Did you know that we spend over $43 Billion — that’s billion with a capital B — on diet foods and weight-loss programs every year?

Professor Brian Wansick, PhD, author of the fascinating book, Mindless Eating and website, has something to say about this subject. Wansick also is the John Dyson Endowed Chair in the Applied Economics and Management Department at Cornell University, where he directs the Cornell Food and Brand Lab. He has designed and conducted over 250 studies, written over 100 academic articles, and made over 200 research presentations to governments and governors, to top universities and companies, to culinary institutes and research institutes on every continent but Antarctica.

But what exactly does he do? He describes his work this way:

Using precise methods of weighting foods eaten or discarded, [I work with] psychologists [who] test the accuracy of food claims and consumers’ perceptions.

It takes 3,500 extra calories to equal one pound weight gain. It doesn’t matter if we eat these extra 3,500 calories in one week or gradually over the entire year. Just 10 calories a day–one stick of Doublemint gum or three small Jelly Belly jelly beans–will make you a pound more portly one year from today. Only three Jelly Bellys a day! Fortunately, the same thing happens in the opposite direction.

Mindless Eating is filled with fascinating fallibilities that affect our eating decisions even when we think we would never fall for foolish tricks that lead us to gain weight by eating mindlessly.

If you’re interested in becoming a food researcher, check out employment opportunities at the Consumer Behavior program at Stanford University, the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College, the University of Illinois Hospitality Management Program, the Penn State Department of Nutritional Science, University of Maryland College of Behavioral and Social Sciences, eLab at Vanderbilt University, and the U.S. Army Natick Labs. This field is growing, so make sure to browse for consumer-behavior research programs on the Internet.

Crack An Egg

I’m not entirely sure whether well-intentioned doctors fully understand the mind-freezing impact of prescribing, “No more eggs, no more butter or fries or booze…” What is left? Rien! Nada! Nothing! But wait, wait..do tell me…

I’ve just discovered something important. Under the heading, “Cracking the Myth,” the Egg Board’s web site tells us:

“Many Americans have shied away from eggs – despite their taste, value, convenience and nutrition – for fear of dietary cholesterol. However, more than 40 years of research have shown that healthy adults can eat eggs without significantly impacting their risk of heart disease.”

And now, according to new United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) nutrition data, eggs are lower in cholesterol than previously recorded. It recently reviewed the nutrient composition of standard large eggs, and results show the average amount of cholesterol in one large egg is a mere 185 mg, a 14 percent decrease from eggs of the distant past.

I’ve also long held the view that butter is good for you. It makes your hair curl and your teeth shine. Contrary to what many modern health experts believe, “Butter is actually good for you,” says Dr. William Campbell Douglass II, editor of The Douglass Report,  a newsletter dedicated to debunking common medical myths. Because butter is actually full of nutrients that are good for the heart — including vitamin A, a vital antioxidant, and lecithin, which helps the body metabolize cholesterol and fats.

Julia Child

Wise woman, Julia Child, acknowledging a gasp from her live audience explained, “If you are worried about using all this butter, you can substitute heavy cream.”

While readily recognizing that everyone can find someone to agree with — whatever anyone already thinks — I still can’t help thinking that butter which comes from milk from contented

Contented Cows courtesy of Dmitry Kalinovsky

cows who live in the country must surely be better for the soul than margarine, which is manufactured in the city from chemicals including terribly ‘bad-for-you’ trans fat.

Will all this un-magical thinking lead to a ban of mother’s milk, loaded as it is with ”bad” things including cholesterol, saturated fat and sugar?

As for fries: it might be a good idea not to SUPERSIZE.

And addressing the subject of booze, I remember a little story about Mark Twain.

Mark Twain, 1907

Upon returning to the United Stated, a customs officer asked Twain if he had anything to declare.

“No.” said Twain, nonchalantly. “Just clothing.”

“Open your suitcase,” suspiciously demanded the customs official.

When the case was opened, the official discovered a bottle of bourbon and turned to Twain, asking sternly, “What is this, Sir.”

“Ah…,” said Twain — “That is my nightcap.”

Most people in the world survive on a repetitious diet of basically bland food.  For those who eat meat rarely or not at all, and usually have little else but rice and beans, the explosions of flavor imparted by salsas, chutneys, and other condiments and savory sauces relieve monotony and create the illusion of variety.  Lemon grass, soy sauce, mustard, ginger, tamarind, horseradish and fermented vinegars add a brilliant zing to the simplest preparations.  Small quantities of these flavorings are powerhouses of taste. Blow-your-head-off chilies bring incendiary fire to what otherwise would be a ho-hum meal.

Huge steaks are regarded in the United States with the same near reverence as the flag and the Constitution. Red meat is our national food just as Morocco has couscous, Austria has wiener schnitzel, Brazil has fejoada, and Russians boast of their borscht, Greeks are mad for moussaka, Koreans crave kimchi. In Japan, its sushi; in Thailand, pad Thai. Robert Burns wrote an ode to Scottish haggis. Italy has pasta for every occasion.  France sidesteps the issue of national dish by declaring with a massive shrug, that every French dish is better than anyone else’s and the rest of us are too cowed to argue the point.

Our eating behavior influences our anatomy, Physiology and the evolution of the human race itself.  Eating, in short, is inseparable from the behavior and the biology of the human species and our adaptation to the climate conditions that vary from tropical heat to Arctic cold.

Thus:  you may choose to explore a career creating new food flavors and if so check into NASFT, the National Association of Specialty Food Trade www.specialtyfood.com/nasft and IFF International Flavors and Fragrances, creator and manufacturer of flavors and fragrances. See the company profile, product listing, and contact form www.iff.com