Food for thought

Originally posted Oct 10 2006 on my Friendster blog.

Ever noticed? Soft drinks are made with lemon flavouring, but dishwashing liquid is made with REAL lemons.

Aussie TV is wierd. They have Channel 7, 9, 10, ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corp), SBS (Sport Before Sex). Haha, just kidding about that last one but their daily programme really does seem like that. Sport in the evening, then all the sex shows come on at about 10-ish. By sex, I mean full-frontal nudity, homosexuality, heterosexuality, etcetera ad nauseaum. The other channels have this ridiculous obsession with weight-loss, diets, obesity, childhood obesity, eating disorders et al. Oprah talks bout it, Dr Phil talks about it, it's on the covers of Cleo, Cosmopolitan, Women's Day, newspapers, books, the internet... There is just no getting away from it here.

Which made me wonder. Why, in this day and age of plenty, do we have such an OBSSESSION with food? Either we can't get enough of it to the extent that it kills us, or else we avoid it till it kills us too! How many people do you know who have a normal, healthy outlook on food? Almost everyone I know is on a diet, habitually eats too much and doesn't care or worse, eats and feels guilty later. It makes me mad, really FURIOUS that society puts such unreasonable pressure on people to look a certain way and be a certain weight.

Food is meant to be delicious. Food is meant to be nutritious. Food is meant to be enjoyed (I cannot stress that enough). So what if you ate a little too much? So what if Jennifer Aniston only has salad for lunch? So what if your body doesn't look like a supermodel's? Do you get paid to have a body like a supermodel's? That is their JOB, you know. I'm sure you know Jennifer Anniston employs her own personal chef to make that bloody salad for her, not to mention a personal trainer, expensive gym equipment, expensive health supplements AND a personal stylist.

Low-fat milk, no-calorie sweeteners, 97% fat free ice cream, 99% fat-free anything and everything. They all taste like crap, are extremely unsatisfying and you know what else? They take out the fat, and put in chemicals to disguise the crap taste. Yeah, low in fat, high in cancer, high-blood pressure, diabetes...

Like someone close to me likes to say, "They take out 99% of the fat, replace it with nonsense chemicals so it contains less of the REAL STUFF, tastes horrible AND THEN THEY WANT ME TO PAY MORE FOR IT?!?!"

Eat what you want to eat, when you want to eat it and eat it till you are comfortably full. Just make sure that you are hungry, not because you are bored, or want comfort, or its just what you must have when you are watching TV. Take care of your body, it's the only one you'll get. Feed it good food. (I define 'good' as delicious and healthful. There is no such thing as 'healthy' food as food doesn't get sick and go visit the doctor.) As long as YOU are healthy, happy, and reasonably fit, why punish yourself over food?