This is a public diary and a public confession. Its the story of Mike Gibbons-Camp, a 30 year old legal aid attorney who on August 23, 2007 weighed in at 392.8 lbs. Thanks to the constant support of my wife, Liz, and a kick in the pants by a good friend who I hadn't talked to for a while, I finally decided that enough was enough. But instead of quietly suffering with my weight, I started my blog, "New Me?"

I did really well for 10 weeks, then it completely fell apart. I was in denial for a long time, thinking I was just slipping up a bit, making a mistake here or there. But the reality was that I had failed.

Since then i've tried just about everything I could to get back on the wagon. And i've done well for a week here, a week there, but nothing lasting. So I don't know what to tell a new reader to my blog, but "welcome, and wish me luck."

Thursday, October 11, 2007

Introducing pure lard, now with 0 grams fat per serving

Serving size, .5 grams.


Did you know that the new Crisco with "0 grams trans fat per serving" actually has more than .4 grams of trans fat per serving? And the FDA logic for allowing this to happen is that it's too hard to test for trans levels that low. Ok, imagine we accept that... who set the serving level? Does this mean that if I break my prepackaged food item up small enough, I could call it fat free? Sorry FDA, the .0000001 oz serving size is too small to allow us to test for fat, I guess we'll just label it 0 fat per serving.

And of course, the FDA would say, no no, we don't allow that sort of nonsense. We made soda manufacturers increase the serving size on a can of pop to the whole can, didn't we? (actually, I don't know if that was the FDA's decision, but whatever).

But why couldn't they test for trans fats using two servings to test from? Or Four? Isn't the stuff fairly uniform? Can't they just say, ok, we'll test this whole vat for trans fats, and then divide the results by the number of servings?

Somehow that just seems more fair, not to mention health conscious.

Oh, and Canada requires testing to .2 grams accuracy. It isn't as if the fat is easier to detect above the 49th parallel.


And I guess I really don't have any room to bitch about this. I didn't get to be morbidly obese because I didn't realize Crisco was bad for me. But now, in trying to turn my life around, I would appreciate it if I could at least count on accurate information.

Ok, rant over.

1 comment:

Daniele said...

Hi. I just came across your blog and I have to say WELL DONE!! You are doing fabulously well and you're an inspiration to me. Keep up the good work.