Subway Campaign
Have you seen these ads on the subway? The NY Times published an article about this recent campaign talking about the controversy over them. I’ve recently entered at Fatbet with some co-workers and it has forced me to reconsider the choices that I make in my diet. I’m brought back to my high school days when we had health as a topic for a week for PhysEd class. The teacher tried to explain the concept of empty calories to us. This was during the time when fat free foods made their explosion onto the market. Another voice ringing in my head is that of my mother’s, who was always telling me not to drink soda. All this information clicked with me a few years back when I was living in China, with Coca Cola as one of my few American staples that I could rely on getting abroad cheaply and easily. My friend who worked at Amnesty International challenged me to give up Coke and Nestle products in order to protest the evils of globalization. As reluctantly as I did give up Coke products for 6 months (she couldn’t convince me to give up Nestle products, though, because they were the only ones making American style breakfast cereal at the time), I had an epiphany. My body really didn’t need the rush of 240 calories from pure sugar. The empty calories were equaling fat, exactly the way it is portrayed in the NYC subway campaign. Of course, anything is permissible in moderation. This brings me back to the Fatbet. People inevitably frown at me when they see me eating a cookie or anything slightly unhealthy. And drinking empty calories is not evil, it just needs to be moderated. If you drink a bottle of coke and you’re on a 1700 calorie per day diet, that’s one seventh of your daily allotted calories. And diet drinks aren’t a good alternative. According to my friend’s dietician, your body does actually need and crave sugar. If you use a sugar substitute, your body will still crave actual sugar so it is best to use real sugar, but sparingly and in moderation. What I learned from my previous Fatbet was not to unknowingly drink your calories. Sports drinks, sodas, sugar and cream, “enhanced” waters all add up. And they can add up to fat.
