I re­cent­ly con­tributed to the dou­bles de­bate by writ­ing to the ed­i­tor in de­fence of my long-stand­ing love af­fair with eat­ing dou­bles.

Since my ar­ti­cle, sev­er­al peo­ple have wad­ed in­to the un­healthy as­pects of this prac­tice and con­tin­ue to lec­ture Trinida­di­ans about healthy eat­ing. Some of these peo­ple have weak stom­achs and have had heart at­tacks and oth­er ill­ness­es, so we un­der­stand their po­si­tion.

I de­fend­ed my po­si­tion; I nev­er told any­one that they should eat four dou­bles and more at any one time. Dou­bles is "street food." All over the world street food can be no­to­ri­ous­ly not good for you when eat­en in quan­ti­ty. Street food is meant to fill a space, to abate hunger un­til you reach home to have your healthy meal. Street food is ei­ther very high­ly fried in oil, or very sweet and not meant to be eat­en in great quan­ti­ties.

A bar­be­cue box con­tains charred chick­en with car­cino­gen tars all over it from burnt coals and fries. A box might be ten times more un­healthy than two dou­bles. A "chick­en and chips" con­tains chick­en high­ly fried in oil, and chips al­so fried in oil–about ten times more un­healthy than two dou­bles.

Ice cream is very sweet and fat­ten­ing when eat­en of­ten and in quan­ti­ty. Pas­try is no­to­ri­ous­ly not good for you be­cause of lard and mar­garine; cakes are sug­ar and flour. Roti is a bake con­tain­ing dhal roast­ed on an oiled tawa, with cur­ried pota­to and dif­fer­ent meats, high in car­bo­hy­drates.

If you are go­ing to pick on the poor man's dou­bles, I sug­gest you close down all bar­be­cue shops, all fried chick­en and chips joints, all ice cream shops, all bak­eries and all roti shops.

So please spare us all the lec­tures about healthy eat­ing. It's all about man­ag­ing your own per­son­al di­et.

Joel Quin­tal,

San Fer­nan­do