Step 5 - Fried Foods

If something tastes good, it'll taste better fried.

That about sums up my thoughts on fried food. Anything dredged in batter then dunked in hot oil = good times in my mouth. Fried Chicken. Chicken Fried Steak. Fried Catfish. Fried Okra. Fried Pickles. Onion Rings. And for dessert? Fried Twinkies, Fried Oreo's and Fried Cheesecake at the State Fair! Last, but certainly not least, the ultimate in fried food dining - the Hushpuppy: nothing but the batter, rolled up in a ball and fried to perfection.

This list of the five absolute worst foods you can eat, includes fried doughnuts, french fries, chips, and fried seafood. Funny, the only thing not fried? Soda.

As if the artery-clogging amount of trans fat in fried foods weren't bad enough, the high cooking heat can lead to the formation of carcinogens. Add the potential unhealthiness of the item being fried - like chicken skin, for instance - and you've got a triple dose of death on your plate.

So this is another one of those no-brainers: the less fried food I eat, the better. But while the other things I've cut have been relatively easy to do (minus my Coke withdrawals), this one is proving a little tougher. Skipping a trip to Popeye's or the all you can eat Catfish buffet hasn't been a problem. Avoiding fried "sides" has.

As I progress on the Rehab Diet I've started making healthier choices in my main course - Subway instead of a burger joint, grilled chicken instead of fried - but I've paid less attention to the side items. Now that fried foods are off the menu, I'm noticing how much of those fried sides I regularly consumed.

Worst of all: the tortilla chip.

As a resident of Texas, I'm required to eat Mexican food at least three times a week. Luckily, there are a handful of healthier options at most Mexican restaurants, including a dish like Chicken Tacos Al Carbon. Assuming they don't use too much lard in their tortilla's, it's a healthy enough meal of grilled chicken, pico de gallo and guacamole. The wild card is those damn chips. My family of four can go through 3-4 baskets at a sitting, usually accompanied by some form of cheese dip.

It has been the hardest temptation to resist since starting the Rehab Diet. On a positive note, this blog has resulted in a real world "intervention" of sorts. At dinner the other night with friends, a basket of tortilla chips was placed on the table. I was rationalizing having "just a few" in my mind when a friend (and reader of this blog) shook his head and said, "too bad you can't have any of these chips."

I wish for his slow and painful death...