April's CR Diary

I like it - very well written and polite, yet really gets the point accross. You'll have to let us know if you get a personalized response, and if they do put out fruit instead. It's really amazing how much grassroots activism can accomplish.

Dear April,

I'm a frequent reader of your blog, and I've always been impressed with the quality of your writing. You are always friendly and professional, the information you provide is always clearly written and interesting, and any questions I have are often dealt with in the comments. It's obvious that you care deeply about your health and that of the general population.

The last time I read your blog, I noticed that there was a post about a hotel that had something unusual at the front desk: a case of chocolate chip cookies. The front desk staff informed you that the cookies were there as a courtesy to the guests, and very politely offered you one.

You just as politely declined, as you have every right to do.

Noting the percentage of Americans overweight, you have now drafted a letter requesting that the hotel offer fruit at the front desk, instead of cookies. Although I would also usually prefer fruit, probably 90% of Americans when offered the choice between a banana and a chocolate chip cookie, would prefer the cookie.

Wouldn't a better request be that the hotel simply offer fruit AND cookies? That way, the hotel can provide a service to the vast majority of guests who prefer something sweet, and also to individuals like you and I that prefer something more healthy.

Thank you so much for your consideration of this matter. I look forward to continuing to read your blog, and I hope that next time I'll be greeted at your home page with advice for those who wish to eat healthy, and acceptance of those who don't!

Great letter! Well written, concise and to the point. Next letter will have to be one to Dodger Stadium in LA. They've just announced a "cost saving" measure. An "All-you-can-eat" game day ticket. Includes every food item sold in the stadium on game day except beer and ice cream. Ugh.

On a totally different topic..I've begun blogging my CR journey per everyone's recommendation. If you have a chance to look, please do.

http://djhinva.blogspot.com/

Hi Al!

What a fun letter! Thanks for putting the time in to make it entertaining!

On the topic of asking the hotel to offer both fruit and cookies, I'd suggest that if you can possibly manage the time, read _Food Fight_ by Drs. Kelly Brownell and Katherine Battle Horgen. In it, there are some very clear examples from research on people's eating behavior that shows that when confronted with one high calorie, high sugar choice and one healthier choice, most people will choose the high calorie option. However, when presented with just the healthy choices, people eat them (for example, fruit) and express just as much satisfaction as if they had eaten the cookie. Brownell and Horgen do a much better job than I could of explaining the phenomenon, so I'll recommend their book and not attempt to paraphrase the whole thing.

Most overweight Americans say they want to lose weight and eat healthier. Once again, losing weight was the top New Year's Resolution. So clearly, people want to eat better. Bombarding them with high calorie food is counterproductive to their stated aim. I am not arguing that we outlaw cookies, or people who eat them. I am suggesting, however, that it's not in the interest of public health for people to be confronted with free junk food everywhere they go. Most hotels do not offer food on the front desk, so clearly, it is not necessary that we eat upon checking into a hotel. I can understand why a hotel might want to offer food as a token of hospitality, so I suggested an alternative food that wouldn't sabatogue people's efforts to eat better.

How many times have you heard someone say, "I'm trying to eat better, but the junk food was there and I couldn't resist the temptation?" People complain at length that it's hard to avoid weight gain during the holidays because offices are awash in cookies and candy, family tables groan with high calorie desserts, and we're hearing that visions of sugarplums should be dancing in our heads. (I suspect a sugarplum would be a lot better than the food folks are actually eating, but I'm not quite sure, having never read the nutrition information on a sugarplum.) It's a simple fact that when there's a ton of unhealthy stuff around, people will eat it, in spite of their stated intention not to. Asking a hotel to stop offering cookies isn't depriving people of choice -- those same hotel guests can walk next door to the store and purchase a cookie if they wish to. But they don't need to be confronted with an unhealthy food in a setting where food isn't even necessary in the first place.

april

April, I'm glad you took the comment in the way it was intended -- as a good natured spoof on your intended letter. (I would have emailed you directly but didn't see an address on your site.)

I appreciate your reference to "Food Fight" and must tell you after reading about it recently on your blog, I went right out and purchased it. It's a very compelling read.

I also agree that most folks when presented with a choice of junk food and something healthy will choose the junk. I don't agree that if the healthy choice was the only alternative that I, for one, would be just as happy with it.

To me it's like the folks on different CRON blogs I've read recently that gush over how absolutely wonderful fresh raspberries are or how satisfying 8 almonds were for dessert. These people claim that 1/2 cup of blueberries taste better than any dessert they've ever had!

Please.

There isn't a fruit or berry in the entire world that tastes better to me than any number of junk food desserts; like ice cream, coconut custard pie, and coffee cake to name just a few. If I'm listing desserts that taste the best, fruit and berries don't even make it in the top 10 -- perhaps not even the top 25.

That's not to say that I eat junk food all day because I don't. But would I be just as happy with an apple as opposed to a chocolate chip cookie? No way -- though most times I'd probably take the apple.

I just don't think it's my job (or yours) to tell the folks at the Hilton what NOT to provide for their guests. I think it's perfectly acceptable to ask for something -- such as fruit -- if that's what you want.

Just my two cents.

Al

Hi Al!

So glad you're enjoying reading Food Fight!

As to fruit and berries as desserts... well, taste is taste. I, for one, never was much of a dessert person. Aside from an extraordinarily predictable PMS craving for one handfull of M&M's once a month, I can pretty much leave the chocolate alone. I, on the other hand, used to LOVE bagels with cream cheese! My boyfriend doesn't like them, but loves fine dark chocolate. We all have different tastes. I marvel at a person who genuinely does not like red wine. But they exist. I met one the other day.

As to taste and healthy food, I think people who enjoy healthy food are lucky, and I count myself lucky that I was raised to have an appreciation for the fruit and vegetable kingdom. I also think that eating fewer calories heightens your sense of taste, so things you didn't like or just didn't love before might be more appealing. Many of us have had that experience.

As to telling hotels what we would like them to do, or not do, we tell business owners what we would prefer all the time. They actively solicit comments so they can make their customers happy. We make choices on where to take our business based on how much of what we want merchants will give us, or how much of what we don't want they'll get rid of.

BTW, the Hilton already offers fruit. It's the Comfort Suites that has the cookies. As far as I know, all the Hilton brands (including Hampton Inns) have a big basket of apples and or bananas on the desk.

a

If I may interject....It's funny that you guys are talking about this (taste issue)today because it's exactly what I wrote about on my blog. I am a junk food whore, as I have proclaimed in the past. I love chocolate, soda, pizza, ice cream the whole 9. When I was planning my CR transition, I thought it was going to be very difficult to give up all these lovely (yeah right) things. Two weeks in and I am seeing that it is not that hard at all. As a matter of fact, I tried to eat pizza today (or well I did eat a whole slice). I really didnt enjoy the flavors as much as I had remembered them. Honestly! And now I just feel crappy for eating it and I dont mean mentally, but physically. As American's we believe it is perfectly natural to eat gak. We think it is crazy not to like things like ice cream and McDonalds, but I truly believe now that if you rid your life of this crappy food, it will remain just that in your mind and on your taste buds; CRAP! You will naturally enjoy whole natural foods so much more.

I don't see why you'd have to advocate for removal of cookies in favor of fruits? I never buy junk food for the home, and am a very health conscious eater, with fresh fruits and veggies forming the bulk of what I eat. However the odd meeting and signs of gracious hospitality are the few times I pick up a slice of pizza or a cookie. I recently stayed at a hotel in DC that had left gourmet cookies on the bedside table, which were a wonderful treat when I arrived after a delayed flight at 3am hungry and with nothing else to eat. I even wrote the manager a lovely note on their thoughtfulness.

The middleground is to ask for fruits to also be offered. We all make food choices for ourselves, and what I enjoy about this blog most is reading about your choices for yourself. No one appreciates a food dictator. Why should you insist on taking away options for the rest of us?

Again, I am not arguing that people not be allowed to eat cookies. I am arguing that having a constant barage of free junk food in places that aren't even eating establishments sets most people up for eating way more calories than they intend to, winding up in an obesity epidemic that is causing serious negative health consequences for large portions of the population. If you want a cookie, go get a cookie. I purchase a cookie every few months myself and enjoy it. But most people are not eating junk food on an occasional basis... they're consuming large amounts of calories in spite of their stated aim to lose weight and get healthier.

No one is taking about banning desserts on the menus at restaurants or eliminating the pastry case from Starbucks. But do we really need cookies on a hotel desk? That doesn't strike me as providing choices, that seems to me more like setting traps. People who genuinely want a cookie can buy one or bake one. But people don't go to the hotel for cookies, they go to the hotel to stay somewhere. Confronting them with junk food at a time when they're likely to be hungry is setting them up to overeat in a way that they probably would not choose to if it were a matter of going to find a cookie at the corner store. When junk food is available all the time, the deck is stacked against those who want to avoid it because hunger combines with environmental cues to make people much more likely to overeat on nutritionless empty calories. Sure, some folks like me will say, "I know that cookie has way more calories than I'm willing to blow on something with no nutrition," but most people won't have the time, background information or mental energy upon checking into a hotel to make that call -- they'll respond to the call of afternoon hunger and eat one. Or two. Or more. We can blame the individuals and say that they should show more responsibility, and of course if everyone declined the cookies they would rot and go moldy and get thrown out. But we know from experience that bombarding people with junk food 24/7 and then blaming them for eating it is not an effective health policy strategy. It just hasn't worked. So I suggest that if we're going to have food in every public place, we at least make it lower calorie higher nutrient food.

There are plenty of options for people who decide they would like a cookie. No one is talking about outlawing cookies. But do we really need them on a hotel desk?

To anyone who has not yet read _Food Fight_, do check it out. It may provide you with information that changes your opinion on this question. Maybe not, but do check it out to see.

Another option, and one I would be in favor of, would be to put nutrition labels on both the cookies and the apples, but that would have to be combined with a massive public relations campaign to educate folks on how many calories it takes to maintain a healthy weight and what good nutrition is and all that. Seems unlikely to happen in the immediate term, and the food industry opposes calorie labeling. So in the short term, I continue to contend that people who want cookies have plenty of opportunity to acquire them without having cookies on a hotel desk.

Again, no one is talking about outlawing your cookies. But is it really necessary to have them on a hotel desk?

In a recent post, you ask the question, "Why Are People So Hateful About CR?" The answer is that we know you're plotting to take away our chocolate chip cookies.

It seems, especially these days people are getting more and more degenerate as a race. Where is the respect and dignity we should naturally be giving one another. Is everybody lacking in good judgement? Don't you, Al,& odd cookie eater get it? If you want something odd, gaky and unwholesome go out and find it yourself. I'll be damned if im going to be partner to it. Go find it and contribute to your own uunhealthy choices. Like, I'm not putting disposable razors in the lobby for ignorant people, kids and psychotics to play with either. That would be unconscienable behavior. So offering up gak to people only shows that you are indifferent & uncaring to their overall well-being.

Mamamia, I just had to shake my head and smile at your comment. You start out saying that the human race is getting more degenerate and asking where "is the respect and dignity" we should be giving one another. Then you rag on odd cookie and me for taking the position that the hotel can offer whatever they want to their guests -- ending your comment with the the observation that offering someone cookies shows that you're "indifferent & uncaring."

Hmmm ... where is that respect and dignity we should be sharing?

Al