[ON SOAP BOX]
Please, lovers of big-chain fast food, do not be offended as I step on my soap box. I LOVE food in general. I CHERISH good food even more. I ride to eat and eat to ride... Please bear with me.

I love steak. I eat vegetarian most of the time but I really enjoy a rare filet mignon or preferably a tartare (basically raw ground beef... of extremely high quality - but nobody seems to know what it is around here). I love potatoes as well, and anything including starch + cheese (potato, pasta or bread + cheese) is comfort food to me. I would not be able to eat that every day though... Boring.

But Dominos, chinese take out and McDo? Good eating? It's true that no taste is more legitimate than another, but I'm very certain that eating healthier food will make you discover an array of wonderful tastes and definitely good-ier eating.

I am amazed at how people equate eating healthy with eating boring.

Of course fat-free yogourt doesn't taste anything (which is why they add so much sugar to it). Why not pick up a low-fat or, why not, full-fat yogourt instead? It's definitely A LOT healthier than the swiss roll or other ready-made snack you would have "normally" had instead! Toss in pieces of fresh fruit (even a simple apple takes 1 minute to dice) and, oh! a teaspoon (I said ONE teaspoon!) of maple or honey and you still have a pretty healthy snack.

Pizza? Make your own pizza. You can buy ready-made crust to cheat, but throw vegetables on there (I can't have enough broccoli... as long as it's not overcooked), some proscuitto ham and a great, tasty cheese of your choice. Not gooey mozzarella that you have to put a pound of on your pizza to create texture because it doesn't taste anything. Go for, say, goat cheese. And some fresh tomato. Now THAT has a taste! It's not just a mixture of meat and cheese that you can't even identify.

Burger? Make your own open-face burger with extra lean meat that you buy yourself, in which perhaps you throw an egg to help it hold together better (adds fat but good proteins as well), some bread crumps, all sorts of spices. Grill. Add a very thin slice of blue cheese if you're so inclined, sharp cheddar otherwise. One slice of tomato, just a bit of curried mayo. Grow your own basil by the kitchen window and throw a leaf or two in there. Eat with a salad with a bit of olive oil and balsamic vinegar, accompany with a glass of water, with a dash of lemon juice if you feel fancy. You have just skipped the fries that tasted all the same (while every bite of your salad can be different if you tossed a few things in there), and who really enjoys drinking Coke anyway? It's JUST sugar. It's nonsense even to pay for that. Toss it.

Chinese food? Sorry I'm not very strong in that department. But I can throw a pretty good curry under 30 minutes and it will have less MSG, salt and fat than anything you buy ready-made. Now that you talk about it, a quick pad thai with rice noodles, tofu, curry sauce, some peppers, lime juice, peanuts, etc. would work wonders too. And cooking (with a glass of wine please) while listening to music I love or to the day's news is a great way to relax and to feel that I have some control on my life. And if I don't have 30 minutes to spare to cook, maybe it's about time I change my lifestyle, it's not healthy either. Eating "healthy" is also about taking some time to eat. If you actually sit down, enjoy your meal, masticate appropriately, and even talk with your partner, colleagues, children, friends, etc. you'll probably eat less, digest better, enjoy life more and be healthier at the bottom line. Throw in a glass of red wine for the antioxydants and you're all set!

The meals I have just described are not necessarily the "healthiest" by radical standards. But I don't believe it's healthy to totally cut fat anyway. If the only result is to turn you off eating healthy because it's not tasty or pleasurable, then you're going to go back to your habitual diet and that certainly is not better.

You can tell me that Domino's, chinese take-out, and McDo are more convenient, okay. That's true especially if you drive, of course. That eating there reminds you of your childhood maybe and makes you feel comforted, okay. But they are definitely not the tastiest food. And when they do have taste, it's achieved by industrial processes that take you very very very far away from the original ingredients and their nutritional value, while adding all sort of stuff you really don't need.

If it's "tasty" and comes from a fast-food source, be very wary of what they did to make it so.

One caveat, my personal pet peeve: Eating well and starting from scratch or almost (raw, fresh ingredients) is definitely more expensive than eating junk, and takes a little more time (although not that much). Junk food is readily available, takes no knowledge and no equipment. To save costs, all the food is produced in the same place now - look what happened with the spinach, we just discovered that 90% of the bagged spinach in North America is produced in a tiny area of California - and everything is organized to maximize the profit of the fast-food and big agrifood companies shareholders, not to maximize taste and nutritional value. People seem to positively react to cheaper food, so the industry provides just that: food that comes from further away that is sold in big surface megastores, fruits that were picked a week or more before they're sold (what's the nutritional value of that??), pre-mixed meals - just add water - that could be so easily prepared with basic ingredients... All is pre-manufactured or, sorry, "value added". We should be fighting that not just to loose weight, but above all to remain healthy in our bodies and our communities...
[OFF SOAP BOX]