My Life in Food

No, not my life, unless you like reading about endless variations on cottage cheese and fruit.

Sam Sifton, the NY Times food critic, has posted a week of his life in food. Prepare to be gobsmacked, both by the variation and richness of his diet, and some of the weird foods.

Question I had: what the heck is this guy doing eating bread and butter at lunch/dinner? Seriously, if your job is to sample as much of as many plates as you can, and you don't want to stuff yourself to the ears, wouldn't you avoid the mundane bread basket? Perhaps it's necessary to do when you are a critic -- the bread might be bad, after all....?

Check out what this guy eats -- and does anyone else agree with me that his calorie counts are WAY under, and his exercise calories are WAY over?

He must have one of those lucky metabolisms, because if I ate like this for even a month...well, I'd be rounder than that Hindenburg invention that once crashed into the Empire State Building.

Here's a sampling of what Sifton says is a normal day for him:

Thursday

5 a.m.

* 3 cups of coffee with cream (70 calories)

11:30 a.m.

* 1/2 platter duck salad: duck meat, lotus root, cucumber, cilantro, carrot (500 calories)
* 2 fried spring rolls (150 calories)

12 p.m.

* 1 serving barbecued pork and noodles (580 calories)

12:30 p.m.

* Beef-and-onion meat pie, the size of a pack of cigarettes (290 calories)
* Barbecued pork pie, same size (200 calories)
* 1/2 barbecued pork steamed bun, same size (300 calories)

3 p.m.

* Ran five miles (600 calories)

8 p.m.

* 2 fried rabbit livers on toast with pepper jelly (360 calories)
* 3 pork ribs with watermelon pickles (320 calories)
* 1 baked pork cheek, with peanuts, radishes, turnips (180 calories)
* 2 fried oysters and one piece of bacon on white bread with mayonnaise and slaw (380 calories)
* 1/2 serving roast pork and fried pork rinds (305 calories)
* 1/2 serving shrimp and andouille gumbo (100 calories)
* 1 serving red beans with pork and andouille over rice (300 calories)
* 4 beers (600 calories)

Total Calories Consumed: 4,635
Total Calories Burned Through Exercise: 600

If Sifton, who we must assume is more food-conscious and calorie-conscious that your average American, can be this deluded about the calories in/calories out in his life, is it any wonder that we as a species keep gaining weight?

More and more I think that I am going to have to chuck my desk job and become a construction worker or something. The sedentary lifestyle is a killer -- even when you try to workout as much as poss. It would be so much easier if my job was to till the fields or tote the barge or something.