Asylum A'surfin Musings ... What are you hiding Mike?

I was discussing the Eades' Sous Vide Supreme the other day, and I went looking for a link.  I found this commercial on YouTube:

and this one

For those who aren't followers of this duo, or who didn't try the 6 Week Cure, these two ventures of the Eades' launched about the same time.  Indeed much of the promised internet support for 6WC never seemed to materialize and was blamed on the travel schedule and such for "changing the world" with their new kitchen gadget.   

I do believe it takes a special ego to think you're going to change the world with such a device.  Even when they were relatively new to the market, one of my first purchases for my first apartment was a microwave and it wasn't all that expensive if memory serves.  Even before the rotating carousel became standard, and before the invention of newer food packaging technologies that bring us microwave popcorn and steam in bag veggies and such, the device was useful for many things.  The microwave was world changing.  But a sous vide contraption?  

Personally, I have never tried to serve medium rare steaks to a large dinner party, and if I had, I'm thinking the convenience the SVS would offer for doing such would outweigh where I'm supposed to park this galunk the other 364 days of the year.  I have one of those vacuum sealer thingies and it spends a lot of time collecting dust atop the fridge.  I only ever use it if I've purchased a bulk of meat on sale.  Then it's worthwhile to dust off, cut the bags and such.  But you know what else?  I've used "good quality" bags for those devices and when stuff gets moved about in my chest freezer ... yikes! ... I have found that they lose their vacuum rather easily at times so I've not really come out ahead after all.  In any case, I've never thought a cooking method that involves a food sealer (or one of those contraptions with an air pump) -- IOW specialty bags -- qualifies as simple to start with.  Secondly, that device is not small and filled with water will not be light.   Unless I was using that almost daily and kept it on my countertop I'd have to take it out, fill, drain, put it back.  More hassle.  And even if I used it every day, that water would need changing out rather frequently anyway.  More likely such a device becomes a $450 space hog I'd probably store something inside in the way back of a cabinet ...

Ahhhh ... but that wasn't really the purpose of this post, that's just me thinking out loud.  What DID hit me is that these commercials were obviously filmed sometime in Fall 2009 with the release of their 6WC book.  Now ... Mike Eades made no bones about the origin of their diet -- It was to cure his and MD's bellies.  To hear Dr. Mike tell it, six years or so prior the Eades were set to film their cooking show when the director noticed a problem, well two really.  Apparently:

“We’re going to have to do something,” he said, “you guys are too fat to be starring in this kind of a cooking show.”

We were stunned. I was a much lesser version of my former fat self and thought of myself as pretty slender. Mary Dan had gained a little weight in the ten years since the publication of Protein Power, but certainly wouldn’t have been considered fat by anyone’s estimation. People we met at lectures, book signings, and other appearances uniformly commented on how thin and healthy we looked and always added that we were good advertisements for our diet.

 ... Bellies…?

“When you do lectures you’re dressed up, right? You wear suits, don’t you?”

We nodded.

“At book signings you sit behind a desk, shake a few hands and sign books. It doesn’t work that way on TV. You’re going to be moving around, bending over, putting stuff in the oven; you’re going to be seen from all angles. If we try to hide the fact that you’ve got a little extra weight around the middle, which will be hard since the camera will magnify it, the viewers will know. Putting you in baggy sweaters or loose clothing will just make them think you’re fat and trying to disguise it, and the show will lose all credibility.”

 ...“What can we do?” we asked. “If we try to hide it, they’ll think were fat; if we don’t, they’ll know for sure. It’s a Catch-22. We can’t win.”

Our director said, “I haven’t worked in this biz for over 40 years and not learned a trick or two. Here’s how we’re going to make this work. Since you, Mary Dan, are going to be the main cook, we’ll keep you standing behind the counter. You’re short enough that with the height of the counter and a little work with wardrobe we can keep you covered without appearing to do so. Mike, we’ll have you do all the moving and bending, so you’re going to have to take the bullet.”

The  bullet in Mike's case turned out to be a girdle.  As the story goes, after the careful/girdlized pilot, the Eades had six weeks to shed the paunch and they claim they did.  I've never seen that show so I'll take their word for it.  But six years later?  When they write the book and are hawking it?  

Well ... there you have the Eades' either hawking a cooking device in their doctor's coats, or MD in an apron with Mike sitting down in a baggy vest partially obscured by books and devices.  

Things that make you go hmmmmmmm.....  

If low carb advocates either are not following their own advice, or if they are and not achieving desirable results it makes no difference.  It makes them poor "poster folk" for the lifestyle, and uncredible "gurus" for the cause.