Eat like Batali, Look like Gwyneth

When food is your career, it’s a balancing act to keep your body in check as well.

In a Newsweek article titled “The Gourmet’s Dilemma,” author Alicia Coffman interviewed many food writers around the country to see how they keep from looking like the chowhound their profession would have them be.

In a ‘dream job’ where one ‘tasting’ can have 1,000 calories or more, food writers find themselves compromising at home and in the gym.

“When I’m not working I have to eat like a rabbit and exercise like a crazy person,” said Karen Fernau, a food writer for The Arizona Republic, in Coffman’s article.

Actress Gwyneth Paltrow is an example that, while extreme, exemplifies this concept of openly loving food and keeping a svelte celeb shape. Paltrow and world-renowned chef Mario Batali took a road-trip around Spain last year for a documentary centered around food and culture entitled “Spain…On The Road Again.”

It was rumored that Paltrow gained anywhere from 10-12 pounds on the two month trip, eating everything from fried empanadas to queso Manchego and putting her intense workouts on temporary hiatus. However, Paltrow, who on her personal blog GOOP.com openly admits to regular detoxing and training several times weekly with her celebrity fitness trainer (sometimes even via video chat), shows us that even the privileged struggle to keep off those stubborn lbs.

But even though the fluctuations between gorging and nibbling may be a battle, a foodie’s life is still calorifically charmed. As Coffman says, “After all, it’s one thing to get your calories from lobster tails poached in butter or a delicate chocolate soufflé and quite another to get them from sodas and fast-food burgers.”