JANET CIEL, CPCC
LIFECOACHING and WEIGHT COUNSELING
THE BLOGWAGON |
FEBRUARY 12, 2010 FEBRUARY 23, 2010 Here goes blog entry number two!! Look out blogworld! I have been thinking about all the possible directions this awakening of America to the fact that our kids are obese and unhealthy could go. I love that Michele Obama grows a garden at the White House and has kids from the local school work in it. I love that there is the idea of creating gardens in urban settings, rooftops, etc. Great ideas are blooming everywhere! As it is beginning to be discussed, however, there is the reality that there are urban wastelands of poverty where no such thing as healthy food even exists. Good luck finding something nutritional to feed your family on the gang-ridden streets of many cities in our nation. The corner markets carry bare essentials, and if they even carry fruits and vegetables they are poor in quality and quantity. So what can be done...what can be done? Well, if I am to be brutally honest here I would say that although we should note that this is a huge problem in many areas, putting in better markets will not solve it. Farmers markets have opened in urban neighborhoods to very poor response, yet here is better food at a good price. Why don't people flock to it? Because they are addicted to the junk food, and do not have the education, desire or motivation to get off that addiction. When you are living on bare minimum income, with multiple mouths to feed, and your sole comfort is ice cream and cookies, you will turn to that food even if the ripest, most glorious peaches and plums are offered as an alternative. The food industry has created a monster and if you ask me that is the first place to focus. More to come... MARCH 14, 2010 |
So in my last blog I mentioned the food industry, and how I see them as the real culprits in the childhood (and adult, for that matter) obesity situation. Let's face it: they've got us just where they want us: thoroughly addicted. What's your food addiction? Do you crave burgers? Fries? Pizza? How about Pepperidge Farm cookies or Cinnabons or Doritos? Maybe you're a "healthy" eater, so your addictions lean towards Clif Bars or Kashi cereals.
Well, if you think those last couple of items are better than the prior ones you're pretty much fooling yourself (or rather the food industry has made a fool out of you). Truth is every thing I mentioned contains three highly addictive ingredients: FAT, SUGAR and SALT. We need the first one in very small amounts (try 2 tsp a day of a healthy oil), and the other two our body can live completely without. We produce glucose, which is our body's version of sugar, from intake of carbohydrates, which ideally should be whole grains, potatoes, non-sugar cereals, fruits and vegetables. Doritos or Clif Bars are not necessary for our bodies to function, sad to say.
So not only are those 3 ingredients in pretty much every food, there are layers of those ingredients, which make the food item even more addictive. In the old days there was the hamburger. Remember the boring old hamburger? Then there was the cheeseburger...a nice layer of fat on top of the "protein". Then there was the bacon cheeseburger, then the chili bacon cheeseburger, and it goes from there. Oh, and super-size it.
The food industry is as villainous as the tobacco industry and it is all beginning to see the light of late. If you want to know more please see the movie Food Inc or read Omnivore's Dilemma or The End of Overeating. I predict in the next few years lawsuits will emerge against them, as has happened with tobacco. And although I do not support frivolous lawsuits (I do believe people make their own beds, so to speak...it isn't as though we do not know this food is unhealthy), I also feel that anything which sheds light on the manipulations in the industry is of value to our culture.
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