I confess.   I’ve been on vacation for a couple weeks, and vacated my nutrition blog along with everything else. So now we need to take a little quiz to get us back on track.

Let’s review before the quiz.  “Don’t put junk in your mouth” is the only six-word diet you’ll ever need.  If that thing in front of you is calorie heavy and nutrient light, it’s junk.  Don’t put it in your mouth.  I think you know what I’m talking about, but just in case you don’t, take a couple minutes to quiz yourself by circling the following items if you think they fit the definition of “junk:”

Hot Dog                         Milk                 Chicken Breast

Hamburger                    Broccoli           English Muffin

Sirloin Steak                  Spinach          White Rice

Pecorino Cheese          Lentils             Cheddar Cheese

French Bread                Kale                 Wild Brown Rice

Coca Cola                     Olive Oil           Garbanzo Beans

Mayonnaise                   Mustard           French Dressing

Most of the above items are just delivering dietary fat; most of them saturated dietary fat.  Very little nutrition.  Just calories, and bad calories at that – bad in the sense their consumption would not be innocuous in the absence of calories.

If you’re looking at saturated fat, just don’t eat it: meat, cheese, milk, butter, coconut milk, pastries full of butter.  If you’re looking at refined carbohydrates and simple sugar, just don’t eat it: white rice, white bread, pastries, soda.  If you’re looking at condensed unsaturated fat, don’t mainline it: olive oil, most salad dressing.

Which items above are not junk?  Wild brown rice, broccoli, spinach, garbanzo beans, kale, and mustard.  But you knew that!  You know the difference between junk and food.  Don’t put junk in your mouth!