BILL KURTIS: From NPR and WBEZ Chicago, this is WAIT WAIT... DON'T TELL ME, the NPR news quiz. I'm Bill Kurtis. And here is your host at the Chase Bank Auditorium in Chicago, Peter Sagal.
PETER SAGAL, HOST:
Thank you, Bill.
(APPLAUSE)
SAGAL: So 2015 wasn't just a year of disasters, unexpected attacks and crazed people spreading fear. There were other things besides the presidential election. We also had to stop to eat sometime.
KURTIS: Let's move past that awkward segue as quickly as possible. Here's our coverage of the top stories in food.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED BROADCAST)
SAGAL: Mo, we've eliminated trans fats. They're gone. We've lowered our sugar intake. We know about other things. But that's not enough. A new study out this week says if we want to lose weight, we might need to cut out what?
MO ROCCA: It's not going to be sleep because we're already sleeping too little. Can you give me a clue?
SAGAL: Every time I watch Rachael Ray, it goes right to my thighs.
ROCCA: Cut out cooking shows.
SAGAL: Exactly right.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
ROCCA: Yeah, stop watching cooking shows.
SAGAL: Stop watching cooking shows.
(APPLAUSE)
ROCCA: Except mine (laughter).
SAGAL: Except, of course - well, perhaps including yours. Let me explain. Even Americans, as much as we would like to, cannot eat 24 hours a day. So we spend the time while digesting watching cooking shows. And worse, sometimes we cook the recipes we see there. A study compared people who just watch cooking shows to the fools who actually get up and cook the recipes and found that the people who actually cook and eat that food tend to gain 10 pounds more than those who do not. Apparently, it's because the recipes in the shows tend to be very rich, things like Paula Deen's fried butter pats with lard sauce...
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: ...Rachael Ray's bacon-wrapped bacon.
(LAUGHTER)
ROCCA: Or when Guy Fieri ate an entire diner.
SAGAL: Yes.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: Well, Mo, can I ask you the question that a lot of these food show hosts get? You make all these rich, fattening foods, and yet you yourself are rather slender. So what's the secret?
ROCCA: What the secret is - I just have a really fast metabolism.
FAITH SALIE: You don't have a spit cup?
ROCCA: No, I actually don't. I eat everything. I do a cooking show so that I can get people to cook for me, so that I can eat their food. Seriously, that's why I do it.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: Right, you're actually eating it.
ROCCA: Yes, I eat it all.
SAGAL: But the other people chew it up and go - (making a spitting sound) - as soon as the camera's off?
ROCCA: Yep, right.
SAGAL: That's awful.
ROCCA: I know. I feel like I'm telling all these stories - now I'm afraid I'm going to run into Paula Deen in a dark alley.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: Maz, according to a new study, people who want to improve their sex lives might start doing what more often?
MAZ JOBRANI: Swimming.
(LAUGHTER)
JOBRANI: I read that...
SAGAL: You say it with such confidence.
SALIE: Yeah.
JOBRANI: No, 'cause there was a thing that said swimmers are the best lovers this week. You didn't see this?
TOM BODETT: That was a bumper sticker.
JOBRANI: No.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: It is not that.
JOBRANI: It is not that.
SAGAL: It is not that.
JOBRANI: Oh.
SAGAL: This is a study that shows that there is a correlation between having more sex than the average person and doing what?
JOBRANI: Drinking coffee.
SAGAL: No. It's like, you know, it also goes - it's even more of an aphrodisiac if you have it with a nice cup of tomato soup.
JOBRANI: Tomato soup.
SAGAL: And? You butter the bread before you fry it.
SALIE: It's like the best thing ever...
JOBRANI: Crackers.
SALIE: ...That you feed your children sometimes.
JOBRANI: I feed my children this?
(LAUGHTER)
JOBRANI: Have you been - how do you know what I feed my children?
SALIE: Because every child eats this, Maz.
JOBRANI: Oh, mac and cheese.
SALIE: No.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: Cheese is involved.
SALIE: Take out the mac.
SAGAL: This is cheese...
JOBRANI: Cheese.
SAGAL: ...That is made in what way?
JOBRANI: Fried cheese.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: Think about it. It's a fried thing with cheese that you often serve with soup, Maz.
JOBRANI: Oh, grilled cheese.
SAGAL: Thank you.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL, APPLAUSE)
SAGAL: According to this study, a dating website called Skout, they surveyed all of their users and they asked them about the frequency with which they have sex and also what they like to eat. And they found that there was a correlation between the people who had the most sex and people who liked to eat grilled cheese sandwiches. This despite the fact that people who love grilled cheese sandwiches are usually covered in grilled cheese.
SALIE: I'm surprised, honestly.
SAGAL: Really, why?
SALIE: I love cheese but cheese makes you feel logy, doesn't it?
SAGAL: Yeah.
BODETT: I think it's the wrong conclusion. People who have more sex don't spend a lot of time making food, that's what the answer is.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: Now, I had always...
BODETT: You do a grilled cheese sandwich because you have to. It's like you look in the refrigerator, you've got bread, you've got cheese. You cut the parts off the cheese that are ugly and then you just, you melt it. And what is better after sex than a grilled cheese, right?
JOBRANI: And it's got to be...
BODETT: You know, I have an answer to that - a grilled cheese with bacon.
(LAUGHTER, APPLAUSE)
SAGAL: Paula, this week, Whole Foods made a big announcement. In 2016, they're going to open a bunch of new stores that will add something really special to the Whole Foods brand - something we've never seen at Whole Foods before. What?
PAULA POUNDSTONE: Fat customers?
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: No.
POUNDSTONE: Polite customers?
(LAUGHTER)
POUNDSTONE: I love the employees at Whole Foods, but I cannot stand the customers.
(LAUGHTER)
POUNDSTONE: I don't know about you, but all those women with the yoga mats blocking the chip aisle...
(LAUGHTER)
POUNDSTONE: ...They just bug me.
(APPLAUSE)
POUNDSTONE: Can you give me a hint, Peter?
SAGAL: Yeah, the store - the new chain of stores from Whole Foods has not been given a name, but we're sure the nickname will be something like Half Paycheck.
POUNDSTONE: Oh, they're going to put reasonably-priced foods?
SAGAL: Yes, reasonable prices...
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
POUNDSTONE: Oh, my gosh.
SAGAL: ...For the first time.
POUNDSTONE: You know what? That'll - 'cause, you know what? That - OK, my neighbors and I, last summer, went in on a strawberry from Whole Foods.
(LAUGHTER)
LUKE BURBANK: I mean, with interest rates where they are, you can't afford not to.
SAGAL: Yeah.
POUNDSTONE: Yeah, exactly. So in a way, this is going to tear my neighborhood apart.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: Whole Foods' corporate stock has been slipping of late. It's partially because people have noticed it's weird to have to take out a loan to buy a package of brownies. Apparently people want a store with more reasonable prices. And apparently their customers don't realize that store already exists and is called any other store in the world.
(LAUGHTER)
POUNDSTONE: I do shop at Whole Foods occasionally, not...
GABE LIEDMAN: Congratulations.
POUNDSTONE: Well, something I am kind of proud of because it just all looks so nice.
SAGAL: It does.
POUNDSTONE: Doesn't it look nice?
SAGAL: Oh, they - their piles of fruit are amazing.
POUNDSTONE: They have the best fruit piles.
SAGAL: They really do.
(LAUGHTER)
POUNDSTONE: And I...
SAGAL: Bursting with green.
LIEDMAN: And at the reasonably-priced new stores, all the fruit's just going to be on the floor.
SAGAL: Yeah.
BURBANK: Yeah.
POUNDSTONE: Well, exactly. Well, plus, if I buy something there that is, you know, like a pastry or something, I tell myself that it's healthier.
SAGAL: Right because it's a Whole Foods pastry.
POUNDSTONE: Right, exactly. It's in Whole Foods, you know. And so I feel like it must be - therefore, it must be good for you. And so I - yeah, I buy most of my junk food there. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.