THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, July 28, 1994 TAG: 9407280013
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A14 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: Short : 40 lines
Recent reports from the Center for Science in the Public Interest about what foods are bad for us have many people ready to give up and just eat anything they want. Mike Royko's column ``Food nags can kill anyone's appetite'' (July 24) is a good example.
Healthy foods taste better to me than unhealthy foods for the same reason that the opposite is true for Mr. Royko: We like what we are used to eating. If a person switches to low-fat eating, as I did a number of years ago, he or she will soon discover that the new taste is preferable.
A common criticism of the center's reports (though not made by Mr. Royko) is that they are ``politically incorrect'' for denouncing the foods of other cultures. Not so. The foods we eat in ethnic restaurants are especially prepared for the American palate and bear little resemblance to the real thing. Chinese in China traditionally consume a diet that is about 10 percent fat. Mexicans in Mexico eat an 18 percent fat diet, while Mexicans in the United States eat 30 percent, and ``gringo'' Americans eat about 40 percent. Italians do have a fairly high-fat diet, but it traditionally uses olive oil, a safe fat, as opposed to the heavy cream sauces served in the United States.
Mr. Royko has one thing right. It is easy to know what foods are high in fat. But it is not torture to eat the right foods, as the majority of Chinese, Italians and Mexicans in their home countries know.
Please pass me a banana.
DAVID P. SWAIN, director
Wellness Institute and Research Center
Old Dominion University
Norfolk, July 24, 1994 ILLUSTRATION: Drawing
by CNB