Remember when eggs were the enemy, jelly beans were a "fat-free snack," and a seven-day diet told you to eat eight bananas and drink eight glasses of skim milk in one day? George Duran and food and wellness writer Karla Walsh go back to the '90s, when the food rules were loud, confident and mostly wrong.
They play Good Food or Bad Food — bagels, cottage cheese, avocados, nuts, butter and egg yolks — and argue about whether anyone should ever eat half a bagel. George runs through the egg substitutes that replaced the yolk (from Egg Beaters to nut-based "eggs") and makes his case for just eating an egg, while Karla defends tofu scrambles and refuses to borrow eggs from her neighbors. Then it's the Food Guide Pyramid, the SnackWell's frenzy, and a round of SnackWell's or Snack Not-Wells against a Krispy Kreme glazed donut. Plus: the cabbage soup diet, day by day, and how it went viral decades before social media — by photocopy and fax machine.
In the second half, Matt Slonim — a New Yorker who spent nine years in Seoul and now lives in Bangkok — explains why the Asian food most Americans eat is only the tip of the iceberg, why he's a genuine fan of American Chinese food anyway, the Japanese instant noodles you make with cold water, and the two countries he'd pick for a trip built around eating.
Key Takeaways
- The '90s got a lot backwards. Avocados, nuts, egg yolks and butter were treated as villains for their fat; bagels and fat-free snacks were treated as health food.
- The pyramid was built on carbs. The 1992 Food Guide Pyramid put 6–11 daily servings of bread, cereal, rice and pasta at its base, with fats, oils and sweets at the tip.
- Margarine's halo didn't last. Margarine was pushed as the heart-healthy swap for butter until research showed many margarines carried trans fats that were worse for the heart.
- Dietary cholesterol isn't the main driver. Karla notes saturated fat matters more for blood cholesterol — and an egg has only about 1.5 grams of it. Much of the egg's nutrition is in the yolk.
- Fat-free became a license to overeat. That's the "SnackWell's effect." In the game, two SnackWell's Devil's Food cookie cakes beat a Krispy Kreme Original Glazed on sugar (14g vs. ~10g), though the donut had more calories and sodium.
- Karla knows her labels. She guessed the Krispy Kreme calorie count within 10 calories.
- The cabbage soup diet was absurd day by day. Unlimited soup plus a rotating cast: fruit with no bananas, a baked potato with butter, then eight bananas and eight glasses of skim milk on day four, then beef and up to six tomatoes.
- It went viral before the internet. George traces how the diet spread through photocopies and fax machines; a Washington Post reporter who tried it for a week reportedly lost six pounds and couldn't face her leftover soup.
- Two kinds of "global" food. Matt separates food made for local tastes from food immigrants make for other immigrants — the second is as authentic as it gets.
- American Chinese food is its own cuisine. Matt is a fan, but takeout is designed to be simple and doesn't represent China's range. Many key Asian ingredients aren't available — or aren't good — in the US.
- New York trained his palate. He first ate jellyfish at Ollie's on 42nd Street, not in China; Queens is where he learned to eat widely.
- The next wave is instant food, but don't hold your breath. Japan now sells instant noodles made with cold water. Matt doubts it will catch on in America.
- Where to eat in Asia. For pure flavor, Thailand ("like learning a new color"); for understanding the whole region, start in China.
People & Companies Mentioned
- George Duran — Host, Always Hangry; chef and TV personality
- Karla Walsh — Food and wellness writer, Level One Sommelier; recurring Always Hangry co-host; wrote a '90s food-trends piece for Food Network
- Matt Slonim — New York–born food and culture writer, DJ and brand strategist helping brands enter the Korean market; writes the Words with Bones Substack; Seoul bar co-owner; now based in Bangkok
- Good Culture — Cottage cheese brand George and Karla can't keep in stock
- Nutri-Grain (Kellogg's) — Karla's '90s "healthy" snack bar
- I Can't Believe It's Not Butter! — Margarine-style spread and butter spray
- SnackWell's (Nabisco, later Back to Nature) — Fat-free Devil's Food cookie cakes; brand discontinued in 2022
- Krispy Kreme — Original Glazed donut used in the SnackWell's game
- Egg Beaters, Better'n Eggs — '90s egg-white products still on shelves
- JUST Egg, Simply Eggless, Yo! Egg, WunderEggs (Crafty Counter), Neat Egg, Ener-G Egg Replacer — Modern egg alternatives George names
- Washington Post, Times Leader, Los Angeles Times, Time — Publications George cites for '90s food coverage
- Judith Weinraub — Washington Post reporter who tried the cabbage soup diet in 1996
- Food Network — Where Karla's '90s food-trends piece ran
- USDA Food Guide Pyramid (1992)
- Ollie's (42nd Street, NYC) — Where Matt first ate jellyfish
- Nissin — Maker of Japan's cold-water Cup Noodle (the noodles Matt describes)
- Seinfeld — The "muffin top" bit George riffs on
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