My Other Job

When we lived in Chicago, there was an Irish pub across the street from our apartment. They have a burger on the menu called “The Triple By-Pass.” It’s a burger with smoked bacon and melted cheddar, topped with an over easy egg.

The most dangerous thing about the Triple By-Pass burger is the bun. Because the bun contains white flour and high fructose corn syrup. Carbohydrates make us fat. Especially sugar and refined flour.

The American Heart Association and the United States Department of Agriculture have been warning us to cut back on fat for about 40 years.

This advice is based on faulty research paid for by Big Sugar and Big Food. The research (from Harvard, no less) points the finger at fat as the cause of heart disease and obesity.

It’s not.

Following this advice has lead to our nation’s obesity crisis. Two thirds of Americans are overweight or obese. And diabetes costs us $1 billion a day.

Admit it, you’ve heard and read about “artery clogging fat” thousands of times. It’s common knowledge that fat will kill you.

But this common knowledge dead wrong and it’s killing us.

Coca-Cola wants you to think you get fat because you’re not doing a good job of energy balance. “Don’t blame us,” they advertise. They want us to keep drinking Coke and go out and buy a Fitbit so we can see how many calories we’re burning. People who believe that exercise is the key to weight loss have dropped hundreds of millions on these devices. But they haven’t dropped pounds because they invested in another shiny object.

Because losing weight has never been about “calories in, calories out.” Even though you may believe it is.

Please don’t take my word for it. I’m channeling Gary Taubes and his book The Case Against Sugar.

If you’d rather get the shorter version, watch Gary’s talk at Town Hall Seattle.

Do it now. Thank me later.

By the way, I didn’t eat the Triple By-Pass Burger. I opted for the Flank Steak Sandwich – shaved and cooked to perfection, topped with caramelized onions, sautéed green peppers and melted Gouda on pita bread with jalapeno aioli.

I didn’t eat the pita bread. Too dangerous.

(69 years old, 6/3″, 208.0# BP 125/72)