Attempted Murder?

(Dawn) #1

Hey Keto Pals

Ok, I am dead serious when I ask this question? Is iHop trying to kill us? Also known as International House of Pancakes. Is there some collusion or shared interest between iHop and the manufacturers of diabetes medicines? Now, I am sure that this question can be posed to many different restaurants, but iHop sticks out as one of the greatest abusers of the metabolically challenged. I just saw a commercial where they have a pancake breakfast that literally has ice cream and syrup on top coupled with sausages, bacon and hash browns. I am sure there are healthy choices at the iHop
but who the hell wants to eat the healthy stuff when you can have pancakes with ice cream, frosting, sprinkles, fruit compote and syrup on them? I even heard a rumor that they put pancake batter in all of their eggs and omelets to make them more fluffy. So again, I ask, are they trying to kill us?

When I was little, my mother used to have a saying
”iHop because Diabetes took my foot”. She was not diabetic or missing a foot, but this was her way of impressing upon me how dangerous it could be to eat that Rutti Tutti fresh and fruity special that was all the rage in the 80’s. I would laugh and laugh because at the time I thought it was soo funny. Fast forward to 2017 when I am 40 years old, obese, prediabetic and metabolically weak, I can understand exactly what she was trying to say. My mother struggled with her weight for most of her life. Not because she didn’t take care of herself, quite the opposite. She was very educated and focused on her health her entire life. But she was getting the WRONG advice on fitness and nutrition. She lived off of low fat, low carb, fat free, diet coke, sugar free her entire life. But even with all of the bad nutrition/medical advice, she always felt inherently that iHop wasn’t a good choice. She had two major problems with the place 1) They were open 24 hours which meant they never had time to thoroughly clean and 2) they peddled their sugar laden desserts as balanced breakfasts.

Now of course I am being a bit tongue and cheek and I am picking on iHop, but it is so symptomatic of bigger problems with food in our society. It is so easy to tell us, “yes, you can have iHop but only in moderation”. Well let me tell you, once my fat girl insulin monster (that’s what I call her-FGIM for short) gets a taste of those ice cream pancakes
.moderation will be out the window no matter how hard I try to fight it. Also, to be fair, iHop has really good choices for keto WOE because they have good quality meats and UNLIMITED bacon.

What are your thoughts about this? This isn’t meant to bash any particular place. Just a honest discussion on the most dangerous marketing in our society today.

(Keto in Katy) #2

Industries don’t want to kill their customer base, they sell what the customer will buy. As long as people are eating garbage someone will provide it.

Case in point. Not everyone wants the garbage, so they get non-garbage options.

Our task is to educate the public so they can make better choices.

(Ethan) #3

I even heard a rumor that they put pancake batter in all of their eggs and omelets to make them more fluffy.

This is correct. They put pancake batter in the omelettes. I don’t eat at the international house of heart attacks.

(Dawn) #4

Ok, I like that one. International House of Heart Attacks. Never heard that one before.

(Mel Soule) #5

Is true, my son worked there while in school. It’s in their recipe for omlettes.

(Dawn) #6

I hear what you are saying. So maybe it is too harsh to say the are purposely trying to kill us. Maybe it is more accurate to say they are “indifferent to our death or suffering”. I understand they are in business to make money and they give the customer what they want
but what customer told them to put ice cream on pancakes? I also agree that no one forces us to eat that stuff. But sometimes, it seems like the deck is stacked against us. I am not trying to excuse us from personal responsibility. And to make matters worse, our iHOp here will allow your kids to eat for free. Guaranteeing another generation of carb addicted consumers.

Ok, I will get off my soapbox. To your point, it is our task to educate as much as possible. History has shown that it is possible to force these type of places to make change. I’ll use apple cidar vinegar as an example. Four years ago, it was impossible to find organic ACV in a standard grocery store. Now it’s everywhere. SO there is hope

(Consensus is Politics) #7

LMAO
 I was thinking yep, never ate there never will. Then you hit me upside the head with UNLIMITED BACON!!!

So my “Bacon Man, CAN live in a Bacon House!” WAHOO!

(Ken) #8

The issue is understanding the Science. No, Ihop is not trying to kill us. Nor is any other restaurant serving high Carb or Carb fat based meals. They are serving people what they want, it is the individuals responsibility to determine what is beneficial or not. I’d blame the Carb based food pyramid and the incessant anti fat nonsense of the last several decades for the problem. It doesn’t matter if you eat a Carb based pattern at restaurants, or if you eat it at home. The results are the same, it’s a matter of scientific ignorance, and happily that is slowly changing. However, it doesn’t help to get obsessivly nutty and religiously demonize things.

Ihop is a great place for periodic glycogen recompensation. In that sense a meal there can be beneficial, and as long as you understand the biochemical context it fits into, eating there occasionally for that specific purpose is just fine.

Occasionally, I like to make homemade Belgian waffles for recompensation. Yes, sometimes I eat them with ice cream.

(KCKO, KCFO đŸ„„) #9

This made my morning, I am still laughing over here. :joy:

I have learned that you have to ask for what you want when eating out. Most places are happy to not add potatoes, bread, even pasta to dishes if you don’t want it. Saves them some money. Some places are better than others, think seafood and steak houses. But even diner type places will work. I had some of the best liver and onions I have ever eaten at a locals cafe in Healy Alaska, served with canned green beans that had crispy bacon bits added to them. Just told them to hold the bread and garlic mashed potatoes. It can be done

(betsy.rome) #10

Has anyone tried adding keto pancake batter (pork rinds, almond flour etc) to their keto omelette at home? Wonder if the baking powder alone would do something to make it fluffier & change the texture.

(migorstmarseille) #12

I don’t know about that, but if you heat up bacon grease in a pan on medium high heat and add beaten eggs, you’ll get some seriously fluffy eggs. I do it all the time, no keto pancake batter required.

(Ethan) #13

I add heavy cream or half-half and coconut oil powder. It fluffs it nicely.

(CharleyD) #14

Does it sell? I once heard someone say every restaurant is one bad meal away from bankruptcy. That doesn’t leave much consideration for nutritional content of menu items other than profitability.

The cold calculation for the addictive nature of refined carbohydrate is baked in, sure, but there’s always the AMA/ADA/AHA guidelines to fall back on to sanitize that. To make that calculus more palatable. (As in, ‘but
but this authority says you need 40-60% of your diet to be heart healthy carbs
’ etc)

So as more customers ask, consistently, for real whole food items, they’ll begin to crop up on the menu organically. Same as the vegan, or gluten-free, or anti-food-allergen items.

In my opinion, if you’re going to KCKO in the wild, it is incumbent upon you to read, comprehend, and most importantly ask as much as possible about the menu items that you remotely consider consuming.

So yes, it is always better to know that the omelet contains pancake batter
 that’s pretty sneaky, but my joint pain would reveal that pretty quick.

(Dawn) #15

Oh my goodness can we talk about joint pain and carbs for a minute? How is it that even sneaky little carbs in my salad dressing can cause joint flare ups? It is simply amazing. To be pain free, we really really do need to know every morsel that is in our food. Thanks for making this point

(Sophie) #16

Dayuum, that made my teeth hurt!!! :confounded:

#17

Reading this thread reminds me of an ad I saw recently. Unbelievable
as if the cereal alone isn’t bad enough


1E24BEF2-0B3F-489A-B97C-0B34F4381AA0
1E24BEF2-0B3F-489A-B97C-0B34F4381AA0.jpeg640×1136 176 KB

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #18

Forget IHOP, I feel the same way just walking into the supermarket. EVERYTHING IS MADE OF CARBOHYDRATE! It’s truly amazing. If everybody went keto, they’d have to stop selling 95% of their inventory.

(Doug) #19

Ouch, @Jbird71, that picture is painful to see. Mostly because it reminds me of the things I’ve done in my past.

#20

Well yeah, IHOP is not trying to kill us (plus I loved their kangaroo logo when I was a kid, very lovable) but - like most “American” industrial foods franchises - they are major outlets for some of the most addictive sugar/carb foods, and thus complicit in socially-acceptable carboholism and corn syrup “syrup”


The keto-oriented Irish documentary film The Cereal Killers isn’t joking when it takes a look at the enmeshment of industrial grains industry with the government and how that informs the diabetes-ensuring food pyramid, which then ensures the continuance of carbo madness and the heavy dependency that follows with insulin prescriptions, etc. Highly recommend it - it includes some interviews with Dr. Tim Noakes, and Dr. Phinney - and a champion runner and a famous New Zealand soccer/football team. A well done film content-wise as well as cinematography and editing.

Screenshot from 2017-11-08 21:56:43

(Doug) #21

The one thing I know about IHOP is that it’s the answer.

There is a one-legged server in a restaurant. Where do they work?

– IHOP.