Studying the fat budget

As a professor of nutrition, I read with wonder Nina Smith’s promised strategy [“Fries With That?”, Feb. 14] for retaliating against the Mountain Xpress for printing letters from compassionate correspondents, Stewart and Terri David. Does she not realize that by making the choice to “purchase a double Quarter Pounder with cheese,” she only promotes an industry that profits from our collective ill health?

And to chicken-wing eaters, do you know that each fried chicken wing has 9 grams of fat? Coating it with a spicy buttery sauce adds another gram, and dipping it into blue cheese, ranch dressing or mayonnaise adds another 3 to 6 grams. Add this up for a dozen wings, and you will have consumed at least 160 grams of fat—most of it the artery-clogging saturated kind—which is more than twice the fat budget for most people.

Perhaps a better strategy would be to write and print letters that promote thoughtful community dialogue and to make food-purchasing decisions that promote human health and avoid cruelty to other living beings.

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One thought on “Studying the fat budget

  1. Johnny

    Ms. Lanou may well be an assistant professor of nutrtion at UNCA, but no ticket got punched along the way for a basic understanding of satire, irony, or sense of humor.

    If Ms. Lanou actually wants thoughtful community dialogue (which this writer finds dubious), then she’ll get precious little of it by expousing the opinion that eating meat is wrong. That opinion isn’t dialogue, now is it?

    Within reason, eating top quality naturally raised meat is good for you…. with a great side benefit: it promotes an exceptional sense of humor!

    I’m with Nina, the more letters that say how evil and cruel it is to eat meat, week-after-week-after-week, then the more I’ll be laughing it up enjoying the food choices I made all by myself.

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