Read Fat for Free Online Page A

likes to eat some junk, but he likes good food, too.”
         “Give me just one, and I will be one happy doctor.”
         “He loves broccoli.”
         “Really? Broccoli and what?”
         “Are you talking about cheese?  Because how can you eat broccoli without cheese?  That would just be wrong.  Broccoli doesn’t taste too good on its own.  Cheese is part of the food pyramid, isn’t it?” 
         “Does he take seconds?”
         “No, only usually at dinner. And I guess it would be considered seconds at breakfast too because sometimes he’ll sneak a few extra pancakes at breakfast.  But it is his favorite food.  I swear, Xander would eat nothing but pancakes if we let him.  But we try to push blueberry pancakes, though, for the fruit.”
         Then she smiled proudly, as if I should have written into the newspapers to alert them about this bit of ingenuity.  Smiling about pushing fruit in the form of sprinkling dots of berry into pan fried cake batter drenched in maple syrup and butter?   At least now I know that she draws the line of bad eating short of a nonstop orgy of berry-less pancakes.
         “So what does Xander drink?”
         “He loves juice.  I only give him the one hundred percent fruit juice.  And usually he has chocolate milk with dinner.   And usually with his after school snack.  He’s got to get his calcium, right?”
         “After school snack?”
         “He loves nachos, or those little pizza puffs.”
         Geez, this kid has no chance.   Double stacks of pan fried batter swimming in congealed sugar sauce right after waking, deep fried breaded chicken chunks with deep fried potato slivers and corn swimming in cream on the side, all times two at dinner, and interspersed snacks of fried tortilla shards and cheese, and downing glass after glass of liquid calorie concentrate.
         “Listen, Kate, you’re going to kill Xander by letting him eat all that junk.”
         “He really will only eat that stuff.  I mean, I can’t force feed him like when he was a baby, and I don’t want him to starve.”
         “You’re his mom, you can choose the stuff he has available to eat.  Trust me, he will not starve himself.  Look at him, he can probably live for months without eating another bite.”
         Xander didn’t even flinch from his game.  He had a quadruple chin looking down at his handheld screen.
         “Maybe I will switch him to those 100 calorie snack packs?”
         “Changing his diet does not mean only making him eat smaller amounts of the bad stuff.  Sure, if I’m choosing between eating a dumpster of garbage versus just a trash can full, I would choose the trash can, but it’d be best not to eat any garbage in the first place.  Xander just needs to eat more of the good stuff.” 
         “Dr. Grant, what should I do then?”
         “Modest portions, no seconds.  Lean meats, try them grilled or baked, not fried.  Only water, skim milk or diet drinks for him.  No juice, no chocolate milk.  Make snacks of raw fresh fruit or vegetables.  Make him eat a colorful plate of food, not just browns and darker browns.”
         “Okay.”
         “And get him active.  Sign him up for some sport, any sport he likes.  There are a hundred different sports, and he’ll find one he likes.  He is way too young to sit in front of the TV all day. ”
         “How about bowling?  He loved it when we went to Brunswick for one of his classmate’s birthday party.”
         Downing pizza and soda while casually flinging an eight pound ball down oiled boards once a week?  Then growing up to down pizza and beer while casually flinging a sixteen pound ball down oiled boards once a week in a league?  Most bowling leagues are filled with people that look like rolling heart attacks.  Everyone looks nine months pregnant with a baby procreated from a combination of beer and