be connecting those dots a little more?
July 16th, 2008 at 10:40 am EST
Somebody once told me that Wendy’s frosties are made out of mostly lard. I have no idea if thats true or not, but it would def explain why they taste so good…
July 16th, 2008 at 10:45 am EST
Aww Lance! You should have told us, we could have given you some skin creme or something… that way you wouldn’t have had to shove down ‘fist fulls’ of pig fat!
I think with the oil drenching ALL the food here, it makes you feel “full” quicker and with less food. That could be one reason for the skinny-ness of the people.
It might also have something to do with it being about 400 degrees F from the end of April through the end of October, with no air conditioning anywhere (except in taxis which are kept around 35 degrees F!)
July 16th, 2008 at 10:18 pm EST
Yup. I worked at Wendy’s for 2 yrs in high school. You only have to clean the frosty machine one time to be turned off of them for a while. (notice I didn’t say forever…) Once you flush out the chocolately goodness, there is a lovely layer of lard coating the entire works.
In my high school innocence, I asked a co-worker if the “white goop” was machine grease - like to lube the moving parts - he thought that was pretty funny.
July 17th, 2008 at 11:11 am EST
“Mmmmm Lard” -Homer Simpson 1996
July 17th, 2008 at 5:19 pm EST
Some of the issues with fat is not the outward appearance but the inward…the clogging of the arteries. If it’s true that one feels full more quickly and then eats less, then people would stay thinner because of fewer calories. So think about clogged arteries rather than big guts!
July 20th, 2008 at 5:59 am EST
I love how ludicrously direct ads used to be. Today they can only imply that so-and-so is happy b/c they use such-and-such a product.
Beautiful stuff…