It's funny that, in this country, the two most popular publications are cookbooks and diet books. Write one of these with a snappy title and you're almost certain to make it to the Best Seller list. Clearly, this combination of cooking and dieting points to a long-standing problem with food. And if you think about it, you will realize that this is probably because eating is one of the few things that feels good that we're actually encouraged to enjoy. The really weird sex and the super great drugs are all either discouraged or against the law. So what's left? Food...served fast and in heroic portions...with the obvious result. Americans are now in the midst of an epidemic. If you take the standard 20% above ideal body weight as a clinical definition of obesity then something like two-thirds of the population falls into that category. As a nation, we are bulging with blubber!
It's also funny that, in this country, we restrict freedoms at every turn if there's even the slightest chance of someone hurting themselves and/or winding up costing the taxpayers money...even when such restrictions prove to be altogether unwarranted and even counterproductive! Motorcyclists, for example, must wear a helmet because it limits head injuries in a crash. Of course, numerous studies have shown that the corresponding sensory limitations imposed by that same helmet actually increase the risk of having an accident in the first place. I tried riding just once after the law was passed and came remarkably close to getting run over. Ditto with air bags in cars, they cost everyone more but mostly serve those who can't be bothered to buckle up. Indeed, if you're properly secured in your seat, those bags may well do more harm than good. Then too, the cigarette industry is being effectively dismantled despite the fact that smokers enjoy 99.8% of the nonsmoker's chance of not dying from lung cancer. Just ask someone involved in cancer research if they would rather be a smoker or be born with genes that predispose them to malignancy. And in such a climate of uncritical acceptance, is it surprising that giving a kid a glass of wine (shown to have potential health benefits) will land you in jail while giving that same youngster a soft drink containing 15 teaspoons of sugar is perfectly acceptable? Americans are not only grossly overweight they're also grossly misinformed; the expression "fat and dumb" comes to mind.
All this while a majority of the population overeats - a behavior that has been clearly linked to health risks and costing the taxpayer money - goes blissfully unchallenged. Why, I'd be curious to know, is it illegal to give an obese minor a beer but OK to serve him a double cheeseburger and jumbo fries? In fact, to my way of thinking, there's no acceptable reason for a supermarket to allow someone carrying around an extra 50 pounds to buy a ham. Isn't this the same as a bartender providing additional drinks to a guy already way over his limit? Perhaps those concrete stanchions designed to prohibit the public from walking away with shopping carts ought to be moved closer together and, if you can't squeeze through, you won't be allowed into the store. I'm surprised too, that some bright young lawyer has not yet gotten a 300-pound lady to sue the neighborhood deli for her diabetes, high blood pressure and scary cholesterol.
Look At It This Way
So now that I've identified the problem, what magical solution might I propose? Let's consider the options. What about diets and assorted other techniques purporting to curb one's weight? First of all, diets serve simply to make people aware of how much they're eating. Count calories or carbohydrates or fat grams and suddenly you're made aware of just how much you're stuffing into that pie hole of yours. This is why all such techniques work at first. Second of all, while pills can indeed inhibit appetites, people in this land of plenty eat far more out of habit and emotional need than they do out of hunger. I might add that taking prescribed pills with a plethora of potential side effects is not usually a good idea. And, third of all, if such extreme measures as those medical procedures that suck fat and those operations that staple stomachs won't keep the weight off a truly determined eater, what chance do you suppose such metaphysical razzle-dazzle as hypnosis and acupuncture have of keeping one svelte?
So what's my diet that works? Simply eat less and exercise more...however difficult that may be to swallow.
