Dec 01 Filling up on TV

I’m in no way in tip top condition, but to help keep me from expanding into a muumuu, I run as a way to keep the calories from piling up.

As someone who eats and drinks for a living, it can sometimes be tough to have a weekly diet that doesn’t at times, tip the scales in the wrong direction.

From sampling new beverage-alcohol products to produce tasting notes to diving into the recipes we shoot for the magazine to ensure they taste as good as they look, I’m usually surrounded by both of them most of the time.

Again, I hit the treadmill as a way to at least mitigate the onslaught of incoming work-related foodstuffs (yes, I know, I have it REALLY rough).

While I’m doing so, I usually have the TV tuned to the Food Network and as of late, I’m wondering what’s up.

I’m usually partaking in the noon-hour schedule but as of late, pretty much every personality on every show I’m watching are making dishes that can’t possibly be considered healthy.

You may or may not know that I’m in charge of the family meals in our house and as such, I know exactly what I’m putting into them. Or more specifically, what I’m not.

I use heart healthy olive oil to cook with, fresh ingredients, minimal salt and very little sugar. So when I see all of these celebrity chefs pushing ideas for meals that are chock full of butter and/or sugar, I can only ask, what the heck?

The other day the Chef at Home made a few dishes that he served to kids that included freshly squeezed lemonade and then ice cream at the end of lunch. To me, that blew my mind.

I don’t have a problem with making this kind of stuff, since it was all made from scratch, but it bothered me because no kid needs that much sugar at any meal. The lemonade alone had something like 3 cups of sugar in it and the ice cream? Oh yeah, full-fat whipping cream.

Seriously? For lunch?

Then on the next show, Ricardo went on to make dumplings in maple syrup for his kids?

What the hell?

What do you think? Are cooking shows starting to feature more food that’s full of butter and sugar to appeal to people? Or, is this simply an exception?