Fight against Obesity and a Promise

So I’m joining the post a day challenge here on wordpress! Going to post everyday for the rest of 2011. It may be small, it may just be photos from meals for the week, or random thoughts, but I’m doing it! I know to really make this habit I’ve got to stick with it so here it goes!

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Today lets talk obesity! Ok, theres a lot to talk about there but lets think about what can be done. First check out this great article from the New York Times.

It gives a quick history of how the obesity epidemic came about. Basically the food industry jumped on every opportunity to make food more convenient in order to make more money, hey, it’s business. And since consumers jumped on the bandwagon things began rolling from there. Well, I say it’s time to jump off of the band wagon and get back to the basics of real food! A “clean eating” movement has been on the rise the last couple years but unfortunately it is hard for groups like individuals of lower socioeconomic status, busy corporate workers and busy parents, and any unmotivated and discouraged consumers to rally behind. I get it from any of those points of view, but something has to change! I agree with the points that were made in the article about attacking the obesity epidemic and Western diet as we did the toabacco industry. I would also add that the subsidies now being put forth for corn and soy need to be reallocated to support farmers of organic produce in order to lower the cost of the much healthier foods and naturally raise the cost of the crap calories that line grocery store shelves. And these changes need to be made quickly!! This isn’t just a problem for the US, this is a world-wide epidemic due to the spread of the Western diet.

So what can YOU do?

We need to press our politicians to make changes at the public policy level but we also need to make our dollars count in the grocery store as well. Every dollar you spend is a vote in the direction you want the food industry to continue. Do you want to continue to have artificial and chemical junk passed off as real food and advertised directly to our children? Do you really want to keep paying companies to make an enjoyable treat like a cookie, into a chemically laden piece of poison or do you want to buy the raw ingredients and take back control of what goes in your food? Don’t you want to get behind real farmers and ranchers trying to produce quality food while supporting their own families in the process? Better yet, take as much money out of the grocery store as possible, and head to a farmer’s market, CSA, or you-pick-it farm! And do as much of the work when preparing meals as possible. The more cooking you do at home the more control you have over what goes into your food and will find that you naturally start buying more whole foods.

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So what do you think should be done to reign in the obesity epidemic and someday reverse it? Do you think taxing junk and sodas or putting stoplight symbols on packages will really help to change people’s eating habits? What more do you think can be done by everyday citizens?