I saw a video clip on Yahoo! this morning that made me drop my jaw in disgust and amazement. It was a clip on food, but unlike the spate of healthy eating pieces I've been seeing crop up all over the place, this was about good, old-fashioned deep fried food...in incarnations the likes of which you've never seen.
Let me tell you what I'm talking about. Fried peanut butter and banana sandwiches. Fried cheesecake. Fried Coca-Cola (that one really befuddled me). Fried cookie dough (which was the overall winner). These are the kinds of delicacies you'll run into at the Texas State Fair.
Texas happens to be the fried-food capital of the nation; it's also where the corn dog was invented. The interesting thing about the video was that it never took on a negative tone. More than anything, the State Fair was seen as a fun, delicious novelty event that didn't have any consequences on your health--despite the increasing rate of heart disease, obesity, and other chronic disorders that are directly connected to Americans' fatty, sedentary lifestyle. Now, I'm not one to take away anybody's fun, but more likely than not, the stuff you find at the Texas State Fair is the norm rather than some once-a-year collection of oddities. I used to have a friend in middle school who fried ALL of her food, and unsurprisingly, her entire family struggled with obesity. Now, I hear people whine about the sudden turn to health consciousness and how it's all hyperbolic b.s., but I always have to remind them that health zealots are still in the minority.
My overall point: watching the fried-food video fascinated me, but it also made me kind of sad.
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I saw a video clip on Yahoo! this morning that made me drop my jaw in disgust and amazement. It was a clip on food, but unlike the spate of healthy eating pieces I've been seeing crop up all over the place, this was about good, old-fashioned deep fried food...in incarnations the likes of which you've never seen.
Let me tell you what I'm talking about. Fried peanut butter and banana sandwiches. Fried cheesecake. Fried Coca-Cola (that one really befuddled me). Fried cookie dough (which was the overall winner). These are the kinds of delicacies you'll run into at the Texas State Fair.
Texas happens to be the fried-food capital of the nation; it's also where the corn dog was invented. The interesting thing about the video was that it never took on a negative tone. More than anything, the State Fair was seen as a fun, delicious novelty event that didn't have any consequences on your health--despite the increasing rate of heart disease, obesity, and other chronic disorders that are directly connected to Americans' fatty, sedentary lifestyle. Now, I'm not one to take away anybody's fun, but more likely than not, the stuff you find at the Texas State Fair is the norm rather than some once-a-year collection of oddities. I used to have a friend in middle school who fried ALL of her food, and unsurprisingly, her entire family struggled with obesity. Now, I hear people whine about the sudden turn to health consciousness and how it's all hyperbolic b.s., but I always have to remind them that health zealots are still in the minority.
My overall point: watching the fried-food video fascinated me, but it also made me kind of sad.