Answers to Yesterday's Quiz

Here's a game I play with my clients. It's a quiz that helps you think about good food choices. Which is healthier? 

Regular coffee or decaffeinated coffee? 

Hot dog or hamburger? 

Tofu or edamame snaps? 

Roast chicken or fried chicken? 

Roast beef or a T-bone steak? 

An orange or orange juice?

If you've read my book, then you know why certain choices are better than others. So which is healthier: 

Regular coffee or decaffeinated? Believe it or not, regular coffee is actually healthier for you than decaf. Why? Because decaffeination does 2 things: it removes a lot of the antioxidants and the decaffeination process leaves behind chemicals which have been known to cause cancer. Unless you're prone to tremors and hypertension, regular coffee has lots of health benefits: lots of antioxidants, you're less prone to kidney stones, it offers some protection against the onset of Alzheimer's and you have more sex (I'm not kidding). If you really want to maximize the health benefits and minimize the risks with regular coffee, then go for organic coffee and limit your intake to 1-2 servings early in the day. 

Which is healthier: a hot dog or a hamburger? It all depends on how you make your hamburger, of course. But if we're just talking about real ground beef (not McDonald's soy/thousand cow blend), then a hamburger would be healthier than a hot dog. The hot dog is made up of all sorts of miscellaneous cow parts and preservatives. Ground beef is just beef ground up. There is less of a process involved with ground beef as opposed to hot dogs. Ground beef (without the buns) was actually a staple in bodybuilding diets in the old days when they followed low carb (before even Atkin's himself). If you can, then go for ground beef from a grass fed cow. Grass fed beef has a better omega 3 to omega 6 ratio.  

Which is healthier: tofu or edamame snaps? If you don't know, edamame snaps are those green pea pods (soybeans) served as appetizers at Japanese restaurants. There has been a lot of controversy of the health risks of soy. There is a lot of evidence suggesting that soy not only adversely affects male hormones (converting testosterone to estrogen) but infant development (no soy formulas please) as well as cognitive function late in life. Soy does have a lot of health benefits, but it is better to have edamame snaps instead of tofu. Edamame is soybean in it's natural state. Tofu is soybean after a long and lengthy process. If you learn one thing about healthy eating, it is this: don't fuck with mother nature, or she'll pay you back in spades. Tofu is concentrated soy, so the health risks that come with soy are more pronounced with tofu and other processed soy products. 

Now that you know my philosophy of food (the less of a process, the healthier it is), the rest of the questions should be easy to figure out: 

Roast chicken over fried chicken. Aside from the frying, fried chicken is less healthy due to the extra carbs in the batter. 

T-bone steak over roast beef deli meat. A steak is just a slab of meat. Roast beef slices are cured and has preservatives. 

An orange over orange juice. Eat your fruit, don't drink it. Drinking fruit juice will elevate your insulin levels and an overactive pancreas will age you. 

Of all the readers who sent in their answers, one reader got the highest score: Congratulations, Kevin Lee! You got 5 out of 6. You obviously read my book!