Vote With Your Fork

I heard on the news the other day that obesity in infants is now a big issue - no pun intended. I was shocked. Of course we've been barraged with information on the obesity epidemic in the U.S. Our sedentary lifestyles (what am I doing now? Sitting at a computer typing. And what are YOU doing?), lousy diets and consumption of fast foods add up to a problem with fat. Teenagers are fatter. Kids are fatter. So, no surprise: infants are fatter, too.

In short, (in wideness?) we have an obesity problem. Americans are indeed fat, dumb, lazy and happy (or clueless). And we're killing ourselves by the way we eat. Skyrocketing rates of Type II Diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, cancers -- all are diet related.

Take action, America. Eat more fruits, veg, whole grains. Get away from processed foods! My food hero, journalist Michael Pollan suggests shopping along the outside of the grocery store -- not in the middle aisles, where the processed foodstuffs sit.
He also recommends eating foods that have no more than 5 ingredients. Or, look at the label. If you can't envision where something on that label comes from, don't eat it!

Fast food = bad food. Too many calories, too much fat, too much sugar, too much processing. Ah, but that convenience! Not worth the price you eventually pay, in my mind.

My mother was ahead of her time. In an era where housewives were being brainwashed by the new concept of brand marketing, she stuck with the basics. Rather than buying Wonder Bread (with 14 essential vitamins added!) she'd buy fresh bread from the baker.

'Why would you take something out just to put it back in?' she mused about how Wonder Bread was processed. 'Why not just eat it the way it's supposed to be made?'
Wonder Bread! I wonder what's actually in it.

She thought the same about meat, fish, vegetables, fruit. Fresh is better. Fast food and soda were treats. Of course, when we first went to McDonalds, far fewer than 1 million burgers had been sold.

Although she was not fond of cooking -- loathed it, in fact -- my mother had a profound impact on the way my siblings and I view food. And decades before Mr. Pollan made his millions off dietary concerns.