This year, it's Wendy's turn. Donate a dollar to the JDRF, and the fast food chain'll give you coupons for four small "Frostys" -- Wendy's sugary ice cream treat. Because hey: One can never have enough Frostys, especially when diabetes research is on the line.
And how did they pick the winners? Fitness Magazine shares its methodology:
We worked with top nutritionists to find hundreds of sweet, salty, and savory treats that are low in calories and fat. Then we crunched our way through them to bring you the best-tasting options to satisfy any craving -- and still keep you slim.
Oooh! "Top nutritionists"! "Low in calories and fat!" "Crunching!" Scientific!
So without further ado, here are a few of the items selected by Fitness Magazine as the “healthiest” foods available to us:
Frito-Lay's Rold Gold Pretzels (as one Fitness Magazine editor says, “the salt helps keep me going!” -- and we all know that salt is the human body’s primary energy source!)
Frankly, it’s a relief to see that grass-fed, pastured meat and sustainably-grown vegetables aren’t anywhere on the magazine’s list of “healthiest” foods. Otherwise, I would’ve suspected that Fitness Magazine’s editors had caved to the influence of the nation's evil, super-powerful lobby of small, local farmers and ranchers.
This workout (performed by Laura from CrossFit Melbourne) looks worse than anything else I've ever done. Not only does it heavily emphasize rowing (my nemesis), but also the ingestion of all sorts of non-Paleo awfulness -- and finishing with burpees. If it were me, I'm pretty sure that yellow bucket would be put to good use.
I rarely deviate from strict Paleo eating. (Example: In the past several months, I've eaten only one sugary dessert. And THAT one was totally worth it.) It hasn't been all that hard for me to pass up grains, legumes and sugar; I've never been a huge fan of any of the above. I don't have a sweet tooth.
BUT: If -- after careful consideration -- I'm absolutely certain that the pleasure of downing a non-Paleo food item is going to totally eclipse any resulting intestinal distress, I'll have zero qualms about eating it. And once the decision's made, I don't go about it half-assed. I go all out.
The dairy source may be Paleo-friendly, but I certainly don't miss ice cream enough to guzzle from the teats of strangers. (Or eat sugar, for that matter.)
To the outside world, the Flintstones appeared to be enjoying a perfectly Paleo lifestyle. They ate eggs:
And meat:
They moved around a lot:
And lifted heavy things:
But brace yourselves: Mounting evidence suggests that the Flintstones weren't, in fact, as Paleo-compliant as we have been led to believe. Believe ir or not, research indicates that they ingested all sorts of NEOLITHIC AGENTS OF DISEASE!
Let's hope Captain Caveman was better about hewing closer to an ancestral diet. Otherwise, I swear I'm going to stop watching (as many) Hanna-Barbera cartoons.
The latest version of the ever-unhelpful USDA Dietary Guidelines (“just eat less!”) are out. Once again, they’re dumb. Once again, Guidelines demonize saturated fat and sodium, but seem to have no problem with carbs despite the USDA's own acknowledgment that Americans are stuffing themselves silly with the stuff.
(Psst: Saturated fat ain't the enemy. Get yourself a tub of coconut oil and see.)
So if you don't have enough change jangling around in your pocket, skip the vending machine and go get yourself some ice cream nachos and/or ice cream bread.
This is, after all, the same girl who routinely took a two-hour round-trip drive just to buy a cup of her favorite ice cream. And flew to another state for pizza. (To say we are were big pizza fans would be a gross understatement.) And dropped a small fortune to have a big box of "the world's best chocolate" shipped to our house.
But she did it! Check out her Whole30 wrap-up -- including links to each day's food -- over at her blog, and give her a high-five while you're at it.
" over the holidays...)
