Tuesday, October 5, 2010

We Are Killing Ourselves

 For the record...I am not a rocket scientist.  I am not a graduate of MIT.  I was not a member of Mensa.  But I do not feel you have to be in the top 5% of the intellectual elite to see what is going on around us everyday.

I currently reside in a small, Midwestern town.  Compared to a lot of U.S. cities, you might even consider the town to be rural.  If you were to visit this town for more than a day, you too would not have to be a genius to see what is happening to its residents.

Let me set the stage for the point I am about to get to.  If you drive up the main street of this town, you will see a seafood buffet restaurant, a pizza buffet restaurant, A Chinese buffet restaurant, another Chinese buffet restaurant, yet another Chinese buffet restaurant, every fast food chain you can think of, a Golden Coral Buffet restaurant, another all-you-can-eat style restaurant and a host of other eating establishments specializing in everything fried and smothered.  To further help with the visual, all of these restaurants (minus the fast food chains) still have the "smoking" option when it comes to seating.  You will also see "discount tobacco shops" every so many blocks up and down the street.

So with this picture painted in your mind, now picture walking into one of these food venues and seeing folks clinging to their oxygen tanks while taking a drag from one of their freshly lit cigarettes.  Then picture the majority of the patrons all being as much as 75 to 100lbs overweight.

That is what I see on a daily basis as I go about my business around town.  We are becoming known as the obese nation.  We are the ones who go on cruises and demand multiple entrees for our dinner.  We are the ones shuffling along with canes and cruising around on scooters because we are severely overweight.

And the real problem is that other Countries see us as we are but we refuse to talk about for fear of being somehow less than sensitive or even worse...politically incorrect.

Meanwhile...children are being subjected to horrific eating habits.  Our smallest of infants are being forced to inhale massive amounts of smoke.  We have decided it is time to accept everyone as if obesity is some form of lifestyle or ethnicity and smoking is a "human right" regardless of the facts related to the dangers of second hand smoke.

The sad part to me is that our rural parts of the Country are offered little in the way of help or better, healthier eating options.  We cover up our awful food choices by referring to them as comfort food or "homestyle cooking."

It is time to wake ourselves up and face facts; We are killing ourselves everyday that we ignore our weight and poor health.  Lifespans are being shortened and health care costs are going through the roof.

And you don't have to be some brilliant person to see it.  It is happening all around us and all we have to do is wake up and look around.  It saddens me to see so many young people and children who are obese.  It saddens me to see so many of my fellow residents barely able to get around, but yet make it a daily practice to visit their favorite fast food restaurant.  Our Country needs a wake up call.  Let's get our heads back out of the sand and face the reality of where we are and make the decision to change.  Stop supporting all of these horrible food venues and actually try to find healthier options.  It is a shame to see healthier options go out of business while "Bob's Chicken and Pancake Hut" thrives.

Just some more inside poop that I needed to share...

1 comment:

  1. The word "buffet" alone grosses me out. The fact that you can super size an already large meal is sad. Great post.

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