Dieting breeds contempt


Case in point, I was recently eating breakfast in the concierge lounge buffet at my hotel.  They had a nice mix of hot and cold items.  One of the hot double bins contained side-by-side egg dishes; one was scrambled with sausage and cheese, the other was simply scrambled egg whites.  A short stout gentleman sat down next to me who had just served himself a heaping portion of each, among other items.  No more than a minute after sitting down, he motioned to the hostess and asked “What is this white stuff….cauliflower?”  The hostess replied that it was egg whites.  He growled, promptly stood up with his plate, walked over to the garbage can, and scraped the egg whites right into the trash.  He then went back to the buffet and piled on more of the sausage-cheese egg scramble to fill his plate.  The hostess and I shared a look and just laughed silently.

Albeit extreme, I believe the aforementioned story exemplifies how averse some people are to eating foods that are considered to be healthy.  The gentleman was perfectly content eating the egg whites on his plate when they were “assembled” with egg yolk, sausage and cheese.  But by itself?  No way!  I mean….he was so offended that couldn’t even stand the idea of the egg whites taking up precious real estate on his plate for a second longer.  Amazing. 

There are everyday examples of similar behavior which merit consideration: eating white rice vs. brown rice, white bread vs. whole wheat, iceberg lettuce vs. romaine, artifically-sweetened fruit drinks vs. fresh squeezed, salted nuts vs. unsalted, deep fried vs. baked, etc.  These are just a few examples of how the slightest adjustments can positively impact our overall health.  Yet many people simply do not make these choices.

While easy to recognize unhealthy eating behaviors, it is difficult to pinpoint the root cause.  And considering the escalating rates of obesity and heart disease, it is a sad state of affairs.  Yeah, I laughed when the guy growled and threw out his egg whites, but I really felt bad for him.  He obviously has no desire whatsoever to make healthy food choices.  So why does this happen?  Why is it that dieting breeds contempt?  Is it because dieting is different or abnormal?  Is it because people don’t feel the need?  Is it because of a lack of awareness?  Is it because people don’t seek to understand?  Is it because of laziness?  Is it because of cost?  Is it because it is uncool?  I don’t know the answer, but if/when I figure it out, you will most certainly find it published here.


Leave a comment

Filed under Food

Leave a Reply


You are commenting using your account. Log Out /  Change )

Google photo


Twitter picture


Facebook photo


Connecting to %s