Professor Food on Garland's Radio Show on WWL

[LauraMc]

Where did he go in Europe that had no fat people? A co-worker of mine went to Germany, Croatia, Serbia, and surrounding area and there were fat people in her pics (and no, they weren't tourists).

[bdavid]

I just got back from the south of France where I saw many overweight people - and lots of them were on the clothing-optional beaches. Ewww!
But I did find that portion sizes were much more reasonable and that walking/biking is much more the norm.

[LiveOak]

Where did he go in Europe that had no fat people? A co-worker of mine went to Germany, Croatia, Serbia, and surrounding area and there were fat people in her pics (and no, they weren't tourists).

I have been to Italy once and the rarity of obese people was very noticeable. I attribute it to a couple of things. One, I did not see hide nor hair of anything like the junk food we have here in America. No candy bars, no donuts, no sickly sweet pastries. Two, people ordered bowls of fruit for dessert. Three, when bread was served the first thing the Italians did was to rip out the soft middle of the bread and eat the crust. Four, salad was always a last course (which seems logical in that the fiber and roughage would help speed all the previous courses through the digestive system). Five, very little of what they eat is processed. They shop every day for what they need that day and the meals are very simple. The vegetables in the outdoor markets are gorgeous. Six, everybody walks everywhere.

I know this is basically what is termed the Mediterranean diet (or lifestyle), and it seems very common sense. I doubt this would be the case in a place like France or other European countries. I imagine Greece would be similar.

[globe9]

Garland stated that he and his wife went to England and France and did not see any fat people. I'm sure he saw a few, but not anything like we have here. I don't know where exactly they went, nor can *I* comment on the preponderence of fat people in Europe, I'm just commenting on what he stated.

He said when they came home they went to the movies and he commented on how a number of people barely fit in their seats.

This observation made him wonder why obesity seemed to be much less of a problem in Europe than it is in the U.S. and eventually led to him having that quack on his show.

[Suzy Wong]

Where did he go in Europe that had no fat people? A co-worker of mine went to Germany, Croatia, Serbia, and surrounding area and there were fat people in her pics (and no, they weren't tourists).

I would think in those countries that would be the case, with the harsh winters and (carbohydrate) heavy foods.

He probably was talking about France, Italy and
or Spain....

[nolagirl]

Garland just announced that he is going to issue an apology for this show on today's (Wed July 29) show at 12 noon.

By the way, I did ask my registered dietician friend about this, and she said, "yeah, total quack - i've not heard of ANY of that .... it's almost so outrageous it would seem like it's a complete joke. Like a nutritional version of that Orson Welles hoax or something....!"

[Oyster]

How could Garland allow his producer to set this up without consent of THE DEAN? All programs related to food should be signed off on by TF. WWL/WWWL should institute this policy immediately!

[BTG]

I think Garland or his producers took ad money to allow this guy on.
Did anyone hear the appology and explanation today? I heard him around 11:30 talking about how he was going to discuss it in detail in the 12:00 segment.

[globe9]

I heard most of the explanation and apology yesterday. Garland said a friend of his emailed him about the guy and told Garland he had to get him on the show. Garland said he'd been doing weeks of shows on healthcare and wanted to lighten it up a bit so he wikipedia'd the guy and saw M.I.T. and basically that was the extent of his research. He apologized for this.

He said after Mon.'s show, he received hundreds of emails from people saying how excited and interested they were in this guy's info, but that his website had no info. just trying to sell stuff. Garland, apparently hadn't been to the website yet, so went to it and saw that it was just a shill site trying to sell this guy's tapes.

Garland then said he called M.I.T. and they had no record of this guy(I cannot for the life of me remember his name other than i think it was Brian something). So Garland then called up the websites administrator who said that Brian whatever was not his real name, but his stage name. They said that this guy used to have a website where he gave out all of his info for free, but he wasn't making any money, so he hired them. Apparently the website has now changed to something different. This guy DID go to M.I.T. under his real name and has a degree in electrical engineering. The guy did write a book as well. Basically he's touting a "Zone" type diet.

I didn't get to hear anymore as i had to get out of the car.

[UptownKevin]

I am on the portion size band wagon. "We" all got fatter with the biggie this and upgrade that food system. One of the reasons that using a smaller plate to put your food on works for a lot of people. It looks like a lot and you don't feel deprived. I think that is also the appeal of some of the new housing developments that are popping up now, that have mini towns in them. You can bike and walk to everything like you used to be able to do in the "old days".

I am with you on the portion size. I can eat whatever I want, but do it in moderation. "Eat less and exercise more" really does work. For anyone.

Sure do wish we could go back to the days of living in simpler times and walking everywhere. Unfortunately opinions have changed and we're all relegated to living in "suburbia hell," as I call it. I guess people were not happy having bars, pharmacies and grocery stores in their neighborhoods, so now they're so far away we have to drive. We now have what we've asked for...

-Kevin