I know it's election day, but I'm going to tell you what's really wrong with this country. Food.
Heart Disease personified was in line in front of me; a woman with two lovely, albeit grossly overweight, children. She was killing them (and herself) with preservatives and saturated fat. I swear to you, she bought boxed EVERYTHING, and fresh NOTHING - save a lonely bag of valencia oranges. Included in this melange of death were three, count 'em , THREE containers of iodized salt. What was she seasoning?! Everything was already prepared and laden with salt! I don't even want to go into the number of sausages she was purchasing. Okay, maybe I will. Bagged sausage, boxed sausage, even canned Vienna sausage, for real...Vienna sausage - who buys canned Vienna sausage anymore? Did I trip back into the 70s without noticing? I was looking hard for dried sausage, but alas, there was none. Maybe Wal-Mart ran out. And what is with the run on syrup in Southern Florida? She had three, again, count 'em, THREE squeezy bottles of syrup. (No, not real maple syrup - the cornsyrup kind of fake syrup.)
Segue to Obesity behind me in line.
Again, a woman with one lovely, albeit highly hyperactive, child. She also was participating in the run on fake syrup. Was Wal-Mart running a three fer? She has three bottles to compliment her seven (yep), seven boxes of assorted Aunt Jemima pancake products. Waffles, silver dollar, short stacks - I wanted to wring her sugary neck. I wanted to throw her ten pound bag of white refined sugar on the floor, but I would have had to reach over the mountain of bacon she was piling on the rolling countertop. Actually, I could've reached for the other ten pound bag of sugar in Heart Disease's pile - it was closer.
People, these children have no chance. They will either be left orphaned by their morbidly obese parents, or like the Surgeon General's report said (and I didn't believe at the time, but I do now), "Because of the increasing rates of obesity, unhealthy eating habits, and physical inactivity, we may see the first generation that will be less healthy and have a shorter life expectancy than their parents."
2 comments:
Holy crow. It's disgusting, really. We suck. We've become (or have always been) what I was raised to believe Eastern Europe was like: polluted and unhealthy. (Why am I so obsessed with the lingering effects of the Cold War these days?) We trash the environment. We get fat and pale and die early.
The United States is the Eastern Europe of the United States.
And we've sold ourselves this line that everything is tiring, everything requires an overwhelming amount of effort. Even eating.
The most important things they could teach us in high school and college, I swear, would be rudimentary financial and health management. That is the real defense we need.
-cK
Amen to that sister. If we were educated on how to take care of our daily lives, it would eliminate SO much more crap.
PS: "The United States is the Eastern Europe of the United States."
Priceless.
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