20 June 2010

Sunday Salon: Reading is Bad for My Diet

When someone goes on a diet, one of the tips that is often given is to turn your TV off so you won't be tempted by all the fast-food commercials and images of food that abound there. Well, I've discovered another habit that could possible sabotage my weight-loss plan -- reading. Written descriptions of food and how it was prepared do more to make my tummy rumble than a 10-second shot of a burger in a TV ad.

There are the obvious books to avoid, like cookbooks and memoirs by celebrity chefs. One genre I never thought to worry about, though, was the Christian romance. I just finished the third book in a Lauraine Snelling series that is set in the Dakota Territory in the 1800s. Because of the time period and the prairie setting, there are no scenes about TV or radio or video games. Being a Christian series, there aren't any sex scenes, either. That means peppering the plot are lots of descriptions of food and eating. Every threshing party and barn raising, every quilting bee and birth -- they are all accompanied by a meal. I think I would be safer reading modern chick lit books with their numerous descriptions of designer clothing!

2 comments:

Melissa said...

So true, Dani! I would have never thought of that, but you're absolutely right.

Laurel-Rain Snow said...

Oh, you are on to something, I think! You should definitely avoid the Julie & Julia book! lol

Here's my salon:

http://laurel-rainsnowsaccidentallife.blogspot.com/2010/06/sunday-salon-june-20.html