Help, Food Network!

There is something wrong with this picture. I am pushing the pedals on the elliptical trainer, which has me climbing a hill without end. As I sweat my way through the workout, I distract myself by looking at a program on the Food Network shown on the overhead TV screen. I watch as a skinny female chef is putting an enormous chunk of butter into a pot of cooking carrots. While that melts, she goes over to some grits and adds the rest of the stick of butter, assuring us that these foods will now taste yummy. The program thankfully comes to an end, and I hope that the next show will teach me how to cook something that doesn't shut my arteries down like the route to Cape Cod on a summer weekend. I am not in luck. This program is on desserts and not only does the male chef use (no exaggeration) three sticks of butter for four desserts, he also tops one of them with freshly whipped heavy cream.

I just don't get it. Obesity is overwhelming the country. To try to combat it, health writers implore us to adopt healthy eating habits, people are given calorie information on packaged foods and now in New York restaurants, reality TV shows showcase contestants competing for the highest weekly weight loss and restaurant corporations are altering their menus to include calorically lighter fare. But to watch the food channel, one might think that we were a nation of underweight, underfed, over-exercising individuals who need to eat a half a pound of butter a day just to survive. What if the Food Network was required to tell the viewers how many calories are in an average size serving of each dish featured on the program? Let the cook on each show plate an average serving of carrots, or grits or deep-fried melted cheese and ham sandwiches and display the number of calories the foods contain. With that information we would not be able to deceive ourselves into thinking that just because the butter is not longer visible in the dish, it is not there.

Exposing the caloric contents of the cooking show foods is very likely to influence their consumption. At least this is what New York restaurants have been learning. Last week, the New York Times reviewed the response of several restaurants in the city to calorie labeling of their menus. According to the article, which appeared on Oct. 29th, Dunkin' Donuts added a low-calorie egg white breakfast sandwich, Cosi (a sandwich chain) is now using a low-fat mayonnaise and several restaurants decreased substantially the size of their servings. Starbucks, for example, decided to reduce the size of its butter-filled croissant rather than decrease its butter content. Another popular lunch restaurant decreased the size of its quiche from eleven ounces to six.

No one expects that giving caloric information will change people's eating habits by tomorrow. Just as we (until recently anyway) allowed ourselves to buy impulsively even if the cost was too high, we will still eat something we want regardless of its calorie cost. But the impact of calorie labeling is to allow us to make an educated choice. If we see that a tuna melt sandwich has l700 calories and a grilled chicken sandwich 580, we may be more likely to eat the sandwich with fewer calories. We may be less casual about the kind and amount of food we mindlessly munch on for snacks. The article pointed out that a large bucket of movie popcorn has more than half the number of calories we should be eating in a day. Add a large soft drink to that and you may leave the movie theater heavier than when you entered. I am not optimistic that the Food Network will undergo a major shift in its cooking policies. The main reason is that high-fat ingredients make food taste good. Heavy cream, bacon, egg yolks, oil, cheese, and butter are the staples of western cooking, especially France. But the mission of the Food Network should be, in part, to each us how to make food taste good without depending on these unhealthy ingredients.

Tell me how to make healthy foods that a relative who just had a quadruple by pass can eat without having another heart attack. Show me how to assemble ingredients for a dinner party, which do not require a double dose of cholesterol-reducing drugs afterward. How can I make foods taste savory without using added salt? Are there desserts out there that a dieter can eat and treats for kids that won't push them into obesity?

Fortunately there are many sources of nutrient-rich recipes that are low in salt, sugar and fat. Many women's magazines feature healthy recipes, and magazines devoted to cooking, such as Cooking Light, are filled with dishes that meet exacting health standards. Internet recipes will also give nutritional information so you know the calorie and nutrient content of what your are cooking.

And in the meanwhile, as I wait for the Food Network to change, in the gym I'll just watch ESPN.

Judith Wurtman is the author of "The Serotonin Power Diet"