Watching Cooking Shows Can Make Your Fat

_Waffle_
_Waffle_ Posts: 13,049 Member
edited November 14 in Food and Nutrition
Do cooking shows make you fat? New study reveals unappetizing truth
“When you think about it, it kind of makes sense if the recipes being portrayed on food TV are the ones people are making,” Pope says. “The recipes you see on TV maybe … [aren’t healthy].”

The lure of these recipes remains powerful.

“Anytime I am watching a show, I’m starving — it makes me hungry," Kim Greenbaum told TODAY. "[During] commercial break we run to the kitchen and grab something to eat.”

Does anyone else feel this way? I know that I often do. I can't count the number of times I was watching Chopped and ended up running off to the store to buy some ingredients to cook something. Quite a number of times you end up cooking items that you really don't need and are way outside of your calorie goals.

How does everyone else deal with this? Do you just stop watching cooking shows all together?

Let's learn how to make calories taste even better.
cooking-show.jpg?w=420
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Replies

  • _John_
    _John_ Posts: 8,646 Member
    <insert inappropriate Paula Deen meme here>
  • 3dogsrunning
    3dogsrunning Posts: 27,167 Member
    The last time I watched the Food Network while on my bike trainer I ended up making a warm bacon cheddar dip.
    Before that it was a Guinness beef stew (very disappointing).
  • shellma00
    shellma00 Posts: 1,684 Member
    For some reason I always try to think of a way to lighten up whatever they are cooking. But then again.. after its over, I normally forget about it. Most of the small town grocers around here dont have the fancy ingredients they use on those shows anyway.
  • cariie
    cariie Posts: 6 Member
    my gym always has foodnetwork on when i am doing cardio and it literally makes it almost like cruel and unusual punishment sometimes.
  • _Waffle_
    _Waffle_ Posts: 13,049 Member
    One of the biggest triggers for me is that show Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives. It's like everything featured on the show is 5,000 calories and I generally want all of it.

    Hilltop-Cafe-Diner-Everest-Cut-7049-Custom1.jpg
  • Lrdoflamancha
    Lrdoflamancha Posts: 1,280 Member
    This is why we refer to it as food porn...
  • scorpiophoenix
    scorpiophoenix Posts: 222 Member
    I guess I'm lucky in that I really do not like any of the current food personalities (except Alton Brown) so I don't watch any cooking shows anymore. Back in the day, though? Biba and the Galloping Gourmet were my weaknesses. I had my mom tape them while I was at school so I could write down the recipes when I got home. ;)
  • shellma00
    shellma00 Posts: 1,684 Member
    _Waffle_ wrote: »
    One of the biggest triggers for me is that show Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives. It's like everything featured on the show is 5,000 calories and I generally want all of it.

    Hilltop-Cafe-Diner-Everest-Cut-7049-Custom1.jpg

    Yes, Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives gets me every time too!
  • superfox12082
    superfox12082 Posts: 512 Member
    I have pretty much quit watching them except for Saturday mornings, and that's only if I'm not busy. The only shows ever on after work are Triple D (and who doesn't get sick of his shouting??) or chopped. Continuously, the whole night. Lame.
  • Need2Exerc1se
    Need2Exerc1se Posts: 13,575 Member
    I don't think we can blame the TV shows. Surely that blame must be shared with Pinterest.
  • dirtyflirty30
    dirtyflirty30 Posts: 222 Member
    Just watch an episode of Hoarders right after. Problem solved.
  • AmyRhubarb
    AmyRhubarb Posts: 6,890 Member
    <
    watches cooking shows and follows cooking blogs, cooks with butter and heavy cream, lost 25lbs anyway. :smile:
  • 3dogsrunning
    3dogsrunning Posts: 27,167 Member
    _Waffle_ wrote: »
    One of the biggest triggers for me is that show Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives. It's like everything featured on the show is 5,000 calories and I generally want all of it.

    Hilltop-Cafe-Diner-Everest-Cut-7049-Custom1.jpg

    I've seen that episode.
    I believe that was the same show at inspired my beef stew.
  • carrieliz81
    carrieliz81 Posts: 489 Member
    I am very susceptible to wanting foods that I see on TV. Every time I watch "Friends" I want NY style pizza. And I live in the Midwest! And you cannot get NY style pizza here! I don't even really know what NY style pizza tastes like, but I know it has giant triangles of pizza, which is pretty much non-existent in Chicagoland. So then I just end up ordering Chicago pizza, which is DELICIOUS, don't get me wrong.........Chicago pizza is the best pizza........ but it never ends up hitting the spot. :-(
  • MisRka
    MisRka Posts: 27 Member
    I watch cooking shows all.the.time. I'm addicted to them, heh. When I cook/clean they are always on. I find them inspirational and they get my creative mind juices flowing :) There are always ways to modify and make healthier/lower calorie options. Tonight for dinner is homemade thin crust pizza-and I will make it fit within my caloric goal for the day.
  • guinevere96
    guinevere96 Posts: 1,445 Member
    I don't think we can blame the TV shows. Surely that blame must be shared with Pinterest.

    AMEN AMEN AMEN

    ive consumed more pinterest-inspired crack bread in the past week than I like to think about.
  • Vune
    Vune Posts: 674 Member
    I have pretty much quit watching them except for Saturday mornings, and that's only if I'm not busy. The only shows ever on after work are Triple D (and who doesn't get sick of his shouting??) or chopped. Continuously, the whole night. Lame.

    Agreed. I can't watch Guy Fieri long enough to get hungry. I switched to watching AWE and their shows about private islands if I want to stare at a rectangle and not think.
  • Briargrey
    Briargrey Posts: 498 Member
    Well, sure, if I see awesome looking things, or read about them, I often want them. I deal with it by knowing I can have them if I find ways to make them fit my calories (or by giving myself permission to very rarely pig out).

    I try to just mindfully be aware of how I'm feeling and address it in ways that don't involve me running out to the store every time like some uncontrollable beast. We have the ability to choose :)
  • 3dogsrunning
    3dogsrunning Posts: 27,167 Member
    I don't think we can blame the TV shows. Surely that blame must be shared with Pinterest.

    AMEN AMEN AMEN

    ive consumed more pinterest-inspired crack bread in the past week than I like to think about.

    Pinterest. Not even once.
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    I am very susceptible to wanting foods that I see on TV. Every time I watch "Friends" I want NY style pizza.

    And I thought you were going to bring up that episode where Rachel put beef in the trifle. "Custard, good. Jam, good. Meat, good."

    ;-)

    I actually find cooking shows inspire me to cook, and I enjoy playing around with food ideas to make them lower cal, so it's not typically a problem.
  • CooCooPuff
    CooCooPuff Posts: 4,374 Member
    I was flipping channels and stopped on the Food Network for a few seconds once. A hand came out the TV and forced me to eat one million bad calories.
  • Briargrey
    Briargrey Posts: 498 Member
    I am very susceptible to wanting foods that I see on TV. Every time I watch "Friends" I want NY style pizza. And I live in the Midwest! And you cannot get NY style pizza here! I don't even really know what NY style pizza tastes like, but I know it has giant triangles of pizza, which is pretty much non-existent in Chicagoland. So then I just end up ordering Chicago pizza, which is DELICIOUS, don't get me wrong.........Chicago pizza is the best pizza........ but it never ends up hitting the spot. :-(

    Ooooh....I miss The Original Gino's East and Giordano's. And from Seattle - Pagliacci's. But I haven't had a nice Giordano's deep dish since 1992. I could totally go for one.
  • HeidiCooksSupper
    HeidiCooksSupper Posts: 3,831 Member
    Yup. It's 10 pm. I'm not hungry. I turn to the Food Network or Cooking Channel. Suddenly I'm ravenous.
  • Alyssa_Is_LosingIt
    Alyssa_Is_LosingIt Posts: 4,696 Member
    AmyRhubarb wrote: »
    <
    watches cooking shows and follows cooking blogs, cooks with butter and heavy cream, lost 25lbs anyway. :smile:

    *Gasp* Looks like we have a special snowflake in our midst! :laugh:
  • barbecuesauce
    barbecuesauce Posts: 1,771 Member
    So untrue for me. Maybe y'all live too close o the store or don't have weird hangups about having to wear makeup in public or something.

    BUT I will not watch it if I only have a couple hundred calories for the day. I don't need to be in the kitchen making nachos because of an episode of Cutthroat Kitchen.
  • CrabNebula
    CrabNebula Posts: 1,119 Member
    I pretty much only watch Chopped and Cutthroat Kitchen. Almost none of the dishes they make are things that I would want to eat. :p
  • barbecuesauce
    barbecuesauce Posts: 1,771 Member
    CrabNebula wrote: »
    I pretty much only watch Chopped and Cutthroat Kitchen. Almost none of the dishes they make are things that I would want to eat. :p

    Let me cook the ingredients I salvaged from stuffed olives while using only the heat from this menorah and wearing extremely heavy space boots

    I actually only watch these shows while on a treadmill so technically they're making me thin.
  • kaseyr1505
    kaseyr1505 Posts: 624 Member
    Alton Brown totally breaks into my house and forces me to eat over my maintenance. Damn you, Food Network!
  • never2bstopped
    never2bstopped Posts: 438 Member
    AmyRhubarb wrote: »
    <
    watches cooking shows and follows cooking blogs, cooks with butter and heavy cream, lost 25lbs anyway. :smile:

    Don't forget cream cheese and full fat cheese of all kinds!!

    I will eat good food in smaller quantities before I eat flavorless food in bulk!
  • knitapeace
    knitapeace Posts: 1,013 Member
    Saturday mornings, no one else is awake, there's nothing decent on TV so I turn on Food Network and there's that damn Pioneer Woman making food for cowboys and ranch hands. And I end up wanting the biggest, butteriest bacon egg and cheese sandwich on the planet. Man, I'll be glad when Finding Bigfoot comes back so I can watch some mindless TV that makes me LOSE my appetite instead of the other way around.
This discussion has been closed.