Eating Light: In which this becomes a FATBLOG

Like many bloggers, one of my goals as both cook and blogger is to reduce the size and heft of meals. I need a new definition of balanced meal. Balanced once meant a plate of meat with a starch, a vegetable (or two), and bread, maybe salad, and then dessert. Membership in the Clean Plate Club was mandatory. Now many of us are resigning from the Clean Plate Club -- or at least hoping to be expelled.

This balanced idea has continued to dog us as we went through diet phases. At one point, diet advice was to eat grapefruit at every meal. Or for breakfast. Or at lunch to cut the sandwich bread in thinner slices. Or eat the bread and cut down on what was in the sandwich. Or cut out the sandwich and just eat the lettuce and a slice of turkey. Endless and pointless variations, and we are all fatter.

Calories count. We can have also learned to count fat grams, mono-, di-, unsaturated, and trans-fat-grams; carbohydrates, high-glycemic carbos, and whatever. How many authors have recently commented that cutting down on fat worked until the invention of fattening non-fat food. When Snackwells were rare even that was ok. Then Nabisco solved its production problems: you could have all the packages of Snackwells you wanted.

I guess I need to resign from counting things as well.

Mindless Eating is my current favorite book. And I do like to read food books, even if they lead to eating. I hereby begin to explore new routes to mindful eating, mindful that I shouldn't be thinking about it.