The Fattening of America
All of this talk about universal health care insurance is nice and all. I love the fact that what did get through congress is basically a bill nobody really wanted. The Republicants don’t want it because they did not think of it and the Democraps don’t want it because it does not restrict abortion, or it does not have a public option, or this and that and this and that.
The simple fact is that we do need some kind of universal healthcare, but we should also be looking at ways to marginalize the need for using health care. For instance, this country is freaking obese. Hell, I am obese. We need to stop making ginormous portions for dinner, we need to stop making the extra large drink at McDonalds cost less than the large drink.
I went to Claim Jumper yesterday for lunch, they had a small and a large version of certain things on the menu. I ordered a small chicken thing. The plate they brought out was the size of a small cargo jet. I have noticed this across the board at many places as well. There is no reason that we should be getting portions of this size. It is almost like we are forcing ourselves to get fatter.
I went to a buffet in Jacksonville once, Golden Corral, we would got here after church, and without a doubt, every weekend that we were there, you would have the requisite “buffet guy” there. He would be wearing sweat pants that could have made twenty sweatshirts for average sized people. He would literally be sitting on two seats, eating 9000 calories a plate.
Have we as a society really decided that being able to order, or being able to eat this much is a good thing? Universal Healthcare is a good thing, but if we as Americans do not do something about our weight, we will be dragging down the healthcare system with our propensity to consume too much. Heart Disease, Diabetes, strokes, the list goes on and on and on with the crap we are doing to ourselves.
The insurance companies are not helping much either, they want us to eat ourselves to death, they want us to get this stuff so that they can make money off of us.
As you know, I have given up doing smokeless tobacco, I have also given up caffeine laced drinks, the next step I think will be to actually go to the gym. It is difficult to take that first step. It is also difficult to maintain doing it. But hell, if i can do it, anyone can do it. I have the resolve of a 2 year old, I want what I want and want it right then and there.
I thought you swam.
But, I wholeheartedly agree with you. I come from the city where the pizzas are deep dish and as I briefly mentioned on Facebook, whenever a food/travel show does a special on Chicago’s pizza, the crew always seems to find the especially large person squeezed into an especially tight seat. Unfortunately, they probably didn’t look very far. I’m not saying I’m petite because I’m not. But I’d like to think that I’m still healthy since I’m careful about what I eat and I try to work out at least 3x a week.
I did swim, then my schedule changed again, so that went out the window…