So, right now I am cruising somewhere ~ 33,000 feet above the Earth and because technology is so wicked awesome I am able to hop onto the interwebs and write for a bit.
Actually, I really should be finishing up a paper for my grad class but I needed a break.
And I also needed to vent.
Well, maybe not vent as much as talk. I have a lot on my mind right now and no one to talk to so here I am- my home away from home :)
Currently, there is a 'famous' food blogger sitting next to me on my flight to LA. She was talking earlier to both me and the gentleman between us about what she does, why she was flying to LA and why we should know who she is. I'll admit that even though I did not, in fact, know who she was specifically, I did know of her through her accomplishments. Guess she has earned the right to call herself a famous food blogger, but I digress.
She was talking about food and dieting and the gross shit that we eat, especially in processed and take out foods. Which I totally agree.
Nothing she was saying I disagreed with. In fact, nothing she said was novel. It's all stuff you've heard before- even from me- like eat real foods and understand labels, etc.
But while she was talking, as I sat there nodding my head as she ran through her canned spiel, it got me thinking about some issues that really bother me.
Most people, well at least most educated people, know that eating junk food, processed food, fast food is not the best choice. Most people, I believe, understand the idea that they should drink less soda and eat more fruits and veggies.
And the things you read, even here, are pretty much common/universal concepts.
With that being said, something that plagues me constantly, why can't we change knowing all of these truths?
Why aren't we teaching our kids about nutrition in school? Why weren't we/ aren't we being raised knowing that all calories are not created equal?
Why are school lunches bullshit? Why can't they be free and healthy instead of garbage?
Why can't businesses afford working parents the ability to have more time being parents? I know that feeding kids junk food/processed food comes partly from convenience and partly from pressure, among other reasons and I blame the structure of most U.S. businesses for a bulk of these issues.
Why do we treat obesity rather than try to prevent it?
Why the fuck don't we realize that obesity and poverty have a direct correlation and do something about the quality of foods available to the poor? This disgusts me. Urban grocers don't even get fresh foods. WTF!
Why are vegetables/fruits, especially non-GMO, organic ones, so craptastically expensive? And beef and dairy so ridiculously cheap??? (Yes, I know it's because of subsidies but therein lies the problem)
Why are we, and by we I mean me, doing more to stop this plague? This scary as shit health epidemic? Why Dacia, why? Why don't you do something????
I have these conversations with pretty much anyone who will listen. About how scary the food industry is, how we are creating bad habits and addictions from childhood and we don't even understand why, how it is so much more expensive to be healthy (true) and if you are poor- forget about it.
Honestly, I don't know what to do.
I look around me every day and see someone whose life breaks my heart.
I mean, I can barely afford to eat the way I would like to (really, i can't) so I make concessions, too.
We are all out there making concessions.
It's just the way it is, right?
But why does it have to be that way?
I don't know the answer. Or even the point of all this other than to tell you I struggle with these thoughts daily. And that I feel helpless because honestly, I just don't know what to do.
We have so many powerful people out there advocating for diseases, most even preventable or curable through healthy eating and activity habits, and yet where is the fight to treat the cause?
I don't think the world needs someone to tell them not to eat fast food, I think what the world needs to know is where they can find affordable AND healthy alternatives.
Or if those arent available, to figure out some way to create them. I need to know that there is a change that will come that will create better options for us all....
Not just for those that can afford it.
Healthiness should not be a luxury item...
Thanks for listening!
Love and hugs from afar,
Dacia
xoxox
Oh Dacia, I totally get this! It is utterly frustrating! But much like you, I just don't know what to do about it.
ReplyDeleteWhen I worked my previous job and would take my clients shopping with their food stamp cards, I would get so angry that they could purchase processed crap with the money. I would try to get them to make better choices, but they were all about making their food stamp allowance go as far as it could. I really wish there were some sort of regulations with that to help others become healthy.
I understand completely what you are saying but trying to help others eat healthy is almost a losing battle. People have to want to do it & unless they have a personal stake it in they won't do it. I get kidded that I am so skinny that the wind will blow be away. I really try to stay "normal" for my height & body shape but everyone these days isn't normal they are overweight the new "normal". I usually load up on fruits like their is no tomorrow (usually what's on sale). Growing up I loved fruit so if their was any fruit left over at meals I was the go to person to eat it up.
ReplyDeleteI have learned that most people get excess calories by what they drink. It's amazing how much you can load up on if you don't pay attention. The sodas, juices & other drinks are loaded. It's like they don't know but they should just read the label. In the long run I really think they just don't care.