Longtime Agitator reader Evan Williams writes:

That’s really disappointing to hear about Cooks’ foray into Nanny Statism.

We subscribe to their online mag, and I don’t think I’ve ever had a bad recipe or recommendation from them. Now I’m torn. Their recipes are so fucking good, I don’t think I can afford to cancel my subscription, but I’ll definitely write them to tell them what I think of their stupidity.

However, you should also know this (and this is what REALLY strikes me): their anti-junkfood message is unbelievably hypocritical. I’m talking, like, looking up “hypocrisy” in the dictionary and seeing a picture of
their magazine. Why? Because: virtually none of their recipes are especially health-conscious. They routinely use regular butter, heavy cream, vegetable oil, etc. For example, just this past week, I made their “skillet chicken pot pie”. It was absolutely delicious. Blew my mind, best pot pie I’d ever had. But check out some of the ingredients:

-3/4 cup Heavy Cream
-14 (yes, FOURTEEN) tablespoons of butter.
-One whole chicken
-2 tablespoons regular sour cream
-1 teaspoon vegetable oil

We’ve made tons of their recipes, and often, we are forced to tone down the fat/butter content, because we’re gym rats and try to keep it to minimum. I dunno, maybe there’s some kind of good explanation here, but, damn, how can you decry the perils of junkfood and call for government bans on it, while you routinely publish recipes that include “unhealthy” ingredients…like 2 sticks of butter in a single pie?

Mmmmmmmm. Fooouuurrrteeennn Spppooonnnsss of Buuutttttteeerrr.

I find that more often than not, this anti-obesity craziness is a thin mask for anti-capitalism and anti-corporatism. That would explain why an outfit like Cooks’ could take a bold stand against Coca-Cola and the like while still encouraging such creamy, buttery deliciousness in its magazine.

Mom stuffing us fat with made-from-scratch goodness somehow seems less nefarious than a bunch of soft drink executives in dark suits and thin socks making us fat from the boardroom, doesn’t it?

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 9th, 2006 at 3:33 pm by Radley Balko and is filed under Nanny State, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.