What’s Happening: Junk Food and TV

Junk food is definitely in the news this week:

• Amy Kubal’s latest post on Robb Wolf’s site takes on the issue of Paleo junk food. Just because it’s gluten-free and made with coconut oil doesn’t mean it’s healthy! Breaking out of the emotional attachment to dessert foods can be tough, but ultimately it’s better to enjoy your Paleo food for what it is, instead of trying to make it into something else.

• Paleo cookies might be less than ideal, but at least they don’t have billboards, unlike some other kinds of junk food we could name. Marion Nestle provides a skeptical take on the Coca-Cola company’s latest effort to persuade us that they’re selling health food. In our article about hypertension this week, we discussed how the soft drink industry is sponsoring studies to make us all believe that their products are healthy “in moderation.” Now, they’ve come up with an impressively misleading infographic implying that obesity is nothing but calorie balance, and it’s really all our fault for not exercising enough. As if!

There’s no better accompaniment to junk food than a mindless TV show, and Paleo found its way to the little screen this week when Dr. Oz interviewed Loren Cordain and Nell Stephenson on “The Paleo Diet Craze” (you can get a transcript here if you don’t want to watch the video).

The show didn’t cover anything new, but it was pretty fair (significantly more positive than his previous coverage of Gary Taubes). Paleo wasn’t played off as some extreme fad or dismissed out of hand. It’s really interesting to see from this show how far the Paleo movement has evolved beyond the original low-fat, high-protein prescription: the “Paleo plate” on the show is one way to do it, but a lot of us would also add more saturated fats, safe starches, and even dairy to that template in various amounts. Some of us enjoy Dr. Cordain’s suggested cheat meals; others find it easier to stay very strict. It would really be great to see a TV segment that celebrated all this diversity instead of trying to brand “Paleo” as just one thing.

On the other hand, it’s nice to see an emphasis on eating lots of veggies, and the prominent, positive press is always good news. You can find Paleo responses to the episode:

• Angelo Coppola at Humans Are Not Broken noted that Dr. Cordain left out a discussion of seed oils, and suggested that there are plenty of legitimate ways of eating Paleo that are slightly different.
• Richard Nikoley at Free the Animal was positive overall, even though the Paleo template on the show didn’t exactly fit with his own eating habits.
• Beth at Weight Maven pointed out that the sample meals on the show didn’t actually match the “Paleo plate” template - it really is about more than bacon!

Did you watch the Dr. Oz show? Let us know what you thought on Facebook or Google+!