Let Them Eat Cake!

Last Fall I was in a London Hotel room watching a BBC documentary about food labeling. The reporter took all of the government guidelines for being able to make claims (low fat, low sodium, etc) and developed a recipe that fell within the guidelines. She then covered it and went out on the street. She tried to entice people as they passed to try her food that fit all of these claims. Many kept walking under the assumption the food would be horrible. The adventuress souls who did accept the offer wound up with a piece of cake. Yes, cake!

We are living in an era where the combination of food technology and marketing spin is almost lethal. You can't trust what you read and you certainly can't trust your eyes. Thanks to the new calories-on-menu law in New York City, I found out the cake slice that is 235 calories when I bake it is 680 calories when Starbucks bakes it. Now just when I thought it couldn't get any worse, Dunkin Donuts comes out with the DDSmart Menu (at least they were smart enough to know they shouldn't spell out "donut" if they were talking health) and Taco Bell goes all the way with its new Drive Thru Diet. They didn't ask me but if you're on a diet the last two places on earth you should be are Dunkin Donuts and Taco Bell.

Read my column on Taco Bell's Drive Thru Diet at http://tiny.cc/MyGbB