Want to get thinner? Take more time cooking and eating

Although some talk of fat taxes, low-fat is out to a large degree. Consuming fat calories is back in, according to the latest science. Meanwhile, fast food -- at home, in restaurants and in school -- keeps making most of us fatter. Not just the United States either.

In the U.S. the need for speed drives everything. It's an issue that is not discussed so much in the mainstream meetings on diet. It reminds me of a New Yorker cartoon showing a man on the edge of a bed getting dressed. He says to the woman next to him something like this: "Of course I ejaculated prematurely. I am a busy man."

The fact is experts say people don't even tell them the truth about what they eat. Britain's chief medical officer, Dame Sally Davies, says she and her colleagues need to know the truth to determine how to try to deal with it.

"It is about what we eat, how we cook it and about portion size," she told the BBC.

Many of us have heard how great fish and olive oil are. Yet sometimes knowing that doesn't help you find a product, except at speciality stores, like tuna in olive oil. And it will cost you.

Coke has its legendary after-taste. Salt makes chips inviting, only the constantly rising prices an obstacle. More expensive foods are seemingly healthier, meaning they cost more. A sort of self-fulfilling prophecy.

Despite evolution we still are like a deer in headlights where salt is concerned. There is even a reality show, "The Biggest Loser."

So all the speeches in all the month will not knock the food kings off the wall.

And take care before adopting too many new fashions. Indeed, it might save more lives to tax underweight people. But they might need to be given financial help. Their weight may not even be their choice.

There is a slow cooking trend, and it has been around for more than 20 years.

But even TV shows and movies romanticizing such cooking don't seem to have much impact when faced with the pressures of a daily life that should be easier with all our conveniences. Seems everyone, especially employers, expect more.

Photo By jodigreen