What the Top Nutrition Site Recommends

Happy St. Patrick's Day! For me, it's the day to plant snow peas, but for the site Eat This, Not That, it's the day to recommend Irish food. If you're thinking that the "world's #1 nutrition website and one of the top five food outlets in the U.S." whose "brand [is] comprised of an award-winning team of journalists and board-certified experts, doctors, nutritionists, chefs, personal trainers, and dietitians" might recommend healthy Irish food like corned beef and cabbage or Irish stew and suggest going easy on the Guinness, guess again.

Their #1 St. Patrick's Day deal is a sugary drink from Starbucks topped with whipped cream and caramel. The rest of their 26 suggestions are just as bad: more liquid sugar, fast food sandwiches, doughnuts, cheesecake, and even cocktails. Yes, cocktails. How does a nutrition site recommend something without nutrients?

This isn't a one-off article written for a holiday. I was originally looking for their article where a registered dietitian says that if you must eat fast food, McDonald's fried chicken sandwich and a soft-serve ice cream cone were the best choices. I heard about the article from High Intensity Health--I'd never heard of the site Eat This, Not That before. But when I searched for McDonald's on their site, 1,311 results came up.

The top hits looked like press releases from McDonald's.

McDonald's is testing a new, extra large chicken sandwich
McDonald's fans are going gaga over a new McFlurry
8 Best & worst McDonald's burgers, according to an RD [registered dietitian]
McDonald's is launching a new happy meal
McDonald's is launching a new restaurant brand

Recall that the site has a medical expert board that includes doctors, dietitians and chefs. The doctors are MDs with degrees from mainstream medical schools. One is actually an endocrinologist; another is a past president of the National Board of Physician Nutrition Specialists. Other board members list their private practices, upscale restaurants and media gigs.

Why would these people recommend junk food and cocktails to their readers? I'm just speculating, but the only explanation I can think of is that they're paid shills. Like just about every other site with "fact checkers," they're selling nonsense. The only award they should get is biggest whore on 5th Avenue.*

*Link to Maggie O'Hooligan's line in Caddyshack.

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