rARsh!

Read yourself thin

After the resounding success of the Stop Smoking You Idiot book, I’ve been reading Allen Carr’s “No More Diets” book.

Obviously based on a similar logical basis, Carr simply lists reasons why certain foods are appropriate for humans and other foods are not (and he’s taking the whole of human history into account, not recent inventions like … ooh … cookery).

Hmm. Everyone’s a fruit and nutcake, or so it would seem.

The problem I have with this is some of the logic that being used. It does strike me as being flawed. In fact it reminds me of the professional logician sketch from the album of the soundtrack of the trailer of the film of Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

Well, if cooked meat tastes so gorgeous, why do we feel the need to season it? Why the need for mint, apple or cranberry sauce? Why do we often add overpoweringly strong flavours such as horseradish, mustard, spices and garlic to meat?

It’s either to add flavour to an otherwise bland taste or to disguise a foul taste.

– Allen Carr’s “No More Diets”, page 57

If you eat food that’s flavoured with garlic you can’t taste the food, just the garlic

– Allen Carr’s “No More Diets”, page 74

Unfortunately, Mr Carr, what you’ve done here is lambast either the Carr’s cooking methods or their prior preference for too many condiments. Anyone who puts so much garlic in a meal that you can’t actually taste the other ingredients really shouldn’t be allowed in a kitchen and anyone who puts enough mustard on their food to hide the whole taste should be the next dish on the barbecue.

So I don’t think I’m going to become a fruit and nutcase. Not just yet.