Food Television-Thoughts

 I loved Graham Kerr!  l even have one of his cookbooks (best cucumber salad recipe!!) - he was so entertaining, and made me want to sit down and have a meal with him.  He was so REAL. =)

so what?  It tastes better with butter and if taste is the number one thing for these cooks, then so be it.  I hate born again anythings.  Non smokers, non drinkers and i guess ex fatties who have no tolerance for others living their lives and cooking or eating as they wish.  As for them selling us a bill of goods, unless eight year olds are getting in the kitchen and frying up some lard I'd say that the least informed person knows what will make them fat.  I did and i made a choice of whether i wanted that Alfredo sauce instead of the marinara.  I will also say this.   Now that there are so many things off my eating list i enjoy watching the luscious being prepared.  also food is not the enemy for everyone regardless of their bodies.  It's how sense memories get made.  Families rejoice in food around the holidays, folks feel loved at birthdays and other special occasions and food is a huge part of that.  I accept that carrying weight was difficult for me but it isn't for everyone and that's just fine. I also think it's better to see the result of eating in these cooks as opposed to a Giada, so there is not one person watching any of your list who believes you can cook and eat like this and be a size 2.  Also FYI in terms of Giada, there was a strong rumor going around that there was a weight clause in her contract since everyone else on the network was overweight and they wanted her to stay beneath a certain weight.  The word is it doesn't make her the the most pleasant person to work with.

I guess i believe that judging people because of their weight on either side of the scale is something ugly.

I do agree that modeling oneself after someone who seems (at least outwardly so) to be extremely unhealthy, morbidly obese in some instances, and possibly on the verge of diabetes and hypertension with the high salt/high carb/high fat/high calorie diets they enjoy and tout on a daily basis is generally speaking a bad idea. But, I must admit that I do love watching the cooking network for their entertainment factor, mostly.

And, like Edelu, I enjoy watching people prepare and enjoy the rich/lucious preparations of food that I now choose to avoid. It somehow makes me feel less deprived if I can see that someone else is choosing to have it even when I usually don't... and even when that someone is a famous cooking show host or chef on television. Silly, I know, but true.

I also love the excitement of people experiencing something that, to me, is a true joy in life-- food is amazing. When it's prepared well and tastes unbelievable you get a visceral full bodied reaction. There's no denying the fact that that happens...

And while many of us may choose not to do that with high fat calorie dense food options, I still get alot of excitement out of watching other people enjoy themselves when they do. Even on the rare occasion when I might prepare them for people.



Edited to add: When my dad spent two years without eating anything by mouth (fed himself ensure plus through a feeding tube in his stomach for two years after aggressive cancer therapies damaged his esophagus so much so that there was no opening/connection for food to travel to his stomach from his mouth or vice versa really) he watched the food network CONSTANTLY. He said he used to dream of fried fish when he'd doze off in front of the television (and he HATES fish!) and gain huge amounts of pleasure by watching other people enjoy something that he could not. I think this is an interesting opinion and maybe one of the reasons I also enjoy the food network-- I know it made that time so much more tolerable to my dad when he was at his sickest, so in a way it worked for him like therapy might work for someone else. Shrug. Just an observation.

I used to love all the cooking shows and collected cookbooks and learned a lot from these shows even if I didn't run out and make the stuff. It satisfied some sort of creative drive that I had.

But now I can't stand watching cooking shows. It just starts up some head hunger that I don't need and I have other creative outlets. I do wish there were more healthy cooking shows but I guess no one watches them.  

Sad that Paula Deen's work made her a diabetic. And whatever happened to Paul Prudhomme (sp?).  He was smo and always had to be sitting when interviewed. And how is it that Julia Childs made it to a ripe  old age and wasn't overweight even though she was into butter and cream? The French Paradox (which I believe is about modest portions and no between meal snacking).

But I don't think Rachel Ray is overweight.

Diane

 
Hi Diane,

I still enjoy most all the shows.... I just try and think or the dishes with eliminating some ingredients and/or substitutions.

Here is a link to a Paula Deen story.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2086500/Paula-Deen-diabetes-rumours-TV-cook-address-claim-hid-diagnosis-fans.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

And the last I ever heard of Paul Prudomme...he had lost a lot of weight with an RNY.

frisco