Who Watches The Weight Watchers?
From BFDiva Jez comes this article, an expose of the Weight Watchers menu at Applebee’s. According to an independent lab, the nutritional info apparently does not always fall within or even come close to the advertised numbers on the menu, and lawsuits have ensued:
[L]ast year Scripps News hired a food lab to test the calorie count of foods from Applebee’s, Chili’s, Taco Bell and others. It found that some dishes contained up to double the calories and eight times the fat claimed on the menu. Shortly thereafter, law firms from around the country began filing suits against Applebee’s…and Weight Watchers.
I believe we’ve talked about the concept of “informed consent” when it comes to dining out. No matter what your dietary goals, attitudes, restrictions, or preferences are, you deserve not to be lied to. But I was even more interested in this paragraph, a nicely gratuitous bit of fat-bashing they just had to throw in there:
No doubt, the 200 extra calories caused [fat people] more emotional anguish than the boxes of Twinkies, bags of Kettle-style chips, or pony kegs of Miller Light they devoured on their climb up the scale.
Yes, thanks for that. I love when people bash those who are trying to lose weight in the first place. It proves that even if you are a “good” fat person, filled with the desire to lose weight, you still deserve scorn and hate aimed at you in the guise of “humor.” All fat bashing is indefensible, of course, but this kind is not only indefensible, it’s illogical.
Posted by mo pie
Filed under: Advertising, Advocacy, Fatism, Food, Weight Loss
Wow. I just realized something: since I have eaten a sum total of half a Twinkie in my life (found it utterly revolting to my tongue both in flavor and texture) and never taken a single sip of Miller Light (lifelong teetotaler, here) and frankly never been big on kettle chips (more of a baked potato gal, here), I MUST NOT BE FAT!!!!!!
Thank you, obnoxious article author, for making me suddenly slim.
I surprised myself with how unwilling I am to accept fat bashing anymore. Last night the local news had some “Obese people are the reason insurance costs are going up” piece, based on some CDC study that claimed obese people spend twice as much a year in medical costs as non-obese people. I started yelling “Bullshit!” It made me furious! Way to encourage fat- hatred there ABC news. There are so many factors not taken into consideration in a “study” like that. Just furious.
Yeah, I guess the only way to escape the bashing is to never have been fat, ever.
To stop the bashing, we just DON’T EAT!! Not in public, or at home because that’s where they will see you also.
You get bashed if you’re fat and told to lose weight, then to get turned into a joke because you’re trying to lose some weight (or even just trying a pick a healthy meal option)… it’s sad.
I hate Weight Watchers though, after finding out that when I did it I was undereating even though I stuck to my points. It was only after not feeling good for a few days that I counted things up and found out I ate under 1,000 calories nearly every day, even on days I went over by a point or two.
There always has to be a dig, huh?
You know, I’m not a big fan of calorie listings on menus or points listings, but I like to know whats in my food. If the menu says it has whatever, it should conform to the menu. You should be informed of any substitutions or approximations before you make your order.
I think there is just no excuse for them including these kinds of deragatory comments in that article.
I struggled with obesity for years, and I think its so interesting that just because being overweight is a public problem that people think they have a right to “slam” them!
The reason for the slams are probably based on the stereotype that fat is mainly a behavioral problem. If a person is fat, there can only be one reason why – they ate too much. And even if that is the case for the individual, the bashing is still not necessary.
But isn’t it nice to know that even those “good” fat people who are trying to lose weight are also hated with the same scorn the “bad” fat people are too? Seriously, what do these people want?
It should also be noted that many people who use the WW program are just looking to lose a small amount of weight (10-20 pounds). When I attended WW meetings years ago, I was always the biggest one in the place.
Wait, so now all fat people are alcoholics?
From wikipedia: “A pony keg, more commonly known as a Quarter Barrel is a beer vessel containing approximately 7.75 U.S. gallons (29.33 liters) of fluid… It will serve roughly 82 twelve ounce cups. ”
Just to put into perspective the weight of that statement. (no pun intended.)
No matter what your dietary goals, attitudes, restrictions, or preferences are, you deserve not to be lied to.
Please keep in mind that the listed nutritional info is obtained by a highly trained chief carefully preparing the dishes in a serene environment in the corporate offices somewhere, so it’s definitely going to be different when you order that same dish in a restaurant.
My husband is 37 and has worked in the restaurant industry for about 20 years. His resume (if he kept one) includes Hardee’s, McDonald’s, Texas Roadhouse, Applebee’s, and Romano’s Macaroni Grill. He’d be the first one to tell you that “highly trained chefs” and “serene environment” are practically non-existent in chain restaurants like the ones cited in the article, so food is sloppily made, loosely measured, and sometimes “heated,” not “cooked.” (Trust me, there’s a BIG difference!)
What I’ve learned from all this is, don’t go out to eat if you want to lose weight or restrict your calories. “Eating out” is all about indulging yourself, and with indulgence usually comes plenty of fat (and thus, calories), because that’s where all the flavor comes from.
I think the “pony keg of miller light” was more of an implication that fat people overconsume “light” foods/drinks in quantities that make the reduced calories a moot point.
In regards to “No doubt, the 200 extra calories caused [fat people] more emotional anguish” There’s a difference between eating a twinkie and knowing what’s in it and being actively lied to about the content of a dish.
Two things that struck me about the CDC study claiming that obese people raise the cost of healthcare/insurance for everyone:
1. If the majority of people are overweight, doesn’t that mean that people are mostly paying their own costs?
2. It seems to be much easier to get coverage for “obesity related” health conditions than eating disorders. If my main issue at the time is compulsive overeating, there would be very little trouble in getting medication for high cholesterol. But for bulimia, what are the chances that I’d be covered completely for the cost of in-patient treatment?
Ugh- that’s such a douchey thing to say. And again with implying that we “willingly” get fat. Like “ZOMG U DIDNT WATCH EVERY SINGLE CALORIE U EAT U DESERVE RIDICULE FATTY”
God I hate that attitude, especially when half the time it comes from someone who doesn’t have to try very hard to stay their current weight (thus meaning they assume other people must have to try hard to gain weight) or someone who is miserable because they spend all their lives counting calories. It’s such BS.
Amazing. One one hand, you have zillions of commenters saying that fat people know exactly how they got fat and shouldn’t blame anyone but themselves. And then on the other, people make fun of the fact that consumers are upset about 121 extra calories or 14 unexpected grams of fat.
How does this not correlate? The article and its comments are such perfect examples of what is dysfunctional about the food industry in this country (misleading advertising/portion sizes/cooking methods etc) and its link to THE DREAD OBESITY that it’s laughable.
And of course people have to be dicks about it. Some little shit in my college Italian class thinks “grasso” is the funniest adjective and uses it whenever he gets the chance. He actually said, at one point, “I wish I had some fat friends so I could call one of them fat in my translation, hahahahah.” The very word is cause for derision. It is extraordinarily frustrating.
I don’t think we should be so quick to jump on the hate Applebee’s/weight watchers band wagon (at least not just yet).
I’ve learned to have a healthy skepticism when it comes to news services. In this case Scripps News Service hire their own lab maybe so they can gin up news. At this point what we have is conflicting lab result’s and yet Scripps News and ABC is exploiting it. And guess what a lot of people are reacting to this article just like they thought they would, with seething rage against the big bad business. Basically a trial without a jury.
If the the restaurants lied then it will come out in due time, but one thing I think we can mutually agree on is ABC has absolutely no business tying obesity or anything else to health care cost. Why do they always need a bad guy? And I might also ask if the timing of this issue and the health care debate in congress right now is an accident. Can anyone say political expediency?
I have another question to pose. What if a Government ran health care system decides that we plus size folks are too much of a burden on the system. What are they going to do next tell us what we can and cannot eat?
Food for thought (No pun intended)
As a present “Weight Watcher” … I see both sides of the argument, and wrote about such, recently. While it can be seen as a residious lawsuit … if they advertise their food is in fact lighter, (to pull those of us who are micro-health/diet – conscience) … they should be held accountable and curb the negligence that’s apparently occurring with the preparation of said, dishes.
I’ve seen so many automatically take the “she can’t blame one meal via WW or AB’s for being fat” route, but I’m increasingly starting to see it the other way … Love this blog! :)
p.s. piggybacking on Rhonwyyn … if caloric-precision is that dire to you, (realistically) you should probably … eat at home … lol … I don’t take ANY item on a “menu” at face-value … salads, cheese sticks, or anything in-between … ~PC
I actually read this article yesterday morning and commented on that very quote (about the 200 extra calories) by telling the author that was a a**hole thing to say. Seriously!
“Tough love for fat people: Tax their food to pay for healthcare”
This is an article title on July 27, 2009 in the Los Angeles Times. I beg you to read it as it just infuriates me and it should you too.
If you don’t think there is an intentional push to rid you of your freedom of choice then think again. Just look at this except from the article;
“But in many ways, the drumbeat of scientific evidence and the growing cultural stigma against obesity already are well underway”
The object of their focus is not about a condition (obesity) they are talking about people (Fat People) read on;
“If you happen to be the 1-in-3 Americans who is neither obese nor overweight (and, thus, considered at risk of becoming obese), you might well conclude that the habits of the remaining two-thirds of Americans are costing you, big time. U.S. life expectancies are expected to slide backward, after years of marching upward. (But that’s their statistical problem: Yours is how to make them stop costing you all that extra money because they are presumably making poor choices in their food consumption.)”
I cannot hardly control myself with this comment. You might say but Bobby what’s wrong with increasing the tax on fat foods to help the poor uninsured and the under insured I mean after all it’s a good cause right? Wrongo! Politicians and Government agencies use this tactic to make us feel guilty by pulling on our bleeding heart strings so we will be more willing to let go of our freedom. I mean who are they to tell us what we can eat? Do we want some government agency controlling every aspect of our lives as if we cannot make our own decision. What they are really saying here is we can’t control it on our own so they have to. OMG!
This makes me furious. As an obese person trying to lose weight, I often choose Applebee’s when a friend wants to go out to eat, figuring that there I can make “smart choices,” because I have the WW menu. Once I tried to make a substitution on a WW menu item and was told I couldn’t because, since it was a WW item, the contract with WW was very strict so that things would be the calories listed, and that they watch it closely. This is in comparison with the restaurant across from it where all the vegetables are buttered, and even when I’ve asked that they not be buttered, and asked again when it reaches me if butter was withheld, I could still taste the butter.
Lied to again.
So, no, Applebee’s alone isn’t responsible for my obesity, granted, but it was supposed to be one place where it was clear what you were getting, so that you could make those “smart choices.” If we can’t even control our food intake at a place where the calories are listed on the menu, how on earth are people supposed to actually lose weight? It’s not a matter of just eating less–if I ate less food but all the food was high-calorie, I would still gain weight. It’s important to know what’s in your food. IMHO, Applebee’s and WW both deserve a kick in the pants.