Ruhlman’s War on Lettuce

Actually, the great food writer doesn’t have anything against lettuce, per se. But Michael Ruhlman does have a serious beef with the anti-fat crusaders. As he recently blogged:

I know what it was that set me off today. A random article, out of the blue, I shouldn’t even have read it. It referred to great food cooked with rendered fat as “early-grave food heaven.” Why do people say stupid things like this?

Because the media bombards us with the simplistic message that Fat Is Bad For You, and it pisses me off.

Why? Because it’s not true.  Fat is good for you.  Fat is good for your body.  I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Fat doesn’t make you fat, EATING TOO MUCH MAKES YOU FAT! Eating every morsel of your mile high Cheesecake Factory plate is what makes you fat.  Eating a whole bag of Doritos is what makes you fat.  Eating when you’re not hungry makes you fat!

He goes on,

To argue that fat is bad for you is akin to arguing that homemade chocolate chip cookies or apple pie is bad for you. Is ice cream bad for you? Of course not. Putting away a couple of pints of Rocky Road every night, that probably is. Obviously too much ice cream and too much fat is bad for you.  If all you ate was lettuce, lettuce would be bad for you.

When was last time you heard a nutritionist warning you about the dangers of lettuce? Well, I’m here to make you wise. If lettuce is the only thing you eat, you will get sick, you’re going to have serious health issues. It can lead to dangerous malnutrition, grave weight loss, and in women, infertility.

And I thought I was being healthy by going regularly to Chop’t. (Of course that Po’ Boy salad did come doused with creamy Tex-Mex Ranch, which probably contains just a smidgen of fat—12 grams to be precise.)

In any event, Ruhlman’s item (not to mention his blog and his books) is worth reading in its entirety.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *