Introduction here: http://theromaniandream.com/blog/2009/07/17/taboo/
Today’s topic: Fat People
Header: Before going into the actual subject, let’s watch a documentary on the subject of unhealthy eating: http://www.snagfilms.com/films/title/peter_jennings_reporting_how_to_get_fat_without_really_trying/
For those of you who don’t have 44 minutes to watch it, I’ll sum it up for you. It’s really hard to eat in a healthy manner here in the US if you’re not willing [or are unable] to spend money on selected, quality food. Yeah, it’s seems kind of obvious at first, but if you don’t make a whole lot of money it basically means that you’re stuck eating crappy food that will basically destroy your health in the long run. The more than sad part about this is that people don’t even realize this and the junk they usually eat is associated with ‘normal’ food. (when I say junk, don’t think about McDonalls or KFC, think about what you usually buy at the grocery store. Even fruits, if not organic aka expensive, can be junk)
Scene1: A nice restaurant. A lovely couple sits down at a table. They order something to eat. Nothing out of the ordinary. The food arrives. Just look at the size of these dishes. Jumbo.
Scene2: You pick up a product at your local grocery story. You look on the label to see what it contains. It comes as no surprise to see that the sweetener used is corn syrup. Yummy.
Scene3: A gym. An overweight person drives his car as close as possible to the entry of the gym and parks there. No use to walk more than necessary. It does not matter that this defeats the whole idea of a gym. Now replace gym with everything: store, mall, cinema, fast food place, etc. Always optimizing for minimum walking. Walking is bad for you. It puts all the pressure of your stuffed body on your knees and ankles. Walking is bad, mkay?
Scene4: You browse the internet. All over there are commercials for loosing weight. Miracle products. Miracle diets. Basically the same thing happens in printed magazines. Everybody is after the 2 step miracle cure/diet that will make everybody slim and good looking. Everything else that involves eating correctly and exercise is… c’mon, do you really think anybody has time for all that crap?
The bottom line:
Food, as everything else is a business here in the US. It doesn’t really matter how healthy it is as long as you make a profit. It doesn’t really matter that an icecream milkshake topped with whipped cream and caramel, jumbo size can have as much as 1300 calories. Who the fuck cares? It tastes good. It looks good. Let’s grab it. Yeeeeah.
Instead of an ending I’ll leave you with the 3 sizes most food product come in over here. The 3 sizes are: king size, extra large and jumbo.