Tag: eating

eating like a millionaire

I don’t make it a habit to daydream about how I’d live if I won the lottery and had millions of dollars. It’s just not all that productive or fruitful, though I admit it has happened before. But I thought of it again recently due to a news story.

Mike Lindell (CEO of My Pillow) is back in the news because the FBI “raided” him at a Hardee’s drive-thru and took his phone (with a warrant). I won’t get into all the politics of that (except to remind you to get your news from multiple sources so you get the full story and not just what fits the narrative of “conservative news” or “liberal news”). (Also let me remind you to not get into a political rant in the comments or it may be deleted. If it’s a funny joke, that may be okay, though.)

Anyway, so Lindell is a multi-millionaire, at one point worth an estimated $500 million. He can afford to eat anything he wants. And of course, he is free to choose to eat anything he wants, so if Hardee’s is his preferred place for a burger, that’s fine. It just seems odd to me. I’m not trying to dis’ Hardee’s at all — they sell fast food at a certain price point, and there’s a market for that — but there are better burgers available, albeit for a higher price. It’s just that Lindell can afford any burger he wants.

I don’t know what restaurants are available in the town where he works, and I don’t care to research that. But here’s my idea. Since he’s the CEO of his own company, he could just hire someone to grill burgers for him with an actual charcoal grill and cook whatever else he wants whenever he wants, and clean it all up, and he could write the whole thing off as a business expense. Wouldn’t that be awesome?

Granted, it is somewhat extravagant to have your own personal chef, although he is a millionaire. But he could do even more with that idea — he could share that food with other people in the company, which would boost morale significantly. I used to work at a large corporation, and I still remember when they’d have free burgers. They weren’t great burgers, but they were good, and they were free. People get excited about free food. And even if the company didn’t want to add that expense, they could offer it to the employees at cost. They could even use high-quality ingredients, then. That would boost morale, and it would encourage employees to take a shorter lunch by staying on-campus. Then it becomes a win-win.

I do realize this whole discussion is based on the premise of grilling a great-tasting burger. I don’t know if most people feel this way or not. But I have researched the taste of my own grilled burgers against the burgers at various restaurants around town, and I prefer a freshly-grilled burger at home. If others don’t feel the same way, maybe that just means they’re not as good at grilling… 🙂 It is important to note that the quality of ingredients matters, too — not all beef patties are the same quality, as well as other ingredients, and technique matters.

Maybe Lindell is is penny-pinching because he’s concerned about that lawsuit over the voting machines where Dominion is suing him for all-the-money… Although one could argue that he should live it up while he can because he may soon be poor or middle-class like most of us.

Note-to-self: if any of us ever win the lottery and start a research company, we could do this food write-off proper. Well, not just proper (which is a saying), but next-level awesome. The concept could be applied to other foods, too. And while free food is great, the IRS now wants to tax employees for it when they receive free food at work, so selling it at cost might be the better option. Imagine if for your lunch break you had the option to get a steak grilled to your liking using high-quality ingredients, at cost. I figure most of us would like to eat more steak, but it’s quite expensive, especially if you want it done well. If it was at cost, it could be just a few dollars, which would greatly improve morale around the workplace…

Can Cheetos cure headaches? (part 2)

One of the most popular posts here is “Can Cheetos cure headaches?” And rightfully so — if true, that would be a huge scientific breakthrough. Plus, Cheetos are tasty. How awesome would it be if your doctor prescribed for you to eat more Cheetos? 🙂

I initially wrote that 15 years ago (which doesn’t seem possible, but the math says so somehow). Since then I’ve done more research*. (* I ate more Cheetos.) Seriously (or at least pseudo-seriously), since then I’ve had more headaches (I’m also now married with children, which the data seems to suggest a correlation there, but that’s a topic for another day), and I have indeed eaten more Cheetos.

So, rambling aside (not really), do Cheetos really cure headaches? Well, it depends on how you define “cure”. It doesn’t remove the source of the headache, but neither does aspirin / acetaminophen. However, it can help you feel better, like aspirin / acetaminophen. I don’t think doctors will be prescribing it anytime soon due to a lack of healthiness, but if it helps you be more productive in your day, it can be worth it. You have to take care of yourself. And sometimes taking care of yourself can be accomplished by not taking care of yourself, if that makes sense. 🙂

Now, I’m no important doctor, so take all this with a grain of salt. Wait, no, don’t. Salt should not be added to Cheetos. But a disclaimer is still in order. It’s important to know that Cheetos do not work in the same way as aspirin or acetaminophen and thus do not replace them. So perhaps you should take both! 🙂

It’s possible it works due to the placebo effect, which means it is more psychological than scientific. Either way, if it helps, it helps. Comfort food is called that for a reason. (I do realize that comfort food usually refers to things like fried chicken and biscuits & gravy, but if your head is hurting, you probably don’t feel like cooking or going to a restaurant. So you need something quick and easy to eat that is also delicious. Oreos and ice cream also fit in this category, of course.)

Really, though, just eating seems to help headaches somewhat (unless it goes into migraine territory). Well, eating something tasty helps. I’m pretty sure eating broccoli would NOT help my headache. I haven’t researched that, and I don’t plan to. Why would I try to reduce pain by eating something that causes more discomfort? Common sense applies here, if you happen to have it. 🙂

Disclaimer: This post is not sponsored by Cheetos in any way, though if they’d like to send me free bags of Cheetos, that would be okay.

eating bacon to live longer

bacon - sea of baconI just heard about a 105-year-old woman in Texas who says her secret is that she eats bacon every day.  I don’t know if that will stand up to medical scrutiny, but it’s worth something.

The article reveals her bacon “secret”, which should be enough for the whole article.  But then it talks about her birthday party, which featured over 200 guests, which is okay, I guess.  But then it goes into explaining why bacon has gotten a bad rap lately.  It’s somewhat ironic, given the subject of the article.  Apparently some research study linked processed meat to a premature death.  But check out their results — they claim that eating less than 20g per day (which is 0.7 ounces) could prevent an estimated 3% of premature deaths each year.  So if you eat only a bite or two of meat per day, you have a 3% chance of living longer.  For people who follow that advice, I wonder what the odds are on premature death due to not enjoying life as much…  (To each their own, but that advice wouldn’t work for me.)

The article then references another study saying that even a single serving of processed red meat increased the risk of participants dying by 20%.  I may not be a statistician, but I figure the risk of dying is 100%.  🙂  You can eat all the plants you want, but it is appointed for everyone to meet their Maker at some point.

Obviously bacon is somewhat unhealthy — not completely, but in some ways.  However, if a single serving of bacon (or any red meat) increases your risk of dying by 20%, and this woman has eaten bacon every day for 105 years so far (which could be up to 38,000 times), what would her risk of dying be?  I’d like to see one of those researchers calculate it and go tell her.  Maybe she’s like one of those cartoon characters who is invulnerable to the laws of physics because they don’t understand it.  🙂  Either way, whatever she’s doing has worked for her.

This breakfast platter from Tony's I-75 restaurant in Birch Run, MI, has 1 pound of bacon.
This breakfast platter from Tony’s I-75 restaurant in Birch Run, MI, has 1 pound of bacon.

I’m not claiming that all this research is bogus, but I think there’s a LOT more to it than just saying eating meat will kill you early.  I’ve known quite a few people — including my grandparents — who ate big country meals all the time (which included lots of butter, gravy, and fried foods), yet lived to be 90+ and still had above-average health.  I know that’s a small sample, but when you consider how Americans used to eat versus what we now “know” about nutrition, it’s amazing any of them lived past 25.  I’m not saying fattening foods are healthy, but I do wonder if natural / organic fattening foods might be healthier than much of the modern stuff with preservatives and additives and chemicals.  I can’t prove it, and I’m not convinced either way yet, but I do think there’s a lot more to nutrition and healthiness than we currently know.

Regardless of whether bacon is good for me or not, I’m now hungry for bacon…

holiday eating is not making you fat

In recent years I’ve heard some “experts” on TV say you should eat light on Thanksgiving so you don’t become obese.  First of all, that’s stupid, and second, the research doesn’t support such tomfoolery.  According to a study, the average weight gain for the holiday season (including Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s) is just 0.8 pounds.  That’s not a typo.  For all the hype from the media outlets, you’d think people were becoming instantly obese from a couple of big meals.  0.8 pounds is nothing — you can gain that just from eating normal, or if your regularity is not as regular.  I figured the number would be higher, given the big holiday meals, the extra cookies, and the parties.

Obviously some Thanksgiving meals are more fattening than others, but a traditional feast shouldn’t be that bad.  I figure a normal Thanksgiving dinner wouldn’t be more unhealthy than some of the things you can get at restaurants, particularly all-you-can-eat buffets.  Plus you might be eating less processed food, which could make it healthier.

To diet on Thanksgiving day and Christmas day is foolish, if you want my opinion.  It’s hard enough to diet and eat right, particularly if you enjoy eating.  To miss out on the most special meals of the year would be depressing.  If you’re seriously trying to lose weight, one way to approach it is to eat healthier in the days leading up to the big meals, to rationalize eating a lot at the family get-togethers and parties.

Of course, common sense disclaimers apply.  For example, if you’re on the verge of a heart attack or some other severe health problem, maybe you shouldn’t eat a huge meal, but in that case, you should do something about it NOW.

Let’s get back to the study, if I may rant for a minute.  The health “experts” shouldn’t try to make people feel bad during the holidays if the research shows that the holiday eating isn’t the problem.  Here’s what irked me most about the article:

In the study, 14% of overweight and obese individuals gained more than five pounds during the holiday. In the abstract, the researchers wrote, “holiday weight gain may be an important contributor to the rising prevalence of obesity, even though absolute values for weight gain in this study were less than anticipated.”

Okay, so obese people gained more weight than average.  That’s not exactly breaking news, since they’ve obviously been gaining weight before then, so they’re just continuing the trend.  But notice the quote from the researchers, which basically says they’re still sticking to their hypothesis even though the statistics don’t support it.  Hopefully some people were reprimanded over that kind of junk.

So in conclusion, don’t feel bad about eating a few big meals during holiday feasts and parties.  The obesity problem isn’t caused by a couple of big meals here and there.  (Shouldn’t that be common sense?)  And the next time a news person on TV says to cut back during the holidays, eat another piece of pecan pie… or pumpkin pie… or cookies… you get the idea.  🙂  Eat, drink, and be merry.