CONFLICTING ADVICE ON FOOD IS BECOMING VERY HARD TO DIGEST
THE jury is still out on this one, but some people say the energy exerted to eat a piece of celery burns almost as many calories as those in the celery itself.
So if you really munch down on it while you’re walking around briskly you may even lose weight.
This law, unfortunately, does not apply to pizza or apple pie or lasagne or cupcakes.
And I imagine the celery trick doesn’t work if you’re dipping it in guacamole or hummus.
New dietary research from the CSIRO shows that having a hearty breakfast of bacon and eggs can also shed the kilos. Who would have thought?
The theory goes that by bulking up on protein first thing in the morning, you can stop cravings during the day.
So bypass the muesli and the black chia seeds and the quinoa, get out the skillet and get frying.
But all this theorising about the benefits of various foods must be taken with a grain of salt (just one grain, mind you, don’t want to harden the arteries).
One week, we’re told coffee kills you, the next week that it wards off disease. Same with red wine, meat, chocolate. There’s probably even a report somewhere that says tomatoes are deadly.
Food can be wonderful and it can be hazardous. A friend recently dislocated his jaw eating a piece of crusty bread. Mind you, he had a previous jaw injury so don’t blame the baker.
I once chipped a tooth eating an olive. The label said “Warning, this jar of pitted olives may contain an occasional pit”.
I went through the jar and found that almost every third or fourth olive had a pit.
I wrote to the company and said maybe they should change the label to: “Warning, this jar of pits may contain olives.”
I meant it as silly joke, but the company took it very seriously and sent a humble apology along with a cardboard box full of olive jars. I made sure I checked before chewing. Still it was nice gesture from the olive people.
There have been some horrific things found in manufactured food. A human tooth was discovered in a block of cheese in England.
A live scorpion was found in a pack of bananas. The scorpion had apparently hitched a ride from Costa Rica. A tarantula also appeared in a box of fruit.
At my local greengrocers, the proprietor opened a box of Queensland bananas he had brought out of the storeroom and out hopped a green tree frog. I helped him catch it.
On a trip to the country with friends, we had a latenight barbecue, then forgetfully left the leftover meat outside. I took it in the next morning and put it in the fridge. When went to reheat a steak one day, we found it was
moving. I don’t think I need to say more.
Some people find good surprises in food. One woman in the United States found a mobile phone in a bag of chips.
How it got there is anybody’s guess, but it’s like finding the toy in the box of Cornflakes or Weeties. Those were the days.
There’s bad food news for meat lovers planning to fire up the barbie on Aussie Day.
One of the country’s leading abattoirs burned down, leaving meat in short supply and probably outrageously overpriced. Vegie-burger time.