Hard to be Healthy

One’s best efforts to make healthy choices can easily be thwarted, hence my own story from Santa Monica College.

I spent most of Friday listening to school food service directors from around the country passionately discuss various strategies for improving the nutritional quality of meals for kids.

During our lunch break, we adjourned to an outdoor area similar to Library Mall, but with palm trees. Wanting something healthy, I picked up a good tasting, ethnic pocket-type food from a vendor and then looked for a drink. So far so good.

Specifically not wanting a sugar-sweetened soda after hearing all about obesity and diabetes, I found myself drawn to an absolutely enormous bank of vending machines. Inside were dozens of brightly colored cans, bottles and jars of seemingly every type of drink imaginable.

One can that said strawberry & banana, all-natural, looked quite appealing, so I found the corresponding code next to it, dropped in the cash and hit the button. Out popped a can from the same line, but it was a different variety. Coconut and pineapple drink came out instead, but that also sounded good. I popped it open and took a swig. Nice. Sweet and tropical, with a fresh velvety feel to it. Curious, I turned the can around to look at the ingredients, and noticed a stat that hit me like a two by four: “37% saturated fat.” It contained seven grams of saturated fat! I got more than one-third of the recommended day’s limit of saturated fat in one drink! The sugar content was also through the roof. High fructose corn syrup, of course. (Yes, I drank it all, anyway. Hey, I paid more than a buck for that fat juice.)

Astounded, I kept the can, thinking nobody would believe me. When I returned to our classroom for the next presenter, I showed the can to a fellow attendee. She examined its label like a jeweler assessing the cut of a diamond, and marveled at the saturated fat content. At first, she wondered whether it might be a typo.

“I didn’t realize it was possible to drink that much saturated fat,” said Ashley Lederer, a registered dietician, as luck would have it. Ten minutes later, she walked to the front of the classroom! She happened to be our next presenter. Ashley works for the City of New York.

She gently reminded me of how important it is to read food labels, but said the research on coconut oil now suggests it might not be quite as bad as previously thought.

Let's hope not!

--Steve Busalacchi