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Dear Alton Brown, The Internet Is Worried About You
Published on: January 4, 2010 – 7:39 pm by Jillian Madison 
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This is the list of search engine terms that led people to Food Network Humor today. Do you guys notice a trend here?
These searches were more than likely the result of a gaunt-looking Alton Brown on last night’s White House episode of Iron Chef. But don’t worry, Alton fans. To the best of our knowledge, Alton Brown is not sick. Alton Brown does not have cancer. Alton Brown is not ill. He intentionally went on a diet a few months ago, lost 40 pounds, and supposedly has never felt better.
Bottom line: you guys can go back to googling “Giada’s Boobs” and “Bobby Flay is a Douche” again. Alton’s fine.
Other posts on Food Network Humor:
---Whoa, Alton Brown Is SKINNY---Alton Brown Celebrating 10 Years Of “Good Eats” With Live Shows
---Alton Brown, Upon Finding Someone Drank The Last Of His Welch’s Grape Juice
---Happy Birthday, Alton Brown
---The Story Of One Fan’s Ridiculous Alton Brown Encounter
THIS WEEK: Ina Garten's "beginner" recipes, new Food Network shows starting in September, thumbing through an issue of Semi-Homemade magazine, Rachael Ray's daytime talk show, Aarti's "accountability group", Claire Robinson on Big Daddy's House, another sensual reading of Alex Guarnaschelli's tweets, sink or swim voicemail, and much more.
Love Him :)
I love a guy in a tux, and Alton Brown looked suave in his on the special Iron Chef last night.
I pray Alton will recover
His show tonite is about how he lost 50pounds! Coming on now!
I watched that Boo! I think maybe he just got a little carried away, that’s how I do when losing weight. And not to mention we are used to seeing him a little chubby. LOL! I said “chubby”. LOL!
Men always look nice in a tux, but he has gotten too thin.. I’m glad he’s not sick, but he should have Ina cook him a few good meals.
PS – Kevin looked ridiculous last night – I guess he disproves my point above that men always look nice in a tux…
Forget Ina, what he needs is a Paula Deen mayo and butter heart attack platter
There was a brand new episode of Good Eats that was on tonight. It was about his weight loss. He said he got too fat, decided to lose 50 lbs by eating right and taking care of himself. He then goes on to tell us how he did it. It wasn’t a diet plan, just some general do’s and don’t and a couple of recipes.
I think he only looks sickly thin because we’re used to him being chunky. I don’t think he’s really that tiny.
He looks too thin and he appears ill. Also, the rapid weight loss has aged him 10 years over night.
I agree. The minute I saw him on his 10 year anniversary special I knew he had cancer. He looks exactly the way my husband did after 30 radiatiion treatments and 1 round of chemo. My husband lost 60 pounds in 2 months because the radiation ate away the lining of his esophagus and mouth, he could not swallow. From 240 to 180 in that amount of time does a number on your appearance, I was horrified looking at him. It was like seeing my husband with glasses, almost a skeleton. He looks bad. I never thought he needed to lose weight even though he alawys joked about it. My husband is a big guy, over 6 feet and muscular. He has rebounded thankfully and I hope Alton will. There is really no reason he should have lost that much.
If I recall correctly, he said he started his weight loss 9 months ago. That would mean he lost about 5 lbs a month, which is well within the healthy range of safe weight loss. (2-3 lbs per week is advised)
I think it is pretty irresponsible and rude to speculate that someone you only know from TV has cancer. Alton Brown does not look he’s especially tall to me, and 240 is indeed overweight (and probably obese) unless he’s like 6′8″. Congrats to him for taking charge of his health and not listening to people who say stupid things like “you’re just a big guy! you look fine!”
I agree. I’m sick of people automatically thinking he has cancer just because he is eating fish and lost 50 pounds. He should be commended – not gossiped about.
He does look too thin now. Sometimes people get a little overzealous in their weight loss. And it really does age some people. As long as he’s feeling good and healthy then he can focus on that!
His Good Eats show themed around his weight loss just finished 10 minutes ago. In fact, there were 2 shows, one on salmon, in which he still looked slightly overweight and he joked about his doc’s advice to eat fish, and another show where he elaborated more about his diet. Which of course has to be… good eats! He created for himself 4 lists: foods that he eats every day, foods that he eats 3 times a week, food that he eats once a week, and foods that he doesn’t eat at all. He also explained the sardines idea (brisling to be more precise), prepared a G.E. snack of chili coated almonds as well as a “blue” breakfast. His diet seems quite balanced and a loss of 2 lbs per week, as he seemed to have had is within healthy limits.
Like any person who lost quite a bit of weight, not your “garden variety” 5-10 lbs but much more, can tell you, the first place that shows the loss is one’s face…unfortunately. If the person is also on the other side of 50-tish, when the skin is not as elastic as it used to be, well, it’s not going to look too pretty. I also believe that he has a poor choice of hair cut at the moment (Bruce Willis did it right, lose those “last hair standing”!) and tanning doesn’t help either – a whiter face would look more luminous and hide better the folds.
has anyone tried his sardine sandwich?? i’m a pretty big sardine fan, but can’t find any comments about how it tastes…the only thing i’ve found mentioning the sandwich in particular is here http://foodandfabulous.com/sardines-50-lb-weight-loss/, but they haven’t tried it either!
p.s. alton looks fantastic – poor guy has such a complex about his image (as do most of us). i’ve always thought – thick or thin- he’s a really handsome guy.
I’m sure you’ll never see this response because it’s so late, but I’ve actually made it. It’s very good. It tastes almost like tuna fish (duh!), and has a similar consistency, so if you like that you’ll probably like this. I was a bit apprehensive at first because I’d never eaten sardines/brisling before, but it was a very tame, satisfying meal.
Alton repeatedly said he was 30lbs overweight, but then went on to discuss losing *50* lbs. I think something might be wrong, but it’s not cancer or a physical illness; I think he switched from having a case of body dysmorphia (referring to his 30lb overweight self as a ‘quivering mass of blubber’) to, considering his weight loss is 20lbs more than he said he was supposed to weigh, a full blown eating disorder.
I’m beginning to wonder, given that he doesn’t LOOK particularly healthy, despite the fact that he protests with every other breath that he IS; in fact he sort of puts me in mind of a Holocaust survivor these days. Is he still losing weight? One thing I wondered during his show tonight was: how does his family feel about his diet and do they eat the same things he does? Does his daughter and wife eat the smeared-avocado-sardine-parsley toast and “blue” smoothie, too? Or does he prepare one meal for himself and another for them? Most people can’t do that.
As much as I love him and am glad he’s done this monumental task of losing that weight, I do think he has tended to dwell on his weight a bit more than you’d expect the average guy to. He does look sickly now, but he’ll settle into the new look and we’ll forget. Remember when Al Roker lost all that weight, he looked awful and he seems pretty normal now. That must be a product of being on TV, hell, I’d scream every time I saw myself on TV, so its probably a occupational hazard. I wonder if he isn’t drinking a bit too much of his own Kool-Aid…
Manorexia.
We should be concerned about people searching for Anne Burrell!!!! LOL
Ha ha, I just googled “guy fieri dirty fingernails” and the first result was FNH!
Is it really that he’s too thin, or is it just that he’s the thinnest man on the Food Network outside of Brian Boitano? I’m familiar with complaints of Aunt Sandy being Skeletor-like in appearance, but it’s strange to see terms like “manorexic” bandied about for Alton Brown.
Regarding the 30/50 lbs discrepency: Alton Brown might have been 30 lbs over his ideal weight range. There are medical recommendations based off of BMI for what people should way. At my height, for example, these numbers go as low as 118 lbs to as high as 155 lbs. If I weighed 185 lbs, I’d have to lose 30 lbs to fit into this recommended weight range, but could lose up to another 37 lbs and still be considered healthy. I think it goes without saying that Internet calculators as I used here are not ideal for the calculation, but the point stands. If there is potentially a 30+ lbs spread of healthy weight, Alton Brown could have lost 30 lbs to get to a healthy weight, then still had another 30+ lbs to stay within before being classified as underweight.
And for further clarity: that’s the range for a rather short 5′6″ tall on an adult male. I think Alton Brown might be a bit taller than Ryan Seacrest height (how do I know? I’ve met him, in the same damn shoes, and we were the same height – 5′8″ my keister), so there could be an even wider range of numbers here.
http://www.flyingbadger.org/photos/hilltop/K%20and%20AB.jpg
I’m 5′6″ and he was in heavy motorcycle boots. You decide. Want to talk about weight in faces! Sheesh! Pregnancy puffs you right up!
Hmm…I always pictured Alton Brown was taller than that. Could that be the real reason he doesn’t do the Food Network Holiday specials? Because all the other men on the network are giants and he doesn’t want to have to stand on a box to stay in frame? I’m kidding, of course. It’s always good to have another vertically challenged role model.
Did you see how incredibly tiny he looked when he was standing next to Michelle Obama for the Iron Chef taping? It was hilarious!
By virtue of the fact that normal weight (according to the lauded BMI scale) has such ridiculous fluctuations–we can almost certainly conclude that it’s a lot of overzealous bunk to scare folks into unattainable and unrealistic ‘numbers’ vis-a-vis big pharma and the lucrative diet industry. If you lost a wonderful 30 pounds but the hyper critical BMI said you could (or should) lose another 37 lbs where is the healthy reality? I’d venture to guess that Alton in his former body was probably classified as morbidly obese according to the BMI, LOL… Our normal weights are something none of us have seen–even in our starving college days.
The only acceptable way I could drop my body weight to BMI standards is if I was decomposing. If I weighed only 145 pounds, it would not be healthy; it would mean I have a tapeworm.
I’m aware of the descrepencies with BMI, as well. People start worrying if I’ve been eating when I weigh 160lbs, which is still over the BMI recommendations for me.
It was just a way of approaching the number discrepency. Who knows? He could have lost 30, gone to the doctor, and been told it would only help to lose some more.
Or else the truth is Bob Tuschman locked him in a closet and gave him a tin of sardines a day until his appearance was satisfactory. We can’t have our big network icons be anything larger than a stick figure, can we?
I think if we can trust anyone to tell us the correct foods to eat and lost weight the healthy way, it’s the Mr Wizard of food. Good job Alton.
I think he’s fine, health-wise.
I watched his show last night detailing his weight loss program and it’s all quite scientific and metabolic (of course,it’s AB!), but he seems to be eating from all the food groups. It’s a good plan – focus on the foods that bring the most nutrition with least bad fats, sugars, etc.
I think he has kind of a skinny neck which makes him look too thin to some. But wow did you see the pictures that sent him on the diet?! Good for him – he wants to be around to see his kid grow up.
But it’s a good message – don’t totally depend on doctors and pills, but take responsibility for your own body!!
I contacted Alton Brown’s publicist and asked for a quote about Alton’s weight loss. We’ll see if he gets back to me.
Back when Iron Chef America started shooting its first season I recall that Alton had a heart ‘episode’. I don’t think it was an actual heart attack, but he was taken to the hospital. Maybe that put enough of a scare to make him lose that much weight.
“If memory serves me right” HA Real Chairman! No, that was just a plot for the show. At the end he says “Remember that heart attack? Acting!” Real funny not. What was funny was that fish talking to him after the fake attack. That was a real fish being manipulated, how ironic.
I saw that diet episode and thought, “He’s never going to stick to something that extreme. Maybe he lost 50 because he knows he’ll gain back 20 at some point.
I dunno. I’ve gone off Alton. I used to find him funny and charming. I was addicted to his show. Then I found him tiresome and complicated. His recipes rarely ever worked for me (and I found out that I wasn’t the only one who found his recipes tended to flop). I don’t need a half hour to learn how to make a slice of toast. What really sealed the deal for me were his comments off camera. He made unkind comments about people who are overweight (when he was still chubby). He was a horrible jerk on TNFNS. He just doesn’t strike me as a nice person. It sounds to me like he’s horribly insecure and makes up for it by acting smug.
And all those google search terms are more indicative of peoples’ morbid curiosities than of AB’s actual/alleged health problems.
Love Alton, not lovin’ the Nuremberg look. He needs to put about 15 pounds back on, or look like a skinny, haggard old man, which he does. Thumbs down. I agree with “manorexia.” He needs to remember he is doing a TELEVISION show that is supposed to appeal to and encourage us in cooking. Maybe he needs to be on “Extreme Makeover: Gaunt Edition!”
Let us not forget that the camera adds 10-20 pounds. He is even skinnier looking in person. Yikes.
Why isn’t anyone worried about Ina and Paula Deen? My gosh, if they put on any more weight, they will need their own zip code. And forget about potential clogged arteries with all the butter and cream that those two throw into any recipe!
Neither of these women seem to be concerned about their excessive girths, let alone the inherent health risks that they face. If they do, neither Ina nor Paula seems to care about altering the way that they cook and/or eat. Old habits die hard.
There’s no need to be insulting to ladies you don’t even know. We can see that they are overweight. The hyperbole about zip codes and so forth is not necessary, or kind, and makes you come off as kind of stupid. Which I’m sure you’re not.
I wonder how AB feels about the reactions to his weight loss. I mean, SURELY he’s heard that people think he’s taken it too far. If he doesn’t gain any weight back moderately soon, I’m afraid I’m going to have to think he’s either anorexic or sick.
I recall reading an interview somewhere, (wish i could find it so i could link to it) wherein he stated that before he decided to lose the 50 pounds, he weighed in at just under 215. A 50 pound weight loss would put him at around 165 pounds. And he’s stated his height at being 5′ 10 1/2″ for the record.
One thing that he didn’t say on the weight loss ep. of Good Eats, that he has said to interviewers, is that he also runs 4 miles a day. And i’m thinking that that also has played a big part in how rapidly his weight went down. And he’s a brilliant man who knows a heck of a lot more about nutrition than many of us could ever hope to learn. But i, like some of you, worry about him too.
I grew up “the chubby kid” like he did. In my early 20’s i decided to lose the weight in some very extreme ways. I’m 5′7″ and went from almost 200lbs down to 98lbs. I still ate – what i believed was healthy food, and enough of it. But i exercised almost 3 hours a day. I was high on finally being thin for the first time in my life, and for while, making my body finally “perfect” was my drug. I couldn’t get enough. I’ve been stable at between 120-130 for 10 years, but i know how us super-obsessive perfectionist types can get when we’ve found a new project to focus on. We do go a bit overboard at first.
Another interesting thing that my mother pointed out: she’s a colon cancer survivor of 15 years, and when she was in treatment, they put her on a diet identical to the one Alton was touting in his weight loss episode – purple and blue fruits, fatty fish, and almonds as snacks. Almost no dairy, sugar or red meat. Her doctor said that was standard recommendation for cancer patients. And that concidence scares me the most.
So many of us love Alton. We’re trying to trust that he’s well – fit and healthy like never before. We’re hoping for nothing but health and further sucess form someone who’s done a lot to bring us laughter and joy. I, like the rest of you who see a few reasons to worry about such a great guy, am sending him a ton of good thoughts.
Good for Alton – he seems to be a great guy, and I wish him the best. But Good Eats is doomed. There is nothing ‘good eats’ about soy milk or anything else eaten by someone who gave up as much as he did to lose weight. The new show will be “good for you but average tasting eats”. I can’t imagine he will ever again sit at his table and devour a plate of what ever he made on the show with his quart of beer.
RIP Good Eats.
He does look a little gaunt compared to the AB we know and, um like.
Heh..I was discussing his weight loss with a friend and decided to Google it just in case he actually WAS sick. First link? Right here.
Well, I do remember something he said in passing about a month ago that he’d like to finish Good Eats and put it down like Old Yeller.
When he was eating the food on the White House Iron Chef America show I couldn’t help but wonder if he kept any of it down when the cameras were off.
No one mentioned the sore he had on his outer cheek, left side during a recent Iron Chef. It was around Christmas. I forget what the secret item was that night. But my husband even commented about the mark on his cheek. It reminded me of the movie Philadelphia when Tom Hank’s character couldn’t hide the marks on his face anymore.
As someone who’s about the same age as Alton, I can tell you that when you lose weight you get that look. If you’re not in your 20s or 30s, your face will look gaunt. Nothing you can do about that unless you resort to surgery, or if you have really good genes. Your skin loses elasticity, and so the weight loss deepens the wrinkles, especially the basset-hound ones.
If you’re not also doing weight-bearing exercise to keep your muscle mass, that will decrease along with fat. Men lose approximately 10% of their existing muscle mass per decade if they don’t get the right exercise anyway. I don’t know if Alton exercises or not, but he looks like the classic case of a 40-something who lost weight in the last year.
For Pete’s sake, people, he’s just lost some weight. Why the hell is anyone jumping to this ridiculous conclusion that he has cancer?
Alton said that he did some running as part of his fitness outine. Enough with the sickness or gaunt talk. He’s okay.
Alton reminds me of guys I’ve known in person who have been rather heavy and then lost weight fairly quickly by going on a low carb diet. They look “too thin” because we’re so used to seeing them be so heavy, and plus being middle-aged doesn’t do them any favors because their newly extraneous skin just sags. So I’m going to take his word that that’s all that’s going on and not go assuming he’s terminally ill.
While it’s somewhat shocking as a viewer to witness our brilliant cooking guru battle with his weight like the average person does, in the end I think it was a good wake-up call for viewers who may be so into eating good eats that they forget they need to be careful not to overdo it and become unhealthy. He’s had quite a few shows that focus on foods that are simply terrible for you, like pound cake, egg nog, American dips, etc. Seeing that he barely allows himself any of that stuff now puts some of the reality back into the fantasy eating world of the Food Network.
Tonight I said something I never thought I’d say, since normally I love Alton Brown (the only one except Chef Morimoto I DO like on the Food Network). After eating my dinner of tacos from my local taco stand (which I guess qualify as fast food, even though they are handmade and oh, so yummy) and nibbling on yet another of my homemade snickerdoodles, I said to my husband, “Alton Brown would be disappointed in me. But Alton Brown can go suck eggs.” Then I thought about it some more and added, “Except he doesn’t eat them anymore.”
But I do.
The bottom line is that he looks awful.
To JillS: it’s called a mole and he’s always had it. Cripes.
I think it is so sad that so many people are jealous! Yes I said it Jealous!! Alton you look great and proably feel better than ever before and I only hope that I can do the same and take better care of myself!!
I’m not particularly jealous. That’s why I’m still eating snickerdoodles. I’m glad he’s lost weight. I only hope he can keep it off and be happy with this overzealous (as laid out in his “Live and Let Diet” show) regimen he’s mapped out for himself. As for myself, I couldn’t do it, nor do I think it’s particularly a good idea to do it. And I hope he’s not still losing weight. While he said he didn’t consult a doctor for his eating plan, I hope he does finally consult a doctor about his mole, which yes, he’s always had, but should get tested, as it appears to be irregular.
well, clearly you’re a nutrition expert. I didn’t see anything overzealous about the new way Alton’s been eating. Just because you like shoving garbage in your pie hole doesn’t mean he’s eating incorrectly.
I love these dippy women who’ve never taken a nutrition class, are clearly talking out of their backsides, and are just basically kind of dumb, trying to tell everyone else how to live their lives. Just because you get your nutrition “facts” from Ladies Home Journal and the Enquirer, you’re suddenly an expert.
Your brain seems to be a bit irregular, dearie.
For your information, I am a college graduate in biology and nutrition. I DON’T get my nutrition information from trendy magazines, since I’ve already taken several college courses on the subject. Perhaps you should know your facts before you make assumptions, “dearie”.
Alton’s the best… He confirmed that when he had his niece on his show, Good Eats. He acts through examples like the chairman of Iron Chef America, Mark Dacascos, is the nephew of the original series chairman, Takeshi Kaga.
Oh man, what episode did he have his niece on?
Boo–Any time AB has a little blond girl on his show it’s his daughter. It was the parsnip show.
It’s his niece… he mentioned that. He’s had her on to do about a half dozen shows.
Jimmy Johnson-He just calls her his niece for the show-it’s actually his daughter.
PS- He explains it in his new book Good Eats The Early Years.
Y’all are blind! He looks hot!
Nice healthy weight loss, Mr. Brown. No starvation (50 pounds in 9 months is SLOOOOOW), no low-carb, low-fat silliness, just good healthy Good Eats.
Congrats and keep up the good work.
I have watched AB for 3-4 years. Through all the different hair styles, the dropping of the weight, I still have a huge crush on him. My husband and I have decided to follow his 4-list plan. My husband has even tried sardines. He likes them! We think he’s got it right & love to watch his show & Iron Chef. The grape commercials are a bonus. ;-)
I think our country has very sadly become too used to the average person being overweight and a bigger percentage becoming obese every day. Alton looks wonderful and I think so many see him as looking bad because perception has shifted because we now see more fat people than normal weight ones. I admire him for taking charge of his health. Now, is it too much to ask for Paula to back away from the butter and Aunt Sandy to make it to a couple AA meetings every now and then??
I was worried about Alton. Glad to hear his is not sick.
Congratulations on the weight lose. I love watching his shows.
Alton!!! I love you, but please…GO EAT SOMETHING!!!
You do not look healthy at all! Go have a donut, or better yet, go get some fried chicken & waffles. Anything, just go eat. You are startin to look all Karen Carpenter like…