Tag: fuel

Be happy none of these dishes show up at Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner anymore. It’s hard to believe, but at a certain points in history, people gleefully ate what we now consider appalling science-lab concoctions.

1. Perfection Salad

Now, you might not consider this meal a “salad” or “perfection,” but at the time of its creation, this molded monstrosity was a hit.
In 1904, Mrs. John E. Cook of New Castle, Pennsylvania, won third place in a recipe contest with her Perfection Salad submission. That recipe got her $100 and a brand new sewing machine. Not part of the prize? Its fate of making later generations queasy.

This salad stuck around for decades, sometimes even finding its way onto the table at holiday dinners. It’s made of unflavored gelatin, lemon juice, vinegar, shredded carrots and cabbage, chopped celery and green pepper, and a little bit of apple juice.
The real trick to blowing people away with this dish is using the most impressive Jell-O mold you can find. Because nothing screams “Happy Holidays” like a jiggling tower of shredded vegetables.

2. Ham and Bananas Hollandaise

This 1940s recipe tries to combine what was once an exotic flavor (bananas) with comfort food (ham and cheese) but fails to really make it work.
Caribbean recipes use ham and bananas together, but that wasn’t even an option for American tables until the fruit made its way to the U.S. in the 1880s.
For this recipe, you need six thin slices of ham, six peeled bananas, mustard, hollandaise mix, and light cream. Spread each slice of ham with mustard, wrap one around each banana, and bake in a casserole dish for 10 minutes.

While the bananas are in the oven, prepare the hollandaise sauce mix with the cream. Once the sauce is finished, pour it over the bananas and bake for just five more minutes.
You’ll know when this meal is ready to eat when it looks like a shiny yellow disaster.

3. Chicken Chaud-Froid Salad

The term chaud-froid (French for hot-cold) perfectly suits this hot (or, in reality, cold) mess of an entree. The chaud-froid has many origin stories, but one of the more popular versions involves the Maréchal de Luxembourg eating his dinner late.
The maréchal invited guests over to his château for a dinner party one evening but then had to leave right before dinner was served. The guests ate without the maréchal, but when he returned, he asked for his meal to be presented.
Every dish was brought out as it had been given to the guests earlier—except for the chicken. That particular dish was finished with egg yolks, which, if reheated, would curdle. The chicken was brought out cold, and the maréchal loved it. It was then he coined the phrase “chaud-froid,” which refers to a dish made hot but served cold.
Chicken chaud-froid salad might not sound too bad, but the recipe basically turns chicken breasts into gelatinous, mayo-laden blobs. We’ll pass on this one.

4. Jellied Tomato Refresher

Here’s the perfect snack, beverage, or light meal to serve to your friends and family if you never want to see any of them again.
The Jellied Tomato Refresher was originally a 1970s Weight Watchers recipe, because apparently if you wanted to lose weight, you could only drink frozen tomato juice at parties.
To make the Refresher, start with unflavored gelatin, water, and tomato juice. Mix them together and add dehydrated green pepper flakes, artificial sweetener, beef broth, Worcestershire sauce, garlic salt, and ground cloves.

Chill in the refrigerator until the gelatin has set. To serve, mix lightly with a fork to add some texture, scoop into a glass, and garnish with a pepper slice.
It’s just like tomato juice, but you have to chew.

5. Liver Sausage Pineapple

Yes, you read that correctly. Who wouldn’t want to show up to a get-together and dig into a well-crafted, terrifying pile of liver sausage made to look like a pineapple?
None of us—meaning this 1950s Better Homes and Gardens recipe doesn’t translate well into the 21st century.
To build your pineapple base, mix one pound of liver sausage with lemon juice, Worcestershire sauce, and mayonnaise. Using a medium sized jar as an internal pillar, form the meat into a pineapple shape. Chill the base in the fridge while you whip up its “frosting.”

The yellow slather is made of unflavored gelatin, water, and mayonnaise. Cover the liver sausage with a thin layer and chill once more to allow the coating to solidify.
Add artistic markings, olives, and even a real pineapple top to complete the piece.

6. Frozen Cheese Salad

Everyone agrees that the best way to eat cheese is frozen, so make sure you include this nonsensical appetizer on the menu of your next dinner party.
This frozen cheese salad is made from cottage cheese, blue cheese, buttermilk, lemon peel, Worcestershire sauce, and barbecue spice. Blend all the dairy products and spices together, mold in a tray, and freeze for at least three hours.

Remove the cheese block from the freezer 15 minutes before serving and line the platter with broccoli florets for show (because obviously you can’t dip the florets into frozen cheese).
Et voilà, you’ve earned yourself a ticket out of making anything for a dinner party ever again.

7. Tuna Cheese Macaroni Loaf

The 1950s American culinary scene was decidedly obsessed with turning things into loaves that had no business being served in any kind of molded form.
This tuna macaroni recipe is no different. Why you would need a tuna macaroni entree is beyond us, but here it is.

To make this loaf, heat evaporated milk with mustard, Worcestershire sauce, and grated American cheese. Once the cheese is melted, add olives, chopped celery, drained tuna, bread crumbs, and cooked macaroni noodles to the sauce. Place in a greased loaf pan and bake for about 30 minutes.
Let the loaf cool for a minute before you remove it from the pan. Serve with additional cheese sauce if desired.

8. Creamy Dried Beef Mold

Here’s another molded meal that is in the running for worst name in the history of cooking. To make this treat you use your favorite ringed Jell-O mold, gelatin, and a whole lot of dried beef.
Combine gelatin with water, milk, mayonnaise, and mustard. Set aside and chill for at least 30 minutes until it has thickened but not fully set.

Then stir in your lima beans, celery, cheese, lemon juice, dried beef, and onion. Pour the mixture into a mold and refrigerate for three hours.
Basically tasteless, boring celery leaves are the official garnish for this thoroughly unappetizing meal. Enjoy.

9. Lobster Relish

Now, this hors d’oeuvre sounds completely normal and even potentially tasty. Just don’t open your eyes when you’re eating it. Lobster relish has never looked more terrifying than it does in this recipe, which recommends a presentation suggestive of the relished lobster’s ability to stand up and crawl off the table back to sea.
This recipe starts off like all the others on this list, with our favorite ingredient: gelatin. However, this snack takes some real finesse to construct.
First step: Heat the unflavored gelatin with vinegar, salt, and pepper to taste. When the mixture has cooled slightly, pour a small amount into a Jell-O mold and turn it to create a thinly layered coating. Repeat this process a few more times until there’s a solid barrier of gelatin on the mold.
Press shrimp into the clear jelly for an avant-garde look.

Next, mix together another batch of gelatin sauce with smashed cucumbers, salt, pepper, and green food coloring. Pour into the bottom of the mold and let it set. Once the green layer is firm, pack in the pieces of lobster.
By the end of this culinary experiment, you should have a multi-colored, multi-layered seafood tower, held together by Grandma and Grandpa’s favorite new-age ingredient.
Don’t forget to garnish with full crab legs—claws on and, table space permitting, hanging off the platter.
And never complain about quinoa or flaxseeds again.

The start of school is here, which means many moms have returned to late nights and early mornings of packing lunches for our kids. Ask any kid or brown-bagging adult, and they’ll tell you just how boring eating sandwiches five days a week can be. No matter how you slice it, you can only eat PB&J and cold cuts for so long before you start craving something a little more exciting.

Of course, when you’re a busy mom trying to get multiple kiddos to the bus, keep up with extracurricular activities, and juggle your own work, finding the time to come up with fresh ideas for a packed lunch may not seem like a priority.

If brainstorming new meals keeps getting pushed to bottom of your ever-expanding to-do list, we’ve got good news for you. We spent some time gathering the best ideas for school lunches that don’t involve sandwiches, and here are the most delicious (and nutritious!) ideas we found.

1. Do you bento?

Technically, any lunch that has been packed in a box is a bento. But there is something uniquely fun about meals inspired by Japanese boxed lunches. They’re also a great way to encourage picky eaters to try new things and to incorporate healthy options into your kid’s school lunch.

The first step to packing a bento lunch is to find a container. You can spend a pretty penny on bento boxes online, like this leak-proof Bentgo box sold for just under $30. There are also some more affordable options, like the Amazon basics bento, which is sold in a set of four for less than $10.

Packing your box is where the fun starts. A lot of parents start with the basic rule of including a protein, a starch, a vegetable, a fruit, and a treat. This easy formula makes packing lunch as simple as checking things off a list. Here are few ideas for bento lunch combinations.

–Cold chicken breast (chopped into bite-sized pieces), steamed rice with a soy sauce packet, sugar snap peas, tangerine, and a fortune cookie

–Tuna salad, whole wheat crackers, sliced carrots, grapes, and a cookie

–Ham and cheese cubes, raisin bread slathered with almond butter, cherry tomatoes, strawberries, and Fig Newtons

We’ve got a feeling that once you start building bento boxes, you’ll realize the sky’s the limit when it comes to selecting unique combinations of healthy lunch foods. You might just have a little fun, too.

2. Give yogurt a chance.

We think that yogurt parfaits should be the next trend to take the school lunchroom by storm. Although yogurt is typically reserved for a quick breakfast or a snack, it really has the makings of a solid foundation for a healthy meal.

Start with a high-protein yogurt without any added flavors. Greek yogurt can have as much as 18 grams of protein in each serving—exactly what a growing body needs to maintain adequate energy throughout the day.

Unless your child has specific directions from the pediatrician, full-fat yogurt is good choice for young kids because it is high in protein, contains the right bacteria to promote a healthy gut, and will keep them full so they can focus on their lessons instead of a rumbling tummy.

Top the yogurt with a heaping serving of fresh fruit. Pineapple, bananas, berries, or kiwifruit all taste wonderful in a parfait. Add toasted nuts (or nut-free granola if you’re working with allergies) and drizzle with a little honey to sweeten the plain yogurt.

Don’t forget to pack a spoon and throw in a baggie of chopped veggies for a well-rounded meal.

3. Fiesta in a Lunchbox

Another approach to adding a little variety to your lunch routine is to pick a theme inspired by a specific type of food or culture. Mexican-inspired foods make for a good packed lunch and can be prepped ahead of time for quick packing in the morning.

A Mexican lunch that’s especially favored by young kids is a cheese or beef quesadilla, which tastes just fine cold if your child doesn’t have access to a microwave. Add a side of black beans and chips and salsa. Carrot sticks or an applesauce pouch are easy to pack so you can incorporate another food group into this fun school lunch.

4. Let’s do blunch.

Everyone loves to punctuate their week with an extravagant brunch on Saturday afternoon, but let’s not forget how simple (and fun) packing breakfast for lunch can be. Planning ahead is the key to pulling this idea off.

When you cook breakfast over the weekend, make an extra portion or two of each dish. Throw together miniature pancakes for easy packing or bake an egg casserole complete with sausage, veggies, and cheese. When your busy Monday morning rolls around, you will be thrilled you have the basics ready to go.

The sides for a breakfast-for-lunch school meal can be simple. A squeezable yogurt, fruit salad, or a hardboiled egg all go great with breakfast foods and require low- or no-maintenance prep.

5. A Salad Even Kids Can’t Resist

Okay, we know what you’re thinking. Packing a salad in a school lunch isn’t going to go over well with most kids, but hear us out. Cold pasta salad is totally a kid-friendly lunch option. You can come up with your own combinations, but one favorite is rotini, chopped ham, cold peas, shredded cheddar, and ranch dressing topped with a small handful of sunflower seeds.

The key to making this the easiest meal you’ve ever prepped is cooking the pasta ahead of time. On Sunday evening, boil the rotini, drain it, and throw it in the fridge to cool overnight. In the morning, you can combine a cup of pasta with your chosen mix-ins and dressings in a lunch container. Throw in a banana, and you’ve got a complete meal!

6. A Charcuterie Lunch That’ll Make You Wish You’d Packed One for Yourself

Take a note from those fancy cheese and meat trays at the last party you attended and put together a charcuterie board–inspired lunch for your kid. Everything in this lunch can be eaten on the go, making this perfect for lunchtime, an after-school snack for a busy kid, or a working lunch for a mom on the go.

There is a lot of freedom in building a charcuterie lunchbox, but we’ve got a few favorite combinations to pass along.

–Salami, sliced Swiss, apple slices, walnuts, pickled beets, and crackers

–Prosciutto, goat cheese, toasted French baguette, dried cranberries, cashews, and a little spicy mustard

–Summer sausage, sharp cheddar, pita chips and hummus, banana peppers, and grapes

The beauty of a lunch of finger foods is that everything can be prepped at the beginning of the week. Slice the meat and the cheese and store in airtight containers, wash the fruit, and divvy up the nuts and dried fruits. The only thing you’ll need to do before school each morning is pack eve
rything in to-go containers to send along with your kid.

7. Lunch on a Stick

Nothing says “fun mom” like throwing together some kabobs for your student’s lunch. It isn’t just about the fun, of course, because lunch on a stick is a great way to persuade your child to try new things. Load up a few skewers with savory combinations like chicken and tomatoes or cheese and celery, and don’t forget to include a fruit kabob or two as well.

You can send kabobs on their own, but hungry kiddos will love having a few sides, too. Hummus and carrots sticks go well with just about any variation of lunch on a stick, and pita bread slathered in peanut butter and honey goes great with fruit kabobs.

Our last bit of advice? Don’t get too caught up in the presentation. There are a lot of pictures of really gorgeous packed lunches on social media and blogs, from a panda bento to color-themed trays. These are so fun and cute, but they definitely aren’t the standard the rest of us should hold ourselves to. The real priority for the lunch rush is healthy and delicious food that is easy to prep each morning.

One must stay vigilant living in the age of Trump, Mac n’ Cheetos, Scientology, and Goop. All day, every day, we are bombarded with messages designed to dupe us into tolerating foods devoid of nutrition and facts devoid of truth.
So how do we keep our bodies and our minds right?
Many of us don’t understand our deepest desires, much less the ways marketing shapes and fuels them. Although a part of us knows that something that seems too good to be true probably is, another part of us will throw skepticism out the window in exchange for any shiny new promise of perfection.

Moderation is, we all know, humanity’s enduring struggle. We prefer to operate in the extremes of good and evil—all or nothing. Instead of letting useful principles act as helpful guides, we try to pin them down and make them cast-in-stone prescriptions.
This has long been true when it comes to the pursuit of health, and even more specifically, our behaviors surrounding diet and weight loss. Take “clean eating,” for example.
It’s a clear response to the floundering health of our fast-food nation. The movement’s guiding principle was honorable: Eat more food that looks mostly like it did when it came out of the ground. But for many of its adherents, the #eatclean movement picked up some unhealthy baggage along the way.

What is clean eating?

According to The Guardian, the earliest iteration of the clean eating movement emerged in 2007, when Canadian fitness model Tosca Reno published The Eat-Clean Diet, a book that promoted the avoidance of processed foods, especially white flour and sugar. She also focused on the importance of vegetables and reasonable portions. All of this was wrapped up in a nice little package with her other insights on embracing a holistic lifestyle.

A couple of years later, former cardiologist Alejandro Junger published Clean: The Revolutionary Program to Restore the Body’s Natural Ability to Heal Itself. Junger had already been praised by Gwyneth Paltrow on Goop, and his call to action was much closer to the clean eating mandates of today.
It involved a strict elimination diet centered around liquid meals and eschewed adult beverages, dairy and eggs, sugar, caffeine, nightshade-family vegetables like tomatoes and eggplants, red meat, and more.
Flash forward to today, and the #eatclean movement still resembles its parents. The particular tenets vary depending on the individual who’s preaching, but many advocates of clean eating stress the importance of nixing processed foods and avoiding gluten, dairy, and refined sugars.

Sometimes clean eating is vegan, sometimes it’s raw vegan, sometimes it’s omnivorous—but it’s always touted as the wholesome, pure way to eat, regardless of its disciples’ other food-related views.
The face of clean eating is disproportionately young, attractive, female, white, and affluent enough to be able to regularly afford chia seeds, kale, and coconut sugar.

Ultimately, all this renders the clean eating movement highly exclusive, like a sorority or an ashram geared toward entrepreneurs and those with the money to back their pitches.

How did clean eating become unhealthy?

When you start to view food through the lenses of morality, judgment, and restriction, you’ve got a recipe for disaster.
Dr. Max Pemberton, writing for Daily Mail, points out that, “as every dietitian will tell you, sensible eating is about balance in your diet, not exclusion.” Yet the gospel of clean eating relies on the notion that some foods are clean (aka good) and others are not clean (i.e., they’re dirty or bad).

Meaning, if you want to be good, you must eliminate entire food groups from your diet.
“The central tenet, the very nugget at the core of its belief system, is flawed. The very notion of ‘clean’ eating suggests that some food is dirty or bad—and this simply isn’t the case,” Pemberton writes.
“It’s an inherently disordered way of viewing the world. There are healthy and unhealthy quantities of different types of food, but food in itself is just food.”

Are the tenets of clean eating bunk?

Clean eating goes along nicely with the booming wellness movement, which frequently relies on pseudoscience and a public that’s prone to mistrusting mainstream medicine. Part of this equation involves creating panic around certain so-called toxins and under-recognized sensitivities that either do not exist or are greatly misunderstood.

Take, for example, a popular boogeyman of today: gluten. Many of us believe we’re supposed to avoid it, but we don’t know why. Some wellness gurus would have us believe that gluten is poisoning our guts.
Science, on the other hand, says that unless you have a medical condition that makes you unable to process gluten, avoiding it is pointless and potentially harmful because of the way it unnecessarily limits the variety of your diet.

So what is an expert’s take on a gluten-free diet for someone who is actually able to process gluten?
“We don’t think it’s all that healthy a diet,” Peter H.R. Green, director of the Celiac Disease Center at Columbia University and author of Gluten Exposed: The Science Behind the Hype and How to Navigate to a Healthy, Symptom-Free Life, told Bloomberg.
“The things that make things tasty are salt, sugar, fat, and gluten. …Take one thing out and they usually add more of the other.”

Many experts believe that any kind of elimination of an entire food group is bad news for the following reason.

Food dogmatism can be a vehicle for disordered eating.

Most of us are suckers for the promise of a perfect yet attainable diet, physique, and lifestyle, and Instagram celebs are perhaps the most notorious peddlers of this promise.
Their flawless images are calorie-free eye candy for countless young women who have already been primed by cultural messaging to let others tell them how they should be and what it means to be beautiful.

This also just seems to be part of our nature, as Pemberton points out. “Humans far prefer drama, and this is why the endless cycle of excess and restriction, sin and absolution, is so appealing.”
But in a culture that’s already prone to disordered eating, it’s easy for the restrictions of clean eating to reinforce a destructive obsession with “healthy” eating. This is called orthorexia, or literally “fixation on righteous eating.”

Ruby Tandoh, writing for Vice, shares of her own experience trying to escape her disordered eating habits only to be drawn in by the guilt-based guidance of eating for wellness:
“When I found ‘wellness’, I thought I’d found a way out of the storm. What I was looking for was someone to say that there were things that weren’t just OK to eat, but that they would actually be good for me.”

“At the same time, I wasn’t ready to float untethered from my world of food neuroses. Wellness was alluring precisely because of the restriction it promised. There’s nothing left to be fearful of when the bad food is labeled ‘bad food’, and when what’s left is a miracle cure.”

Clean eating gone wrong is a reminder that we need to pay more attention to mental health issues.

Despite what all the headlines are saying, it’s not telling the whole truth to say that clean eating is causing eating disorders, though it’s certainly worth being mindful of what professionals who treat patients with eating disorders are observing.

Pemberton says, “Every person I see in my eating disorder clinic is ‘clean eating.'” And dietitian Renee McGregor, who works with both Olympic athletes and patients with eating disorders, tells The Guardian that in the past year and a half, “every single client with an eating disorder who walks into my clinic doors is either following or wants to follow a ‘clean’ way of eating.”
“Long before ‘clean eating’ came on the scene, doctors like me would see some patients with eating disorders who would describe an obsession with trying to eat healthily. The difference now is that the whole clean eating movement gives them a veneer of respectability,” Pemberton writes.

“This means they can easily justify their behaviour not just to themselves, but also their families.” The result is that people are not seeking the help they need until much later, partly because their behavior has been normalized.
Shame and strict rules shouldn’t be driving your diet. Pleasure and nutrition are not mutually exclusive—in fact, they may reinforce each other.

This doesn’t mean you should be eating whatever you want, whenever you want, in however large a quantity as you want. It just means that eating should be something you actually enjoy, not a shame-inducing or marginalizing experience.

Most people won’t bat an eyelash when you tell them that eating fast food isn’t good for their health. It seems obvious, since the majority of the items on drive-thru menus have a high calorie count. If you want to take care of your body and avoid weight gain, opting out of picking up a cheeseburger on the way home is probably the best choice, right?

This is certainly true, but weight gain isn’t the only reason to reconsider your fast food habit. Researchers have found that the effects of regular fast food consumption are varied and, honestly, kind of weird.
Check out these six unexpected and strange ways fast food is changing you.

1. There’s a downside to speedy service.

When you hop in a drive-thru lane, you expect to order and have your food within a few minutes, right? If you wanted to wait for your food, you probably would have opted to cook at home or chosen a sit-down restaurant. Blitzing through the drive-thru is awesome when you’re in a hurry, but it actually isn’t great for your brain.

Fast food plays into our culture’s disconcerting preference for instant gratification. The more we take advantage of being able to get the things we want right away, the less patient we become overall. Fast food is just one more thing fueling our impatience, according to ScienceDaily.
In general, we only need to get our food within minutes when we actually need to save time, like if we’re running late.

Research has shown, however, that even when we’re not actually in a hurry, just being exposed to fast food branding and products causes us to behave as if we need to eat on the run.

2. Fast food is changing your relationship with the dollar.

It’s no surprise that fast food and spending money go hand in hand, but the model used for upselling [linkbuilder id=”5444″ text=”food items”] may actually be changing the way we regard the dollar. This is because the fast food industry employs one very smart technique to get consumers to spend more than they initially planned.

It’s called the spare-change effect, and fast food restaurants are capturing extra sales by using it on their customers. When an order is placed, employees are trained to offer an upgrade that results in the cost being rounded up to the next whole dollar amount.
In most customers’ minds, it’s just change, but for the restaurant, it’s profit, according to Harvard Business Review.

While many consumers report appreciating the use of this technique, we can’t help but wonder what could have been bought with all that spare change—besides a small fry, of course.

3. Fast food might change how you see the world around you.

Recent reports indicate that in the United States an estimated 15.7 million adults found themselves struggling with depression in 2014. Depression is a complicated disorder with a litany of factors that can contribute to or cause its varied symptoms. Those dealing with depression can experience hopelessness, difficulty sleeping, and a loss of interest in the things they enjoy.

Researchers now believe that regular consumption of fast food plays are role in the depression of some American adults, too. In fact, adults who eat junk food like baked goods and fast food on a regular basis are 51 percent more likely to report experiencing depression than those who do not, according to a study published in Public Health Nutrition.

4. Fast food is changing your past.

Okay, so maybe fast food isn’t actually changing your past. Last we heard, even the top contenders in the fast food industry haven’t mastered time travel, but there is actually something about the fast food experience that changes the way we think about the past.

Research has shown that we don’t just like the way fast food tastes. We also like that it makes us feel nostalgic, according to Psychology Today.
This is so true that even the packaging of fast food products can activate feel-good memories, and the branding can remind us of instances in our pasts when we were happy while eating fast food.

It’s brilliant for marketing, but it may mean you’re enjoying fast food more because you’re prone to nostalgia than because you actually love the grease and sodium within.

5. It is harder to know when enough is enough.

The high calorie content of fast food items is often blamed for the weight gain and poor health of regular consumers, but there is more to it than that.
The salt and fat content of most fast food has been linked to food addiction and compulsive overeating, according to Current Drug Abuse Reviews. So when it comes to fast food, the more you eat, the more you may want to eat—whether you’re actually hungry or not.

Additionally, advertising easily triggers individuals struggling with addictions to certain foods. One glance at the golden arches might be enough to prompt a regret-worthy binge on a burger and an extra large fry.

6. Your brain is getting hooked on the marketing.

We won’t try to deny it—fast food tastes good. The occasional burger and fries won’t hurt most people, but the deliciousness of fast food is exactly why you shouldn’t make it a habit.

This is because your brain responds to marketing so reliably (and so profitably). When it comes to the delicious saltiness of french fries or the crispy bacon on your last cheeseburger, you brain is learning to associate your favorite flavor with the restaurant’s brand.
It is a Pavlovian response according to Psychology Today, meaning that you recognize the brand and want to reward yourself with the food. The more you repeat this behavior, the more your brain expects the reward of food to follow a sighting of the brand.

The stronger that association becomes, the more likely you are to be utterly hooked on the brand itself.

Here’s what to do if you’re a fast food lover.

If eating fast food is a habit for you, it can be incredibly difficult to cut back. That’s because fast food isn’t all bad. Drive-thrus are convenient for busy moms, and many fast food chains offer affordable meals that appeal to the family on a budget.

If you’re a fast food lover, there are small ways to cut back on fast food that will make a big difference for your health in the long run. You can begin by committing to only ordering the most nutritious items on the menu when you do decide to treat yourself.
This will help you to avoid consuming too many calories, which is the number one cause of weight gain.

If unexpected hunger is the reason for your impulsive french fry binges, keep snacks on hand at all times. When you can avoid getting to the point where you feel like you’re starving, you can stop making regrettable decisions about what to eat.
Lastly, if you are really having a hard time saying no, try cutting back in small increments, like eliminating one fast food stop a week.

You won’t succeed if you don’t plan ahead, so pack a lunch in advance or be sure to throw dinner in the crockpot so you won’t have an excuse for turning into the drive-thru on the way home.
Of course, healthy lifestyle changes aren’t always easy, but the benefits of opting for healthy, home-cooked meals instead of regularly consuming fast food are worth the sacrifice.

Going vegan means eating an entirely plant-based diet. That means no meat, no dairy, no eggs, and yes, no fish (for some reason, some don’t consider seafood to be meat).
According to the Vegetarian Resource Group’s poll of more than 2,000 American adults, about 1.6 percent of Americans are vegan. Another study compiled by GlobalData looking at trends in prepared foods says that “6 percent of U.S. consumers now claim to be vegan, up from just 1 percent in 2014.”

Either way, millions of U.S. citizens now consider themselves vegan. If you’ve thought about switching to a vegan diet, here are seven things to take into account before making the commitment.

1. Know your motivation.

In addition to looking at the numbers, the Vegetarian Resource Group also tried to determine what motivates people to eat meals without meat.
Vegetarians and vegans identified their reasons for their dietary choices as “animals (29 percent), health (18 percent), ethics (10 percent), environment (9 percent), and other (12 percent).”

Of course, you don’t have to be a card-carrying member of PETA to think that animals are adorable, and a green diet has a number of health benefits, too.
“Vegetarian eating patterns have been associated with improved health outcomes including lower levels of obesity, a reduced risk of heart disease, and lower blood pressure,” according to the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.

Plus, raising livestock contributes greatly to manmade carbon emissions. According to an international team of scientists including representatives from Harvard, “Livestock are responsible for 12 percent of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions.” Consuming less meat helps to make a dent in those emissions.
No matter your motivation, seek to clearly identify and articulate why you want to go vegan before buckling down. Taking this step will help you when times are tough (like Thanksgiving, for instance) and give you something to reflect back on when your values are tested.

2. Start slowly and quietly.

Don’t force yourself to make a big life change overnight. You can absolutely ease your way into a vegan diet, as Victoria Moran noted in her book Main Street Vegan.
The author spoke with Reader’s Digest about shifting to a vegan diet and suggested transitioning gradually by eliminating one animal product at a time. Alternatively, consider the “vegan at home” method, which means eating vegan at home but allowing yourself wiggle room at restaurants.

I you’re still an omnivore, Moran also suggests starting your path to becoming a vegan by being a “vegetarian for now,” which means you won’t have to give up cheesy pizza in the immediate future.
Jenné Claiborne, a chef known as The Nourishing Vegan, told Reader’s Digest that aspiring vegans should “crowd out less healthy, or non-vegan foods with a yummy vegan addition. …For example, have a green smoothie before your usual breakfast, or some fruit before an afternoon cookie,” Claiborne advises. “By eating the plant-based food first you won’t have as much room for other stuff, and you’ll develop a taste for the healthier option.”

Vegenista blogger Melissa Bechter says that she did indeed eventually lose her taste for animal-based foods. Former NBA champ and Vegan Vine partner John Salley made this suggestion in Reader’s Digest:
“Don’t announce what you are doing; focus on yourself and being conscious of your surroundings, body, and food addictions first… Be still and strong in your ability to control your own life.”

Remember, this is your own personal journey. Don’t make it too complicated; focus on yourself and whatever internal obstacles or resistance seems to pop up in response to your dietary goals.

3. Find a support system.

There’s a difference between telling everyone in your social media platform about your decision to go vegan and asking a trusted friend or respected peer for help. There are a number of digital support groups for vegans where you can swap recipes, ask for tips, and complain about the haters, and they’re a great resource.

“You’ll need someone to rant to about how many times a day you get asked where you get your protein,” Jill Wiseman of Vegan Cuts told Reader’s Digest.
VeganStart has a list of social media sites and web pages that may be helpful for new vegans so that you don’t feel alone on your food and lifestyle journey.

4. Get inspired.

Many people think of veganism as giving up meat and dairy, but you can just as easily frame it as the foundation for a food adventure.
The Instagram hashtag, #VeganInspiration has around 55,000 posts featuring images of people’s delicious dishes, fitness routines, and adorable critters.

Pinterest is another great place to find and keep track of delicious-looking vegan dishes. Pinterest user Elisa Camahort has curated a vegan recipes page that features nearly 400 inspirational dishes including General Tso’s tofu, pizza, and even toasted coconut chocolate mousse. If you think of vegan recipes as rabbit food, it’s time to think again.
You might also check out Oh She Glows, a successful and growing recipe blog that features more than 500 healthy meal ideas and has been kicking for the past six years.

“I’ve shared energizing, plant-based recipes that my family and I enjoy on a daily basis,” explained the blog’s founder, Angela Liddon. “My goal is to inspire you to embrace more plant-based foods in your diet without feeling the least bit deprived. And yes, my recipes are great for meat-eaters and picky kids too!”
The internet has made it easy to find vegan substitutes if you’re craving dishes that typically have meat, dairy, or eggs.

5. Do it right.

Technically, potato chips and soda are vegan, but they’re not going to provide you with the vitamins and minerals your body needs to flourish.

If you’re going vegan, dozens of people will ask you where you get your protein, but it’s probably more important for you to keep an eye on your intake of vitamin B12, omega-3 and -6 fatty acids, vitamin D, and calcium.
Veganuary, a UK-based website that encourages people to try going vegan for the month of January, offers a very helpful “Nutrition in a Nutshell” page for new vegans.
For protein, you’ll have many options. In particular, look to:
Legumes, like “beans, peanuts, peas, lentils and soy (beans and soy products like tofu, tempeh etc.)”
Grains, including “brown/wild rice, whole wheat bread and pasta, amaranth, buckwheat, and quinoa,” and
Nuts, all of them—”brazils, peanuts, cashews, almonds, pistachios and walnuts.”

For vitamin B12 and your omega-3 fatty acids, it may be worth looking into taking supplements in the form of pills to make sure your body isn’t missing out on vital nutrients.
For vitamin D and calcium, make sure you’re eating a balanced diet that includes green foods like kale and broccoli. Also, spend time out in the sun to help your body processes vitamin D.
(And if you do happen to have a sweet tooth, you might find our article on vegan candy helpful!)

6. Don’t be a jerk.

You don’t have to look far to find plenty of commentary from seemingly self-righteous vegans. Try not to brag about your new diet. Not only is this habit annoying, but it can push people away from the very cause you’re trying to support.

Arm yourself with facts, be polite when asking your waitstaff about ingredient in dishes (and tip at least 20 percent!), and remember this is your journey, not anyone else’s.
Of course, you don’t have to let meat-eaters walk all over you if they’re being rude. Build up an arsenal of one-liners, comebacks, and canned responses for people who give you a hard time about your diet.
“Why are you vegan?” they ask. “Because I hate plants,” you’ll say.

Getting harassed about not getting enough protein? Respond, “Thanks, I’ll be sure to remind the nuts and legumes I eat that they’re low in protein. They forget sometimes.”
If you’re getting a hard time about missing out on turkey this Thanksgiving, tell them that Ben Franklin considered the turkey to be a “respectable bird.” In the end, you’re just showing support for a patriot.

7. Be true to and generous with yourself.

“People get so caught up in rules [of being vegan], they become anxious,” Terry Hope Romero, author of Vegan Eats World, told Reader’s Digest. “Relax and learn to love to cook, explore new cuisines, and be adventurous with food. Most importantly, be easy on yourself. Don’t view a vegan lifestyle as the finish line, but as an evolving process of conscious eating.”

After all, there may be times when you find out a loaf of bread was made with eggs or you may find yourself a guest of a family who can’t culturally comprehend your a vegan lifestyle.
You will almost definitely accidentally (and perhaps intentionally) eat some animal-based products in the future. That won’t mean you’re a failure.

Go back to your motivation. Why did you make this decision? Did breaking your vegan diet in that circumstance fundamentally change you as a person? Does making a fuss or feeling bad about it change anything? Consider how can you avoid these situations in the future.
Congratulations for considering this lifestyle change. It’s quite an adventure, but if you’re motivated, you will get inspired and make it work.

Time for a little confession: I used to hate taking my mom to the grocery store.

When she first moved into the little apartment in our basement and started helping me out while I ran my errands with three kids in tow, I worried that the differences in how we lived our lives might become an issue. We ate good food growing up. I remember how much praise my mom got for being a good cook, but there is a big difference between the way my mom and I grocery shop.
Namely, I spend a lot more money on food than she ever would have when we were young kids. Because of that, taking her to grocery store caused me some anxiety at first. Was she keeping a mental tally of how much I was spending on organic ketchup, when conventional was half the price? Did she see my love of expensive cheese as a frivolous purchase?

Time has passed, and I don’t think my mom was ever judging me for spending a lot on groceries. But I do think my insecurity was fueled by knowing that us millennials are spending more on food than previous generations. Are my spending habits just one more perceived failure of my generation?
Millennials are spending an average of $2,300 more annually on groceries than older generations, according to a recent study published by Bankrate. When the numbers are broken down into monthly data, my generation is spending around $797 each month on stocking their fridge.

Is frivolous spending to be blamed for the grocery budgets of younger generations? Should we be learning a thing or two about frugality from our parents?
It’s not so simple, as it turns out. Here are the seven big reasons millennials are spending so much on food.

1. It’s a part of their lifestyle.

Millennials are spending more on groceries each month not because they’re frivolous but because it matches their lifestyle.

In fact, Bankrate’s study revealed that millennials aren’t spending more across the board, they’re just spending more on necessities like groceries and gas. Older generations, however, took the lead on travel and entertainment spending.
While it wasn’t that long ago that millennials were seen as fresh college grads, they’re getting older, and their lifestyle is changing. Many millennials are starting families and settling into their adult life.

So it makes sense that necessities eat up a lot of this generation’s budget. For young families, travel and cable TV aren’t as high of a priority when there are little mouths to feed.

2. Their spending mirrors their convictions.

There is no doubt about it, there is more information available than ever before about the impact of our food purchases on our personal health and the greater good of the world.

Millennials are passionate about buying food they feel is healthiest for them, according to one consumer report by the Boston Consulting Group.
Additionally, this generation values higher quality food, and they are more likely to spend time reading labels and considering how their food was made. The origin of the food matters to millennials, too.

Their generation has a greater awareness of the impact their purchases have around the world and are more likely to spend more to honor those convictions.

3. A desire to branch out fuels millennial spending.

When it comes to what lands in their shopping carts, millennial shoppers are more likely to prioritize trying new things.

This generation loves to cook an assortment of diverse foods, according to the Boston Consulting Group, and will spend more for an opportunity to try something they view as unusual or exotic.

4. Millennials like cooking more than older generations.

Even though older generations may be seen as more traditional, millennials are pushing back on this stereotype with their love of cooking. When compared with baby boomers, this generation is more likely to report they enjoy the time they spend in the kitchen.

Younger home cooks don’t just like cooking, they like being good at it. Millennials are more likely to aspire to obtain cooking expertise, with 64 percent reporting they believe they are skilled at food preparation compared with 52 percent of baby boomers.
So it makes sense that this passion would influence how much they are spending at the grocery store.

5. Cooking and community go hand in hand.

Although previous generations place a high priority on family meals, millennials care more about the social aspect of cooking. For this generation, connecting with their friends is a high priority, and cooking and dining together is one of their favorite ways to cultivate community in their lives.

In fact, millennials are more likely to get together to prepare meals with their friends and dine in with their friends on a regular basis when compared with older generations.

6. Millennials have a different approach to shopping.

Since this generation is more tech savvy than others, it makes sense that their approach to filling their refrigerator is so different. When shopping, millennials are looking for ways to use technology to simplify their lives.

Because of this, this generation will spend more on convenience. This is indicated in the rise in popularity of having meal boxes delivered right to their front door. Millennials still want to cook, and they want to cook good food.
Companies like HelloFresh and Blue Apron are making this easier than ever before. These meal boxes include perfectly portioned meals and step-by-step directions for home cooks.

Additionally, services like AmazonFresh and Door to Door Organics make it possible for this generation to shop without ever setting foot in a store.
Of course, convenience comes at a cost, and many of the convenient options being used by millennials cost more than picking up the same items at the grocery store, according to kitchn.

7. Groceries aren’t the only foods millennials spend on.

Just because millennials are prioritizing healthy and diverse home-cooked meals, that doesn’t mean they are spending any less on eating out. In fact, this is one more area where this generation is outspending their elders.

Each month, millennials spend around $50 more on restaurant food than older generations. This can be explained by the same factors influencing grocery costs.
Millennials prefer higher quality foods, they prioritize organic or farm-to-table restaurants, and they would rather try new foods than visit the same restaurants over and over again.

In general, these habits are going to cost more than fast food or chain restaurant purchases, explaining the difference in spending between generations.

What does the future of food purchases look like?

A close look at the way millennials are using their money is a pretty good indication of what spending on groceries and dining out will look like in the future. Young adult consumers can be expected to continue to spend more if it means shopping in line with their values.
Additionally, convenience-based shopping experiences such as organic produce boxes or Blue Apron–style meals aren’t likely to go away any time soon.
Another trend expected to grow in the future are purchases fueled by the opinions of their friends. Millennials are much more likely to express their opinions on products using social media, and retailers are taking advantage of this by funneling portions of their marketing budgets toward social media users.

They aren’t just buying ads, either. They’re paying social media users with heavy influence to use their product and talk about it online. This type of marketing can be expected to continue to drive millennial purchases in the future.
When it comes to millennial spending, it isn’t that they’re worse with their budgets or more reckless with their spending. Instead, a different set of priorities is what sets this generation apart from others.

Thanks to increased student loan balances and lower income levels, millennials may not have the spending power of previous generations, but the way they spend certainly influences the market.

Let’s start with stress eating.
According to science, when people get stressed out, they “turn to hyperpalatable comfort foods such as fast food, snacks, and calorie-dense foods, even in the absence of hunger and lack of homeostatic need for calories,” according to a study conducted by Yale University researchers.

You know what’s stressful? Taking cell-phone video of a guy getting roughed up on an airplane. Listening to your pilot come unhinged over the intercom. Being Ann Coulter. We could go on, but we don’t want to contribute to your stress eating.
The point is: Commercial air travel is inherently stressful. Even more noteworthy: When we fly, we eat like there’s no tomorrow.

In fact, a commercial flight is the perfect storm of mindless munching. The urge to snack en route seems to be universal, but stress isn’t the only culprit. Here are a few more factors that give you Cookie Monster–level desire for empty calories when you fly.

Flying is boring. Food is not.

Even in the days before we associated commercial flights with terrorism, increasingly smaller seats, and meal deprivation, we have to imagine it wasn’t ever exactly fun to fly. For passengers, once you make it through security, cram your carry-on overhead, and find your seat, flying is essentially just sitting in a cramped chair for a few hours. No fun.

Cell phones exist, so the age of boredom is supposed to be over, but have you ever tried to use the in-flight wifi? It is slow. It is unreliable. In fact, air travel pretty much proves that boredom can’t be defeated.
Your first flight is pretty amazing; you are hurtling through the air and it’s incredible.

Pretty soon, though, things get mundane. The “fasten seatbelt” light gets boring. The crew’s preparation for gate departure gets boring. Placing your seatbacks and tray tables in their full, upright positions gets boring.
And boredom is a one-way ticket to Snack Town (service by Delta, United, and American, so pick your poison). A 2012 study from the journal Health Psychology concluded that “boredom is an important construct and … should be considered a separate dimension of emotional eating.”

In short, people tend to snack when they’re bored, and people tend to be bored on airplanes. You do the math.

Flying dehydrates us, and we are no good at telling the difference between thirst and hunger.

After a long flight, you might sense that your dry skin is out of control. That’s not just your imagination. In fact, the air you breathe during a flight has to come from somewhere.

Specifically, it has to come from outside. But the air outside an airplane is very different from the air you’re breathing right now (unless you’re lucky enough to have in-flight wifi that actually works).
At 30,000 feet, the air essentially freeze-dries itself. It’s so cold that the airplane has to warm it on its way into the cabin. This heating process quickly robs the air of most of the moisture it otherwise would’ve had.

According to the World Health Organization, humidity in airplane cabins is usually below 20 percent. By way of comparison, if you’re reading this in your house, the humidity is probably more than 30 percent.
Getting dried out can make you thirsty, and thirst mimics the symptoms of hunger. Danyale McCurdy-McKinnon, clinical psychology director of the Fit for Healthy Weight Clinic at the University of California, Los Angeles, told TODAY that you should make sure you’re drinking enough before starting to nosh.

“If it’s only been a couple of hours since you’ve eaten and you feel hungry, try drinking some water first,” McCurdy-McKinnon said. “And if you still feel hungry then have a snack.”
So say yes to that ginger ale or tomato juice that your flight attendant so politely offers you. In fact, try the tomato juice. Oddly enough, science suggests that it tastes better in the air than it does on the ground.

Things taste different above the clouds.

Not long ago, the German airline Lufthansa noticed something peculiar. They were serving something like 53,000 gallons of tomato juice every year, far more than they’d expect. What gives? The executives asked.
According to an NBC news report, Lufthansa hired a research company called the Fraunhofer Society to figure out why people chug so much tomato juice on airplanes. It’s not like tomato juice is a favorite on the ground. What changes up in the air?

To find out, researchers from the Fraunhofer Society sent their subjects into a super-realistic flight simulator housed in the dismembered fuselage of an old jet. The researchers recreated the environment of an airplane at cruising altitude—complete with cabin pressure—and served beverages including tomato juice.
Most of the subjects agreed: The tomato juice was way better up there than it was down on the ground.
“We learned that tomato juice being on ground level is rather—I’m not saying moldy, but it tastes earthy, it tastes not overly fresh,” Ernst Derenthal, Lufthansa’s catering executive, told NBC. “However, as soon as you have it at 30,000 feet, tomato juice shows, let’s say, its better side. It shows more acidity, it has some mineralic taste with it, and it’s very refreshing.”

Okay, so people like tomato juice on airplanes, but there’s more than altitude at work here.
The NBC report attributes people’s love of airplane V8 to the dampening effect that flying has on the taste buds. In low pressure, your taste buds get a little less oxygen than they’re used to and lose a little sensitivity. Plus, the low humidity dries out your mouth, further diminishing your sense of taste. Tomato juice just happens to be one of the beverages that actually benefits from less-sensitive taste buds.
A 2015 study from Cornell University suggests an even weirder explanation: The sound of the engines makes us crave umami, a savory flavor that tomato juice offers in abundance.

But we’re not just talking about tomato juice. Maybe people like to snack on planes because their taste buds act so differently—maybe it’s all a big, semi-conscious experiment. What does a pretzel taste like in the air? A strawberry? Could they be as good as tomato juice seems to have become?
One more word about tomato juice: Derenthal suggests one more reason people order it so often on airplanes.

“Many people, they have not made their minds up, and just wonder, ‘What should I drink? In two minutes I will be asked by the flight attendants,'” Derenthal said. “And then you see someone in front of you having a tomato juice and you think, ‘Why not? That’s a good idea. Oh, I’ll have the same as the gentleman in the other row.'”

Other people on airplanes snack. Why should we resist?

Of course, the real reason that we gobble everything in sight as we hurtle through the clouds might be really simple. It could just be that everyone around us is already doing it. We’re social animals. We’re impressionable—especially when it comes to comestibles.

A 2014 literature review from the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics suggests that other people’s dining habits rub off on us easily.
The authors looked at 15 experimental studies and concluded that not only do the dining choices of peers affect what we eat, but we don’t even have to see them eating to get the effect. They can just tell us about what they eat.

“The evidence reviewed here is consistent with the idea that eating behaviors can be transmitted socially,” Eric Robinson, the study’s lead investigator, said in a press release.
In other words, when your neighbor asks for extra peanuts, you might make the same request.

Add up all of the above factors and it’s a wonder we don’t gorge ourselves even more when we fly. Fortunately, the peanut and pretzel packages are very small. Maybe that’s not the airlines cutting corners again—maybe they really are looking out for their customers.

The clearest evidence of the health food craze lines the grocery store shelves. Packages of processed foods claim to be the missing piece of your health food journey—but they might just be carefully marketed junk.

It takes time and effort to make sure your diet is well balanced, and the first step is to kick these snacks to the curb.

1. Stay away from “instant.”

Anything with the words “instant” printed on the label isn’t going to be as healthy as you wish it were—even oatmeal. Oats are a great breakfast option since they contain protein and important vitamins and minerals—plus they’re high in fiber. However, if you buy pre-packaged, flavored instant oatmeal, you’re burying all those good qualities in a ton of sugar.
Most healthcare professionals say a healthy diet contains no more than 50 grams of sugar per day. Some believe in limiting sugar even more, allowing just 25 grams per day.

A single packet of some flavored instant oatmeal can contain close to your daily allowance of sugar. Instead of buying instant packets, grab a box of plain oats and add your own fruit or a little bit of honey.
Granola and energy bars are also sugar-laden snack foods in disguise. You’re supposed to eat these bars on the go, but they won’t benefit your diet. Even when these bars contain protein and fiber, their sugar content is so high that you’re basically eating candy.

2. Deli Meats vs. Your Blood Pressure

Turkey is a great protein to include in your diet. It’s a lean meat with a mild flavor that is easy to incorporate in salads or on sandwiches. But beware…if you’d like to include turkey in more of your meals, you need to go with the real stuff.
There is a big nutritional difference between fresh turkey and deli-packaged turkey. Both are fairly similar in calorie count, but fresh turkey contains more protein and less fat than packaged deli turkey.

The biggest health issue when it comes to deli turkey is its sodium content. Four ounces of deli turkey can contain 1,049 milligrams of sodium. The recommended daily allowance is just 1,300 to 1,500 milligrams. It’s worth the extra time to prepare a fresh turkey and pass on the convenience of deli slices.

3. Sweet, Sweet, Probiotics

Yogurt can be a superior dairy-based treat considering that it’s packed with protein, calcium, B vitamins, and probiotic bacteria that aids digestion. Unfortunately, as in the instant oatmeal dilemma, many flavored yogurts are full of excess sugar.
Look at the yogurt labels next time you’re in the dairy aisle. A single-serving container of fruit-on-the-bottom yogurt can contain up to 18 grams of sugar. That’s a lot.

Plain yogurt shouldn’t have added sweeteners, and it’s usually available in low-fat and nonfat varieties, allowing you to select what’s best for you and your family. Plus, you can flavor plain yogurt any way you like.

4. “Light” isn’t better.

Food items that are labeled “light” are not necessarily as healthy you think. Light foods may have fewer calories, but they are often heavily processed and filled with additives.
In fact, a study published in the Journal of Marketing Research shows consumers regularly overeat foods that are labeled “low-fat.”
This renders the lower calorie count of these foods pointless.

When it comes to eating a healthy diet, the best approach is to stick with what’s real. There’s no quick fix or shortcut when it comes to your health, no matter what a box of granola bars tells you. Snacking on fresh fruits and veggies or fresh, lean meats is always the best choice.

There are some real favorites on this list, and we are sorry.

Quick! Define the word “food” without thinking about it.

Done? We can’t hear you, of course, but we’re guessing you blurted out something along the lines of, “It’s stuff that you eat.”

We’re comfortable with this guess, because it’s what we said when someone tried this experiment on us. It’s what everyone says. Unfortunately, this knee-jerk definition starts to break down under scrutiny.

Geophagia, or the practice of

“the food prepared by comminuting [pulverizing] and mixing, with the aid of heat, one or more of the optional cheese ingredients described in paragraph (c) of this section…”

Those ingredients? Types of cheese. Oh, you can also add “cream, milk, skim milk,” and emulsifying agents, water, salt, and flavorings. The point is that pasteurized processed cheese food product is made out of cheese—and also other stuff.

7. This Common Coffee Add-in

We’ve learned one thing about “cream” by now: It’s no good in processed foods. Even those jugs of flavored coffee “creamers” are mostly dairy-free.

Unless you’re buying straight-up cream for your coffee, you’re probably veering into territory that’s depressingly familiar by now.

Most top-brand coffee additives are made of trans fat–rich oils and corn syrup. Apparently everything that doesn’t grow on a tree is actually just hydrogenated oil and corn syrup. We could be hydrogenated oil and corn syrup for all you know.

The ever-useful health site Eat This, Not That! recommends using regular old milk in your coffee. You can also make your own creamer with condensed milk, regular milk, and honey.

Defining “Food” Once and for All

At the outset of this piece, we promised we’d get back to the question of what “food” really is. Is hydrogenated oil food? Is carrageenan?

We were raised to trust Webster’s dictionary, and that venerable source takes a broad view of the subject. According to that dictionary, food is “any substance taken into and assimilated by a plant or animal to keep it alive and enable it to grow and repair tissue; nourishment; nutriment.”

Well, we’re not sure hydrogenated oils and corn syrup keep us alive and enable us to grow and repair tissue. So the items on this list are not food?

Except that the dictionary’s second definition calls food “solid substance of this sort.” We guess edible science chunks are sort of like food.

So maybe they are food after all. We’re confused. Guess we’ll go eat dirt.