OKLAHOMA CITY — Ever seen the hit TV show, “The Biggest Loser”? If they did it for cities instead of people, Oklahoma City would be front and center. You’d see a skyline that’s more wide than tall with the 52-story Bank of Oklahoma Tower sprouting pudgy arms and eating barbecue brisket.
However, in today’s episode, Oklahoma City is looking better. It’s feeling better. It’s eating better. Believe it or not folks, Oklahoma City — or Fat City as it’s known around America — is on a diet.
Lord knows it needed one. The country was starting to talk.
Men’s Fitness magazine ranked it the second fattest city in the country. It based that ranking on only 17 percent of the townsfolk eating the recommended servings of fruits and vegetables and that they are 28 percent less likely to walk for fitness every day.
How they came up with those stats, I don’t know. The magazine listed Miami No. 1. (Um, editors, have you ever seen the women on South Beach? Think they’re all tourists?)
But the survey’s credibility doesn’t matter. Men’s Fitness wasn’t the only magazine that pureed Oklahoma City. It all got the attention of one key person: Mayor Mick Cornett.
“I had always been very proud of all the positive lists we started showing up on — best city to start a business, best city to get a job,” Cornett told me Thursday. “Then the obesity list came out, and it really bothered me.”
So on New Year’s Eve 2007, he put the city on a diet.
He didn’t just suggest everyone eat more grapefruit and broccoli. A former sportscaster, Cornett has a flair for hyperbole. He held a press conference at the Oklahoma City Zoo. He made the announcement in front of the elephant cage.
Think that got people’s attention?
“Even if they were just saying, ‘Did you hear what the crazy mayor did? He put us all on a diet.’ People were talking about obesity,” he said.
Local chefs started adding healthy dishes, called “Mayor’s Specials,” to the usual local fare of barbecue and fried anything. A vegan restaurant opened. Even Taco Bell offered a menu with no sour cream or cheese and put Cornett’s life-sized cutout on the ads.
People signed up at and recorded their weight loss.
It has been a little more than two years, and the city has lost a collective 540,000 pounds. After many previous visits here, I wondered if that involved only four locals. No, it’s much of the city, and Cornett is pushing his people to hit the million mark.
America’s mayors are the truly great leaders in our country, and Cornett’s one of the best. His re-election in 2006 came with 87 percent of the vote.
As I’ve traveled internationally, it’s obvious America is the fattest nation on Earth. This is one guy and one city that did something about it.
“If we’re a community and it’s documented that we don’t value our health and I’m a job creator, why am I really going in there and creating jobs without wondering what my health care costs are going to be, what’s my absenteeism’s going to be, without it working against us?” said Cornett, who’s also building hundreds of miles of bike paths and sidewalks.
“So if we could change our image to a city that values its health, that’s probably going to help us create jobs.”
Cornett isn’t just pointing fingers. The 5-foot-9 mayor dieted too. He cut his daily caloric intake from 3,000 calories to 2,000 and lost 40 pounds in 40 weeks, going from 220 pounds to 180.
But healthy fare? In Oklahoma City? Isn’t that like discos in Kuwait City?
So I went to Nonna’s, one of the city’s finer restaurants. It features high-end prep on feel-good food such as chicken pot pie, pot roast and some monstrosity called a stuffed bleu cheese jalapeño bacon burger.
Last week’s Mayor’s Special was a chicken salad with no-frilled grilled chicken on cabbage topped with baby tomatoes, Parmesan chunks, crispy onions and a Guinness vinaigrette. It was really good, and despite its typical Oklahoma-sized portion, I didn’t need a gurney to leave.
“This has worked so well for me,” said owner Avis Scaramucci, a very fit, stylish grandmother. “People come in just for the Mayor’s Special.”
Taking the mayor’s initiative to the level of the bizarre is 105 Degrees. Forbes magazine listed it as one of America’s best new restaurants. But a vegan restaurant here challenges the imagination. I’m sorry, but I can’t see some of the fat locals I see cruising Bricktown in dirty jeans, T-shirts and ball caps eating a Portobello burger.
But since it opened in September, locals have flocked to it. Owner Dara Prentice cites Cornett’s push, saying, “It’s part of what we’re about. We want to help the city have a place that makes it inviting and enticing to try and experience healthful foods, and so far we’ve been very well received.”
Vegan, which uses no animal or dairy products, is an acquired taste. I tried their vegan cheese plate, a contradiction in terms on the level of military intelligence or Fox News. The three little cheese wedges are made from macadamia nuts and cashews and tasted more like puree than anything I’d put on a cracker.
Much better was the cannelloni made with pignoli ricotta cheese, sun-dried tomato marinara and pistachio pesto wrapped in thin slices of cucumber.
It wouldn’t go over in Rome, but Rome doesn’t need to go on a diet. Oklahoma City did.
Hey, I just looked out my hotel window — the Bank of Oklahoma Tower is holding a carrot!
If You Go
Nonna’s, 1 Mickey Mantle Drive, 405-235-4410
105 Degrees, 5820 N. Classen Blvd., Suite 1, 405-842-1050
John Henderson: 303-954-1299 or jhenderson@denverpost.com
