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For mac and cheese lovers, there's Kraft Whole Grain Macaroni and Cheese; Annie's Homegrown Totally Natural Arthur Macaroni & Cheese, or Bunny Pasta with Yummy Cheese. Whole Foods 365 Everyday Macaroni and Cheese is a bargain at about 99 cents and has nearly the same ingredients as Annie's for a fraction of the cost.

Broiled or grilled burgers and chicken are a snap to make. Simply add fries from the frozen food section, for better nutrition than you'd get at the drive-through. Ian's Sweet Potato Fries have 70 calories per serving of seven chunky fries. They're low in sodium and fat, and provide nearly three times the daily intake of Vitamin A. Compare with Ore-Ida Extra Crispy Fast Food Fries, with about double the calories and fat, and nearly 10 times the sodium and no Vitamin A.

There is not a single vegetable in this article. (I'm not counting jarred tomato sauce.)

Speaking of, i'm staying up watching a special on BBCA about two reporters who each tried to get to a size 00. They were UK size 12 (which I think is an 8 or 10). Really interesting and scary.

I know a few people who wear 00. Most of them are fairly active and healthy, and just happen to be built really small. (Well, one of them eats total junk, but the rest are fairly healthy.)

They seem to be going with the idea that kids will not eat anything other than "kid food," so go and find slightly healthier versions of it.

oh, yes. There are some people who are naturally thin. In this case, they were people with "normal" bodies who decided to lose weight for this experiment, for five weeks. they did crazy diets and detox centers, etc.

That sounds really fascinating, Vortex--wish I got BBCA. Did they manage? I mean, I am about a US 12 now, and I've been a US 8 and certainly could've still lost some more weight...but I don't think I could be a 0. My bones are not that small.

My old boss was doing bikram yoga like, six days a week and working out at the gym also, before her wedding, and she was built a lot like me, maybe even a little smaller boned--and even she only got down to a 4 at her very smallest. So I've always figured a 6 would probably be my lowest healthy weight, maybe a 4 if I was pretty anorexic...

[Edit: and doing it in like, five weeks? That's even more crazy. Good lord. I totally know there are people who are just small, that's normal. The other manager in the department was a size two, and somewhat fleshy, not super skinny, just birdboned. It's how she was built. But for a person who's normally an "average" size person...]

One of them (the shorter one) got into the 00 jeans, but they were tight (the announcer made a point of saying that they would fit a 6 year old). The other one lost about the same amount of weight, but because she was taller, her BMI didn't change as much.

One of Monday's articles is about vending machines in schools. A bunch of them have switched from sodas to the "healthier" options of Nesquik milkshakes and Snapple 100% fruit juices, and while both of those have vitamins, they also both have more calories and sugar than the Coke.

It was also really interesting because they talked about the mental challenges, how they both had some emotional instability, and how the dieting affected them physically as well. One of them got a nasty rash that the doctor said was stress related, he told her that if she stopped the diet, he was sure it would go away.

okay, to bed now.

the announcer made a point of saying that they would fit a 6 year old

That would have to be a pretty big six-year-old. 00 is small, but not that small.