Ooh, La La – Join Thousands Around the World at a French Cocktail Party
Be sure to include some luscious camembert at your party.
This little tidbit of foodie news jumped to my attention because of my Entertaining blog site on About.com. The French, with the objective of making their food appear more consumer-friendly, are promoting June 4 as the day to host a French Cocktail Hour House Party.
The event will be a combination of large city events and smaller parties in private homes in 19 countries around the globe. They are hoping to convince 1,000 homes to host one of these parties, and have arranged for French wine and cheese discounts, as well as French party supply goodie bags, for the selected households. The French government is underwriting 60% of this promotion, and the applications are being processed in the U.S. by House Party, Inc. Whether or not you agree with French politics, you can’t argue with their wine, cheese or this fun opportunity.
Saving the Best for Last
I could tell with one glance what her favorite dinner item was.
I cooked a very simple dinner tonight since my preparation time was broken up by chauffeuring duties for sports practices. Dinner included grilled chicken and potatoes and arugula salad with a lemon dressing. I followed a recipe but the dressing was a little tart, not our favorite item, despite the fact that most of us like arugula. At one point in the dinner, I looked at Annie’s plate and realized that her favorite part of the dinner was the potatoes, since she follows the “save the best for last” method of eating.
So, that observation got me thinking about how often the rest of us follow that philosophy too, and how that could be hurting our diets. How often do we shovel in the healthy stuff so that we can get to dessert? I know kids certainly follow that approach, but I wouldn’t be surprised if many adults do that as well.
I wonder if by delaying gratification, we build up a much greater appetite for the stuff we like, eating more than we would if we ate it first. And do we eat more in general because we feel we should “earn” the dessert?
I just wonder if we ate the part we liked first, and stopped our appetite in its tracks, if we would be satisfied by less of our favorite food item, whether it’s the potatoes or the dessert. And then we could proceed to eat a reasonable portion of the rest. What do you think?
Beware the Healthy Halo
All of that cheese makes this less healthy than we might hope.
This week I’ve read a few articles that discuss one of the more popular food marketing gimmicks – the healthy halo. Essentially, food marketers are attempting to trick consumers into purchasing their products by using healthy food claims on packaging for less than healthy food items. An easy example is fruit snacks for kids – they’re loaded with sugar, artificial colorings and flavorings, but by tossing in vitamin C and promoting that prominently on the package, parents believe they’re buying a healthy snack for their children – NOT.
Another example is granola. It sure sounds healthy and natural – in fact labeling someone “granola” implies that they are the natural type – unadorned, kind of crunchy, dry, and I suppose healthy. In reality, most commercially sold granola is loaded with fat and sugar, making it more of an indulgence than a healthy meal item.
Salads are another example. Vegetables, fruits, chicken, what’s not to love and feel good about a salad? In truth, the abundance of dressing, cheeses and nuts sometimes place salads in competition with a cheeseburger for a less than healthy choice.
There are other healthy buzzwords used as new product flavors, because they’re associated with ingredients that scientists have recently touted as healthy. For example, pomegranate and green tea have become the flavors du jour because of the health claims. However, the underlying food may be as unhealthy as before, whether it’s a sugar filled dessert or a fat laden beverage.
The lesson here is not so much that you should never eat these foods if you like them. Rather, don’t choose them only because you’ve been tricked into believing they are healthy. Read labels and nutrition facts in restaurants (on their websites if necessary) before you decide what to eat. Then make an informed decision knowing whether the item is truly healthy, or just sounds that way. You may realize that since the health benefits aren’t really there, you may as well order that cheeseburger after all!