What’s Amost as Bad as Smoking for Your Health: EATING!!
According to the CDC (Center for Disease Control and Prevention), obesity-related deaths in America have climbed to more than 300,000 a year, SECOND ONLY TO TOBACCO RELATED DEATHS . Yet there are no warning requirements for high calorie, high fat food items. Shouldn’t there be a warning on that Big Mac that reads: WARNING, EATING A DIET HIGH IN FAST FOODS HAS BEEN SHOWN TO MAKE YOU FAT, UNATTRACTIVE AND LEAD TO PREMATURE DEATH! Obsesity is the leading cause of cardiovascular disease, type II diabetes, and a contributor to many types of cancer. Obesity in adults has increased by 60% within the past twenty years and obesity in children has tripled in the past thirty years. A staggering 33% of American adults are obese.
The simple fact is that most of us sabotage our own health by poor eating and lifetstyle choices. Corporate America has capitalized on our evolutionized craving for high fat, high calorie foods by providing the ability to access a virtual unlimited menu of unhealthy, highly processed foods for $1 simply by rolling down the window (actually we don’t roll down windows anymore, we push the button, thus relieving our fingers of that strenuous, calorie burning task). I once drove 300 miles, and using cruise control was able to severely limit any body movement and calorie burning, but was able to consume over 5,000 calories in less than 5 hours.
I have never smoked, but I suspect that my poor eating choices for much of my life have left my heart just as unhealthy as a lifelong smoker’s. My first resolution for the New Year: Be Conscious of Every Eating Choice that I Make Every Day. Being conscious of each choice doesn’t guarantee a good choice. But it does make me say, “Yes, the satisfaction I am going to get from this Big Mac is worth more than life itself.” Sort of like shaming myself into being a healthier eater.
I wish you all a New Year full of healthy eating.
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BongoP’o'ndit: Your post is missing a very eietnssal ingredient that goes into making junk food cheaper when compared to healthy food subsidies (basically our tax money) given to agri-businesses.And I was wondering what did you mean by health food and junk food ? Did you mean organic food? Are you talking about produce (fruits+vegetables) or packaged, processed food?I don’t know if you’ve already seen/read, but the following are good resources to find out more about food issues and the way it works in the US:- King Corn (movie)- Fast Food Nation (book, also movie) [Eric Schlosser]- The Way We Eat (book) [Peter Singer]- Omnivore’s Dilemma (book) [Michael Pollan] (also has a web-site)- Food Politics (book) [Food Politics] (also has a website)These will give you an excellent look under the hood/behind the scenes.Also google Farm Bill 2007 for more info. I think Oxfam has a write-up on it.Also do the more costs involved w/ healthy eating also take into account external costs likea. water and soil pollution due to conventional farmingb. loss of nutrient rich top-soilc. visits to the hospital as a result of eating excess junk food ?I’d think that once you take all those costs into consideration, you may get a different picture and possibly healthy foods may come out to be cheaper. What do you say?