Fast food hangover

Yesterday I attended a half-day workshop for work (which was wonderful), and on the way home I picked up some fast food for lunch for both Hubby and myself. That was a really bad decision on my part. I didn't realize that since I've been making a conscious effort to eat healthier, my tolerance for fast food has declined dramatically. I felt sooooo lousy after I ate lunch that it basically ruined the rest of my day. I couldn't do anything, and I mean that literally - I could not force myself off the couch to do more than throw clothes in the washer, and I wound up taking a nap just to escape how bad I felt. Today I woke up surprisingly hungry, when normally I need to be up for at least an hour before I even look at food. I think it all relates back to the fake food I ate for lunch, because I've become accustomed to real food with real nutrients, and suddenly I had assaulted my system with fats, sugars and chemicals that had become foreign to me. My body couldn't cope and everything just shut down.

I was such a slug that if a book or project wasn't within arm's reach, then I really didn't need it badly enough to get up and fetch it. Fortunately I did have an amusing book nearby that I curled up with, called "Don't Eat This Book" by Morgan Spurlock. He's the guy who did "Supersize Me", the one who subjected himself to 30 days of nothing but McFood at great risk to his health. I was feeling so rotten that I was pretty receptive to his anti-fast-food message, but still, wow... Here's statistic that stuck with me: did you know that the average American consumes 1/3 of a POUND of sugar each day, for an extra 600 calories added to his or her diet? That horrified me, as did the list of foods that one wouldn't suspect contain added sugar: cold cuts, sausage, french fries, spaghetti sauce, tomato juice, breads... and those are just the ones I can remember offhand. It's not just the sweetened cereals and sugary sodas that get us. And High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) is simply scary. Food manufacturers love it because it is both sweeter and cheaper than sugar, and has uses beyond sweetening (makes baked goods softer, keeps frozen veg from losing their color) so it's used in way more products than sugar ever could be. HFCS is such an artificial compound that our bodies don't really know how to deal with it. Sugar is bad enough for us, but when our bodies encounter HFCS they respond by dumping way more insulin into our bloodstreams to deal with the sudden influx of calories (which over the course of time can lead to first hypoglycemia, then Type II diabetes as your pancreas simply wears out), while at the same time packing away a higher number of calories as fat.

By the way, Spurlock calculated that during his 30-day McFood diet he consumed about a pound of sugar each day. No wonder he felt like crap.

Here's another one: the more sugar or sweetened foods you consume, the less you are able to taste sugar so you need more and more sugar or other sweeteners to get the same effect. This even applies to artificial sweeteners. Several years ago Hubby and I kicked the soda habit and went back to our Southern roots of drinking tea as our primary beverage, except now we don't add sugar. I do add a bit of Sweet'n'Low, but Hubby takes his straight. We have recently begun keeping a few diet sodas on hand, but we only drink those rarely. Since we made this change I have noticed that my ability to taste naturally-occurring sweetness in foods has increased tremendously. I marvel at the inherent sweetness of corn and raw carrots, and some varieties of grapes and apples are simply too sweet for my taste. Milk is amazingly sweet all on its own. But I couldn't taste any of this when we drank sugary sodas regularly. Spurlock is right, use of sugar leads to increased use of sugar - it's a nasty, addictive cycle.

Here's something else that stuck with me: the US population comprises 4.6% of the world's population, yet we consume 20% of the meat produced and slaughtered worldwide. That's just sick, and I mean nauseating, sickening, disgusting. Unfortunately Hubby is on board with this - he's such a meat-and-potatoes person that it's hard to believe we can come up with meals that satisfy both of us. Fortunately he's also open to trying new things, including vegetarian. I made a vegetarian entree for dinner Monday night and he totally loved it. If a dish is flavorful enough, the absence of meat isn't noticeable, even for him. The book also discussed the conditions in which animals live before they are slaughtered for food, and the contamination rates for ground meats. And I'm supposed to make a meat loaf for Hubby's lunches this coming week? REALLY bad timing.

Here's my detox plan for the next few days: nothing but low-fat and high fiber, lots of whole grains, fruits and veggies, an emphasis on vegetarian entrees, and exercise. I want to stop feeling like this as quickly as possible, and will try very hard to remember this lesson: fast food leads to a sluggish and good-for-nothing body, and that's not what I want or need to carry me through life.

Peace (and hummus and veggies),
AuntieM