Eat This, Not That!

Image Source: http://www.amazon.com/This-Thousands-Simple-Swaps-Pounds/dp/1594868549

Eat This, Not That! is a diet book of what the healthier option is between two similar products. For instance, as the image above portrays, a Big Mac is supposedly a better choice than a Whopper. Author David Zinczenko who is the Editor-in-Chief of Men's Health magazine, characterizes unhealthy foods by the amount of calories, fat, saturated fat, trans fat, sodium and sugar content and healthy foods as having higher fiber and protein content. Multiple books have been published to target certain audiences or restaurants. Some include Eat This, Not That! For Kids, Eat This, Not That! Supermarket Survival Guide, Eat This, Not That! The Best (And Worst) Foods In America, and so on. The "non-diet" book urges its readers to count their caloric intake, while also identifying the amount of fat, sodium, and sugar is entering their body when they eat certain foods. Kathleen Zelman of WebMD came out with an article on the website pertaining to the "Eat This, Not That!" books, stating, "it is loaded with calorie, fat, sugar, carbohydrate, and sodium counts designed to help you make smarter food choices." (Zelman, 2009) What is interesting is that this book promotes the idea that making these smarter food choices can aid in weight loss, but judging from the picture above, it is impossible to say that eating a Big Mac over a Whopper will induce weight loss. "Eat This, Not That does make some unscientific and misleading claims -- saying the plan specifically targets belly fat, reshapes your body, and builds firm, lean muscle while shedding useless flabby pounds. Experts agree that building muscle requires no strength training, and no diet plan is capable of targeting specific body parts." (Zelman, 2009)

Eat This, Not That! books tie into the nutritional reductionism that Gyrogy Scrinis discusses in his, "On the Ideology of Nutritionism" article, where "... this focus on nutrients has come to dominate, to undermine, and to replace other ways of engaging with food and of contextualizing the relationship between food and the body." (Scrinis, pg. 39) Zinczenko's books target calories, fats, and sugars as bad for the body and that reducing these in what we eat will lead us to a healthier body. Granted, Zinczenko fails to mention that even though there is a healthier option with less calories, fats, and sugars, eating these types of foods on a daily basis can still be detrimental to the body. Scrinis also approaches this idea in the comparison between butter and margarine where, "The promotion of margarine over the better tasting but supposedly less-healthy butter is an example of the primacy of this healthism and the power it has to shape dietary behavior." (Scrinis, pg. 40) But alongside, he mentions that, "Nutritionism promotes the idea that the perceived problems with contemporary diets can be tackled by... nutritional tinkering, rather than by means of more far-reaching qualitative changes in diets and the types of foods eaten." (Scrinis, pg. 43) Essentially, Eat This, Not That! books are based on nutritionism where eating the "healthier" of two not-so-healthy options is better. This is opposed to the idea that incorporating a healthy diet and exercise regime can promote weight-loss.

Eat This, Not That! books also fail to mention the importance of self-control. We all have that weak spot to indulge and sometimes even over-indulge. The fact of the matter is that with control over the amount we eat, we can change our eating lifestyles and live a healthier life. Granted, it should be obvious that eating a meal with 2000+ calories in it shouldn't be consumed every day, some think it's okay to indulge in it once a week or so. Marie Griffith's article, "Don't Eat That: The Erotics of Abstinence in American Christianity" showcases self-control in a religious aspect. One man recalls how divide intervention prevented him from eating in a "sinful" food: "... I wanted to eat a fattening dish -- it was spareribs soaked in greasy tomato sauce. Ugh! Anyhow, just as I was about to order it, the Lord spoke to me and said, 'Don't eat that." (Griffith, pg. 42) Although many of us are not contacted through a higher spiritual being to direct us in what we eat, we all experience that little voice in the back of our heads that asks, "do we REALLY need to eat this?" Perhaps it is God really telling people to watch what they eat or it could just be their subconscious; regardless, that self-control is impertinent to a successful and healthy body.

"Gender on a Plate: The Calibration of Identity in American Macrobiotics" by Karlyn Crowley also addresses spirituality and self-control in terms of food. The yin and yang model presents opposites of each other and when together, the body is in harmony. Certain foods represent the yin and other foods represent the yang. Excess of one or the other makes an individual predominately yin or yang. Crowley discusses this idea with Michio Kushi and which also ties in with the Eat This, Not That! books. "... men can achieve a superior spiritual sensibility and avoid... 'strong cow-like bodies, big in structure, but low in intelligence'. The spiritual foal for all, and for men especially, should be to reclaim the 'passivity' that comes from a 'vegetable' way of living." (Crowley, pg. 41) Essentially, opting for a vegetable lifestyle can eliminate the aggressivity in men. Crowley also mentions that extreme "yin-ness" is associated with women and sugar. Yin diseases associated with sugar can lead to "... chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, and breast cancer." (Crowley, pg. 42) Thus, the solution to prevent these yin diseases is to balance the gender harmony by incorporating yang foods into a woman's diet.

Back to Zelman's article, Elisa Zeid mentions the book's misleading information, specifically addressing the self-control issue. She says, "Lots of nutritious and healthy foods, like Stonybrook Farms smoothie, the Odwalla blackberry fruit shake, on the 'not that' side that are perfectly healthy, and some choices on the 'eat this' side, like berry punch, which are not necessarily healthful choices. Jimmy Dean sausage is OK, but buttermilk waffles are not? You could add fruit to the waffles to make it a better choice, but sausage should be a food you eat only occasionally." (Zelman, 2009) Even though Eat This, Not That! books have good intentions on publicizing the high-caloric, high-fat, high-sugar of certain foods and restaurant, it is important to also note that there are many factors that contribute to weight-loss and healthy lifestyles and it is not solely dependent on eating the lesser of two evils.

Sources:
"Eat This, Not That: What it is" Kathleen M. Zelman, October 2009.
http://www.webmd.com/diet/features/eat-this-not-that?page=3

"On The Ideology of Nutritionism" Gyorgy Scrinis, Winter 2006.

"Don't Eat That: The Erotics of Abstinence in American Christianity" R. Marie Griffith, Fall 2001.

"Gender on a Plate: The Calibration of Identity in American Macrobiotics" Karlyn Crowley, Summer 2002.