pho24

Indiana has a reputation for really chubby women.

I know this because I used to work at the City Hospital's Womens' Clinic, and this was a frequent observation by our residents.

"Why are all women in Indiana so fat?" they'd ask. Rhetorically, I'm sure. However, if they'd really wanted an answer, I would've said, "Well, you are dealing with the very poor population, with the barest of educational levels. All they know is a box of Poptarts is cheaper than a bunch of bananas, is more satisfying, and lasts longer. But you're a doctor, so I guess you already know that."

Anyway, I'm listening to NPR this morning and they're talking to the guy that owns Pho24, a Vietnamese fast food chain. They serve noodles. The owner said, "Nobody ever got fat eating pho." Jared, the wall of human from those subway commercials is from Indianapolis (or is now). I think he was at Indiana University-Bloomington when he started the subway diet. Does anyone besides me see the synergy forming here?

Indianapolis already has some kid genius running Noodles & Co, but we'd be shooting for the Authenticity dollar. If we were the first place to have it in the midwest, we'd be going for the Novelty dollar too.

Seriously, if they could figure out a way to serve cheap, fast, satisfying yet simple fast food that would not make you fat, I'd bet you'd even get PR money from the governors' office to promote it. And if you could disguise this diet stuff as regular food, you'd be sitting on a goldmine.

1 USD is 15,965 Vietnamese Dong. Anyone willing to lend me a few thousand dollars?