This commercial hit me really hard.
Just last week I was in a discussion about the terrible food habits of a client of mine, and how important it was for his health to intervene. Some looked at me with blank faces until I started listing off the increased number of type two diabetes cases in Alaska, especially within our native communities.
This is actually a very troubling problem in the mental health field, since many professionals will use the promise of treats to motivate their clients and do not recognize the long term negative effects of using food, especially jink food, as a reward for appropriate behaviors.
I have been fighting this bullshit for years, but there are still a lot of very intelligent people who are simply looking for a quick fix to inattentive children, and are introducing a potentially life altering problem as a side effect.
Obesity is the leading cause of preventable death in this country.
Perhaps it's just me, but I would rather have an inattentive kid on my hands then to contribute to the early death of a child.
Shades of my life, I was always the kid who could put away tons of food. I was even praised for it up until I got into my teens, then suddenly I was supposed to get thin so I could date guys. I tried, I really did, but when you are raised to eat tons of food and people buy crap that is what you end up eating.
ReplyDeleteI finally decided to lose weight when I was in college and away from my enabling and food loving family. To me, I eat food to live not live to eat. That is the mindset that has to change.
This is such a complicated situation. On the one hand, what's the cheapest and most convenient food, especially for people working 2 and 3 jobs? Fast food/convenience store food. What's the tastiest food because it ties right in to our preference for salty/sweet/fatty foods? Fast foods.
ReplyDeleteAdditionally, you have imbeciles like the Wasilla Wendigo and her ilk throwing their petty little temper tantrums that eating healthy food is simply not "cool", and they're going to show the world by stuffing garbage into their maws.
There are solutions. CSAs and backyard gardens provide convenient and low-priced produce. Buying meat directly from farmers when possible is another solution (my family buys a quarter of a cow directly from the farmer, and we get frozen, wrapped, portion-sized cuts that fit in the freezer).
It takes education (in what foods and combinations of foods provide the most nutritional bang-for-the-buck), the luxuries of income and time and cooking appliances and storage space to keep these foods around the house, and a bit of cooking know-how to prepare low-cost, nutritious foods.
For example, I know that I can walk out onto my deck and pick green peppers and tomatoes, and with a couple of eggs, a shaving of ham, and a bit of cheese I can make either a veggie omelette or a chef salad. Add some bread and I can make a ham-lettuce-and-tomato sandwich. But it takes practice to figure these things out, and many people simply don't know.
Good point. There's also the issue of "food deserts" places where people literally do not have access to a full service grocery store due to lack of transportation, yet have access to "quick shops" and fast food restaurants that offer less than nutritious food choices.
DeleteThere is a good article in this month's National Geographic that highlights the problem of food insecurity and the often unexpected problem of obesity even in the population that is food insecure.
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/foodfeatures/hunger/
Oh, I absolutely agree about food deserts. If buying a head of lettuce means a 2-hour round-trip on the bus and costs more than a burger off the $1 menu at the fast food place half a block down the street, people are going to go with what's quickest and cheapest and most filling. If a $6 bucket of chicken and a 2-liter of soda feeds the entire family, and they like it, and it's right next door to work (or you work there yourself), that's what the go-to meal will be.
DeleteI thought she was charging for this garbage? Here it is free. The people paying must be pissed that she's charging and giving it out for free:
ReplyDeletehttps://sarahpalinchannel.com/updates/a-conservative-response-to-elizabeth-warrens-progressive-commandments/
I was skinny (and I mean SKINNY) for years. I was 140 pounds at 6'3" for MANY years - until 2001, actually, when I decided to quit smoking. I put on over 60 pounds in six months. I had not changed my eating habits.
ReplyDeleteI fought high cholesterol for ten years. No medication seemed to be doing anything except flatten my wallet. I finally got fed up and tried something.
I dropped meat (almost) entirely from my diet! In six weeks (and I have the blood tests to prove it) I dropped 50 points from my cholesterol readings! I also dropped 30 pounds. I'm still on that diet.
I eat as much vegetable matter (barring only a few things) as I want so I am completely full when I leave my table. I eat lots of salads as well - spinach being at the head of the list.
Now, I am NOT saying this is a panacea and I am certain that not everyone would be able to do it. But it certainly helped that I got fed up (no pun intended!) with my condition. As a side affect, my blood pressure is down as well (10 points).
Due to having made the decision, I was able to drop all but a Sunday dinner with meat, ALL junk food, and ALL fast food.
The long and the short of this is simple: You can do anything you want about your diet IF you put your mind to it, as 7:14 above says.
Oh, and for those who say I have a potential protein deficiency, take a look at the protein (and other values) of vegetables. They are far higher in protein than most people realize.
And the nicest thing about this diet - aside form the health aspects - is my wallet isn't flattened by buying meat!
Huge swathes of the world are mostly or entirely vegetarian.
DeleteAnonymous@ 8:05 AM
ReplyDeleteShe also, too has it up on her Facebook SarahPalinChannel and it's free. I predict she'll end up in er...uh...unh...purgatory for selling it then giving it away free.
This topic is so misunderstood. Politics and culture are at the root of the problem, not personal habits.
ReplyDeleteI came to this understanding over the past year, as I’ve finally come to terms with my own obesity. Last summer I read Gary Taubes’ book, Why We Get Fat, and today I’m 150 pounds lighter. I didn’t do it through sheer willpower, I didn’t do it by spending all day at the gym. I simply stopped following the government’s advice about what constitutes a healthy diet. I did it by eating healthy fats. I did it by staying away from processed foods, which is %98 of what lines our grocery shelves. And you know what? It was easy, even for a 55 year old man who has been obese his entire life. My blood pressure dropped from 170 to 120 in the space of one week. My blood work is all good.
I feel as though I’ve been duped for the last 40 years, trapped in 200 pound of excess blubber simply because I was gullible enough to believe that ‘heart smart’ bullshit stamped all over those boxes of processed corn we call food. I’m actually furious at our government. Do you know that it costs tens of thousands of dollars to buy that stupid heart smart stamp? And they’ll give it to any food that is low fat, even if it has a bucket of sugar in it. The government’s healthy eating advice is designed by multinational food corporations, not science. The science behind our food culture is in fact pure crap.
If you want to root out the cause of obesity in the United States, start with corn subsidies and Ancel Keys’ anti-fat crusade.
Exactly 9:16! And those healthy fats we should be using to cook our foods are unprocessed animal fats such as lard, coconut oil, or butter (not margarine). Olive oil is also an excellent fat but should not be heated as heat changes the chemical structure into a less nutritious form. Sesame, almond, avocado oils and their like should be used more as seasonings and less as the sole cooking oil, as they also change structure with the heat of the pan.
DeleteAnd what about all those so called healthy oils like canola, corn, safflower, etc? They are created with the use of very high heat that destroys their nutrients and creates toxic substances. And most of them are also rancid from sitting around the warehouses and stores, not to mention your kitchen cupboard for weeks and months on end.
Watch the YouTube video The Oiling of America for more on this subject.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvKdYUCUca8
O/T but still health-related. It's a cartoon featuring Jenny McCarthy, the anti-vaccination activist, and somebody who is arguably responsible for a lesser number of deaths.
ReplyDeletehttp://farleftside.com/2013/10-28-13-killer-blind-date.html
Thank you so much Gryphen for pointing out that food as a reward is BAD. I grew up with volatile narcissistic mother & older sister, and the only time they would calm down was when food was involved.
ReplyDeleteI have struggled all my life not to abuse food as a comfort source.
Time spent with an adult they like or getting to do something fun/interesting is a much better reward. Some of your clients may also be on meds that contribute to weight gain. In those cases healthy nutrition is even more important. They used cigarettes as a reward for adult psych patients for decades, I bitched and bitched. Good for you Gryphen for thinking of the health of your clients instead of making it easier on yourself by manipulating with food.
ReplyDeleteThat could have been me or many other in my generation. I was into diets, and learned that none of them work. Then it clicked. Eat Clean, exercise regularly, rotate your routine, include some weight lifting and consider food as fuel, not your drug of choice nor best friend.
ReplyDeleteDo I fall off the wagon and have a greasy burger, onion rings and a shake? Yep, After seeing a doctor, he informed me toI keep my BMI in the 17 to 19 range (which is good for me, everyone's different) and stay away from sugars. Diabetes, kidney disease, hbp and cancer run in my family. And I hope not to go that route.
My ex-husband's family was like the one in the video. I gained 50 pounds while married to him. They acted like it was normal. The day she took me shopping for stretch pants and big sweaters like it was normal, I knew something had to change. I ended the marriage for other, more profound, reasons. But watwomen in his family become obese certainly influenced me. I dropped the weight and have kept it off for16 years.
ReplyDeleteMy children spent part time with him. After vacation with his family, they would come back visibility heavier. My youngest bought in to the lifestyle. He came home from college 50 pounds overweight. I had one of the hardest conversations I've ever had with him and laid out point blank what his future held. he was living at home while he was looking for a job after graduation, and one of the conditions was that he spent the next three months eating healthy and working out with me. He shed every excess pound and is now an avid runner.
He got a great job and his own place. His fiance moved in with him from out of state.I adore her, but her parents are a nightmare. Coincidentally extremely conservative,Tea Party style, they filled her with desserts and never gave her the freedom to go outside and play. They criticized her weight, belittled her, but then through fits if she refused dessert (I witnessed it more than once) . After a year with my son, she is 100 pounds lighter and oh so healthier. All by her own choices, we welcomed her into our family regardless (she a wonderful girl, but I'm do glad she is healthier now, they will have a better future together) .
Fitness is a choice. Parents matter. We buy the food, we set the cadence of the home, and we can shape the future for our children. Not just our children but the people they associate with.
Healthy is contagious. Pass it on.
OMG....I have done these things as a parent. What are we thinking???? For so many years it was "cool" to get McDonalds, or Burger King, and the drink of choice was always a soft drink. Hidden sugar in everything, or toxic chemicals. And it is our accepted lifestyle. Thank god we are waking up.
ReplyDelete